Pulled trigger after four years. Rate 3.7 of 5. Owned since Nov 26, 05
Written: Feb 17 '06 (Updated Aug 06 '08)
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Pros: Excellent HD PQ, good analog PQ. Tweakers will love individual color controls.
Cons: Fan noise distracting in quiet scenes. Automatic color decoder inconsistent. 1-second channel change delay.
The Bottom Line: I'm still happy with my new Mitsubishi WD-52628 1080p. You only have recommendations and store demos to make a decision. Go see the TV yourself before you buy.
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| pavelow3's Full Review: Mitsubishi WD-52628 52 in. HDTV DLP TV |
PROs: Excellent HD picture and good analog picture. Tweakers will love control over six individual colors, contrast, brightness, and sharpness no matter what temperature you choose.
CONs: Fan noise can be distracting in quiet scenes. Color decoder inconsistent across analog, digital, HD, and DVD inputs. Two-second channel change delay (software fix pending). Receives 1080p signal ONLY through the IEEE 1394 fire wire port. HDMI receives only 1080i and TV up-converts to 1080p.
Update (Mar 06) Picture went out and did not come back. Warantee service took TV to shop. Turns out all I needed to do was unplug the TV for a couple hours to allow the TV to reset itself. This is supposed to be fixed in a software update.
Update (Oct 07) after almost 2 years of ownership (Owned since 26 Nov 05). Software upgrade 30.007.03 came out in 2007 to fix many small problems with this TV - audio/video out of synch (OOS), up-channel delays, no audio on digital channel, no video on digital channel for some transmissions; tuner does not recognize some digital channels, etc. Some problems fixed, but some remain at a lesser impact. Still have A/V OOS on NBC digital and some DVDs. Still have an up-channel delay, but only about 1 second instead of 2. Channel recognition is much improved. I have not had to disconnect power for a reboot.
Update (Aug 08) DLP bulb finally broke. I'm getting a replacement bulb through my extended warantee. See my comments to this review. 32 months is pretty good and within my original 8000-hour calculation before purchase.
After four years of waiting on technology, debating over bang for buck, visiting brick and mortar stores countless times, and researching every professional and user review of big screen TVs, I finally pulled the trigger on the Mitsubishi WD-52628. The main reason is the picture quality looked the best to me among all the DLPs and against the competing LCoS, LCD, and Plasma offerings. The LCDs pixilated, the Plasmas were too expensive, and most LCoS models could not provide real black levels. In the end it was down to the Toshiba 56" 1080p DLP, Samsung 56" 1080p DLP, Sony SXRD 50" LCoS and the Mits. 52" 1080p DLP. The Tosh had a poor display of analog and satellite digital. The Samsung just looked too charcoal in color. The Sony had a great picture, but the silver frame and the non-removable speakers on the sides eliminated it from my list. (The 2006 Sony SXRD corrected this.) The Mits is not a 10 out of 10, but the picture quality, design, features, and overall ease of use won me over. You can find a very detailed and frank review of the larger Mits WD-62628 on CNET.com. They did a great job of covering design, features, and performance. They rated the Mits at 6.9 out of 10. The editor's choice went to the Sony SXRD at 8.8 out of 10. You'll find quite a few user reviews that confirm or deny the respective ratings. You of course must be the judge for pros, cons, and bang for buck.
DESIGN of Mitsubishi WD-52628:
Nice compact flat-black frame with a footprint of only H-34"/W-49"/D-18" weighing only 121-lbs that fits easily on my existing entertainment stand (H-30"/W-56"/D-19"). Gone is the old reflective cover from previous years...yes. The 52" diagonal size turns out to be perfect for my sitting distance of 138-148", and even though the kitchen lights are behind me in my open floor plan, I get very little reflection in the TV. In the evening when watching my DVD of choice, the only thing I can see is the picture! I wanted a 56" TV, but the 52" turns out to be plenty big enough. I still may have a new stand built to bring the set more to eye level. Some reviews show the remote as CON because it is big one, someone called it "Bigfoot." But, I think it is well laid out and with a press of a button is completely backlit for darkened rooms. The menu may take some getting use to, but I like the video, audio, and format buttons for their ease of use. It is universal capable and I have it set to control my DVD, VCR, and Denon Receiver. This is a great remote for my 48-year old eyes!
One draw-back in design is the fan noise. DLPs all have this at varying levels. I had to raise the volume level to at least 15 to drown it out. Ultimate Electronics and Mitsubishi reps. said this is not normal and replaced my first TV after one week. This new one still has noise but not as bad. As I understand it, there is one fan for the bulb, one for the chassis, and one for the cable card slot. Also the color wheel contributes to the level at 10,800 rpm. Most of the time I can't hear the fans or color wheel unless there is a quiet moment in the broadcast or DVD playback. For some of you this may be a deal breaker. But, in my open floor plan I have to deal with the refrigerator, dishwasher, and air conditioner/heater year-round anyway.
FEATURES:
Huge feature set with gobs of inputs including memory cards (up to 1GB) and fire wire on the front panel. You've got 3 component, 2 antenna/cable, 2 HDMI, 3 fire wire, 3 video, and CableCard inputs. My favorite feature is of course the 1080p up-convert. This along with DeepField Imager, Dark Detailer, and SharpEdge really make the analog signals on my Comcast Cable watchable! You'll want to turn off SharpEdge for HD and Digital broadcasts as it tends to over expose the edges. The 1080p resolution is native, but like most new DLPs does not accept 1080p input signals. According to Mitsubishi Customer Service it will accept 1080p only from the fire wire input. So, if you have a 1080p DVD player with fire wire you should be OK, but confirm this yourself.
The video button reveals many of the standard settings you're used to, brightness, sharpness, color, tint, and contrast. Just keep pushing the video button to toggle through them all. You'll also find a Low/High temperature setting and a Natural/Bright setting. In Perfect Color setting you can manually adjust six individual colors or leave it on automatic. It would be nice if the video had a back-space button. If you go past your menu setting, you have to toggle through all the menu items again. Settings are memorized for each input.
The format button reveals six modes for analog channels and Component inputs, but only two for HD, standard digital (SD), and the HDMI & IEEE1394 inputs. The display should tell you what the source is every time you change channels. Unfortunately, my older DVD player, even though set at 480p was registering as 480i source for the Mits over a Monster component cable to #1 input. I have since purchased a new DVD Player with a 1080i up-convert to HDMI and no longer see this issue. The ATSC/QAM tuner is excellent, pulling in those unscrambled HD and Digital channels over Comcast analog cable for no extra charge and no cable box! Just make sure you give the automatic channel-setup time enough to capture all the signals (10-15 minutes). I even pulled in some On Demand movies that the neighbors were watching! If you want all the digital channels you can pay for the CableCard. I like the PIP which can show an HD on the left and an NTSC on the right. You'll easily surf NTSC on either display, but you won't be able to surf for HD on the PIP channel changer (right display) because there is only one ATSC/QAM tuner versus the two NTSC tuners. But you can still surf the HD tuner on the left while watching the NTSC channel on the right with no sound. The Diamond series Mits has two HD tuners that solves this problem for more $.
A couple nitnoids: There is no optical out for audio, but the digital coax out (cable included) is doing a fine job of providing Dolby 5.1 to my receiver. There is no PC input but if you have a DVI out from your PC and an HDMI adapter, you can use one of the HDMI inputs. Net Command looks a little complicated to set up, so I have not hooked up the IR emitters (cable included) from the TV to my VCR for recording. Speaking of recording, you cannot watch one channel and record another off the TV unless you've installed a splitter in the input signal; one line to the VCR and the other to the TV. Also, the channel changer takes about two seconds to display the next channel (Software update reduced this to 1 second). This can be an irritant since many of the unscrambled digital channels on Comcast have a dash in the number. Since there is no dash on the remote, this requires you to enter the whole number and then channel up to the one you want at 1-second per dashed digital channel.
PERFORMANCE:
My wife and I dialed up PBS channel in HD and said, "Wow" at the same time. The signal coming in on a Comcast cable with no CableCard was brilliant. The local PBS channel negotiated a "No compression" clause with Comcast (according to a salesman) so that we get as close to over-the-air bit rate as possible. The other HD channels, however, are compressed to 12k to 13K bit rates. This is evident during high motion action like Monday Night Football on ABC-HD. Resolution is lost and manifests itself as pixilation during a 30-yard one-armed pass reception. CNET.com found that the Mits lost 25-50% of the horizontal resolution for a 1080i source during their testing but admitted "the loss of resolution was not as noticeable as we thought it would be." Also, during Monday Night Football, I noticed visible dithering from my 138-148 sitting distance. When I turned down the brightness and sharpness settings (originally set for analog signals), the dithering was not visible unless I walked up to the set. According to CNET you can see visible dithering if you sit closer than two screen widths away. I would definitely agree. Also, the Texas Inst. chip is said to show "macro blocking." That means resolution will show pixilation blocks in the dark areas and I sometimes notice this. "Macro blocking" is an unfixable bug in the chip.
The Mits color decoder needs attention due to "red push" and some color inconsistency across signals. The "Perfect Color" in automatic mode is supposed to help prevent this. Fortunately, you can use the manual mode and dial down the "red push" with the individual color settings available. Unfortunately, you have to tweak the color settings almost every different analog channel and certainly if you change to digital, HD, or DVD. I've found that Red at 25-27, Green at 28, and Blue at 30 works best across all signals and inputs. You could spend $250 or more for a professional calibration, but I prefer my cheaper tweak method. The Black levels are excellent, but you can miss the detail and cause a Blue tint if you have Bright or High temperature set. I leave those for the most part at Natural and Low to come as close to 6500 Kelvin as possible. Also, I found a lot of artifacts if the Bright and/or High temps are set depending on the signal and content. During a night rock concert on PBS-HD I had to dial down brightness and contrast to get rid of the artifacts. (This is likely the result of "Macro-blocking" from an unfixable Texas Inst. chip). During the day time this can be a problem for me in my sun-lit Great-room even with the shades drawn. I like to use the Bright or High temp in the day time. With tweak adjustments across the board I usually get what I want for a display. If this is a turn-off for you, keep in mind that the much acclaimed Sony SXRD requires as many as six different features turned off to get true blacks and proper colors (according to CNET).
Analog channels look good which is a pleasant surprise in a digital wide-screen TV. This is huge for me as 80% of programming is still analog or analog up converted to digital! I keep the "format" to Standard Narrow for best viewing of analog signals. The salesman and the delivery guys could not understand why I would want black lines on the sides. Answer: resolution is much better if you don't force a poor analog signal to be stretched across the entire 1920 lines of resolution.
I hooked up my Sony DCR-TRV 103 camcorder to the front 1394 IEEE input with a Monster Video 4-pin to 4-pin cable and the TV recognized a new input and took me to the configuration menu to label it...cool. However, the playback quality of my widescreen Hi8/DV video was poor with visible vertical lines. I had to switch back to the analog inputs to get a good smooth picture. I don't know if this problem may be a result of my 5-year old camcorder quality or the TV. The 1394 IEEE will accept true 1080p input.
My new DVD Player with 1080i up-convert looks excellent through the HDMI input. However, I don't see much difference to the component input. In fact, if I have an older full screen "letter-box" DVD, I select the component input so that I have the six formats available to size the picture. The TV HDMI input only provides two formats, so you would have to change the output format of the player to compensate. HDMI receives no higher than 1080i, so you Blue Ray and HD-DVD folks should look elsewhere for a true 1080p input.
A couple more nitnoids: Putting a splitter in the cable line can cause some interference in the signal to the TV on a few channels. A direct line from the wall to the TV is best. I even had to disconnect the cable line to the Monster 1100 AC cleaner because the cleaner was causing line interference to a couple of the analog channels. Also, occasionally I've got a slight audio/video out of synch (OOS) on NBC during live news casts. But, I finally called the NBC station and they fixed their electronics and solved the OOS on NBC. The OOS showed up in one of my backup DVDs that had about 25% compression from the original. I have not seen the problem on original and/or uncompressed DVDs. I tried a few tweaks like turning off the audio sound leveler and TV speakers as recommended in the manual. OOS was not resolved for compressed DVDs. Software update in 2007 did not correct. Occasionally, I see the rainbow effect typical for DLPs. The memory card reader can read up to 1GB only. 2GB cards do not work.
FINAL TALLY:
I'm still happy with my Mitsubishi WD-52628 1080p after 2 years despite some nitnoids. I'm pretty critical when reviewing, so it is unlikely I would ever rate 5 of 5 or 10 of 10. When trying to make a $3000-4000 decision on a TV, you only have the store demos and the reviews you can find on the internet. Take them all, including mine, with a grain of salt and go see the TV for yourself. You can get this TV or its successor for about $1500 now that it is 2 years later.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 3,188
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pavelow3
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Reviews written: 2
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