There's more to the story. As if you didn't have enough cables to wire up, the HD-5000 also comes with a 9-pin RS-232C control interface for a fully automated, hardwired theater system. Two NetCommand IR output jacks are available for VCRs and other IR-only devices.

The connector complement is filled out by three antenna jacks (two analog terrestrial/ cable ins with a loop out), and one digital antenna input that will work with both terrestrial 8VSB signals and unencrypted cable QAM signals. Just below them, you'll find three IEEE1394 interfaces for so-equipped devices, including D-VHS VCRs.

That's a lot of connections—it would be hard to find an installation the HD-500 couldn't handle. On top of all that, Mitsubishi's NetCommand software allows you to remotely select and operate any devices in the chain of command through the FireWire link, or with the separate IR blasters. This unique GUI brings up all connected devices as small icons on a screen overlay. You use the remote's mouse disc to navigate to the desired AV component and select it for full operation. Of course, you could also use the remote to control these devices directly outside of a NetCommand system, but the NetCommand interface is quite user-friendly and easy to navigate.

I mentioned earlier that the HD-5000 can handle both terrestrial and digital cable signals that are not encrypted. You'll need to go into the setup menu and select the type of signal you're connecting through the digital antenna input: Air or Cable. The HD-5000 will then perform a full channel scan to identify and store in memory all valid ATSC and cable channels.

An off-air DTV channel scan is easy enough—if the signals are present, the HD-5000 will capture the station's Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) information and store its virtual channel number, call sign, minor channel (program) info, and system time. You won't need to rescan each time you switch between cable and terrestrial reception.

Digital cable channels are receivable only if they are "in the clear," meaning the cable system operator has not applied any encryption. Depending on your cable system, you may find that some channels or none are in the clear. My local Comcast system carries a few programs this way; these are pretty much limited to off-air digital channels: Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS.

Cable systems transmit their own unique form of PSIP that won't necessarily be interpreted by the HD-5000. For example, in my market, channel 82 shows up on a Motorola cable set-top as KYW (CBS) channel 182 with full program-guide information. On the HD-5000, it appears merely as channel 82.02, with no program identification. (Only the newer CableCARD-equipped sets will be able to provide correct channel mapping and program guide info.) If you use the HD-5000 to watch digital cable channels, you'll have to make up your own lookup table and reference the displayed channel numbers to specific networks or local channels.

Performance: PD-5030
After calibration (see sidebar, "Calibration"), I checked out the PD-5030's 480i performance with the flag-waving sequence and bridge zooms from Video Essentials. Its video decoder produced a clean signal from a composite source, albeit with a bit of attenuation on the color-difference signals, as indicated by the VE Zone Plate test pattern. The deinterlacer for composite, component, and S-video was about average, with some scan-line artifacts in the flag sequence.

I cued up D-VHS tapes of the Super Bowl (1080i) and the NHL All-Star Game (720p) to check out the look of the PD-5030. This plasma display had been showcased in my fifth annual Super Bowl HDTV Party (see feature story elsewhere in this issue), where it was a real crowd-pleaser.

It was easy to see why. Presentation of hi-def content was smooth, with good flesh tone and color rendering, a nice gray scale (I used the Gamma 2 and Theater 1 settings for all viewing), and crisp images. The only complaint I had about the PD-5030's color reproduction was that some reds and greens tended to have a bit too much yellow in them—reds went slightly orange, and greens really popped at times.

The PD-5030 displayed 720p/60 HD footage well, as this is a close match to the plasma's native panel resolution of 1365x768. The Mitsubishi rendered fast motion with just a bit of blurring (not unusual for a plasma), and fast motion at a refresh rate of 60Hz is a tough test. In fact, I was able to spot a problem with my local ABC station's MPEG encoder—the bit rate dropped too low at times, causing the picture to go a tad soft.

The 1080i D-VHS tapes from the Super Bowl showed some slight motion blurring and "mosquito noise" that was probably in the broadcast itself. Other than that, colors were clean and saturated, picture detail was excellent, and pretty much a tossup with the 720p test footage.

Most plasma monitors have some trouble with shadow detail, producing false contours and speckles instead of a smooth gray-scale transition. Two excellent test DVDs to show off this problem are The Fifth Element and Men In Black. I popped the latter into my Panasonic RP56 DVD player, fed the 480p signal to the PD-5030, and selected the opening scene in the desert.

The PD-5030 was one of the better plasmas I've seen when it came to false contours. I saw only a little bit of speckle in deep shadows, but that was partly mitigated by the panel's relatively high black levels (measuring between 0.137 and 0.175 footlamberts; the best plasmas usually measure 0.117fL and below). As a result, some shadows across faces were characterized by harsher, more abrupt transitions from one luminance level to the next. The effect was not too annoying, but you'll find that night shots might look a bit washed-out and not nearly as rich in color as you'd see on a direct-view CRT TV.

The PD-5030 looked best with a steady diet of HD footage, but only so-so with standard-def material. An outboard video scaler will help clean up the lower-resolution stuff, but the high black levels definitely hampered the viewing experience when it came to movies. On the other hand, live sports and concert footage really shone, particularly anything shot outside in daylight or under bright stadium lights.

Performance: HD-5000
The HD-5000 receiver-controller is quite a navigation job. You can configure any of its inputs to be on or off, and you can name the devices you've hooked up to each input, using a default list or making up your own names. To select any input, you simply push the Device button to show a menu of available inputs, then scroll to and select the device you want to display.

For my tests, I hooked up composite, S-video, and component video from my Panasonic RP56 and Sony DVD-S7000 players, component HD from a Samsung SIR-T165 set-top box, and PC test signals from an Extron VTG300 test-pattern generator. I also swept the HD-5000 for bandwidth with the AccuPel generator.

The HD-5000's deinterlacing circuit worked about as well as the corresponding processor in the PD-5030. You can hook up any number of interlaced sources and switch 'em through the HD-5000 without worrying about signal degradation, although if you have a good 480p DVD player, you'll want to use its output and not let the HD-5000 do the conversion—the 480p conversion in the controller is okay, but not great.

The PC input is marked VGA Only, and they're not kidding—the only signal I could pass through it was a 640x480 test pattern with 60Hz refresh rate. Nothing else would work. I wonder why Mitsubishi even bothered to include this input.

While two of the component inputs are marked 480i/p Only, the third is identified as Full Bandwidth. However, I swept this input with the AccuPel test generator and discovered that the HD-5000 doesn't like 720p signals of any kind. It would not sync up in tri- or bi-level sync mode, which pretty much rules out using a 720p STB—although 1080i passed through just fine. But a test with the AccuPel generator showed bandwidth rolling off above 18.5MHz, so any HD programming you send through this box might look softer than if you connected it directly to the PD-5030 (which I recommend).

You have a choice of analog component Y-Pb-Pr or DVI connection from the HD-5000 to the PD-5030. Always use the DVI connection when possible; picture quality is just a little bit better when displaying component sources.

If any of your connected devices have IEEE1394 interfaces, you can control them as well from the remote with NetCommand software. Three FireWire ports are provided, and both the Mitsubishi and JVC D-VHS decks conversed nicely with the HD-5000. One catch: I could find no way to schedule a D-VHS recording from the HD-5000. I could only start and stop recording manually.

As an alternative, you can hook up IR blasters to the HD-5000 for remote operation. The HD-5000 comes pre-loaded with a lookup table of commands for numerous set-top DBS and cable boxes, laserdisc and DVD players, CD players, and so on. Chances are you'll find a control code to suit your needs, particularly if you have Mitsubishi peripherals.

Conclusions
The PD-5030 put on a respectable performance—not the best I've seen, but much better than most. Lower black levels would help the image quality considerably—just cutting the blacks by 20% would raise the average contrast over 300:1 and make watching movies more enjoyable.

The HD-5000 is a versatile tool, but I wouldn't use it to switch high-bandwidth signals. Because my home theater feeds all video signals (scaled VHS, analog cable, DVD, and off-air DTV) as 720p to a Sony VPH-D50HTU front projector, I'd be outta luck with the HD-5000 in my system. The digital cable tuner is nice for those few signals that are not encrypted, but you can buy a $399 set-top tuner that will pick them up as well as off-air ATSC programs.

As for NetCommand, many of the devices in my system would require IR blasters configured to the HD-5000. I can accomplish the same thing with a universal remote control. Because the PD-5030 plasma monitor has plenty of inputs, I'd probably bypass the HD-5000 and connect everything directly to avoid any problems in bandwidth and/or signal compatibility.