Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio: 5,755:1

For the picture settings used in this review, go to www.HomeTheaterMag.com. All the measurements here, unless noted otherwise, were taken in the ADV1 mode, through an HDMI input, with the set adjusted as needed for the most accurate picture in a darkened room.

The Contrast was set to 58, the Brightness to 29, the Lamp Energy to Standard, and the Gamma to 2.2.

The full-on/full-off contrast ratio (above), which is sometimes referred to as the peak contrast ratio, the sequential contrast ratio, or the dynamic range, is excellent, and the black level is also very good. The measured gamma was somewhat higher than the menu designations (a higher gamma reduces the mid-brightness levels).

Although I didn’t find the peak white level shown here uncomfortable for viewing, I would like to see Mitsubishi include a lower Standard lamp setting, a lower-gain screen, or an additional, user-adjustable iris setting. Any of these would let me reduce the peak white level, and perhaps the absolute black level as well. As is, lowering the peak white by dramatically reducing the Contrast control will degrade the contrast ratio. However, with some program material, I found a Contrast setting of 45 to 50 acceptable.

The Color Tracking charts below show how well a display adheres to the D65 standard white point; the tighter the overlap of the three primary colors, the nearer the result is to D65. The Before Calibration result in this sample is fair, and the After Calibration result is exceptionally good. It only deviates at maximum brightness (approaching 100 IRE), and even then the change is visually insignificant.

Before I used the color management system (CMS), the set’s color gamut was good, although not spot on. However, after calibration using 100-percent peak brightness color patterns, the gamut was very close to the Rec. 709 HD standard. The result is shown in the CIE chart above; the white triangle is the calibrated result, and the black triangle is the Rec. 709 standard. However, the gamut shifted slightly when the measurement was made at 75 percent peak brightness (not shown), which produced a slightly oversaturated green. Ideally, the gamut should not change at lower brightness levels.

As mentioned in the review, with the main Color and Tint controls properly set, there wasn’t enough gain in the green CMS adjustments to reach the proper intensity of green. This suggests less than ideal color decoding.—TJN