In my opinion, previous generations of Mitsubishi's televisions look terrible if they haven't been professionally calibrated. The WT-46807, however, is the first one that actually looks good as set by the factory. The new anamorphic version of Conan the Barbarian, for example, appeared sharp with vibrant colors, and it had a contrast that added a three-dimensional depth to the picture. HDTV images looked even better. Whether the images came from our Sencore hard drive or over- the-air transmissions, the picture was incredibly detailed and colorful. Watching demo footage of a football game made you feel as if you were in the second deck, looking out over the field.

Professionally calibrated, the set looks even better. (Go to www.imagingscience.com or call 561/997-9073 to find a trained technician near you.) Not only can the color-temperature and color-decoder settings be improved, which makes images even more rich and varied, but the scan-velocity modulation can be disabled. This eliminates ghosts and improves real detail, as well. The results, as indicated by the number of people who walked into our evaluation room during the course of my review and commented on how good the picture is, are outstanding.

In the past, my recommendations for Mitsubishi rear-projection displays have always been tempered with the caveat that they required professional calibration. These sets were also limited in their ability to effectively accept 480p sources like external line doublers or progressive-scan DVD players. The WT-46807, however, eliminates these exceptions. The aspect-ratio controls allow proper use of external 480p sources, even though the internal line doubler's 3:2 pulldown recognition nearly eliminates the need for them. And, while you can still improve things with some outside help, the picture looks great with but a few user adjustments. The WT-46807 is easy to recommend.

Highlights
• Accepts HDTV, progressive DVD, and external processors with full aspect-ratio control
• Internal line doubler recognizes film sources (3:2 pulldown)

HT Labs Measures: Mitsubishi WT-46807 46-Inch HD-Ready Television

Figure 1 shows the gray scale of the Mitsubishi HD-ready TV relative to its color temperature at various levels of intensity. As you can see, the gray scale measures near 6,500 Kelvin with dark (20-IRE) images and leans more blue with brighter (100-IRE) images, out of the box. After making adjustments using the Photo Research PR-650, the gray scale is within a couple hundred degrees of the accurate setting of D6500 K across the entire range. Figure 2 shows the gray scale relative to the color points of the display's red, green, and blue CRTs. The color points exceed those specified by SMPTE, which means the display will provide all the colors available in the system. The gray scale leans only slightly toward blue before calibration and is more neutral afterward. The light output was approximately 35 foot-lamberts. The display has fair DC restoration. The WT-46807 has an accurate color decoder and displays at least 430 horizontal lines (per picture height) with NTSC sources.—MW