Mitsubishi LT-46148 LCD HDTV
While Mitsubishi is far better known for rear projection DLP since the demise of CRT, market forces can't be ignored and consumers remain spellbound by the flat panel concept in their homes. Let's see what Mitsubishi has to offer and how their LCD products compare. Since last year Mitsubishi has offered 40", 46" and 52" models and the LT46148 is part of their current line of 1920x1080 displays. Common Features Black cabinet finish with swivel stand Auto-sensing inputs Back panel - 4 HDMI 1.3 with Deep Color, X.V.
It does take a minute or two for the display to recognize the connection and perform this function for you. After setting up the input it will ask about setting up the remote for NetCommand which I skipped. As with all display products you get sales mode from the manufacturer which is their calibration to induce your purchase having nothing to do with performance imaging and video standards. My son joined me on this first look and both of us quickly grew weary of the artificial artifact ridden response.
Having experience with Mitsubishi products I set the picture mode to Natural, color temp to Low and Video Noise to off creating a perceptually pleasing response similar to what we would expect with video standards. As we went channel surfing, first impression was intermittent jumping or skipped frames. We finally settled in on a 20 year old movie on HDNet.
This led to a discussion of how this movie did not look its age as if it had just been shot with an HD video camera. My son followed up with comments of how so far it looked like computer generated images along with an artificial motion response. I went into the menu and turned off the Smooth 120 Hz LCD processing making the movie finally look like film, removing the CG motion artifact as well.
We played with this feature some more and spent about 10 minutes on one particular scene using the TiVo DVR function. The Smooth 120 Hz LCD processing has three settings, off, medium and high. High provided the most artificial response and quirky motion totally un-natural. Medium was little improvement. While this feature did remove motion blur for the most part it would intermittently lose cadence lock jumping a frame or blurring for a moment.
We both agreed the best setting was with this feature turned off. Some more surfing and testing of the Smooth 120 Hz feature brought us to another HDNet Movie from 1996. Ultimately we found the imaging seductive along with the movie being entertaining and involving so we turned off the feature and ended up watching the movie all the way through.
Gallery Player A big attraction of flat panel displays is the ability to mount them on the wall, which also lends itself to looking like a picture. For a number of years, services have come to market to provide static high definition images for flat panel displays when you are not watching them.
GalleryPlayer is the first service to directly support this for a number of manufacturers: Mitsubishi, Panasonic and Samsung using a USB flash memory card. They offer a huge library of professionally captured paintings and photographic images. First step is to visit www.galleryplayer.com to download and install the software. My install was not smooth creating a pop up error window. After messing around for a while I was able to set up an account and get logged in. I also sent GalleryPlayer an email for support.
I installed the USB card on the TV and entered the setup menu to create an encoded account on the card and then connected the USB card to my PC and burned the free High Definition Showcase provided.
I put the card back on the TV and was greeted with other images from other files unable to access the GalleryPlayer content. Putting it back in the PC I removed the other files. Plugging it into the TV I finally had GalleryPlayer working. The feature requires a USB card dedicated to GalleryPlayer due to this limitation along with the fact that the TV does not load the images into an internal ram.
Fortunately USB cards are relatively inexpensive. Unfortunately the images are encoded for PC video 0-255 and this input is setup for consumer video, 16-235, and that means that upper whites and lower blacks are crushed delivering images with artifacts appearing overdriven with highlights washed out, blacks cut off, devoid of color or wrong color. For those who know what good video should look like it will be obvious yet those who do not know any better may be potentially satisfied.
Using a PC The display does not offer a VGA PC input requiring you have a DVI or HDMI digital video output instead from your PC. According to the manual you must name the HDMI input you are using for your computer, PC, "It is important to use the name PC so that the TV can process the video signal correctly". This setting is critical if you want the most out of your PC because it allows 4:4:4 color processing.
This also changes your aspect ratio options adding a 1:1 pixel mapped centered output with some scan rates. If you select PC for the input name the display expects PC progressive scan rates at a 60 Hz frame rate. It won't display 1080i as an example if you are using your PC for DTV outputting native 1080i. If you expect to run a PC Blu-ray player in the future it won't accept 1080p24 frame properly either telling you this scan rate doesn't work.
Although it will show an image, after downsizing it with black borders all around, your 1:1 pixel map is destroyed. Noise One of the quietest displays I have had in my presence. This is to be expected of LCD in general. Maintenance None that I am aware of.
Problems During the HQV Benchmark Blu-ray test I was checking how the 120 Hz processing was responding to the panning stadium test which requires bringing the menu up and multiple cursor key presses to navigate to the setting finally exiting from the menu to view the image. On one occasion the menu was stuck on the screen and all controls locked out with no way to recover without pulling the AC cord from the wall.
I just let it sit and fortunately within about 1 minute the display recovered returning to normal. Viewing Angle The display offers a wide horizontal left to right viewing angle without the typical washed out look of older generation LCD panels. It does slightly change the black levels and slightly discolors at extreme angles. Vertical angles were another story and in that case the display did significantly wash out and discolor.
If you are installing the display over a fireplace for example you will want to use a mount that tilts it downward to try and maintain a 90 degree viewing angle to your favored sitting position.
If you are using the display at a normal screen height lined up with your viewing positions, either mounted on the wall or using the supplied stand, you should be fine. If viewing angle is important in your application there are other brands that perform better in both the vertical and horizontal planes. Subjective Viewing Results As noted in the bench testing portion the display is not inclined towards ISF calibration but does provide a surprisingly good response with factory settings.
The only time calibration errors were clearly visible was when viewing content I am intimate with limiting such perception to test materials or menus from sources. With the Smooth 120 Hz LCD Processing turned off, a variety of material and sources were viewed for over two months with not one complaint. There were rare occasions where having Smooth 120 Hz turned off revealed significant motion artifacts with 24 or 30 frame sources.
Nobody in the house wanted it turned on due to the artificial CG outcome of the feature and I was the only one who ever noticed the occasional motion errors. The display has ample light output, a great contrast ratio and the appearance of deep dark blacks. The unique back lighting design provides a wide range of light output to match your viewing environment. Image details were sharp and crisp.
HD sources looked fantastic along with upscaled SD content from DVD or from a TiVo Series 3 DVR and cable service.
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