Customer Reviews

Mitsubishi WD-57731 57-Inch 1080p DLP HDTV

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I dumped my old Mitsubishi CRT-based rear projection HDTV when we moved to another house. That TV was a back-breaker to move. To replace it, I found this one after much research on the Net and with visits to Fry's, Circuit City, and Best Buy. I found no independent reviews of this model on the Net. However, the specs for this TV impressed me. What I most wanted was the ability to receive 1080P sources natively and connect to a PC with a DVI connector. This TV seems protected from early obsolescence with the plethora of connectors: HDMI, ieee1394, and component video. I did confuse the specs with those of the other TVs I researched. I thought that, like other similar Mitsubishi models, this one has memory card (SD, MMC, etc.) slots and USB connection. I was disappointed to find out when it arrived (in late July 2006) that it did not. However, this was not much of a loss for me. I was impressed by the quality of the picture. I was worried about the quality of rendering standard 480p DVDs and standard def TV. However, watching DVDs was a joy. The color was well saturated and accurate. The picture was bright. It was definitely an improvement over my old HDTV. Watching standard def TV was tolerable, though one could definitely see its lack of detail. My small children seemed to enjoy watching their cartoon shows on the standard def channels, though. With cartoon drawings, the graininess of SDTV is much less noticeable. Watching 1080i HDTV was very satisfying. But I'm too cheap to get HD cable, and I don't watch TV that much, anyway. I'm waiting for the HD-DVD or BluRay players to become more available and affordable.

PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE FIVE STAR RATING, that was when I first bought it. Bought TV less than a year ago, lamp has already burned out. Today is Friday, won't have it till Tuesday!! Before buying I read the lamps last 20,000 or so viewing hours, this is UNTRUE, today I'm told by the customer service department they only last 3000-4000 viewing hours!! What a CROCK!!! Wouldn't be so bad if you didn't have to pay $229.00 per lamp and have to take the whole wall unit apart to change it out!!!! UNACCEPTABLE!!! BUYER BEWARE!!! Perhaps the LCD or Plasma would have been the way to go. Very dissappointed!!

This is unreal. Super picture. Awesome sound. Great service from Amazon. I ordered this Wed and received it Friday. The delivery man even helped me unpack it and put it on the optional stand I bought. Plenty of hookups for all your components.

I received my new Mitsubishi 57" DLP TV yesterday from Best Buy, and waited while Direct TV installed my HD signal. All I can say was that I was blown away by the quality of the picture in HD. Guys if you are like me and love football you are going to love watching it on this set in HD, it takes it too another level.

I must have read every article on the internet and publications regarding Plasmas, LCDs, and DLPs. After comparing prices on 50"+ TV sizes in all three formats, I came back to this TV and purchased it. I caught this TV on sale at Best Buy for $2512 plus additional 10% off coupon that I had and applied it the total to bring the TV down to $2200 (what a deal). The very next week Best had the TV at $3000+.

If you do not need a slim TV to go on the wall then this is the TV for you!

Are you ready for the some football!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I originally purchased the Samsung HL-S5687W but was not happy with the picture. Standard Def broadcasts were very unappealing and the high-def pictures tended to be blurred when there was much action going on.

I couldn't be more happy with the Mitsubishi. Even standard def programs are improved. 720p looks amazing on this TV. I can't recall seeing a better picture on any Plasma, LCD or DLP TV. I can't wait to get my HD DVD player and experience 1080p on this TV.

I researched many types of TV's - plasma, LCD, etc. - before deciding to purchase this one and could not be happier. I was a little concerned about the life expectancy of plasma technology and I didn't care about mounting the set on a wall. The high def channels are superb and the standard def channels are better than what I expected. The sporting events I watched over the weekend - NFL and US Open tennis matches were incredible in high def. The sound quality is tolerable, but I would recommend hooking this TV to a surround sound system as mine is to enjoy the whole package.

My experience with this purchase from Amazon was easy and delivered as expected with no problems. I also purchased the matching stand through Amazon as well and could not be happier with it.

The Good:
1. Great array of inputs.
2. Great on screen guides.
3. Great display of SD signals.
4. Outstanding display of HD signals. Can't wait for some 1080p content!
5. Great customization options for color, brightness, etc.
6. Easy to use (even in the dark) remote.
7. Out of box settings aren't bad at all. You could tune down the brightness and color temp. and do nearly nothing else and it would look fine. The videofiles will want to further tweak.
8. At 88 lbs, I could move it myself if I could get a handle on it. If Mitsu incorporated some molded handles in a thought out location, us bachelors could move it solo.

The Bad:
1. Processing fire, ticker tape and fast water movement (think surfing scenes) becomes pixilated. Hopefully better processing is included in latter models.
2. Switching from SD to HD signal takes about 4 seconds... even 720 to 1080 takes a few seconds. This MAY be more of an issue with the POS (piece of sh*#) DirecTV HD receiver which earns my frown of the year award for customer ripoff/ lousy design in an overpriced, under-engineered electronic device category.
3. Cannot split screen between TV and CPU. What's the point then I say!
4. To go from TV to CPU (set at a higher resolution like 1080 x 1920) you have to first tune to an HD (720 or 1080) station. Otherwise the CPU display is distorted and you receive an "invalid signal type" message.

Overall:
I doubt you'll find a better TV for the price. I've learned to live with the bad and you can too.

After doing much comparison shopping, I decided to go with this Mitsubishi over comparable Samsung and Sony models. I am completely satisfied and highly recommend this set for anyone considering a DLP. Picture quality is crisp, well defined, and highly customizable. This color settings need to be adjusted out of the box for the best picture. (I recommend using the Bright setting over the Natural and Brilliant options). In fact, the HD signals are so good that you don't want to watch basic cable. The design is elegant. One issue with DLP sets is something called the rainbow effect. I would read about this before purchasing any DLP set. Either way, I haven't noticed this issue at all with either HD signals or basic cable. In my opinion, the picture is flawless. With all that said, there are a few things I would like to change. The depth dimension is slightly long but of course if depth is an issue, then I would go with a Plasma TV. The second issue has to do with PIP. The set only allows PIP from 2 individual signals (coax vs. RCA, coax vs. HDMI, etc). In order words the cable signal that arrives from one source cannot be used to provide PIP. The final issue is the delay in changing channels with the remote. Not sure why this happens. Of note, this is not an issue when using another source to change channels such as TIVO or the VCR.

The image quality for this DLP monitor is as good or better than any Plasma or LCD screen I've seen in the past six months! The high resolution (1080x1920) makes the nature shows and sports programs (i.e. football) quite enjoyable to view; plus, with HD and the 57" screen, DVD movies are seen at a whole new "speed". So far, I'm impressed.

First off, I actually bought this TV at Best Buy ($1,899), but Amazon is a great place for customer reviews, and I would've bought this TV from Amazon had they been able to ship it to Alaska, but oh well. This HDTV is great. Not perfect, but awesome anyway! I did a lot of my own research in deciding what type of HDTV to buy, the whole LCD vs. Plasma debate, etc... It seemed to me that rear-projection DLP sets were the way to go, providing the best possible picture for the money. So I was off to find the right DLP, and decided to go with Best Buy, as they got it up to my remote town in northern Alaska for only $100! Anyway, I got it all hooked up and it is truly an awesome sight compared to the "little" 32-inch Panasonic CRT it replaced. It's fairly light for it's size, too, weighing in at only 96 lbs., which was much lighter than the 32" TV as well. It has oodles of hook-ups in the back, plenty to satisfy the audio/videophile in me. It's got a number of different screen formats to choose from, depending on your source. I was wanting to find one that didn't always stretch the regular 4:3 ratio of standard TV, you know, where it makes everyone look fat and squished... This TV can display standard format, stretched format, expanded format, zoom format, etc...... It's got plenty.

As far as performance, this TV rocks. I bought this TV for the future, as there's not a whole lot of 1080p stuff out there right now, but there's plenty of 720p and 1080i media. I use this TV for a lot of gaming, and let me tell you, going from standard definition on a CRT to 720P on this TV will blow you away! I changed the setting on my XBox 360 from standard to widescreen/720p for playing Test Drive Unlimited, and the difference was amazing, I could hardly believe it could look so much better, but it does.

The reason I only gave the TV 4 stars is that there seems to be a small issue relating to some games. When I play DDR Supernova or DDR Extreme 2, the video timing is off by about a 1/4 second. On most games and/or DVDs this is not even an issue, but when you're playing with a game that is all about timing (many sports games suffer from this problem as well) it makes it all but impossible for a good score without "adjusting" your own timing, which is pretty hard if you're dancing to a song with 180+ bpm. Anyway, I've contacted Mitsubishi support and am waiting for their reply. It seems from doing some searching on the net that this might be an issue with rear-projection DLPs as a whole, not just this particular one. I will post again if I find a way around it.

Which brings me to another topic, the warranty. Wherever you buy it from, make sure you buy an extended warranty for it. In the end it will be worth it, and you won't end up like that other guy who left a poor review above. Best Buy offered a 4-year total care plan for $400, which is totally worth it, since a new lamp is close to $300, and they'll send you one of those for free if it goes out, as well as fix or replace the TV for free if it breaks. I don't know where that other guy got his, but he won't get anywhere dealing with Mitsubishi themselves. Buy from a reputable dealer like Amazon or Best Buy or Circuit City, etc, as they will offer warranty service and great customer relations.

So, anyway, this TV rocks, and I can't wait to hook up a Blu-ray player to this thing and watch some great-looking movies. I am very happy with the TV, and in spite of the minor timing issue on those games I mentioned, I would definitely recommend this as a must-have TV.