Customer Reviews

Mitsubishi WD73736-OD 73-Inch 1080p Projection TV

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Review: I have had my WD-73736 TV for about a month now and I absolutely love it. Originally I found that it did need some color adjustment as the blues were too strong. I have not changed it around that much other then deciding what was the best picture mode (changed from Brilliant to Bright) along with changing the color temp (from cool to warm).

When I first powered on the TV, I did notice some "screen door" effects that seem to be inherent to DLP televisions but after living with it for a while I don't even notice it at all. The picture is larger than life and extremely bright (much more so then the display had when in the store - especially compared to the flat panels). I have viewed the picture on the following sources:

1080i HDTV via HDMI (Verizon FIOS): Excellent. However, with a TV this size you start to see which channels skimped on the budget (*cough*...TNT....*cough*). On the good HD channels the picture is amazing. On the ones that did it properly (FOX, NBC, etc) it is great. I hate to say it, but you start to see how bad some of the actor's skin is because the picture is so large...lol.

480i SDTV via HDMI (Verizon FIOS): Good. Since having a rather large selection of HD channels to choose from I do not watch much SD programming. Still, when the mode of the TV is set to narrow (4:3 - bars on the sides) the picture is good. Not great, but I would not expect much from SD once you have watched HD.

1080p HD BluRay via HDMI (Sony Playstation): Truly Amazing. I have only watched one movie via BluRay (Resident Evil: Extinction) and was completely floored. I cannot claim that the difference between 1080i and 1080p is that great, but having a disc encoded for HD is obviously better than a broadcast channel. I have played a few games as well and the picture is amazing. I did notice one or two jagged lines, but I cannot say if that was the source material or the TV. Nothing crazy though.

480p via Component Video (Nintendo Wii): Very Good. Originally I had my Wii hooked up via composite and it looked pretty bad. I quickly ordered a component video cable and was much happier with the picture. I think a lot of the issue is that I got so used to HD that Wii's lesser SD picture was just not as good. With the new component cable the picture has improved dramatically, but has jagged lines (that is the Wii, not the TV as others have reported the same).

The thin bezel (1/2") around the TV makes the picture look even larger and less cluttered and is one of the main reasons I was drawn to this TV (not to mention that a comparable flat panel would be $26,000!). The funny thing is, on my stand it looks like a flat panel to me as all you see is pretty much screen.

All in all I am so happy I made this purchase (as is my wife). I now have been spoiled and my next TV will have to be even larger ;)

Pros:
- Amazing, bright, clear, sharp picture
- Does not take up a ton of space - depth is only about 17"
- Minimal distance viewing requirements (I am about 10' away)
- Light weight ~ 95 lbs.
- Very handsome cabinet
- Auto-sensing inputs (only enables an input if there is something plugged into it which prevents you from having to scroll through unused inputs).
- Variety of picture settings (not that I can figure them all out ;) )
- Bargain: $2,200 for 73" of screen. Can't go wrong with that!

Cons:
- Switching between inputs takes a few seconds
- Speakers are a joke. I think I would get better sound out of a Pringles can! Having a home theater is a must.
- Lamp gets hot. Not much of an issue if you have clearance around the TV (manual suggests 4") but if you have this built into an enclosure it may need additional cooling.
- Vertical viewing angle: I have this on a rather tall stand and the picture looks it's best when the middle of the screen is at eye level. My review is viewing the TV from my seated position but it could be even better if I had a lower stand.
- Long power-up time on energy saver mode: I read that the power consumption when off for the "quick" power mode is quite a lot so I switched to the low power mode. It can take up to 30 seconds to get a picture. Since I only turn the TV on once a day I was ok with this to save a few $$$ in electricity.

Summary: I could not be happier with this purchase. The only thing I would do differently is buy a bigger model (if they made one) as the 73" isn't as overwhelming as it was a month ago :)

I looked at big screen TV's for over a year. I researched big screens endlessly include many, many hours on the AVS forum. I looked at hundreds of tv's at several different showrooms over the course of one year. I looked at LCD's, plasma, DLP's. I waited for the release of the laser Mitsubishi models, to read actual reviews by real people. We purchased this TV about a month ago.

In brief, this TV is the best that you can buy. The colors are accurate and vivid. The blacks are strikingly black, with details in the black areas due to the newer dark chip in the set. Whites are pure without a tinge of any color. We have the tv in a very bright room with in essence a wall of glass windows and doors. Even with all of the ambient lighting the tv is bright in the daylight.

I am an experienced portrait artist and I know my colors and tonal values exceedingly well. Having said that, I have not adjusted the color settings on the tv. Nothing has been changed since the tv was first turned on. I am quite experienced in electronics and would have no difficulty or hesitance to adjust the picture if necessary but...it's not necessary in the smallest way.

The picture is the best that I have ever seen, even at the movies. You can sit as close as eight feet (even closer in HD)and their is no loss in picture quality. At 10 feet the image size on the screen is about what you would see from a middle seat in a movie theater.

The audio is more than good enough. We listen to the tv speakers almost always but we do have a high end surround system for listening to certain movies or concerts. Once again, the audio for this tv is more than good enough. If you want better then you must buy a surround system. With a picture of this size, I would recommend a good surround system for a perfect experience.

We got it from One Call through Amazon and I would certainly buy it that way again. No problems at all.

I can't imagine and I haven't seen a better picture. I looked at every technology including the LED's and this is by far the best picture.

This is my first review for Amazon. I have used Amazon's reviews to help me with many purchases and I am writing this to help the "community" of reviewers.

Gotta agree with you Al. My first major purchase from Amazon. TV was delivered in 5 days. It took them 10 minutes to unpack the TV, get it up the stairs and onto my stand (I didn't pay for any fancy white glove as I knew I could take care of all that myself). I gotta say that for the price of this TV it is a outstanding value. It does take a bit of tweaking in the menu to get the brightness, contrast and color inline, but that is to be expected. If I only have to replace a bulb every other year I'll take this TV and the 73 inches any day. My only rub is that I actually had to read the manual to get thru some of the menus.

Where's the popcorn!

First off, it's hard NOT to put 5-stars on this review because the picture quality really is fantastic (as other reviewers have stated).

I purchased my WD-73736 online from Vann's back in December 2008 for $2,099. No tax and free shipping. Also rec'd a $100 rebate from Mitsubishi (they processed it quickly); so my true, net cost was $1,999.

I have now owned it for six months and have had plenty of time to formulate an opinion that is a bit distanced from the initial "oh my gosh, this is AMAZING!!" reaction most of us had when we first plugged her in.

Picture quality is an A+. Period. I have Verizon FIOS service and some of the HD channels (ESPN for example) are nothing short of spectacular. There is no discernable difference (to me) between what I'm seeing on DLP technology vs Plasma or LCD. Now compare the price of a 73" DLP tv to it's Plasma or LCD counterpart and the exercise becomes a "no brainer".

This is a LOT of tv for the money.

See other reviewer's comments about the internal speakers. Yes, they are pitiful. But no one with a desire to own a 73" TV is going to set it up without a home theater system to process the sound. I'm sure that's what Mitsubishi was thinking, too.

The TV's menus are clear and intuitive. Once you have them set, you rely almost exclusively on your signal-provider's menus.

Now the bad news. I just had the lamp go out. This seems odd for a TV that is just 6 months old... Many factors influence bulb-life, but in my family's situation, we watch very little TV. A couple movies a week and the occasional ball game. I think we are probably around 8-10 hrs a week, tops. So to have a bulb go this quick is a little unnerving. I have adequate ventilation around the TV and it is in my basement, which stays cool even during the hot summer months.

I used Mitsubishi's website to report the problem and - to their credit - they dispatched a replacement bulb within a day. I reported the problem on a Thursday. Tracking data indicated they shipped it Friday via 2-day UPS delivery. I expect to get the bulb on Tuesday. So I'll have been out of service for 6 days total.

The bulb is under warranty, so no cost to me for the replacement. Just the inconvenience.

So for now, four stars because of the bulb issue.

I'll report back on the outcome of the replacement.

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*** UPDATE ***
Replacement bulb received as promised. Very quick turnaround. Mitsubishi included packaging and a shipping label included so I could easily return the old bulb. It took me less than 5 minutes to install the new bulb. Works great! We're back in business!

So far, I'm as impressed with Mitsui's Customer Service as I am with the TV itself. Of course, the TV continues to impress EVERYONE with its with phenomenal picture quality and VALUE!

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*** UPDATE #2 ***
Happy to report that I just passed the 3 year mark with my current bulb. So I am more than sold on DLP technology. You simply cannot get a better value for the size of these screens.

Delivery was smooth and faster than promiced.
TV works great out of the box, after minor calibration the picture is outstanding.
Thin bezel made this TV look quite elegant in the room. Even my wife asked if they make larger models (I wish).
This screen is bright enough to enjoy on middle of the day with two side windows.
SD is better than expected.
The only complain is that geometry in top two corners about 1/4 inch off perfect straight line.
It has no effect on video but when using computer it is slightly messing up with menu in top left corner.
For the price and considering minor geometry imperfection is inherent in projection TVs, I would recommend without any hesitations.

I had been looking at getting a new RPTV to replace my aging 2001 65" Mitsubishi CRT set and finally decided to pull the trigger. Lots of research (majority of owners have been pleased to ecstatic over their purchase of this year's 60", 65" and 73" displays) continued to bring me back to Mits, and after going to Fry's and seeing this set in person, I was sold.

The price offered on Amazon was fantastic, along with the free shipping. I had never purchased an item this big (or fragile) over the net, but buying from Amazon allayed those fears as I knew if anything went awry that Amazon would make it good. The set arrived sooner than predicted by Amazon, and was in perfect shape. The driver and I unpacked it and he helped me carry it in. Plugged it in, made sure it worked and we were good to go - any issues now were Mitsubishi's just as though I had bought it from a B&M.

I've had the set for about six weeks now and it has been great. The jump up in size from a 65" to the 73" was nice but not overwhelming. The set is very tweak-able from a picture quality perspective. Although it was good out of the box I was able to improve the picture with calibration disks.

The value for the $$$ on this set knocks me out. For the life of me, I can't understand why more people don't buy these rear projection sets but would rather pay more for less when buying Plasma or LCD displays. If you are not going to mount your set on the wall, why obsess over thin? To be honest, this set isn't that deep and it looks less imposing in the room than my old 65" did.

Anyway, this is a 5 star set and a 5 star experience as far as I'm concerned. If you want the most bang for your TV buck, the Mitsubishi rear projectors are hard to beat.

Cheers

I'm COMPLETELY satisfied with this purchase. If you buy this TV, i definitely suggest buying the matching stand sold by Mitsubishi as well because it's made to fit the tv perfectly. This screen is HUGE and as somebody said before me... it does get to be less overwhelming after a month or so. On the other hand though, whenever I go to my parents house and I see their 52" which I considered a big screen before, I look at it and say "Awe, that's a cute tv". If you get this tv, I definitely suggest a Blu-Ray player to go with it. And as the guy also said earlier... you can really tell which tv companies cheaped out of using higher end HD equipment with a screen this big. Take some time to play with the TV, adjusting sound, video, etc. There's a video/picture calibration tool in the menus somewhere that really shows you how clear this thing is and how great the color contrasting really is. Don't be fooled, if you feel like you're getting a bad picture, it may be the incoming source (cheap HD channel, etc)

Pros:
-Size!! Tiny Toons aren't so Tiny anymore!
-Brightness
-SIZE!!
-Clarity
-It already had inputs on the screen for "PS, WII, XBOX" and so forth with a lot of other ones as well... this really comes in handy as I have all 3, and it's easier than "HDMI 1 GAME, HDMI 2 GAME" like the Samsung I have in my room.

Cons:
-Sound system isn't too great... I installed surround sound not too long after, but anytime I switch back there's a huge difference, I definitely suggest getting a system
-Takes a couple secs to switch sources, not a huge deal

All in all, I highly suggest this TV unit... everybody that's walked into my apartment has said WOW... and it's fun to get some Wii bowling on it... and things like Madden '09 and Iron Man look amazing.

This is the best TV I have ever seen. I have had it for about a month and I am still in awe over the picture quality. The size is perfect for my viewing area.

I had a Pan 60" LCD rear projection for 3 years and it was nice but I wanted a little newer technology and larger screen. I knew when I bought the Pan that it did not have true black and I was having difficulty viewing darker movies. No problem here with the Mitsubishi.

I bought this from the Big Screen Store and my experience was excellent from the salesman to the delivery crew. I felt I got a good deal and even with the extended warranty it was still a $100 cheaper than what I paid for the Panasonic 3 years ago.

Today I really feel I have, at home, a Theater experience. With my Panasonic Blu Ray I can't imagine having any better movie viewing experience than this.

Like previous reviewers I have not felt the need to fiddle with the picture adjustments other than the quick adustments from Brilliant, Bright and Natural.

Another feature I really like is the Net Comand. This feature is very cool. When I make any changes to the input the TV makes changes to the receiver all through the HDMI. Even when viewing TV, I can put in a DVD into the Bluray player and once the player begins reading the disc the Mitsubishi will automatically change the input and also changes the output on my Onkyo receiver. It takes quite a few seconds to complete this process but that is tolerable just for the coolness alone. And when I am done watching a disc and switch the TV input the Mitsubishi will actually power off the Bluray player.

Right now I can't think of anything negative about this TV. If I think of something I will update later.

I picked this model up at brick & mortar for less than cost because Mistubishi is discontinuing this model... paid $1,700.00 new in the box. So far I've been very satisfied. I must advise though that if you sit 8 feet or less from your TV, this unit is too large. My couch is about 10 feet away and the TV still seems a little too large (maybe I just need to get used to it).

The only bad thing I can say is the speakers sound like tin cans. I maxed out the bass setting & turned the treble down a little but it still didn't help. Definitely needs to be hooked up to a sound system for movie viewing.... sound is OK for TV viewing but not great.

The quality of the picture on channels with high-quality HD cameras is unbelievable. The standard definition (SD) digital channels look better than I expected. Some SD channels look very blurry & jagged but that's a function of the source, not the TV. Have not tried Blu-ray yet but I'm looking forward to it! Also as stated earlier by others, if this is your first foray into the land of HD you will be startled at the complexions of your local newscasters!!!!

The cabinet is very minimal & elegant. Someone else posted the TV weighs 140 lbs but it's actually 96 lbs. I opted not to buy the matching stand... couldn't fork over $499.00 for a few piecs of laminated particle board...

Knocking off one star for the sound quality....

My husband and I bought the 73" 2007 version of this Mitsubishi TV in October '07 from our favorite retailer, AMAZON. We already had a 50" Mitsubishi which never needed a repair in the 13 years we owned it. So we only wanted the Mitsubishi brand name. Now that it's been over a year, this 73" DLP is a glorious picuture to behold, and no problems or glitches. There is no difference between the DLP and the LCD picture quality! The HD channel broadcasts are SPARKLING, and the DVD movies look like they're on a big movie screen.

We got ours with the 73" matching base thrown in for free. However, the price is lower this year for this tv, so even if you have to buy the base you still come out with a price only about $100 higher than we paid for ours last year. Don't put off buying this tv since due to the bad economy you may not get a better deal in the future. If you have just a minimal space in your family or rec room, then this thin space-saving 73" tv will fit in just fine. The white glove delivery service was also superb. The delivery men set up the tv for cable and were very helpful in answering all our questions. We can't thank Amazon enough for the fantastic deal they gave us!