This TV was a replacement for a 62" Toshiba HDTV from late 2005. The Toshiba had been calibrated using a DVD calibration disc (and the color filters that come with the DVD) fed into the component video inputs.
First of all, 73" is a dramatic step up from just about anything you may have seen short of a front projection set up (Mitsu, however, now goes even one larger, 82", if you have the living room real estate.) It is about 1" less deep than the outgoing Toshiba -- but this means it will require at least 12" more distance from the wall (or whatever is behind it) behind it than "flat screen" HDTVs which usually require 3" to 6" of rear clearance. In our case the 73837 is in a large family room and it does not eat up an objectionable amount of real estate.
Second, the "super thin" frame and very low base, make the TV, when off, not overwhelm the room the way the Toshiba with its side speakers and high base seemed to do.
Third, the picture, out of the box is bad, correction, not just bad, it was horrible. It is set to a preference called "Brilliant." This setting should be called "blaring," or "blooming" or "garish" -- it is so over-bright, over-blue and over-saturated it is unbearable -- but fear not.
Fourth, the screen is non-reflective, meaning that you can watch this TV with the lights on in the room, although I can't imagine seriously watching this "Theater" with ambient room lighting anything much over "way dim." The 73837 is, however, plenty bright enough, even with the lights on.
When the set was delivered, all that was done by the deliverer was to be taken out of the box and set up on the stand where the Toshiba had been. I had to make the connections -- and, in my case, since I use composite video for the set up OSD for my Proceed AVP, and component video from DirecTV and my HD disc player due to the long length of my cable runs, I had to look up the proper way to plug it in since it is not entirely intuitive. If you use HDMI or only component you should not have any issues, however. S-Video is officially dead, BTW. I'd skip composite video altogether if at all possible.
The bad news, as noted, were the factory settings -- abandon them entirely.
The good news, Mitsubishi has included extensive calibration setting capabilties -- although the BASIC user's manual that comes in the box is useless as far as actually calibrating the set is concerned (you can download a more complete version for free from Mitsu's web site.) More good news, the set CAN BE CALIBRATED by "mere mortals" with one of the available DVD calibration discs on the market (there is even a Blu-Ray (HD) calibration disc; but, if you have one of the older SD calibration discs, I would see no reason to go out and buy a new HD version, since they are virtually identical.
Allow a couple of hours+ for the set-up process and give the TV at least an hour at room temperature before turning it on, especially if you take delivery on a cold wintry day like I did. After "assuming room temperature," turn the TV on and allow at least another half an hour for "stabilization" of the "light engine" (mainly the bulb.)
You will have to use several of the menus (across the top and down the left side) that can be selected by pressing the Menu button (on the otherwise crummy, not back lit, remote) for the set up process. The menu that you will spend the most time with is called "Picture+" and you will then need to go to the "Advanced Picture Sub-Menu" for the work that will follow.
The first thing you will want to do is make certain ALL of the "special" software picture enhancers are turned off (e.g., Deep Field Imager, Super Resolution, Sharp Edge, Video Noise, etc.) You will, in the event that you do not have a calibration disc, need, first and foremost to turn down the brightness and contrast a few notches and set the Gamma control to 2.2, and the sharpness control no higher than 10 (zero or anything in between is also OK.) You may want to adjust "Color," (a notch or so lower) I found the factory setting for "Tint" to be fine.
There are literally dozens of other settings that can be adjusted, and/but, to do it right you will need the "name here" calibration DVD or Blu-Ray disc (I used Digital Video Essentials DVD, in SD, FWIW.)
You should set -- from the Global Menu -- film mode to "Auto," and from the energy menu (accessed from the left side vertical menu) you should set the lamp mode to "Standard." You can also set the clock and even turn on and off the center Blue Glow on the front of the cabinet. After trying it both ways, I left the Blue Glow in the "on" position -- you may prefer otherwise. Make sure you turn Smooth 120Hz off, too or you may find the picture looks a bit, er, "artificial."
When you are watching the set, make certain to press the "More" button on the remote and then follow it with the "Video" button (there will be an on screen prompt), choose the "Standard" setting and the Mitsubishi will automatically track the format of the incoming signal, and it will not alter or distort the picutre (it will, indeed, show with a press of the "Info" button, that you are watching source material: 420p, 720p, 1080i, etc, "Standard.") Remember by the time you do this, you will have already set film mode to Auto.
With respect to all the many, many other settings: With a calibration disc you can get this set to damn near perfect; and, even without a calibration disc, you can certainly improve on the factory settings -- and Mitsubishi even gives you a High Def still image which one can assume contains "all the elements" you need to fine tune the settings "to your tastes."
Or you can pony up about $300 and have the set professionally calibrated.
For the money, not to damn with faint praise, nothing else even comes close to this 73" beauty (once it is calibrated) -- and, frankly, even for more than double the money (which will almost certainly be for a much smaller TV) nothing else comes close to the picture of this TV.
Oh, one last thing, the speakers and "audio" are very close to if not actually, Total Crap. But, that, too, is personal.
Five+ stars.
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Best bang for the buck!
