Mitsubishi WD-52525 review (52" rear projection TV)

The WD-52525 is also available in a 62-inch version, model WD-62525.

Overall, we found the WD-52525's picture quality to be among the best we've seen yet from a rear-projection DLP, although in our initial setup we did run into some problems. During calibration, for example, a lack of grayscale adjustments at the low end resulted in less than ideal grayscale tracking--disappointing, given the potential of DLP in this performance area (see the geek box for details).

We were also disappointed to find that the WD-52525 did not fully resolve every line of a 720p test pattern, although, to be fair, we've seen this kind roll-off in some other "native 720p" sets. Edge enhancement was still clearly visible after turning off the DefinEdge feature and turning the Sharpness control to zero. On the upside, the video processing with film mode turned on does have 2:3 pull-down, as evidenced by the clean rendition of the opening sequence of the Star Trek: Insurrection DVD.

Mitsubishi's color decoder is not particularly accurate from the factory, but the Perfect Color feature is designed to help you fix that. We were able to eliminate red push but unable to completely remove the errors in green, because adjustments to green adversely affected red. The end results were good, however, and we applaud Mitsubishi for making this adjustment available.

After calibrating the WD-52525, we watched some scenes from the Seabiscuit (for color evaluation) and Alien (for black-level performance) DVDs. Chapter 12 of Seabiscuit looked good, with excellent color saturation, accurate skin tone rendition, and plenty of detail. Chapters 2 and 3 of Alien, mostly dark scenes, looked pretty good, although we could see some low-level noise in the darkest scenes. We also noticed trails of color following the white credits against the black of space (rainbow effects). Both of these are typical of DLP TVs, though, and were not any worse than we've seen on other such sets with similar technical specs.

HD looked quite good on the WD-52525, particularly with bright material. HDNet from our DirecTV HD satellite feed had excellent color saturation and good detail.