I was shopping for an HDTV for a few months before I decided to buy this 60″ Mitsubishi 60638. I was torn between the 55″ Toshiba 55G300U LCD, 73″ Mitsubishi 73C9 DLP, and this model (60638). After researching these sets, I decided to buy the 60638 based mainly on its cheap price. There were limited specs available as it’s a brand new model, but after hooking it up in my room, I am solely impressed by its size and quality. It is truly a great TV. I had a 2005 62″ Toshiba 62HM195 DLP for two years and this new Mitsubishi looks sharper and more color rich. But there are some cons. For me, they were not deal breakers.

PROS:

-Cheap price for outstanding image quality and size. Try to find an LCD over 60″ for under a grand!

-3 HDMI

-3D Ready (haven’t used this or plan to use it. I think 3D is still a gimmick)

-Relatively lightweight compared to DLP’s from a few years ago (my old Toshiba 62HM195 weighed about 30 pounds more)

-Freeze Button on remote freezes the image in its current frame. I haven’t seen a use for this yet, but it just seems cool

-Very simple “plug-n-play” ability to get a great calibrated picture right out of the box

-In-set speakers are good. The size of the set separates them more than with smaller LCDs

CONS:

-Lack of inputs! No S-Video! Only 2 component and you have to share these with composite!

-No side input for easy access

-No universal remote

-Lack of fine-tuning controls. A pitiful selection of only Brightness/Contrast/Color/Tint/Sharpness. Forget about fine-tuning tweaking in the more expensive models.

-Four image modes that seem to work — Brilliant (brightest setting), Bright (daytime viewing), Natural (nighttime viewing), Game (adjusts video processing for optimal game playback)

2/17/2011 UPDATE

New official firmware (v012.01) for the WD-60638 on Mitsubishi’s website

In its price range, the size and the quality of the picture seems to be far better than average. It works well with indirect or shaded daylight falling on its screen. You’ll probably want to back off the as-received brightness and contrast settings to get something a little bit more natural.

This is a simplified box with simplified inputs, outputs and controls.

Unlike a LCD it is about 16 inches thick and has a projector bulb that you may have to replace during its useful life. It takes a good part of a minute to warm up. It also lacks the complex selective contrast-enhancing features of newer LED LCD TVs. On balance, the basic static contrast is plenty high for all but video perfectionists.

It has no analog outputs so that if you want to add an external audio system, that audio system must have a digital (SP/DIF coax) input (stereo), or some kind of time delay to avoid problems with lip synch.

The market for this TV is either someone who wants a basic TV with great picture and OK sound, or someone who is willing to provide the technical resources required to incorporate it into a more sophisticated A/V system with a multichannel receiver, etc. The middle ground where you just plug an analog stereo receiver or some powered speakers into it just isn’t there.

Also lacking are networking and internet support. If you want to watch downloaded videos, you’ll need to add a PC to your AV system. The PC-oriented video inputs are HDMI so there’s no place to plug in the traditional 15 pin analog CRT connector. Of course doing so would be a waste of a great monitor. A PC with a HDMI or DVI output (with simple adaptor to match the TV’s the HDMI inputs) can work well.

I am extremely pleased with this TV. It has an absolutely beautiful picture that is much much more natural than that of a pixel-ated (I think I just made up that word) LCD or a glassy Plasma. Don’t get me wrong, I do also like the picture produced by LCD and Plasma TVs, but at the same time you will not find either of those at a 60″ size (or above) for under 1,000$ …especially with 24p HD viewing and 120hz refresh. That is why this TV is such an excellent value…you get loads of viewing features standard, along with a HUGE viewing size, for a great price.

PROS: 1) the extremely natural picture (after some tweeking of course) 2) the on board speakers are actually pretty good, although I still connected it to my Klipsch surround sound (another highly recommended brand) 3) the automatic connectivity theme makes it very easy to connect and change inputs 4) it’s very easy to setup and get the colors right (use the perfectcolor feature) 5) although the screen is huge, while watching shows in HD or Blurays the TV doesn’t miss a single pixel, the picture stays smooth and natural (the color is very deep and thorough, but make sure you tweek it right, which is easy to do). Even basic SDTV looks pretty good compared to comparable LCD and Plasma competitors.

CONS: 1) THE REMOTE SUCKS (I hate everything about it except the fact that it lights up when pressed) 2) The viewing angle is pretty narrow if you want to keep the picture and color in complete focus. The TV likes to be viewed straight on with a minimum of about 8 feet between you and the TV (although you can see it pretty good at angles that aren’t too extreme) 3) it easily catches reflections from lights, windows etc. on it’s plexi-screen (although Plasmas do the same thing, in my opinion to a worse amount)4) there is a lack of some inputs (aka S-video) but you can easily buy adapters.

ON A SEPARATE NOTE: After having this TV for a few months the input on HDMI 1 started flickering pretty bad. I figured it was my HDMI cable and so I bought another. It did the same thing after a week. So I plugged my original cable into the HDMI 2 input and it worked fine. It seems my HDMI 1 connection is slowing dying on me. I didn’t dock any stars for this though because I bought the TV from a man who bought it new and used it 1 month before selling it to me due to lack of finances. Knowing him, I’d say it was probably his fault the connection is shorting out (I checked blogs and haven’t found any other problems along this line). He probably tried to connect a USB cable into the HDMI input or something stupid like that. Anyway, I only need 2 HDMI inputs anyway so everything worked out fine…there wasn’t any reason to dock any stars

OVERALL: This TV is easily the best buy for ANY set under 1,000$ …and I’d say even up to 1,200-1,300$ . If you have the ample wall space to allow this huge set to sit, I guarantee you won’t be dissapointed.