When I was asked if I wanted to review a rear projection TV, I said what I always do - Yes. Then they wanted to know how big of a set I wanted to review. Well, how big do they get? Apparently 73 inches. The Mitsubishi WD-73735 is near the top of the line from them in rear projection DLPs. It’s huge, of course, and fairly light for its size. Having such a large display comes with its own challenges, such as requiring a two man delivery team (delaying the delivery by almost a week), finding somewhere to store such a huge box, and going back to your 42-inch LCD after the review period. Oh, well, I suppose I’ll have to take one for the team on this one.

First Impression & Build Quality
As you might expect from a huge display, it came in a huge box. It was of the “lift off the top” variety and arrived undamaged. It comes with a setup guide, owner’s manual, remote, and power cord. This is the first setup guide I’ve seen with two parts. Usually, they just load it all up on one big page. The display is huge and the box is equally impressive. As I stood there staring at it, I wondered if I was going to have to have a few friends over to help me move it.

As all rear projection sets, the screen and upper areas are all fairly lightweight and “flimsy.” I put flimsy in quotes because this isn’t a slam against the build quality - it is just the nature of the beast. The base is larger and much more sturdy. The bevel around the screen is very thin - around a half an inch. Many rear projection sets have a base as wide as the screen. The WD-73735 doesn’t do this and instead has a base that is about 37 1/2-inches and is nearly 18-inches deep. For the size of screen, it is pretty shallow.

The front sports the Mitsubishi logo, a slot where the speakers fire out, and a small covered panel. Behind the panel is a USB port (for pictures), component video inputs, and analogue audio inputs. There are also controls for Volume, Channels, Format, Menu, Guide, and Input. Just in case you don’t have enough reasons to yell at your kids, there is also a System Reset button that freezes up the display for up to a minute and a half. No warnings, no “Are you Sure” messages, just a black screen and a little flashing green light until it is done. The button exists to reset the TV in the event that it stops responding to the remote.

Ironically, the only time the WD-73735 didn’t respond to the remote during the review period was when the System Reset button was pressed and I was trying to turn it back on. Luckily, it doesn’t reset any of your calibration settings (unless they were recently made). The back has three HDMI inputs, two more Component video inputs, a couple of analogue audio inputs, an S-Video/Composite input and a Coaxial digital audio input. There are no TOSLink or Coax audio outputs or PC inputs. Two antenna inputs are also included. If you have a set of 3D glasses and something to use them with (I didn’t), there is a port for that as well. The power cord is not detachable (an odd oversight in a near top of the line RPDLP).

Read the complete review at Audioholics.com