Sanyo PLV-Z3000 - Competitors 2

Posted on December 7, 2008 by Art Feierman

Sanyo PLV-Z3000 vs. Mitsubishi HC5500, HC6500 and HC7000

The Sanyo is available online, only the lowest cost of the three Mitsubishi projectors - the HC5500 is available online. The other two, the HC6500 and HC7000 are local dealer only, and significantly more expensive.

The Sanyo easily wins the black level wars against the HC5500 (and probably slightly compared to the HC6500), while the HC7000 bests the Sanyo Z3000. The HC5500 is at the low end of black level performance among 1080p projectors, while the Sanyo is well better than average!

On the other hand, the HC5500 has far more brightness in best mode (almost double), but isn't as bright (about 300 lumens less) in brightest mode.

That makes the Mitsubishi HC5500 a better choice for movie viewers that want a larger screen, but aren't perfectionists when it comes to black levels.

The Sanyo may be have a sharper than typical image, but the Mitsubishi's are even better still. Sharpness, however is close enough to be a non-issue for most.

The Mitsubishi HC7000 is pretty much a better projector in just about every area, except shadow detail, and it probably only loses there, because the Sanyo is spectacular in this regard. Had Sanyo mustered up slightly better black levels, their shadow detail likely would have been closer to the Mitsubishi.

Click to enlarge. So close. The HC6500 compared to the PLV-Z3000 is interesting. The HC6500 was long gone from my testing room, by the time the Sanyo arrived. The Mitsubishi HC6500 had very good shadow detail for one of the non - ultra high contrast projectors. All considered, the Sanyo likely bests the HC6500 in black level performance, but not by much.

Click Image to Enlarge

None of the Mitsubishi projectors support 96 or 120 frame per second modes, unlike the Sanyo Z3000. The HC7000 has 48 fps support, but no creative frame interpolation, so the Sanyo has the advantage in this area.

The HC6500 is a brighter than average projector in best mode, with almost double the PLV-Z3000 projector's lumen output. The Sanyo has the advantage in brightest mode.

Other than being similar in intent (ultra high contrast for better black levels, and fast frame support), the Sanyo, and the HC7000 really aren't competitors due to the much higher price of the HC7000.