Comments on: Sanyo PLV-Z3000 home theater projector – loaded with features

By: thedre

thedre — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:47:05 +0000

I have the Sanyo PLV Z2000, and am extremely happy with it. It’s shoots out around 14 feet on a 72 inch white screen, and I watch it around 12 feet. Just at the point where I cannot see the fine pixels…which I think is the best way to watch front projection. My only issue is getting deep into color correction. Well, there are really two issues. With C.C., let’s say I’m watching Mad Men on Blu-Ray, and I notice that in the shadows of people’s faces it heats up with too much off color yellowish murk..you can sometimes see it in the shadow areas of the interiors. So, that means I want to adjust color in those gamma areas, and not overall. (When I worked in a one hour photo lab in the eighties, we calibrated each film type with three negs…one over,one normal, and one under exposed neg…and that eliminated getting blue in the shadows, etc. So, I’d like to know more about how to mange this. Similarly my other problem is sometimes the black that people rave about shows up when you don’t need it…In the shadows of peoples faces, etc., when you know it’s overdone. I mess around with gamma settings, brightness and contrast to mess with this issue, but I still see an artificial black pumping into these regions that looks a bit forced. I have to say, that when I had the earlier 720 model from sanyo, I never saw this. So, increased black levels are not always the best thing…only when there are really real black in the source material. So, the projector does not always make the best judgement. And can someone tell me what lens iris number works the best for them? Not the speed of lens iris correction, but the general opening level…I have a very hard time seeing differences in the settings…or really understanding what’s happening. And wouldn’t it be nice for Sanyo to really explain Gamma and the difference between it and brightness? thanks for reading…

By: Seraj

Seraj — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:03:44 +0000

Thanks Art!
I will awaiting your PLV-Z3000 review. I am holding my projector purchase till I have seen at least Sanyo and Epson’s next gen reviews.

I was playing with PLV-Z2000 and projecting 190″ diagonal image in a light controlled room and I was quite impressed. But reading some reviews elsewhere I found that after a few months, the light output decreases considerably to enjoy a 190″ inch screen.
Is it true? Do I need to go for a high brightness projector? How much brightness would you recommend and most importantly would PLV-Z3000 would be upto task according to your best guess?

As alaways thanks a lot and I appreciate your valuable work!

-Seraj

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Greetings Seraj,

190″ diagonal? Wow! I trust you have a real high gain screen. With a normal 1.0 gain screen, even in brightest mode, that projector probably can’t hit the 12 ft-lambert minimum for brightness as specified by the SMPTE for movie theaters, and often used as a reference in the home.

Yes, lamps get dimmer over their life. Over the rated life, figure up to a 50% loss in brightness. My own JVC RS1 now has almost 1500 hours (2000 rated) (all with lamp on high), and is off just about 25%, but others report even faster drop offs (will vary by a number of factors, including how conservative the manufacturers choose to rate their lamp life.

When I talk about screen sizes, in my screen recommendations, I really try to figure how a projector would do at 50% of the rated lamp life (1000 hours out of 2000 rated, for most projectors). I figure that gives people a good idea. So, when I say a projector can handle a 100″ screen, that typically means that it can, brand new, can handle about 120″ diagonal, but by 2000 hours, the same brightness might require only a 90″ screen. I like to have more than the minimum 12 ft-lamberts for movie viewing, so I figure most folks will find my size recommendations for the various screens to be satisfactory. Hope that helps.

Assuming you were viewing the Z2000 in one of its brightest modes, you’ll probably want to look more towards the Epson 6100 or 6500 UB, as they will probably be the brightest of the lower cost home theater projectors in “brightest mode”, although the InFocus IN83, or Optoma HD81-LV, are a further step up in brightness (and price). -art

By: Seraj

Seraj — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:36:24 +0000

The PLV-Z3000 is supposedly priced $2399 for preordering. Wonder if there would be any rebate…and quality bumped enough to justify 800$ price premium over PLV-Z2000.

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The Sanyo Z3000 has all the goodies. It is likely to be very much like the Z2000, except for much better black levels, and creative frame interpolation. The black levels may well make it worth the difference in price. The creative frame interpolation does help, but I still don’t consider it a major factor. I’ve been staring at the Panasonic with creative frame turned on, side by side, with other projectors, and I can see what it’s doing, but it doesn’t, to me, register as a significant improvement. I suspect, though, like rainbow effect, motion blur is more noticeable by some, than others. I’m even wondering if there’s a correlation. Do people, such as myself, who are rainbow sensitive, less sensitive to motion blur? More sensitive? or No correlation?

We shall see. -a

By: Ephraim

Ephraim — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:06:02 +0000

Art, can you provide a more prominent link to the blog from your website?

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Well, at yours and others suggestions I did move it up to the top of the left column on the homepage.

I’ll also be adding a link on the far left column, so that the blog will be accessible from every page on the site. -art