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September 30th, 2008 Art Feierman
So far, not a whole lot of surprises with Sanyo’s PLV-60 which started shipping a few days ago. First a brief description:
The PLV-Z60 is a 720p home theater projector, that uses 3LCD technology. It’s got an MSRP of $1295, and comes with a better than most, three year warranty.
This Sanyo projector replaces Sanyo’s very popular PLV-Z5, and is physically very similar. It is also similar in general performance, but better in several ways. It seems to be a little brighter, a very good thing since the Sanyo projectors have traditionally been below average in brightness, and therefore not suitable for larger screen sizes.
Our sample unit seems to be a late pre-production version. It exhibits uneven background, with color shifting slightly pink to the left and more toward blue-green towards the right side. The upper right corner is definitely blue, and a bit brighter than the rest of the screen.
This is not unusual in pre-production 3LCD and also in three chip LCoS projectors.
Sanyo is shipping out a 2nd projector (full production) today, so I should be able to get a good look at it, compared to the first one. I expect no problems with Z60 #2.
The PLV-Z60 is basically just an improved PLV-Z5, with slightly better contrast and black levels. Out of the box color in best mode - Pure Cinema is pretty good. The other modes, however, really need at least a basic calibration, as they all have color temperatures from the mid-7500K to over 9000K, definitely too “cool” (blue) relative to the ideal 6500K.
Placement flexibility is the same as the Z5, with a 2:1 zoom, and lots of lens shift (vertical and horizontal).
The PLV-Z60 claims to be 100 lumens brighter, I believe, than the Z5. This may well be the case, but that won’t change the fact that the Z60 is not a bright projector.
I’ve always liked the Sanyo Z projectors, but brightness is not their strong suit - whether best mode or brightest mode. Once again, like other Sanyo projectors, it’s going to be happiest (as will you) with smaller to mid-sized screens. With typical non-high gain screens, you’ll probably want to keep screen size to 100″ or less. If you’ve got dark walls, and great lighting control, and a screen with some gain, you might push up to 106″ or maybe 110″ diagonal, but, in most cases, for best mode, 110″ would really be pushing it. Of course Sanyo offers three Cinema modes - the best - Pure Cinema, is the least bright. Users can sacrifice a little performance in black levels and use calibrated (needed) versions of Creative Cinema or Brilliant Cinema. If you are happy with those, then 110″ diagonal becomes very doable.
That’s about it. I should have posted this 48 hours ago, but never did. Review will be finished this evening (probably late). Hang in there! -art
Posted in New Projector Reviews, Opinion, Products | 1 Comment »
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September 10th, 2008 Art Feierman
JVC has been busy on the home theater projector side. Once again, they have launched, essentially two new models, but since they have two divisions - Pro and Consumer, each “real” new home theater projector, has two versions. For the most part, the differences between the Pro and Consumer versions seems to be strictly cosmetic.
What we have here, on the lower end is the DLA-RS10 home theater projector (Pro group), and it’s twin, the DLA-HD350 coming from JVC’s Consumer group. Up the food chain, and you find the DLA-RS20, and matching DLA-HD350.
According to JVC, these projectors aren’t (at least immediately) going to replace the existing DLA-RS1 and DLA-RS2 (or their consumer counterparts. That does tend to make things a bit murky, but it definitely looks like the new projectors have some advantages.
Before I get into individual models, let’s look at what all four new JVC projectors have in common:
- A new 16 element lens with 2:1 zoom ratio (same 2:1 range as the older RS1 and RS2)
- Customized gamma control - the lack of the ability to customize gamma, was always something I’ve missed on the RS1.
- All have superb range in terms of lens shift both vertical (80%) and horizontal (34%), for easy placement. Lens shift is now motorized
- All support HDMI 1.3 with Deep Color and CEC
- Image processing - already good on the older projectors now uses the Silicon Optics Reon-VX
- All four, are supposed to be available this November (you never can tell, until they ship)
- All have a screen trigger - this can be used to control a motorized screen, or a masking system, or alternately can be used to control the motorized sled for an anamorphic lens.
- And all four support an anamorphic lens, without needing an outboard (expensive) processor
- JVC has moved the inputs and output panel to the side, as opposed to being on the back on the older projectors - more on this below.
- These models are brighter than their older equivalents - RS10 vs. RS1, RS20 vs. RS2, etc.
Let’s start with the DLA-RS10. Read the rest of this entry »
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September 10th, 2008 Art Feierman
I’m way late on this blog, it’s one inspired back at Infocomm, in mid-June, and I thought for sure, I would get it done before CEDIA. No such luck so here goes.
What is an LED projector? That’s obviously the first question. LED (light emitting diodes), is not a technology that will replace, DLP, 3LCD, nor LCoS.
The Toshiba LED projector is less than 4 inches long and 2/3 inch high
Rather it is a lighting system for any and all of those projector types. So far, there are apparently several being shown, all called Pico LED projectors, but most using a DLP chip (although one with LCoS), with light provided by LED. The thing is, they are tiny!
Shown at the right is Toshiba’s entry, and it isn’t even one of the smaller ones.
Now it’s true that a couple of large type projectors have been demoed (pre-production) models using LED light instead of the traditonal lamps (Digital Projection was one company that showed one), but that’s something that’s probably coming, with a few models in a year or so. Since that is evolutionary (though it should have some advantages), I’m not going to get into that here.
Let’s talk about the newest tiniest projectors. I saw them at Infocomm 2 months ago. Optoma and 3M I physically saw and there are probably one or two other with prototypes. Read the rest of this entry »
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September 8th, 2008 Art Feierman
Epson sure has been busy, with five new projectors shown at CEDIA. It’s time to talk about the least expensive of them all, the the Home Cinema 700.
The first thing is the $799 price tag. This is definitely a breakthrough in terms Read the rest of this entry »
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September 8th, 2008 Art Feierman
Greetings all,
I’ve already briefly mentioned the new PLV-Z700, Sanyo’s new low cost 1080p projector with a $1995 list price. As it turns out, it is not a replacement for the current PLV-Z2000, but these are my first comments regarding the Sanyo PLV-Z60 home theater projector.
Let’s take one more look at the Sanyo PLV-Z700:
Contrast is good, at 10,000:1 but not quite as good as the Z2000 (15,000:1). The Z2000 however, had very good black level performance, better than some other projectors with similar contrast ratings, so, despite the “low” 10,000:1, the PLV-Z700 should still be pretty respectable when it comes to black levels.
Brightness is claimed at 1200 lumens, the same as the Z2000. That said, the Z2000 has been one of the least bright projectors, best suited for 100″ diagonal or smaller screens. Expect the same.
Placement flexibility is excellent with a 2:1 zoom lens, and vertical and horizontal lens shift! Like the Z2000, a lens cover slides in front of the lens, to keep dust out, when not powered up. This Sanyo, based on published specs, should be one of the quietest projectors around, in terms of fan noise.
A three year warranty combines with the low price point to make the Sanyo PLV-Z700 a serious contender. I should note that the Sanyo PLV-Z2000 has always been a favorite among the DIY home theater crowd. the PLV-Z700, I imagine, will receive the same attention by those with more limited budgets, but don’t want to have to settle for a 720p projector.
With 1080p projectors now dominating the market, some companies are sticking with their older 720p models, and not replacing them this fall, while a few others have new 720p home theater projectors.
Sanyo, who didn’t bother to replace the popular PLV-Z5 last year, has finally done so, with the just announced PLV-Z60. Read the rest of this entry »
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September 8th, 2008 Art Feierman
Greetings all: I’m normally buried in emails requesting advice. It’s getting out of hand, in that there just isn’t close to enough time to answer all, or even most of your questions. I therefore thought it would be helpful to you to explain where I am at answering questions, and how to improve your chances of getting an answer. I composed this email from the show, and decided that making a blog out of it would be helpful to my readers… Read the rest of this entry »
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September 8th, 2008 Art Feierman
Greetings All!
OK, I’ve already blogged about the Epson Pro Cinema 7500 UB, but missed a few details. First of all, the pricing, will be under $5000 (which sounds a lot like $4999 to me, but we shall see). Final pricing is not yet set. I will update the first blog with this same information.
So, let’s talk Epson Home Cinema 6500 UB. First of all, it is not officially announced yet, and it sounds like it won’t ship until December. That means some of this info may not be completely accurate, as the product isn’t finalized yet. Normally I don’t worry much about products 3 months out, but it seemed that Epson was releasing a fair amount of information, to the CEDIA public, and I can’t rationalize keeping a secret, since much of the information is already circulating! Read the rest of this entry »
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September 6th, 2008 Art Feierman
Greetings from my last day at CEDIA. I’ve got less than 10 minutes to head back over to the show, so this will be brief.
Epson showed several new projectors, and I’ll discuss them in more depth later, but the basics are - the Epson Home Cinema 6100 is their new entry level 1080p projector, with a price tag of $1999! This model claims, I believe 18,000:1 contrast, so, in terms of black levels it likely won’t quite match the current Home Cinema 1080 UB, but better than the standard Home Cinema 1080 (15,000:1) There are a number of other improvements however.
Next is the new Pro Cinema 7500 UB, this is Epson’s top of the line. Geez, it only claims 75,000:1 contrast ratio, Read the rest of this entry »
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September 3rd, 2008 Art Feierman
Greetings all,
OK, The CEDIA expo show floor opens tomorrow, but I’m spending much of today at press conferences. So, far, I’ve been to Panasonic’s where they rolled out the new PT-AE3000U 1080p home theater projector.
And I picked up a press kit for Mitsubishi, with whom I’m meeting with later this week. While Mitsubishi is already advertising their new Diamond 1080p home theater projector, I was surprised and pleased to see an announcement for the HD8000, which I will also discuss below. Mind you I haven’t seen either of these work, and in the case of Mitsubishi, the HD8000 press release leaves some things unanswered. Read the rest of this entry »
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August 30th, 2008 Art Feierman
Greetings all,
I’m off to CEDIA on Tuesday (Sept 2) - through Saturday of next week. Already we know of a number of new projectors being rolled out for first looks at the show. I’ll do at least one blog next week, with comments on some of the more interesting new models.
In the meantime, a few things to report, that should be of interest to those hot in the search for a home theater projector. First, the “old”:
Epson - the Home Cinema 1080 UB, is, as reader’s know, one of my all time favorites. Epson, most likely will show a new model, and I’ve just learned that Epson has done significant price drops on both the Home Cinema 1080 UB, and the older, less expensive Home Cinema 1080 (the one that goes in the Ensemble HD 1080 complete system.
Here goes:
The Home Cinema 1080 was $2299. It is now $1999, and you also get a free lamp!
Beter still, the Home Cinema 1080 UB, was $2999 (less $200 rebate). It is now:
$2799 less $300 rebate, and free lamp.
Assuming a value of $350 for the lamp, the math works out to new prices of $1649, for the standard 1080, and the Home Cinema 1080 UB, works out to $2149!
That’s got to be one of the best deals going!
Sanyo has announced a new, low cost 1080p projector, the PLV-Z700. It looks a lot like the PLV-Z2000 (from the images - I haven’t actually laid my hands on it yet), and will ship in October.
And now, the New: Sanyo and more…
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in News, Products | 3 Comments »
InFocus IN83 Projector with 1080p Darkchip4, OMG! First Look - 6 emails
JVC launches two (pairs) of new home theater projectors - DLA-RS10 and DLA-HD350, and DLA-RS20 and DLA-HD750 - 5 emails
Epson Ensemble HD - Installation Finished - Excellent! - 4 emails
Epson Home Cinema 6500UB - First Look! - 3 emails
Epson Home Cinema 1080UB review update - 2 emails
The 2008 1080p Home Theater Projector Comparison Report is Posted - 2 emails
Viewsonic Pro8100 redux: A second look coming - 2 emails
Blu-Ray DVD Wins - 1 emails
Projectors under Review: BenQ W5000 - impressive - 1 emails
1080p Home Theater Projector Comparison Report, Optoma, BenQ Projector Reviews - 1 emails
