Sanyo PLV-Z5 DLP Projector Review - General Performance

Overview
Image Quality
General Performance
Warranty
Summary, Pros, Cons

Lots to cover in this section, simply scroll down, or select from this list.

Menus
User Memory Settings
Remote Control
Lens Throw and Lens Shift
SDE and Rainbow Effect
Projector Brightness
Light Leakage
Audible Noise Levels
Lamp Life and Replacement
Projector Screen Recommendations
Calibration
Image Noise

Sanyo PLV-Z5 Projector Menus

There are truly a lot of menus on the PLV-Z5. I took more than a dozen multi-item menu images but have decided to trim it down a bit. If you really must see all the menus, no doubt Sanyo will eventually post a pdf version of their manual online.

The first menu is the Image Menu, which features your choice of modes, as shown here.

There is also a second page (not shown), which allows selection of the four user saveable settings.

The next major menu is Image Adjust, with the ability to adjust virtually every aspect of color handling, including the usual suspects: Brightness, contrast, color (saturation), Tint, Color Temp (choices include Low1,2, and 3, Medium and High). In addition there are separate controls for RGB (red, green, and blue).

There is also a second page of Image Adjust features.

 

This menu gives you a choice of the four lamp modes; Low, A1, and A2 (dynamic modes), and Full power. Also present, control of Gamma, manual Lens iris control and Reset.

 

If Advanced is turned on (in another menu), then you can also access the Advanced Image adjust menu, shown here. As you can see, the number of controls of the image is almost mind boggling!

I did not play with features such as the Auto Black Stretch, Transient Improvement, etc., but did most of my viewing with Dynamic gamma engaged.

 

 

A second advanced menu is for more serious calibration, offering separate R,G,B controls each for Gain, Offset, and Gamma.

Altogether, there must be billions of combinations, that should satisfy even the pickiest hard core tweaker, or professional calibrator.

 

Moving along to the other main menus, there is a Picture Adjust, (not shown) that controls overscan, as well as horizontal and vertical positioning.

Next comes the Screen menu, which gives you a choice of the various aspect ratio options. You'll note that some are grayed out, as they are not available for the 16:9 aspect ratio of the source in this case. Select a 4:3 source, and others will activate, etc.

 

The Input Menu (not shown), offers menu selection of each of the inputs, as well as configuration of the computer input.

There are 3 Settings menus. The first offers menu language, the all important Advanced menu off/on, as well as projector orientation (ceiling/table/front/rear), and setup for the two HDMI inputs.

The next Settings menu, includes, of note, Power management, and the ability to put in a custom logo, but code options for the remote.

 

 

 

Finally, the last Settings menu primarily deals with cleaning and adjusting the LCD panels, but also houses the high altitude fan option, and the lamp counter reset.

 

 

Finally, there is the Info menu, giving the usual basic info about the projector's status, including lamp hours, current input, and lamp brightness mode.

 

No one will accuse Sanyo of coming up short on controllable options!

Sanyo PLV-Z5 User Memory Settings

As mentioned above, the Sanyo PLV-Z5 supports four separate user saveable settings. A user saveable setting will include (best I can tell) just about every setting you can affect in the menus that relates to the properties of the image, including lamp setting choices, gamma setting choices, and all those many color settings.

Sanyo PLV-Z5 Remote Control

Sanyo's remote control, is OK, not great. The only real problem with it, is that it is small, and as a result, the buttons are very close together, making finding buttons without using the backlight or looking at the remote, difficult.

There is certainly no shortage of buttons, as most of the key menu items can be selected directly, like brightness, lamp mode, color, etc.

From the top. On the left, is the backlight button. The backlight itself, is not one of the brighter ones out there, but is bright enough to easily read the buttons. Across from it is the Power On/Off, with the usual press once for On, twice for Off.

The next row left to right - Lamp mode, a video mute to black out the screen, labeled No Show, and a Freeze frame button.

Next comes the Menu button, and a Reset, and under them, the four arrow key buttons for navigation, and the Enter button in the middle (labeled "OK").

Further down, Screen, for selecting aspect ratio, and Image, which lets you adjust, and scroll through the major image controls, such as Brightness, Contrast, and all the other items on the Image Adjust menus.

That takes us to the lower half, with four rows of 3 buttons.

First row, provides direct access to: Brightness, Contrast and Color (saturation), next row, Iris control, Presets (Brilliant Cinema, Dynamic, etc.), and User Memory settings (4).

Below that are five source select buttons. Those inputs that have more than one option, allow you to toggle through them, like HDMI1 and HDMI2, Component Video 1 and 2, etc.

And the last button (lower right) brings up the Info menu, shown above, in the Menu section.

So, functionality is very good, but the small remote and tightly spaced buttons limit the ease of finding things without looking at the remote.

Lastly, range. I had no problem at all with the usable range of the remote, easily bouncing it off of the screen to the projector, and since I have a very large screen, most users will have a shorter distance to deal with.

Lens Throw and Lens Shift

The Sanyo is truly excellent in these areas. The slightly greater than 2:1 zoom provides for excellent placement flexibility, and should allow shelf mounting in the back of the room, for just about all users, unless you have a very deep room and a very small screen.

As noted on the first page, with a 100" 16:9 screen, the projector can be as close (measured from the front of the lens) to the screen as 9.8 feet, and as far back as 20 feet.

Lens shift is also excellent, with about the greatest amount of lens shift that I can recall. This allows you to place the projector vertically anywhere from somewhat below the bottom of the screen surface, to an equal distance above the top of the screen surface.

The Z5 offers a wide range of lens shift. It will allow you to position the projector, anywhere from significantly below to significantly above the screen surface. In fact, almost a full screen height above or below (for a 100" 16:9 screen, one screen height is about 49 inches!)

Sanyo PLV-Z5 Projector: Screen Door Effect and Rainbow Effect

Since the Sanyo PLV-Z5 is an LCD projector, there is of course, no Rainbow Effect, since there is no spinning color filter wheel, as are used on DLP projectors. The Screen Door Effect relates to the visibility of pixels. This latest generation of LCD panel is better than the last, as pixels are a little less visible, and are getting close to typical DLP projectors in this regard. For those completely pixel adverse (and with 20/20 vision), I would recommend a seating distance of about 1.8x screen width (or for a 100" diagonal screen, over 13 feet). Most of us, however are nowhere near that picky and should be happy with a seating distance of 1.3x - 1.4x screen width - which means 9 to 10.5 feet back. At those closer distances you are likey to notice pixels in white credits, and rarely in large bright, stationary areas of images on the screen. Relative to my DLP projector, in my theater - I sit 11 feet back, with the Sanyo I needed to move about 3 feet further back to achieve the same level of "can't really see them", and that while projecting 110" diagonal, as opposed to the 128" diagonal I use with my BenQ.

If you click on the image above, you are looking at a larger image of what is a very small section of the screen, from one of the images from Phantom, of Carlota, that is used heavily in the Image Quality section. I have adjusted contrast and brightness to better allow you to see the pixels.

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Sanyo PLV-Z5 Projector Brightness

One thing I need to address here, is that for these measurements I set the Sanyo's zoom lens as close as I could get to being in the middle, between wide angle zoom and telephoto. Because of the wide range of the zoom, the lens lets out more light in wide angle than in telephoto. As a result, if we move the lens to full wide angle (for those that can place it there) expect lumens to jump by more than 30%. Being practical, though, people shelf mounting will likely be about mid range or somewhat telephoto.

Ok, we have lots of different Preset modes, and as a result, lots of brightness measurements. To keep things simple, I have simply listed each mode, as they appear on the menu, with the lumens in Full power, next to it:

• Brilliant Cinema: 540 lumens (iris Open, default iris at -22) (brighter with iris at 0)
• Creative Cinema: iris setting at 0, iris closed) 369, iris opened 479 lumens
• Pure Cinema: 262 Lumens ( iris closed), 304 iIris opened) (manual iris at -42)
• Natural: 455 lumens (manual iris at default -30)
• Living (room): 559 lumens, (iris open, 0)
• Dynamic: 963 lumens, (iris open, 0)
• Vivid: 861 lumens iris open, 0)

As you can see, I have included in the cinema modes iris open and closed numbers, there are also manual iris numbers which affect brightness regardless of whether iris is open or closed. Since the other modes tend to be brighter, and for use with ambient light, I did not post measurements for them with the iris closed.

I must admit, that somehow, I never measured with the lamp in low power mode, a major error on my part, when I was measuring. As I write this, I have the projector on in my theater room, and have toggled back and forth between low and high power lamp modes. My best estimate would be about 25%, for what that's worth.

The bottom line on brightness. The Sanyo, in its darkest mode, lamp at low (eco), and you are looking at not much above 200 lumens. Conversely, it does crank out 900 lumens in its brightest mode, and if you really fool around with controls, there's probably another 150 lumens available, but the image quality will suffer if you really trick it out for every last lumen (which is true for just about any projector's "brightest" mode).

Overall, the Sanyo is on the low side of average in terms of brightness. I found viewing movies to be very good, with impressive black levels, using the Creative Cinema mode, with iris on automatic, which would indicate that as needed, it could crank out close to 500 lumens.

Please note, since the Sanyo PLV-Z5 projector competes directly with the Panasonic PT-AX100U, consider that for the Panasonic's measurements, the zoom lens was in almost full wide angle, generating the highest lumen measurements. I would recommend dropping the Panasonic's measured lumens by about 30% to compensate for the difference in the zoom lens positioning. That still leaves the Panasonic significantly brighter than the PLV-Z5, but would mean, with a similar, mid-position lens setting, the Panasonic would produce just over 1400 lumens.

With only 900 lumens in its brightest mode, it will not match the couple of significantly brighter projectors like the Panasonic PT-AX100U, but remember everything is relative to screen size, screen surface, and ambient light. Consider - If the Panasonic can deliver 60% more lumens with comparable image performance, that's about the difference between a 100" diagonal screen and a 125" diagonal screen.

Sanyo PLV-Z5 Light Leakage

The Sanyo is extremely clean, with no noticeable light leaking out anywhere.

PLV-Z5 Audible Noise Levels

The PLV-Z5 is the second really quiet projector in a row, that I have reviewed. It claims a really quiet 22db in low power. It seems to jump about 5-6 db in full power, still making it one of the quietest projectors around.

Lamp Life and Replacement

Sanyo is the only projector manufacturer that I can think of, that doesn't rate lamp life on their projectors. My understanding as to why, from having sold Sanyo for many years, is that they recognize that while you can have an average lamp life rating, the actual lamp life will vary significantly from one lamp to the other (with many failing way before expected) regardless of brand. Add to that the fact that most people are not good at keeping their filters clean (or changing them - depending on the projector), and partially clogged filters increase the internal temperatures of the projector, which degrades lamp life.

If you must have a number, I would say use the "typical" figuring on about 2000 hours at full power, and 25 - 50% higher at low power. If you are using the auto lamp (A1, A2), however, I would guess that life would be about the same as full power.

Sanyo PLV-Z5 Projector Screen Recommendations

Screen size and ambient light, as always fit into the equation. However, since I would say the Sanyo will serve most people best with screens of 92" to 106" diagonal, and is acceptable in most rooms to 110" diagonal, that most will want a screen that maximizes brightness. Combine that with overall extremely good black levels, and screens like Stewart's Studiotek 130, Carada's Brilliant White, or similar screens from Da-lite, Draper, Grandview, and others, should serve very well. Part of the time while viewing the PLV-Z5 in my testing room, I filled my 106" Carada, and found that I had enjoyable viewing in Creative Cinema mode, while watching movies, including Phantom, and Sin City, both which are overall, pretty dark.

On the other hand, even with roughly a 110" diagonal image size projected on to my 128" Firehawk screen (light gray high contrast), and with a mid-zoom setting, I found the PLV-Z5's brightness marginal, when watching a movie in Creative Cinema. As I write this, I have college football going on ESPN HD, with a modest amount of ambient light, and the projector in Vivid mode. In this mode, I have power to spare.

Sanyo PLV-Z5 Measurements and Calibration

After viewing a number of hours of movies in the Cinema modes, as mentioned, I settled on Creative Cinema as my primary watching mode.

In the Cinema Modes, white (100 IRE) was typically cooler (higher Kelvin temperature) than the various gray levels (80 IRE - light gray, 50 IRE - medium gray, 30 IRE -dark gray). I was able to tighten up the spread in temperature with the Advanced color controls. Interestingly, with the lamp iris set for -42 (default, instead of 0), which I used, 100IRE was warmer, and much closer to 80IRE, 50IRE, etc.

The real problem with the PLV-Z5 is reproducing reds. When looking at color bars, red always came out too orangeish (too much yellow). In the course of working with the PLV-Z5, I was never able to get reds to look properly red. After discussing with Sanyo, and a professional calibrator, I learned that the reds are definitely fixable, using the color management system, which I did not play with.

Here's what things look like, out of the box, with only 100 IRE color temperature measurements for modes other than Creative Cinema. For movies optimum is 6500K. For most TV/HDTV content, around 8000K is ideal.

Creative Cinema Mode:

100 IRE 7043K
80 IRE 6533K
50 IRE 6543K
30 IRE 6413

Other modes:

Pure Cinema Mode: 100 IRE 6056K (a little warm - too reddish)
Brilliant Cinema 100IRE 6817K
Natural 100IRE 7033K
Living 100IRE 7245
Dynamic 100IRE 9983K
Vivid 100IRE 10087K

With individual adjustments on the Advanced menu, a quick, very basic, calibration resulted in slightly improved measurements (Creative Cinema):

100 IRE 6812K
80 IRE 6474K
50 IRE 6525K
30 IRE 6421K

The end result was very enjoyable flesh tone handling, (although a slight shift to orange that a little more effort should have fixed).

The two brightest modes, Dynamic and Vivid with their 10,000K temperatures are a bit cool ( blue), but that is about where the lamp's native temperature is, so where you find the maximum number of lumens. If you don't need the extra 10% or so lumens, just reduce blue a bit and make it a user memory setting.

Image Noise

Overall, very good. Some slight motion artifacts on the HQV test, and background noise is fairly minimal. Image Noise should not be an issue in selecting the Sanyo PLV-Z5 home theater projector.

Warranty is next!

Overview
Image Quality
General Performance
Warranty
Summary, Pros, Cons