Sanyo PLV-Z3000 Projector Review

PLV-Z3000 Projector Highlights

Special Features

Just about every home theater projector has a special feature or two. The PLV-Z3000 projector has the most recent, full HDMI support, although that is found on most new projectors. The most noteworthy special feature is creative frame creation, and 120 frame per second display capability.

Sanyo PLV-Z3000 Projector Overview

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Very interesting! The PLV-Z3000 projector, since it is overall similar to other Sanyo home theater projectors, going back several years, in terms of general look and operation, carries through on much of what we have written about before. I had a number of expectations going into this review. While many of those expectations were fulfilled, there were also some surprises.

Let's start with a quick overview. The Sanyo PLV-Z3000 is a 3 LCD based home theater projector. It is Sanyo's top of the line 1080p projector, the other, is the already reviewed, lower cost PLV-Z700. As their top of the line projector, the PLV-Z3000 has the latest Epson inorganic LCD panels for better contrast and black level performance. Like other current and previous Sanyo projectors, the PLV-Z3000 has excellent placement range, featuring a manual zoom lens with a 2:1 throw ratio, and plenty of vertical and horizontal lens shift.

Traditionally, Sanyo projectors tend to be lower than average in brightness, which in general, translates to working best with screens smaller than 110 inch diagonal. There was a surprise here. The Sanyo Z3000 was about as bright as expected in "best" mode, but was brighter, and did a much better job than anticipated, in its "brightest" mode.

A significant thing about the Sanyo Z3000 is that it is the least expensive of all the ultra high contrast" home theater projectors. There are several other 1080p projectors that sell for less, but they are all the entry level models - from Sanyo, Epson, Mitsubishi, Optoma, BenQ, and so on.

In terms of pricing, the Z3000 has a MAP (minimum advertised price), of $2399, which is $100 less than the closest competition, which is the Panasonic PT-AE3000 projector. However, at least for the immediate timeframe (and rebates are quite often renewed, month after month), there is also a $200 mail in rebate, bringing MAP based street pricing to $2199. That puts it $300 below the Panasonic projector.

That makes the Panasonic almost 15% more.

The Sanyo's key special features, which will be discussed below, include creative frame interpolation with support up to 120hz (120 frames per second).