Sharp XV-Z15000 - Physical Tour 2

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Art Feierman

The XV-Z15000 is finished in a shiny black, with a silver lens barrel. Basically its a medium sized boxy projector. Fortunately black is the "color" you want for a plain looking projector. I don't think there's any chance that this Sharp projector will win any design awards. But it looks nice, and clean.

Sharp XV-Z15000 Inputs and Outputs

Click to enlarge. So close

That takes us to the back of the XV-Z15000, where the inputs are located. Looking from the back, left to right: An RS232 for command and control (room control system or PC, to control the projector), next are the three color coded RCA jacks for the Component video input.

Click Image to Enlarge

To their right, is the computer input (a standard HD15 computer display connector) which can alternately be used as a second component video input. Then comes the two HDMI 1.3 inputs, and finally, the obligatory S-video and composite video inputs. Unlike a number of competitors, this Sharp does not have a 12 volt screen trigger to raise or lower a motorized screen automatically as you power the projector up or down. Fortunately, these days, that's not critical as most motorized screens (or masked ones), are available with a standard, or optional remote control to control them. Wiring from a screen to a ceiling mounted projector is extra work many would prefer to skip, regardless.

Sharp XV-Z15000 Menus

I like the Sharp menu system. Almost everything is on the first main menu (Image). Clicking on Advanced (highlighted) option which is 2nd from the bottom when you open the Image menu adds a number of extra controls.

There's the usual image controls, such as brightness, color (saturation), Contrast, Tint, and Sharpness. In addition there are the two individual color controls for Red and Blue in the basic Image menu.

The lamp brightness control as well as both iris controls (one a manual iris with a choice of High Contrast or High Brightness), the other, is the off/on, for the dynamic iris.

In the photo of the Image menu to the right, Advanced has already been clicked on, revealing the gamma control, the two CMS controls, Detail Enhancement and others, so they are all nicely on one menu.

Clicking on the Picture Mode, gives you a pull-down menu alongside the main menu, with the various picture modes (Movie 1, 2, Natural, Dynamic, etc.).

As noted elsewhere, the Sharp doesn't have a full set of color controls (R,G,B), with only Red and Blue, and further, one general control instead of the usual two (gain and bias, or whatever the different manufacturers choose to call them.)

Also shown here, is one of the CMS (color management system menus), accessible from the Advanced Image menu.