Sharp XV-Z30000 Home Theater Projector Review

August 22, 2012 - Art Feierman

We try to calibrate every home theater that we review. (OK, every over $1000 projector and an occasional one under that.) This Sharp XV-Z30000 is no exception. I viewed the XV-Z30000 for about 1 day using default modes, before passing it to Mike for calibration.

Our calibrations, including this Sharp XV-Z30000, are normally limited to a grayscale calibration, along with brightness, contrast, color saturation, tint (where applicable), etc. Only in very special circumstances will we calibrate the individual colors, in which case we discuss why.

Sharp XV-Z30000 Color Temperature

Sharp XV-Z30000 Color Temp over IRE Range, Best mode, (Movie 1)
30 IRE	7464
50 IRE	7458
80 IRE	7147
100 IRE	7198

Before we provide our settings, lets see what we started out with: Pre calibration, these are the color temperatures over the grayscale range.

XV-Z30000 Lumen Output and Color Temp at 100 IRE
Standard	847 @ 8231
Anime	829 @ 8236
Dynamic	1063 @ 8319
Movie 1	531 @ 7198
Movie 2	270 @ 7274 (w/ Eco+Quiet mode ON)
Game	829 @ 8206
Monochrome	270 @ 8699 (w/ Eco+Quiet mode ON)
Sports	829 @ 8211
Stage	1090 @ 8276
User 1 & 2	838 @ 8192

Sharp XV-Z30000 Basic Settings

Settings for measurements (default values are in parenthesis):
	Standard	Anime	Dynamic	Movie 1	Movie 2
Contrast	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0
Brightness	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0
Color	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0
Tint	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0
Color Temp	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0
Eco+Quiet	(Off)	(Off)	(Off)	(Off)	(On)
Iris 1 (manual)	(High Brite)	(High Brite)	(High Brite)	(High Cont)	(High Cont)
Iris 2 (auto)	(On)	(Off)	(Off)	(Off)	(On)
Color Enhancement	(3)	0	(3)	(3)	-3

In addition to calibrating Red Green and Blue for a correct grayscale balance (6500K), there are a number of other settings that come into play. Typically Contrast and Brightness (white balance and black balance), need to be done first. Color saturation and gamma also need adjustment.

Settings for measurements (default values are in parenthesis).

Settings for measurements (default values are in parenthesis):
	Monochrome	Sports	Stage	User 1 & 2	Game
Contrast	(0) -1	(0) -1	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) -1
Brightness	(0) 3	(0) 2	(0) -1	(0) 1	(0) 2
Color	NA	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0
Tint	NA	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0
Color Temp	(-1)	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0	(0) 0
Eco+Quiet	(On)	(Off)	(Off)	(Off)	(Off)
Iris 1 (manual)	(High Cont)	(High Brite)	(High Brite)	(High Brite)	(High Brite)
Iris 2 (auto)	(On)	(Off)	(On)	(On)	(Off)
Color Enhancement	(0) 0	(0) 0	(3)	(0) 0	NA)

Mike’s Notes: Good looking picture overall. Blacks could be better (even with Iris 2 on). Odd that there’s only RGB gain controls, but they do affect the full range pretty evenly and the calibrated grayscale was very good. Don’t understand why there are so many picture modes that are similar (Standard, Anime, Game, Sports and both User modes). Movie 2 mode, in its default Eco mode, is too dim for anything but a smaller screen in a totally light-controlled room. Colors are a little off, particularly green and magenta (see CIE chart), but there are two CMS modes that could be used to improve the situation.