Sharp XV-Z3000U DLP Home Theater Projector Review

Posted on January 7, 2007 by Art Feierman

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Sharp XV-Z3000U Specs
Price	2695
Technology	DLP
Native Resolution	1920x1200
Brightness (Manufacturer Claim)	1000
Contrast
Zoom Lens Ratio	1.35:1
Lens Shift	No
Lamp Life	2000 hours (est) full power, 3000 lumens eco-mode
Weight	20.7
Warranty	1 Year

Overview

This is the first Sharp home theater projector I have had a chance to review. I know that several Sharp projectors have strong followings, even though "on paper" they seemed very expensive. As a result, I didn't know quite what to expect from the XV-Z3000U, their mid-priced 720p projector. It certainly is one of the more expensive 720p home theater projectors out there, so I set my expectations fairly high.

I just happened to have Phantom of the Opera in my HD-DVD player when I hooked up the XV-Z3000. My first reactions to the XV-Z3000, based on that are, 1) really good color out of the box, 2) excellent shadow detail, 3) very bright, and finally, and somewhat surprising 4) I checked out all the preset modes - normal, movie 1, 2, etc. and they all seemed to have extremely good color balance out of the box, even Dynamic, the brightest, was pretty solid in terms of producing natural colors.

My point here, being, even before I got settled in, and started testing, I was pretty impressed.