Sanyo PLV-80 Widescreen Front Projector: -2

Posted on May 9, 2006 by Art Feierman

Changing lenses does require opening the case of the projector. I have over the years, installed many lenses in Sanyo projectors like these, and its really only a 10-15 minute job first time you try it. Most of your time is spent removing about a dozen screws, and later putting them back in.

The PLV-80 has power zoom, power focus, and power lens shift for all of the lenses (except the non-zoom W32, and it is is also possible that lens shift will not work with the W32 - consult your dealer).

Normal lens shifr will allow you to place the center of the standard lens anywhere from slightly below the bottom of the screen surface to slightly above the top. Consult Sanyo's website for more information on the other lenses.

Click to enlarge. SO close

Screen Door Effect and Pixel visibility

The Sanyo PLV-80 projector uses 3, 1.2 inch poly-si LCD's with micro lens array, a technique to minimize the visibility of pixels. That said, most LCD projectors today do use the same technology, so the pixel structure and visibility is fairly typical.

Perhaps it is the 1.2" LCD glass that is used, but the pixels do seem a little less visible than on most of the portable projectors which use LCDs less than 1" diagonal. Here is our image showing pixel structure, which we recently started using on reviews as a standard. First is the full frame of the boathouse image - to give you an idea of how small an area is used for the

Click Image to Enlarge

PLV-80 Pixel Structure

HD7100 Pixel structure

For comparison purposes, below, is the same text photographed from the recent review of the Optoma HD7100 home theater projector, which uses DLP technology instead. As you can see, and as expected, the LCD projector's pixel structure and artifacts are more visible than the DLP's.

Of course for most business applications, or if you are using this in your home entertainment room and sitting fairly far back relative to the screen, the pixels will not likely be a critical consideration. As long as I mentioned home entertainment again, I would recommend a seating distance of 1.5 - 1.6 times screen width to limit visibility to a minimum in stationary bright areas, and white text like movie credits.

Audible Noise Levels

The Sanyo is not quiet. With lamp in full power mode, the Sanyo PLV80 is rated at 33 db, and that's a fair amount of noise (at least by this year's standards - 3 years ago, that would have been considered a quiet home theater projector.

I say noisy, but let's put that in perspective. it seems just a touch noisier than the Optoma HD7100 home theater projector (in full power mode),we finished reviewing last week.

With the lamp in low power mode the Sanyo noise is moderate, and on the high side of acceptable for a "home theater projector". In the business world projecting spreadsheets or Powerpoint presentations, or in a family room environment with a football game on, the noise should not be an issue. In fact even in high power mode when I used the Sanyo for some quick HD sports, during the afternoon, it was livable and became unnoticeable.