Sanyo PLV-Z2000: 1080p Home Theater Projector Review - Image Quality-11

Posted on October 18, 2007 by Art Feierman

PLV-Z2000 Projector - HDTV Sources

As usual, I don't calibrate the modes for TV viewing, as I do for movie watching, so there is some room for improvement on these images. Overall, I watched a couple of football games, The Tonight Show, the Colbert Report, Discovery HD, and some standard definition TV as well. I did almost all of my viewing, in Living room mode. Dynamic mode was useful when I partially raised my motorized shades, to let in more outside light, but was typical of such modes, with very cool coloration (too blue), and some overemphasis on green.

Vivid, the brightest mode, was worse. Even cooler, and with way more green content than Dynamic mode, it was very inaccurate to watch, and not very pleasant. That's not to say that adjusting it a bit can't improve it noticeably, at the cost of some, but not too many lumens.

More general photos of Sanyo's PLV-Z2000, in action

The image above, and the "Eye" image immediately below are from Aeon Flux. What is significant about these two is that these images that I always refer to in their file names as "white" are shot in lighting that draws off most of the color.

The Sanyo PLV-Z2000 home theater projector handles the image above (and the one below), as well as any projector I've reviewed. Most projectors simply live up to that "white" name I use to describe these images. Other projectors also do have some color texture, but the Sanyo does a superb job. You really can feel/see the natural skin tone that is part of her face. Others just leave you feeling that it was intended to have the natural skin color be washed out. I can't recall any other projector that does it better, only possibly, the Sony VW50, and not even my JVC RS1 does these two images this well. Kudos!

As usual I have scattered additional images in the overview and summary pages, for your consideration, but now it's time to look at general performance issues - including the menus, brightness, calibration, and projector screen recommendations.