Sanyo PLV-Z3000 – Review Summary

Sanyo PLV-Z3000 Projector - The Bottom Line

Using the Color Management section when doing a full calibration should eliminate much if not all of the yellow/green emphasis. Those are the three areas where this Sanyo comes up a a bit short of it’s most direct competitor, the Panasonic PT-AE3000.

On the other hand, it provides more wow and pop on brighter scenes than the PT-AE3000, as well as several other competitors. Price wise, the Sanyo PLV-Z3000 costs more than most of the the “standard” (typical contrast) 1080p projectors, but not by very much, whereas all the ultra high contrast projectors are at least $400 more from the Panasonic, to the Epson UB (an expected close to $3000 selling price), not to mention Sony and JVC projectors, some costing upward of three times the Sanyo projector’s selling price.

The Sanyo PLV-Z3000’s Dynamic mode, with its impressive 1400 plus lumens is one of the brighter projectors around, and it provides a more natural picture in terms of color balance, than most other projectors in their equivalent brightest modes.

Below average brightness (326 lumens, calibrated) in its best mode – Pro Cinema, does limit screen size a bit, and I like the Sanyo, in most cases, best, with a 100 inch diagonal or smaller screen. The Sanyo PLV-Z3000 can go a little larger without going to really high gain screens, or changing the iris setting from -60 to, say -25 (which I used for most viewing in Pure Cinema mode). I can picture the Sanyo performing extremely well in a nice home theater, with a 100″ diagonal screen, and a light gray high contrast screen. It will deliver nice dark black levels (even if others are better), and excellent shadow detail when watching a movie, or produce a still good looking, four times brighter image for watching sports and HDTV in general. With a 100 inch screen, the Z3000, in Dynamic mode, really pops!