Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance Posted on October 18, 2013 By Art Feierman 1. Sanyo PLV-Z60 720p 3LCD Home Theater Projector Review: Overview - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector Highlights:2. Sanyo PLV-Z60 720p 3LCD Home Theater Projector Review: Overview-2 - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector Highlights:3. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector – Physical Tour4. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector Review: Image Quality - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector: Out of the Box Picture Quality - Sanyo PLV-Z60: Skin Tone Handling5. Sanyo PLV-Z60: Black Level and Shadow Detail - PLV-Z60 Black Level Performance6. Sanyo PLV-Z60: Shadow Detail Performance7. Sanyo PLV-Z60: Shadow Detail Performance8. Sanyo PLV-Z60: Shadow Detail Performance - Sharpness:9. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Performance: HDTV and Sports - Overall Image Quality10. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance - PLV-Z60 Menus - PLV-Z60 User Memory Settings - PLV-Z60 Projector Remote Control - PLV-Z60 Lens Throw and Lens Shift - PLV-Z60 SDE and Rainbow Effect, Pixel Visibility11. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance - PLV-Z60 Projector Brightness - PLV-Z60 Projector Light Leakage - PLV-Z60 Audible Noise Levels - PLV-Z60 Projector Screen Recommendations - PLV-Z60 Projector Measurements and Calibration12. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance - PLV-Z60 Image Noise - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector: Warranty13. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector: Summary, Pros and Cons - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector: Pros, Cons, and Typical Capabilities - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector: Pros - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector: Cons - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector: Typical Capabilities - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Competitive Aspects14. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector: Summary, Pros and Cons1 - PLV-Z60 vs. Panasonic PT-AX200U - PLV-Z60 vs. Epson Home Cinema 720 - PLV-Z60 vs. Optoma HD65 - PLV-Z60 vs. Optoma HD71 - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector: Summary - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector: Bottom Line15. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector Specifications With those setting we came up with these rather impressive final grayscale color temp numbers: White (100 IRE) 6642K Light gray (80 IRE) 6475K Medium gray (50 IRE) 6449K Low gray (30 IRE) 6542K Now that’s impressive, with a range of less than 200K from dark to bright! It shows up as a great, natural color balance when viewing. Click Image to EnlargeI had Mike do a quick calibration of Dynamic mode as well. When I say “quick” the goal isn’t perfect color balance. The goal is to maintain as much brightness as possible, but sacrificing a few lumens to make the overall color accuracy more watchable. Most projectors in brightest modes tend to be over the top on greens and or yellows. Our goal is to tame them a bit, not perfect, but still bright, and definitely more watchable. Some times that has a high cost in lumens. With the Z60, the price was small, only a 4% loss in brightness, in exchange for better color. True, there’s still a slightly too strong yellow, but it becomes very watchable for most things, especially sports! Here are the settings from Mike’s “quick cal”: Gain Red 15 Green 0 Blue -15 Offset Red -13 Green 0 Blue 0 I would suggest that buyers of the Z60 get a calibration disc, and do four different calibrations: I would recommend one based on Pure Cinema, one using either Creative Cinema (preferred by me) or Brilliant Cinema, and two more for bright modes, probably based on Dynamic, one where you really, desperately need maximum lumens, so willing to compromise significantly on color accuracy, and one where you give up a few more lumens for better color, when you want both brightness and good color. PLV-Z60 Image NoiseVery nicely done. I spotted no real issues here. No jaggies, a very good job on motion artifacts and basic background noise levels were very low. OK, time to look at the General Performance page, which considers brightness, calibration settings, projector screen recommendations, audible noise levels, menus, remote control, and more. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector: WarrantyOf all the major manufacturers in the home theater projector space, none offers a longer warranty on their 720p projectors than Sanyo. Sanyo provides a 3 year parts and labor warranty on their PLV-Z60 warranty, while most manufacturers offer either one year (ie. Panasonic, some Optoma projectors, Mitsubishi, some BenQ projectors, etc.) or two years (most InFocus, Epson) and so on. There are a couple of other products with three year warranties, including Epson’s now old Pro Cinema 810, but they are rare. Sanyo, for the PLV-Z60, also provides their fast-turnaround program for projectors in for warranty repair (for all three years of warranty). Their policy says that they will turn the projector (ship it back) within 72 hours of receiving it. Sanyo actually says they actually are faster than that, turning many of them in 24 hours. I tend to favor replacement programs, rather than repair programs, but that is pretty much personal taste, when a repair program is handled rapidly. In terms of replacement programs Epson will have a two year warranty with two year replacement program on their new Home Cinema 700, when it ships later this year, but that’s the longest I am aware of in the current 720p projector space. Bottom Line: You won’t find a better/longer warranty for a current 720p home theater projector than the one that comes standard with the PLV-Z60! 1. Sanyo PLV-Z60 720p 3LCD Home Theater Projector Review: Overview - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector Highlights:2. Sanyo PLV-Z60 720p 3LCD Home Theater Projector Review: Overview-2 - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector Highlights:3. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector – Physical Tour4. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector Review: Image Quality - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector: Out of the Box Picture Quality - Sanyo PLV-Z60: Skin Tone Handling5. Sanyo PLV-Z60: Black Level and Shadow Detail - PLV-Z60 Black Level Performance6. Sanyo PLV-Z60: Shadow Detail Performance7. Sanyo PLV-Z60: Shadow Detail Performance8. Sanyo PLV-Z60: Shadow Detail Performance - Sharpness:9. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Performance: HDTV and Sports - Overall Image Quality10. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance - PLV-Z60 Menus - PLV-Z60 User Memory Settings - PLV-Z60 Projector Remote Control - PLV-Z60 Lens Throw and Lens Shift - PLV-Z60 SDE and Rainbow Effect, Pixel Visibility11. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance - PLV-Z60 Projector Brightness - PLV-Z60 Projector Light Leakage - PLV-Z60 Audible Noise Levels - PLV-Z60 Projector Screen Recommendations - PLV-Z60 Projector Measurements and Calibration12. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance - PLV-Z60 Image Noise - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector: Warranty13. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector: Summary, Pros and Cons - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector: Pros, Cons, and Typical Capabilities - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector: Pros - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector: Cons - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector: Typical Capabilities - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Competitive Aspects14. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector: Summary, Pros and Cons1 - PLV-Z60 vs. Panasonic PT-AX200U - PLV-Z60 vs. Epson Home Cinema 720 - PLV-Z60 vs. Optoma HD65 - PLV-Z60 vs. Optoma HD71 - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector: Summary - Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector: Bottom Line15. Sanyo PLV-Z60 Projector Specifications Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance Sanyo PLV-Z60 Home Theater Projector: Summary, Pros and Cons