 ProjectorCentral Reviews |
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Sanyo PLV-70: Pure Home Theater Satisfaction - Aug 10, 2002
Home Theater Booms at INFOCOMM 2002 - Jun 15, 2002
A First Look at the Sanyo PLV-60 - Jun 19, 2001
New Home Theater Projectors Appear at CES - Jan 8, 2001
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Flexx - Jul 26, 2001
| Application: |
Home Theater |
| What I Like: |
16:9 panels, mechanical lens shift, bright image, excellent contrast for a digital projector, excellent Sanyo warranty (3 years parts/labor) |
| Suggestions: |
*Highly* recommended with use of Panasonic RP-91 progressive scan dvd player and Stewart Grayhawk screen (this is my set up). |
| Comments: |
After seeing and almost buying the Sony 10HT projector last Fall, bought the PLV-60 in late June and am extremely happy with it. I'm using it for home theater projection of dvds, and with my set up (see "suggestions" above), it is a jaw-dropping experience. Once calibrated, the projector provides an image that absolutely blows the Sony 10HT out of the water. I did have a few dust blobs, but after seeing this web site...
http://www.blarg.net/~anderson/plv60.htm
I called Sanyo and got verbal confirmation that opening the unit for this type of cleaning would not void the warranty. However, I would always recommend anyone wanting to do this should call Sanyo first anyway. It really is a breeze to clean as you can probably see from the web site, and after a dusting, I haven't had a problem since.
Having a projector like the PLV-60 is a blessing and a curse. If you're used to a fine, calibrated 32 inch TV to watch your dvds, be aware that source limitations (i.e. badly mastered dvds, or transfer issues) will be *blown up* to huge proportions. Sure - a large, bright, sharp image is great but if you have a transfer of a gritty, grainy film, prepare for a grainfest! On the other hand, nicely mastered dvds are unbelievable. To further promote the use of this projector with the Panny RP-91 progressive scan dvd player (or any other good progressive scan player), I put in Titanic, which is a non-anamorphic transfer with quite a bit of edge enhancement and shimmiering lines along the ship. With the image from the RP-91 progressive scan player, most if not all the shimmering was gone. Very impressive!
Also, you will not have deep blacks, as it is an LCD projector; however, the *contrast* or the differential between the brightest and darkest areas of the picture is very, very good (and I'm a fanatic for the deep CRT blacks). Once calibrated, the PLV-60 has incredible shadow detail, and does *not* exhibit the washed out image of the Sony 10HT (in my opinion, I really thought it was a startling difference between these two projectors).
Screen door is slightly visible, but to my eyes at 10 feet - it's barely noticeable, and with a slight defocusing, the screen door disappears altogether.
Cheers!
Flexx |
Rick - Jul 24, 2001
| Application: |
Home Theater |
| What I Like: |
Quality of the picture. 16:9. Has a great interlacer onboard. Looks outstanding on progressive scan DVD, and even a touch better on HDTV. |
| Suggestions: |
Wish it had some way to feed it from a scaler, that it's internal scaler wouldn't re-scale. In other words, feed it it's native 1366x768, and not be modified from the internal scaler. Again, the scaler onboard is nice, but for vcr, cable, it would be nice. |
| Comments: |
Overall, I'm more impressed w/ this unit than I thought I would be. It's my first of front projection. 16:9 was a must for me, and price under 7k$. Also viewed and considered the Sony and others, but did a side by side comparison at a theater store, and really there was no comparison. The Sanyo is clearer, notably more contrast, and thus the blacks seem more true. I have not experienced the dust problem that some have noted w/ this projector. Screen door seems inevitable on this type of projector, but nearest seats are 4 feet from my screen, and it's not noticable at all at that distance. Sure, if you walk up to the screen, it's very noticable unless you unfocus the unit. I'm using a Da-Lite high contrast .8 screen. A freind has a Stewart, and the difference between these 2 screens for this application is subtle...not worth the extra $ in my opinion. I attempted to use a CrystalImage 2.0, and it degraded the picture from this projector from just giving it an progressive image from dvd which is what I view most. If the projector would accept data in it's native format, this might be different, but you can't 'turn off' the scaler inside the PLV60.
I would hands down say this is the best projector in the under 8K$ range out there. Would buy this same projector again. |
Jerry Hyde - Jul 17, 2001
| Application: |
Home theatre & my business as a portable projector |
| What I Like: |
The PLV-60 has many nice features including full featured remote that works well & has everything you need on it. It has 3 inputs including 5 BNC for HDTV, 16:9 LCD panels. The brightness is very good & it displays a good or you might say acceptable HDTV picture. |
| Suggestions: |
Since vertical resolution is limited to 768 lines, it can NOT provide the full sharpness of HDTV. I made a direct compairison for sharpness with a CRT projector having a native resolution of 1600 x 1500. If you have never seen the full 1080 lines you would not know. However, even at this reduced resolution of HDTV, it still looks good. Not great but good. I object to this kind of planed obsolesence at these kind of prices. If it's made to display HDTV then that's what it should do. Such a projector should have WIDE SXGA resolution! |
| Comments: |
Given all that I have written above, I would have been satisfied to keep it but for one major problem. The standard 480 line NTSC picture. It's not even near being sharp. And, there's more going on in the picture than the blurriness. There are ARTIFACTS & MOVEMENTS OF THE MOST ANNOYING KIND! Faces in the backround blur out. Crystal like looking patches occuring around contrasting areas, especially where there is movement. Small text distorted to the point of being unreadable (espically if scrolling) & parts of the picture jumping or moving in relation to other parts. I am not nit picking or exagerating, these are the problems. With the permission of the dealer I bought it from, I sent it to Sanyo on their "Ouick Repair Program". They had it a week & it came back the same way. I tried feeding a satalite reciever, two different VCR's (both tuner & tape) all with the same results. The problem is there on all 480 line video. I think they have a major problem to resolve. The dealer is giving me a full refund. I will be checking in on reviews from time to time. If they correct this problem, I will purchase one of the corrected projectors from the same dealer. If not, I will wait until something better comes along.(I have a feeling they can't fix existing units without some major board change or something) I am glad I asked the dealer about their return policy before I purchased. (for now, I will have to go back to watching my old worn out low resolution Sony. Oh joy--) |
Jeff McNeal - Jun 1, 2001
| Application: |
Home Theater |
| What I Like: |
See review at
http://www.TheBIGPictureDVD.com/bigequipment9.shtml |
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