While Sanyo’s televisions are typically associated with the low end of the market with average performance, its projectors are widely regarded as some of the best in the business.
That doesn’t mean they’re ridiculously expensive, though. On the contrary, the brand’s new high-contrast Full HD offering, the PLV-Z3000, is available for under £2,000. That makes it a cool £200 cheaper than the impressive Panasonic PT-AE3000 I recently reviewed, with which the Z3000 seems to have at least a few things in common when it comes to specs.
Before we dive into those specs, however, I regret to report that the Z3000 is about the most dismal projector I’ve ever seen. Its strikingly large body shows off all the design flair of a breeze block, as a sculpted dark gray finish wraps around a style-free rectangular body for a depressing effect. It’s basically the AV projector equivalent of a wet rainy day in Stockport – hardly what you want in your living room or cinema room!
Thankfully, things look a little better if you turn your attention to the rear of the projector and find a couple of HDMIs and two component video ports leading the HD load. There is also a D-Sub PC connector and a control connector for system builders.
However, as I begin to browse the Z3000’s extravagant feature claims, my objections to the thing’s ugliness fade into the background. Because there really seems to be a lot to do for such a cheap machine. For example, the projector unusually runs with a 100Hz engine (which jumps to 96Hz for 24p playback) to make motion appear smoother and smoother. Also, like the Panasonic, it has adaptive framing processing.
Next, it adds a new optical compensation plate to the lens array that drastically reduces light leakage, helping the Z3000 achieve a whopping (by LCD projector standards) contrast ratio of 65,000:1. Also contributing to that contrast number is a new variable aperture system with a lamplight volume control mechanism that can apparently adjust the lens’ aperture setting every 1/60th of a second – easily fast enough to prevent you from seeing obvious jumps in brightness during a normal viewing experience. Additionally, Sanyo claims to have reduced the bezel’s operating noise, so you should rarely, if ever, hear it opening and closing.
Speaking of running noise, I was also very impressed with Sanyo’s claim that the Z3000 can run with just 19dB of noise provided you use its low brightness settings. The 19dB figure is exceptionally low for such an affordable projector and the projector mostly lives up to its reputation as it runs quieter than any other affordable projector I can think of unless you foolishly run the lamp at full Brightness.
Sanyo has also tried to make a big deal out of the fact that the Z3000 is – as far as we know – the first projector to feature a 5:5 pull-down mode to deliver a more natural, smoother image from 60Hz inputs deliver. Which would be great if the UK actually had that many 60Hz sources!
Basic setup of the Z3000 is a breeze – provided you can find a coffee table big enough to support its considerable bulk. Thanks to the provision of exceptionally flexible horizontal and vertical image shift wheels on the side of the projector, I was able to position an image perfectly on my screen in no time at all – without the need for awkward, distorting keystone correction.
The projector’s on-screen menus aren’t bad either, in a matter-of-fact way. The only criticism here is that I found the image unusually difficult to calibrate properly. And worryingly, this seemed more to do with issues with the image itself than the projector not giving me enough adjustment tools to do the job. More on that later.
Among the main features of the menus to become familiar with are a selection of lamp power presets, two of which are dim, geared towards home theater use; gamma adjustment; adjustment of noise reduction; two “dynamic” aperture settings and one fixed option; the possibility of reducing the range of the iris; options for automatic black stretching, contrast enhancement and transient enhancement; an adjustable smooth motion mode; this 5:5 pulldown system; and last but not least, a really sophisticated color management system.
The latter actually allows you to select small target areas of the image (which is frozen at the moment you select the function) and adjust the level, phase and gamma of the selected tone using a “sliding scale” with slightly different shades on both Pages adjust the original. Helpfully, there are before and after boxes so you can track exactly what the impact of your changes is.
If that all sounds a bit scary, the projector also comes with a variety of pre-installed picture presets, including Brilliant Cinema, Creative Cinema, Pure Cinema and Natural. Although I have to say that I didn’t find any of them entirely convincing, mainly for the reason that I just wasn’t blown away by the color response of the projector when using one of them.
Seriously, none of the out-of-the-box modes seemed to deliver a color palette that I felt completely confident in, and to be honest while the considerable time invested in the innovative but very time-consuming color management system resulted in significant improvements, I never felt like the results looked quite “right”.
To be more specific, skin tones tend to look slightly orange, some greens look slightly anemic, and some dark scenes seem to carry a slightly green undercurrent.
As an interesting addition to this, two of the three cinema presets provided don’t add much brightness to the image at all, a phenomenon I usually associate with a projector struggling a little to get its colors right.
It is probably due to this apparent suspicion of brightness that the Z3000 does not deliver quite as much bite and dynamics as some of its competitors, including Panasonic’s PT-AE3000, even in dark scenes – or better combined dark/light scenes.
At this point, it’s high time to step in and make it categorically clear that, contrary to what you’re probably thinking, the Z3000 certainly isn’t a bad projector. For example, it handles black levels very well for a projector at its price point. There may be a bit more gray over the darkest black than with the Panasonic PT-AE3000, but I’d say the Z3000 actually outperforms the Panasonic slightly when it comes to reproducing subtle shadow detail in dark areas. This allows the Z3000’s dark scenes to appear slightly three-dimensional.
The Z3000 also produces a really sharp image, usually on par with the Panasonic, apart from perhaps a little more blur when depicting movement. Not that the Z3000 handles movement badly, mind you. When it comes to reducing judder, it’s even better than the Panasonic.
There is still some judder – even with the Smooth Motion mode set to full. But that judder seems to face you slightly less than it can on the brighter, sharper Panasonic. And I certainly prefer the relaxed approach to judder reduction exhibited by the Z3000 to the nauseating and side-effect-inducing aggressive approach observed at some settings for Sony’s MotionFlow projection technology and Philips’ HD Natural Motion system will .
I was also pleased not to notice any sign of the dreaded “chicken wire” effect from LCDs, even when viewing the projector on a 100-inch screen, and should also remind you not to worry as this is more of a LCD than a DLP projector is about the rainbow noise of DLP.
Overall, while I couldn’t entirely overcome the projector’s color issues, I did get close enough to show that the Z3000 can produce images that look truly superb for a sub-£2k projector.
“‘Verdict”‘
I might as well get straight to the point here and say that personally, if money is no object, I’d pick the Panasonic PT-AE3000 over this Sanyo. Partly because of the Panasonic’s really handy built-in anamorphic lens setting, but mostly because I find the default color settings much better and the rendering of dark scenes more dynamic.
But if you’d rather save a few hundred pounds to buy a couple of Blu-rays – and get a handy three-year guarantee too – then rest assured that the Sanyo PLV-Z3000 is still a very talented machine. Although you might need some help initially if you want it to look its best.
points in detail
value 8
functions 8
picture quality 8
draft 4