Sanyo PLV-Z4 Projector Review

PLV-Z4 Build Quality & Inputs

Lately I've found myself delving more and more into the differing aspects of projectors and the advantages and disadvantages of each format and brand over others. To say that this has been educational as well as fun would be like saying multi-channel audio is somewhat nicer than mono - it's a dramatic understatement. It has offered the opportunity to compare and contrast features, and to adjust (and greatly raise) my expectations for what projectors should do at their price points. That's the problem with reviews - they're somewhat fleeting and easily obsoleted by new advancements and models. The only consolation is that this also means new models are consistently coming to market which raise the bar.

Sanyo is an interesting company. I mean, they make rice cookers, vacuum cleaners and massage chairs in addition to electronic AV products. I think that somewhere in the world there is a room with two guys in it from LG and Sanyo talking about how they will one day open up a market for Internet-enabled WiFi latrines. The Sanyo PLV-Z4 debuted last September and took the industry by storm. Its reputation for excellent color, contrast ratio and image quality quickly made it one of the year's top sellers in the under-$3000 category. With Audioholics publishing reviews on most of the competition, we wanted to get the Sanyo - on the books - so prospective buyers could compare and contrast against the other models we've reviewed (plus it looked cool and I wanted to chastise other manufacturers for not having a nifty automatic sliding shutter...)

Out of the Box and Build Quality

The PLV-Z4 arrived with few frills, just the main projector, power cable, remote control, squeeze-blower (more on this later), and user manual. The projector weighs in at just over 10 pounds and has a decent looking set of optics. A manual focus surrounds the lens (f/2.0 - 3.0) as does a zoom lever which adjusts the focal length from 21.3 - 42.6mm (2x optical zoom). At this price I now expect lens shift and the Sanyo delivers, even adding a unique "lock" lever to keep the lens assembly from drifting once positioned. The PLV-Z4 can accommodate a generous 100% vertical and 50% horizontal lens shift. While we recommend aiming the unit for the center, you could almost mount this projector in the next room and still hit the screen.

We don't recommend keystoning a projector (either physically or digitally), but if you are unable to correctly hit the screen with lens shift (which with this projector's range means that you practically insisted on bolting the unit to the floor...) there is a +/- 20 degree digital keystone. You may also want to experiment with simply using the adjustable projector feet and not engaging keystoning unless absolutely necessary. A slightly skewed image may be clearer than one affected by digital keystoning.

As with most Sanyos I've seen, the lamp access is located on the bottom of the unit. If the unit is ceiling-mounted, you'll need to take the projector down before being able to swap out the bulb. The manual is purposefully vague in terms of bulb life, but Sanyo puts the number at 3000 hours. This number may decrease depending upon whether you are using the projector to watch movies or warn ships away from the harbor. You can also expect much better lamp life if you run the projector on a dedicated line with power conditioning and voltage regulation.

One of the pleasant surprises you'll find on the Sanyo (as opposed to most other models) is a set of RGB panel cleaning holes which are located on the bottom of the projector and protected by a removable cover. After a period of time, some LCD projectors can accumulate dust on the LCD panels which can show up on the screen as smudges or colored blotches. Detailed cleaning instructions are included in the manual (hint: it does NOT involve soap and water!) and a manual squeeze-blower is included.

Inputs, Controls and Connections

The usual suspects are found on the rear of the Sanyo PLV-Z4: HDMI, VGA (HD15), component video (2), s-video and composite inputs are available. There is also an 8-pin service port which is not user- or installer-centric.

Conspicuously absent was a 12VDC trigger or IR port. As such, this is probably not the best projector if you are hoping to do a custom install where the projector initiates the activation of an electric projector screen. For most who are shopping at this price point I certainly don't see this as a deal-breaker.

The HDMI and component video inputs accept all HDTV, NTSC and PAL resolutions up to 720p/1080i. It will not take a 1080p input. This would be significant were it not for the subtle fact that only 5 people in the western hemisphere use 1080p regularly as of this writing (I'm pretty sure they all work for Microsoft). The HD15 input can handle PC resolutions up to 1152x900, plus the popular 1024x768 and HDTV resolutions.

The top of the projector features 8 buttons. Five make up the 4-way arrows and 'OK' button as seen in the remote control. A 'Menu' and 'Input' button round out the other critical features. By the way, in the event that you play with the part of the menu system that changes the default remote control ID you will instantly lose all remote control capabilities. Don't panic - you can use these on-board controls to gain back use of the remote... not that I had to do that or anything. A large square Power on/off button is located on the outside corner. We noticed some light spillage from the side vent of the Sanyo, but it tended to be somewhat subdued and not pour out into the room. If you don't have muted colors, including your ceiling, you will likely notice much more light control issues coming from that than this projector.

PLV-Z4 Menu System & Throw Chart

In setting up and reviewing any projector I generally take some time to go through and explore the entire menu system. I'd recommend this to any new user as it demystifies many of the functions you will use to customize the projector to your needs. Remember, you can always engage the 'Factory Reset' function to get back to your starting point. After you have a feel for what is possible in terms of adjustments you can go through each of the relevant areas and tweak the settings as needed.

Image Menu
Here you can select from the seven presets Sanyo offers for various uses. The names are somewhat deceptive, but in general you will probably use either 'Pure Cinema' for watching movies in a light controlled environment, or 'Dynamic' when you are entertaining a sporting event in a well-lit environment. Four 'User' presets are also located on page 2 of this menu where you can recall your stored settings following calibration.

To take a sneak peek at what the Image Menu settings really did to the projector output, we took some 'on-the-fly' measurements using the Datacolor ColorFacts 6.0 software, capturing the color information associated with each Image mode at 80 IRE as opposed to the calibrated default (based on Pure cinema):

PLV-Z4 Remote & Calibration

I really liked the Sanyo CXTS remote control. It's small, fully backlit, and has all of the buttons you'll need to efficiently operate the projector. Most importantly perhaps, it has direct input buttons as well as handy screen size adjustment controls to flip between Full, Normal, and Natural Wide modes when watching standard definition cable TV. The unit fits easily in the hand and your thumb, unless you have very small hands, can easily reach all of the buttons. This is exactly what I look for in a projector remote control.

Pros

• Fully backlit
• 'Light' button on the remote glows in the dark
• Direct input selection for all 6 inputs
• Extensive Image Controls

Cons

• None

Projector Calibration

We ran a thorough 'before and after' test on the PLV-Z4 and were pleased to see that the projector nearly nailed the CIE chart right away, showing that it has the capability of producing very rich primary colors in accordance with HDTV standards. This was quite impressive and started us off on the right foot with respect to calibrating the unit.

We also took a quick contrast measurement (full field, not ANSI) and found it to be 126:1. This was in the projector's default factory configuration and set in the 'Pure Cinema' mode. We also measured a healthy 37.98 cd/m^2 off the 100" diagonal Studiotek 130 screen with the projector placed 10' away.

After calibration, contrast was 575:1 - which promptly dropped back down to 126:1 if we went back to the default 'Pure Cinema' mode. Black and white levels definitely need to be tweaked for best picture results.

Here are some of the before and after measurements as shown by the Datacolor ColorFacts Professional 6.0 software:

Before Calibration	After Calibration
While not ridiculously off, we wanted to see if we could get a bit more consistency throughout the IRE range, especially with respect to red and blue levels which do much to control our perception of color temperature.	The 'after' results were spot on - at the calibration points of 30 and 80 IRE. Unfortunately red wanted to take a dip at 40IRE and all of the colors diverged somewhat at 90IRE. Could this be improved? You bet - but overall the color and image quality was improved.
If you look closely you can note that the black levels are a tiny bit crushed and there is a slight loss of perfect gradation between 80 and 90IRE.	After calibration the luminance histogram just about nails the desired gamma curve.
Here we were very surprised and pleased. There is a bump that gradually brings the color temperature back down to near-D65 around 80IRE. And this is without any calibration - not bad.	After our adjustments, the color temperature still wants to jump up around 40 and 50IRE (take a look at that RGB levels chart above and you'll see why) but is otherwise relatively flat at 6500K.

Calibration Notes

We were very pleased with the performance of the Sanyo PLV-Z4 projector. We've seen better 'out-of-the-box' results, but these marks demonstrate this projector is no slouch. For someone looking to get a good picture without having to do any setup, the Sanyo will perform very well. One thing you will want to attend to, however, are the black and white (brightness and contrast) levels which we found were not spot on during our initial tests. In Reference System 3, we had Brightness set to -12, and Contrast set to +3. Red was set at +9, Blue at -1 and Color temp was on Low1. The lens iris was at -44 (default for Pure cinema mode). In the advanced menu, our settings for RGB Gain were (-4, -7, -9) and RGB offset was (-13, 0, -4). We did not adjust RGB gamma for this review.

Pixel cropping tests showed 1 pixel cropped on the left and 1 on the right with both component and HDMI inputs. The resolution test easily passed our 6.75MHz video test with perfect clarity and pixel separation. The Sharpness control was a tough one, but I would recommend putting it at -3. If you still feel it is perking up the edges a bit too artificially or you want a softer image, try -5. Anything below that and the image actually begins to visibly soften. While softening the image is not necessarily a bad thing on an LCD projector, I prefer to direct users to defocus using the lens optics to further lower the visibility of SDE (screen door effect). Take a look at the min and max Sharpness control effects as seen using an Avia Pro resolution pattern:

PLV-Z4 Viewing Evaluation & Conclusion

I liked this projector - a lot. It had very respectable black levels for LCD. The D5 panel used in the Sanyo has a high fill factor, rendering screen door effect at normal viewing distances almost nonexistent unless you sit on top of the screen. With bright background elements I found 1.75x-2x the screen width was the target seated position to avoid any screen door effect. The real champion, however, was the sharpness and detail of the picture. The optics on the PLV-Z4 are very impressive. You can also defocus the image slightly to achieve a better overall viewing experience should you require a closer seating arrangement, at the expense of some detail. Below is a comparison of the Sanyo PLV-Z4 pixel output and a competing LCD projector product which uses a D4 panel. With the Sanyo providing an extremely sharp picture, and having a decent fill factor (as you can see it is much improved over most D4 panels) the results are predictable.

DVD: Flightplan
The Flightplan DVD was a home run. It had a TON of dark scenes and a decent transfer quality that gave me a lot of detail to look at, especially with facial close-ups and clothing. The first thing I noticed was that the post-calibrated Sanyo was able to peer into the darker parts of the picture without losing resolution or appearing blocky. There was also no graininess in the deeper blacks. Dark areas of the picture had depth and retained detail 舑 a visual characteristic that I have seen other projectors do a lesser job at reproducing. Sharpness and fine detail, once I got a reliable DVD to base my real-world opinions on, was phenomenal. This is possibly one of the better projectors I've seen in terms of picture clarity and optics.

Misc HDTV via Digital Cable
We watched plenty of HDTV programs including CSI: Miami, House, and a recent favorite of ours, Bones . I was unable to watch the Oscars this year (or the "Hollywood self-love-fest" as I call it), but the sampling of shows I did see gave me clear examples of the picture this projector is capable of producing. Consistently color was impressive, blacks and whites were full of detail and sharpness and detail were above average. Screen door effect during practical viewing was nonexistent at my seated position.

Conclusion

I believe I may have already said everything there is to say about the Sanyo PLV-Z4. This projector is practical in price, flexible in its functionality, and robust in its capabilities. It can reproduce blacks well for an LCD projector (though it did not strike me as a "DLP-killer") and it can put out color as well as some LCoS displays I've seen. The real strength is in being able to put forth a great amount of sharp picture without significant screen door effect. I was able to watch and enjoy this projector from a very close proximity and only by truly straining my eyes could I pick out the screen door (and I just had my eyes checked, they're fine). The Sanyo is a tough competitor and I now know what all the fuss has been about - it's warranted.

Sanyo PLV-Z4 LCD Projector

MSRP: $2995

About Sanyo North America
SANYO Group's corporate philosophy is the guiding principle in accomplishing the key management policy of ensuring products and services that are indispensable in creating harmony between people and the environment. SANYO's priorities are: Customer Satisfaction and Harmonizing with the Environment. SANYO's digital technology and core competence (the source of our competitiveness) supply the products and services that generate joy, excitement, and impact.

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Detail and Resolution
Deinterlacing & Scaling
Contrast and Black Levels
Color Reproduction
Noise Reduction
Calibration Options
Build Quality
Ergonomics & Usability
Ease of Setup
Features
Remote Control
Performance
Value