QUICK PICK REVIEW: OCTOBER 2008
Sanyo PLV-Z60 LCD Projector
Sanyo’s PLV-Z60 brings a lot of features to the table for $1,300.
Prices on home theater projectors have really fallen off the cliff in the past couple of years, which is a big win for consumers. It’s amazing to see how much you get these days for your hard-earned money, of which people have become very reluctant to spend in these days of economic turmoil.
Figure 1. Front view of the PLV-Z60.
The PLV-Z60 represents a new category for Sanyo — a $1.3K home theater projector that carries on the successful design of its predecessors (the PLV-Z4 and Z5). That means it includes mechanical lens shift in both horizontal and vertical axes, a long-throw (1.5–2:1) zoom lens, a motorized lens cover, super-quiet fan, and plenty of inputs.
Yes, the Z60 only has 1280x720 resolution, but if you haven’t made the jump into Blu-ray yet and your current DVD player does a decent job with progressive-scan conversion (or even upconversion), then you’ll be very happy with 720p. (If you watch ABC, ESPN, or FOX HDTV programming most of the time, it won’t matter anyway as they use the 720p HD format exclusively.)
OUT OF THE BOX
The PLV-Z60 has the same form factor and finish as the PLV-Z5. It’s a width-wise design with the zoom lens offset to the side, using manual adjustments for zoom and focus. The mechanical lens offset controls are located on the side, along with a locking switch.
The finish, a dark gray, is sort of an oddball choice in this day of white (or off-white), light silver, and black projectors, but it still looks nice installed. You’ll have more than enough input connections at your disposal, including two HDMI inputs, two component video inputs, a 15-pin VGA computer jack, and one each composite and S-video jacks.
Figure 2. Rear panel view, showing the connector layout.
The supplied remote control is the same model used on all current Sanyo projectors. It’s a backlit design with direct access to each input, plus selected menu adjustments, Userpicture memories, and four different lamp operating modes. This is actually one of my favorite remotes — the buttons are large enough for those of us with normal-sized fingers, and direct navigation to key menu functions really speeds up calibration time.
MENUS AND ADJUSTMENTS
Operationally, the PLV-Z60 is essentially the same as the PLV-Z700. Sanyo has provided seven image presets (Brilliant/Creative/Pure Cinema, Natural, Living, Dynamic, and Vivid), and you can also define and save four different User image presets.
You can chose from five different color temperature settings, or go ahead and make your own adjustments in the main menu (RGB drive only) or the Advanced menu (RGB high and low). There are 15 different Gamma settings (start with –2 for movies and –1 for Video), three different Progressive scan modes (Film provides 3:2 correction), and those four lamp operation modes.
Did I mention the PLV-Z60 also has an auto iris system? You can set both the depth of the iris (to –63) and four different operating states: Auto 1 (normal speed), Auto 2 (high speed iris and the setting I recommend), Open, and Closed. A few other enhancements round out the menu, including Auto Black Stretch, Contrast Enhancement, Transient Improvement, and Dynamic Gamma (watch out for that last one, as it wreaks havoc with grayscale reproduction!).
ON THE TEST BENCH
After calibration for best grayscale image, I measured brightness at 402 ANSI lumens, running the projector in Brilliant Cinema mode. Brightness ranged as high as 773 ANSI lumens in Vivid/Dynamic modes and as low as 202 ANSI lumens in Pure Cinema mode. Running the lamp at normal brightness raised levels about 10% over A1 mode, while Economy lamp mode dropped brightness about 22%.
Brightness uniformity was OK — not great — at 76% to the average corner and 64% to the worst corner. Contrast measured 187:1 ANSI and 314:1 peak, using a standard checkerboard test pattern. The 720p LCD panels in the PLV-Z60 don’t have quite the same contrast performance as the 1080p panels used in the new PLV-Z700, so if you want better blacks and more zip in your pictures, spend the extra $$.
Figure 3. The PLV-Z60 consistently tracks a given color temperature after calibration.
Figure 4. Whoa, Nellie! Turn off the contrast and gamma enhancements, and you can get some beautiful gamma curves from this projector.
Out of the box, the PLV-Z60 has a tough time tracking a consistent color temperature. It does much better after calibration, as shown in Figure 3. Part of the problem is the gamma performance (Figure 4) when running in one of the brighter image preset modes, and of course the black level enhancement and dynamic gamma options can play havoc with grayscale quality. My advice? Leave them both off.
As far as color gamut mapping goes, the PLV-Z60 easily takes in 100% of the BT.709 HDYTV color space, as seen in Figure 5. The red, cyan, and yellow coordinates are close to ideal, with the blue a bit oversaturated and green a bit too yellowish. But it’s still excellent performance for a projector in this price class.
Figure 5. Coverage of the BT.709 HDTV color space is no problem for the PLV-Z60.
VIDEO QUALITY
The PLV-Z60 handled the Realta HQV test discs just fine, passing the Film Detail (3:2 detection) and “jaggies” tests just fine. It also had no trouble with mixed video title crawls over film footage. But it had some difficulty with unusual cadences, such as VariSpeed and anime. (I didn’t test the projector for 1080p processing.)
Next, I spun up copies of Mission Impossible III on red laser and blue laser. The lower contrast of the PLV-Z60 becomes apparent during Chapter 8, where the team prepares underground to kidnap Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Whereas scenes in the Vatican reception are brightly lit and contrasty with good color saturation, the basement lacks detail and the dynamic iris can’t really help here. On the other hand, the ensuing attack on the Chincoteague Bay Bridge-Tunnel looked spectacular, particularly off Blu-ray. There was plenty of detail and bright, saturated colors, along with decent contrast.
Switching to live footage from Game 3 of the Philadelphia Phillies — Los Angeles Dodgers NLCS and an NFL contest featuring the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers showed the projector’s strengths, as both events were shot and produced in the 720p/60 format. Images had lots of detail and good contrast punch.
CONCLUSIONS
Sanyo’s PLV-Z60 is quite a bargain, feature-wise. For $1,300 (and you know that price will drop at least $100 in short order), you get a long zoom lens, mechanical lens shift, full calibration access, four picture memories, and 2 HDMI inputs. I wish the projector’s contrast performance was better, but it’s still respectable and will give you satisfying performance coupled to an HD set-top box or a BD or upconverting DVD player.
