Buying this week, need help from Sanyo PLV-Z1 owners (1 Viewer)

[Robert Ma]

I have the bug and plan on buying a FP this week. I have wanted a FP for 5 years and they are finally affordable with the options I want. I can not wait to get this puppy and think I should have started with a FP and bought better audio later, LOL.

I have narrowed my search to the Sanyo Z1. I found it for $1195. I plan on mating it with a 45" x 80" Da-lite Model B I found for $119. Total of the two is about $200 more than I want to spend but the credit card will get it without issue...

Now my question to Z1 owners. I am concerned about screen door. I have no projector expierence but read about it. My first row seating is about 125 inches (almost 10 1/2' back). Second row will not be an issue since it is 5 and a half feet back more. Will the 10' be to close to a 45"x80" screen (I don't know the diag on that)?

I know the Panasonic PT-L300U it wouldn't be from what I read but do not know on the Z1.

I plan on placing the screen in front of my RPTV. If that wasnt the plan I could get another 3-4' from the front row at the expense of removing the tv. I do not think I want to do that.

Should I wait for more money / a deal on the panny or will the Z1 be okay at this distance?

Anyone know where I can get the z1 cheaper before I buy it this week?



BTW-Anyone interested in the Infocus X-1 and doesn't mind refurbed check out this deal $750!: http://www.adtech-sys.com/content/ho...r.asp#special7

 

[Robert Ma]

I ordered the Boxlite Matinee 1HD (Sanyo Z1 clone with better warrantee). I got it for $1199 and the 45"x80" Da-Lite Model B plain white for $119.

If anyone wants to know where I got it, shoot me an email at [email protected] .

I have a good friend who wants to buy my RPTV. It's a 4:3 55" Toshiba Cinema Series. Component input but no HiDef or 480p. I think I paid around $1400 for it in 1998. He will give me $500 for it.

How is 4:3 material on the 1HD/Z1? I have a DirecTivo so there is some 4:3 material I like to watch. I originally planned to keep the RPTV but it is tempting to just sell it to recoup some of the projector cost. What would you do? Do you also think $500 is fair to both of us since he's a really good friend?

 

[Tim Abbott]

I think the $500 is more than fair. I am actually in the process of selling my 36" Toshiba to a friend for $400. I'm throwing in a stand as well, but I would say that is a reasonable price for your friend.

 

[Mark Amayao]

I have recently purchased the Z1 an can tell you screendoor is a non-issue ....

I view my 92" DIY gray screen varying between 12-15 feet.
Full on focus I can catch a hint of screendoor at 10-12 feet. With a touch and I MEAN JUST A TOUCH of defocus its gone when viewing at 10 feet. I dont see a need for defocus at my normal viewing distance though. Enjoy the projector ... you absolutely will love it!!!

 

[Robert Ma]

I have received a lot of inquires on where I got it. I will soon let you all know.

I had a scare. The website I bought it from is down. The guy kept telling me in email he would get me a tracking number and he never came thru. I was almost ready to stop payment with the credit card company but I called Studio Expierience first.

I spoke to the retailers rep and he had my order. He said the site is having server problems (for over a week now ), and he'd get me the tracking number. Then a couple days later I still didn't have the number. I contacted him today worried and he told me they had some delays but it went out earlier this week and he'd email me the number. 3 hours later and no tracking number I called again. He wrote down my email address wrong.

I tracked it and it will be here this Tuesday. I hope I do not have to do this again to find where my DaLite screen is.

I searched deja.com and found another user that got his order had a simular problem getting the tracking info. You'd think an internet company would have that down...

Anyways, it's kind of pointless to let you know the website when its down. I emailed the guy and asked him if he wanted me to send a couple dozen customers his way and no response. So this company may be on the way out....hard to tell whats going on there.

All I know is my projector is coming straight from the mfg this Tuesday. At the price it's well worth the hassle. I'll keep this thread updated.

 

[Robert Ma]

Tomorrow is the big day it arrives! Too bad I don't have a screen yet. LOL, I forsee a sheet hanging on the wall tomorrow.

I spoke to them again today and got the okay to send you all to them for the same deal I received. Contact Andrew Renk, [email protected] and he will give anyone who mentions reading this on hometheaterforum the Boxlite 1HD (Sanyo Z1 clone) for $1199. Their website www.projectorshopper.com, has it for $1425 so you will have to contact Andrew to get this discount. The screen price I got is their regular price at $119!

If you want the Sanyo Z1(and warranty thats not as good as the 1HD), goto http://www.audiogeneral.com/Sanyo/Widescreen.html for a $1195 price. Andrew is basically price matching this deal with the 1hd and better warranty.

Also for the Z1/1HD ceiling mount try this guy on ebay: http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...sort=3&rows=50 . He always puts them on to replace sold units so check his current auctions. I emailed him when one I was looking at sold. He instantly put another up for me and I got it at the $95 with shipping. He sells X1 mounts also.

 

[Rick Guynn]

Robert, did that deal include a spare bulb?

RG

 

[Robert Ma]

I do not think so. Although I have read some people getting one but I didn't push for it.

 

[Robert Ma]

Those magic words were on the ups tracking site, Out for Delivery! I will have it in hours

I just wanted to also give Andrew some more kudos. I contacted him about the screen late yesterday and was able to change the plain matte white to Dalites High Contrast Matte White. (http://www.da-lite.com/whats_hot/index.php?wID=30)

 

[Rick Guynn]

Please keep us updated. As this is the unit I am considering, I want to hear all impressions

 

[Robert Ma]

I set it up yesterday and tested right away by projecting it on the side wall of my room. This is not an ideal location since I can't sit and watch anything so I took 2 white full size bed sheets and folded them to 45"x80". I slipped a large curtain rod across the top and taped where it was needed. Yes, I also ironed it!

This screen is by no means an accurate thing to judge this or any projector on. It is not stretched and has crease marks in it as well as being wavy in certain areas too. But it was at least something I could shoot a picture on while I am waiting for my screen to show up.

Initial 1HD thoughts:
Setup
Once I found the focus ring on the lens it was very easy to setup. Before I found the ring, I thought the zoom level was the only focus type thing and panicked a little. I thought "Damn, I know this screen sucks but something isn't right!". Ten minutes later I looked in the manual and went Ohhhhhh. Presto, focused picture.

The only thing so far to dislike on setup is I can't seem to tell when the lens is centered. By using the dials for the lens you can move the picture a lot for adjusting but I haven't noticed the center position yet (I will look again soon).

Fan Noise
I was worried that I read this units fan is louder than the panny's. This is a non-factor for me. I sit right next to the thing and my DirecTivo fan 4 feet away is louder...

Screen Door
Keep in mind my cheese-ball screen right now but screen-door is a non-factor for me so far. I can't see any watching 480p from my DVD player on the 80x45 screen 7 feet and beyond back. First row seating is about 9 or 10 feet.
My friend who is also looking into this projector for himself was very delighted as was I.

I will say this is a different story when I hooked my computer up to the projector. With the CPU at 1024x768 and converted by the projector to whatever res it uses, screen-door was VERY apparent from the first row. So maybe as the source resolution goes up this may be more noticeable. I am not very concerned about it.

Heat
This surprised me. The exhaust air coming out the back is almost like a blow dryer. Very hot!

Smell
Yes just like everyone else states, it stinks at first. It smells like a cross between burning plastic and model glue. If I had not read this before I would have been concerned the thing was on fire! It is already toning down and will hopefully be completely gone soon.

Picture
I can't tell yet until I get a real screen but so far so good. Xbox and computer material seemed darker than my Marantz DVD player. Adjusting the contrast/brightness from 32 to 34 seemed to take care of that.

I have noticed some hefty blooming on certain material with yellow and other color combos but being that I'm projecting on a wrinkly, wavy sheet I can't say anything on the picture quality yet. Stay tuned.


So that about wraps up day one with the projector. I look foward to getting my real screen in and calibrating the projector to its fullest potential.

 

[Rick Guynn]

Cool! Congratulations on the new toy! I'll be waiting for further reports

RG

 

[Mike Eler]

To get the best picture out of the HD1/Z1 using a computer, you need to set up the PC for 1:1 pixel mapping. You will need PowerStrip, a video card that can output 960x540 resolution, and change a few settings on the PJ. Otherwise, the HD1/Z1 will rescale the PC image and look kind of rough. Here is a link with the PowerStrip settings and the PJ settings.

Setup for 1:1 pixel mapping

 

[Robert Ma]

Thanks Mike! I was going to ask about that and you filled me in.

 

[Robert Ma]

OMG, what a difference with Powerstrip and those settings! I put on the Terminator HD trailers and they look great!

 

[Robert Ma]

And a good deal gets better!
http://www.projectorshopper.com/proj...p?prodid=15118

Now a free screen. Of course my order wasn't free and I just got the projector Tuesday. I sent an email to see if they could do something but getting hold of this dealer is very hard for some reason.

edit:
They got back to me and will let me know on Monday after a few phone calls. I hope it works out because I tried to buy the panny / free screen combo from projectorpeople and missed it by 2 days. Now I bought this one only a few days early. Can't win .

 

[Robert Ma]

Projectorshopper.com credited me the difference , very cool! They may be hard to get a hold of but they are a great service orientated company from my experience.

I got my screen today and mounted it. I used a 1x3x8 to attach to the ceiling studs and then flush mounted the screen to the strip of wood's side. I was originally going to use the S hooks and hang it down but the rear flush mount worked out better and looks great. I used a pair of blocks to reinforce the stress areas while pulling it down. It is a Draper Inc. economy 80x45 Luma matte white screen. I guess that is the freebie screen they are including so I got it instead of a Da-Lite I originally spec'd out.

I also ceiling mounted the projector with the ebay mount I bought. The first thing I can say is the 1HD/Z1 is incredibly easy to setup.

First I used a table to get a ballpark distance for the mount. Then I centered the lense to the screen and measured the mount. I used dry-wall anchors and tightened the mount flush with the screen. Then powered it up and made a quick lense adjustment with the dials in the front and I have a perfectly square picture filling the entire screen.

So far I am blown away at the quality of the image. For a little over $1100 (little less then half of my RPTV); I can't believe it. It's too early to go into things but I am very satisfied. I will post more tomorrow.

 

[John_W_Sni]

Wow, what an amazing story Robert. Let me ask you (and the forum) this....I have $3.5k USD to spend on my Display. Can you believe that's all she would give me?

Anyhow, if you had $3500 USD what, knowing what you now know, would you have purchased?

 

[Robert Ma]

Hi John,

I can't say but you may want to post a new thread on it. I didn't look at anything over $1200 and picked the Boxlite 1HD (Z1 clone) over the Infocus X1 and Panasonic PT-L200U for various reasons. If I had more money, the Panasonic PT-L300U would have been first choice at around $1800 I think. Add on an ultra expensive screen and you could still save some of that cash.


Back to the 1HD

I've gotten some more time on the 1HD. I set the image to Cinema, then kicked the color temperature to low and reduced the sharpness some. This produces a soft film like picture. With 480p being fed from my Marantz DV6200, it looks all to real. About half of Star Wars EP2 is like that. Everyone's jaw drops when I show that movie to them.

I need to get out the video essentials soon and lower the brightness and contrast a tad. That may help with blacks that are not quite deep enough but I am using it on a Matte White screen. I am sure a grey screen would produce a better black. I watched Men In Black II today that revealed this. It wasn't horrible but I definatly want to play around with this. I can't complain about a free screen though!

I went out today and picked up a HiDef pack for my XBox. So far I am a little turned off using the projector for games. The giant image just reveals too much and the graphics look too blocky / jaggy. This is even comparing 480p to 480i on my much smaller 55" RPTV. Even though the 480p games look better, I just can't get over how bad most games look blown up that large. I may reconsider if more 720p games come out that take advantage of a higher resolution.

Thats about it for today. I will get some pics up soon and do some more tinkering.

 

[Robert Ma]

I'm now a couple weeks into this projector and just want to add a couple things. I've received a few emails of people wanting to hear more and if I found some bad things so I will try my best to point out any flaws I found.

Colors out of the box are slightly over-saturated. Its not surprising that the factory settings are a little over board nor is it nearly as bad as some company's factory settings. I'm not the best at tweaking video so if any Z1 / 1hd owners want to share their settings I'd appreciate it. So far I still run it in cinema mode with the green two notches down. I suspect my red needs a slight reduction.

I am still trying to figure something out also. I can't tell if it's because of such a large image or if I occaisionaly get a LCD style ghosting effect with quick movement. It strains my eyes slightly when it occurs. Currently I am leaning towards the image being so large. My eyes are very sensitive and it only happens if the scene purposes jumps the camera all around. I try my best to see if I notice any ghosting but can't find any. But it is the same kind of eye problem I get when playing video games on a LCD monitor where I can see ghosting easily. All the beer I consume whenever the projector is turned on doesn't help this either

Okay back to the good...
I recently watched a top notch film on it. Believe it or not, I never saw Spider-Man. I have been saving the DVD since it's release for a special occaision. That day finally came and what a spectacular movie! Watching it for the first time on my own front projection widescreen sucked me into the movie like no other has in my home theater (except for maybe Saving Private Ryan the first time). 15 minutes in and I had forgotten about any sound tweaking, video options, dust issues, etc. It was just me and the movie. The way it should be.

So to wrap up it's a few weeks into this and absolutely no buyers remorse. My only real concerns with the 1HD are dust getting into it (I started using a HEPA filter in the room to counter dust) and bulb life which only time will tell.