Sanyo PLV-70. Pulled the BIG TRIGGER!! (1 Viewer)

[Gordon Groff]

At what distance do you start seeing the pixel structure in your setup?

Now that I'm looking critically for it, I can see it a little even at my normal viewing distance of about 12' when focused perfectly - especially on some white surfaces or on flesh tones. I did one click defocus and cannot see it.

Gordon

 

[Gordon Groff]

Update!!

I got it all up and running, calibrated, and working great today!! Yea!!

I posted some photo updates including screen shots and daylight performance here.

Gordon

 

[Parker Clack]

Gordon:

So now that you have a chance to play around with it some do you think that the 70 is worth the extra money that you paid for it?

Parker

 

[Gordon Groff]

So now that you have a chance to play around with it some do you think that the 70 is worth the extra money that you paid for it?

Yes, I do, Parker! The biggest reason is the great performance with high ambient light and how that makes for a more all-around usable PJ for us. The shots I posted illustrate that, I believe. It was amazing that we had enough light to read by or do fine work with and still had a very acceptable image. I set up two different user settings for the PJ, one for daylight use and calibrated with a higher contrast setting and one calibrated for low-light viewing. The PLV-70 allows 4 user image set-ups in addition to it's "standard" and "cinema" settings.

Gordon

 

[Max Leung]

Yeah, the picture with your wife (she's your wife in that pic, right? ) is quite amazing...lots of ambient light spill, and the picture is clearly visible!

I see lots of football and hockey gatherings in your future.

For reference, one of the lecture halls at the University of Calgary, where I watch the films in the Movies That Matter series (www.moviesthatmatter.org), has an NEC MT1055 LCD XGA projector projecting a 20 foot diagonal 4:3 image at a throw distance of 50 feet in a "dark" lecture room that can seat 1000 people. Rated at 2600 lumens. The Sanyo PLV-70 is a monster at 2/3rds the price!

Oh yeah...the NEC MT1055 I saw had terrible blacks, poor shadow detail (what is it, 250:1 contrast ratio?), and has a nasty blue streak at the bottom of the image. Oh well, the movies are "free" with a $5 donation...and you can't see them anywhere except at film festivals that cater to documentaries.

And I must not forget the activist babes that attend every month.

 

[Dave Moritz]

Hello Gordon Groff

If you dont't mind me asking what did the projector cost you and where did you buy it? I have a aging Toshiba 31" direct view tv that I want to upgrade to a HD compatible front projection. Even tough I have seen some very nice rp big screens, especially after they have been tweeked. They too can have stunning pitures as well. But like you said you have to have the wall area for it and many people just dont have that kind of space. It is hard to beat the large picture you can get with a front projection unit. What screen did you pick? I am looking at ending up with a Stewert Film Screen to match the type of projector or a De-Lite sceen. I have some vintage Altec Voice of the Theater speakers that allready provide a larger than life sound that would match a nice 110" screen
Am inerested in how good you projector has worked out and how good it looks. I was recently at the CES show in Las Vegas in January. And there was not alot of demonstrations of projectors although there where some company's showing them. I was looking at the new Toshiba MDP-MT8U DLP projector with the texas instruments chip and the Faroudja scaler as well. 1000 ansi lumens, 1400:1 contrast ratio HD DLP. This is the only one that was not in the 20K + range that I have check out so far. Other than the Sony DLP that is about the same price range and had a nice picture as well. But like in the CES show where Toshiba's demonstration was done in a room with the lights on and everyone else made sure the lights where off, lol. How vivid are the colors with the lights on or day light coming in from the windows? I would like to be able to find a place in So. California that might have that projector set up? (Sanyo PLV-70) I have in the past stayed away from Sanyo just becuase there audio reputaion has sucked just like Fisher. And I realize that Fisher years ago back in the 70's rocked and was up there with names like Crown and McIntosh. But if that Sanyo PLV-70 performes as well as you say and handles HD and DVD's without allways having a dark room. Then I am willing to check it out and buy it after seeing it in action. Would love to know how the projector has worked for you?

 

[Gordon Groff]

Yeah, the picture with your wife (she's your wife in that pic, right? ) is quite amazing...lots of ambient light spill, and the picture is clearly visible!

Aye, mate. That's my Mate! Sweet Nancy. Yes, that was the main reason for jumping up to the PLV-70 and it has lived up to it's reputation for us.

Lots of hockey and football? Hmmmm... My enjoyment of vicarious participation in sports has waned over the past few years, but maybe this will get me back into it. I kind of miss the "sacrosanct" Sunday football game time.

Gordon

 

[Gordon Groff]

Hi David! You asked a LOT of questions in your post. I'll try to answer what I can, but keep in mind that I'm not one of the experts around here. This is my first HT and I have not had the opportunity to see too many other systems. So...like all other Forum information you'll recieve, filter it through your own experiences and common sense.

It is hard to beat the large picture you can get with a front projection unit. What screen did you pick? I am looking at ending up with a Stewert Film Screen to match the type of projector or a De-Lite sceen.

Yes. Front Projection is VERY hard to beat! Last night we had a gang over in our not-so-large room, which put some folks along the wall. No problem with viewing angle! In fact, since our image is so large for our room, a wall seat is better when closer so the visual angle is reduced. I tried it and actually preferred that seating postion over the "sweet spot"! Since I was facing the one side surround and had the rears to my right, I actually heard the surround speakers better than when in the "sweet spot"! Stick with a

 

[Parker Clack]

Dave:

Another place to check out the prices on the PLV 70 is with Home Theater People. They too take the projectors out of the box and see them in action and know how they work before they ship them out.

Another great resource for a review done by a friend of mine at The Big Picture, Jeff McNeal, can be found here. He has lots of great pictures with his projector in action.

VOTs!!? I would love to have a pair of them across the front end. Do you have three of them so you can have one for the center too? You must have a pretty big room to have them for your fronts. Can you imagine having 5 to 7 of them for a HT setup?

If you have the money I can't recommend the PLV 70 any higher. You may want to wait and see what is around the corner with some of the newer DLP set ups.

Parker

 

[Max Leung]

My dealer came through, and my Sanyo PLV-Z1 is shipping! Still, the memory of the HT1000's deep blacks and awesome shadow detail will be hard to shake.

I'm still flip-flopping on a screen though. I was thinking of getting a non-tensioned electric HCMW, but if you're having trouble with waves Gordon, I'll have to find some other solution. Hmmm. Maybe I can get a permanent fixed screen, and hire some slaves to mount and unmount it (got an RPTV I still want to use).

 

[Gordon Groff]

My dealer came through, and my Sanyo PLV-Z1 is shipping! Still, the memory of the HT1000's deep blacks and awesome shadow detail will be hard to shake.

This is great, Max! I can't wait to hear your impressions of the Z1 as compared to an HT1000! Talk about different classes of PJ! I would love to see an HT1000, but your comparison will have to do.

Gordon

 

[Manendra]

Gordon,

In one thread you mentioned that you took off the cover and blew away some dust blobs. What did you use to blow the dust? Was it difficult to put the cover back on?

Thanks.

 

[Gordon Groff]

Hi Menendra!
No, not difficult at all. I was worried enough about it to go through all the dust clearing threads at AVS forums' PLV-70 thread first. Not really necessary. Just remove the obvious screws, pull the cover off (careful not to pull the wires that attach to the buttons on the cover), and blow around the LCD panels. I used the "dust off" canned stuff because I had it. - not recommened 'cause one poor fellow ruined his PJ by allowing the liquid to come out and hit the panels, which permanently distorted them. If you're careful with it (as I was) it works fine. Other recommended devices would be a rubber bulb type thing you can get in drug stores. There's another thing that you pump up yourself to pressurize. Anyway, it's not really that big a deal with some common sense. I had a dust blob on the first movie I put in. Figure it was from original mfg. that was disturbed by me hanging the PJ upside down. Some folks shared with me another technique that I will try next time (if there is a next time) - that is to hold a strong vacuum cleaner hose to the openings after you take the filter screens out and let it aspirate the PJ with the cover on.

Anyway, it does not scare me any more. Not a big deal.

Gordon

 

[Neil Joseph]

I cleaned dust blobs off two different projectors using this technique. No problems.

 

[Manendra]

I used the "dust off" canned stuff because I had it.

Gordon,

Thanks for the cleaning tips.

1) When you used the pressurized can, did you use it with the little "straw" attached?
2) Could the air pressure from the cannister dislodge the LCD panels or any of the surrounding optics?
3) Did you spray around all the optics? All three panels and other filters?
4) Did you clean with the PJ power on?

I tried to clean my PJ using a new injection syringe (a big one). But the pressure out of that was not suffiecient to take away the dust. I'm planning to get a Stoner 360 degree spray can. This one does not spit out the propellant.

But I was worried about the pressure dislodging the panels. Please let me know whether you think the panels are firmly based enough so that the cannister, even with an attached straw, cannot do damage to them.

Thanks for all your feedback.

 

[Gordon Groff]

Hi Manendra!

1. Yes, I used the straw. This helps keep the can upright and still direct the gas where you want it. There's not much room around the panels, so I'm not sure how much sheer velocity you'd get w/out the staw.
2. Oh man, I hope not! Mine seems fine after shooting it around the panels.
3. I stayed mostly around the panels, I think. I may have dusted off lightly toward the front optics. Did not really make a study of it. Just did it.
4. No. I took mine down from the ceiling to do it. I'm glad I got the Chief mount rather than a homemade version. Four thumb screws to loosten and the whole thing slides out easily w/out disturbing the positioning.

Good luck!

Gordon

 

[Max Leung]

I got my PLV-Z1 yesterday. It needs a hell of a lot of tweaking, although not quite as much as my RPTV.

Surprisingly, screendoor was not as bad as I thought! I must have terrible eyesight, because I barely notice it at 1.5x distance, and I found it easy to ignore at 1.2x. A slight defocus helped with that.

First impressions: Colors are off, but nicely saturated. Definitely will need to use a colorimeter (or use my TV as a reference) to get the grayscale right.

Black level is quite high, compared to my LT240. It looks like a 20 IRE window! I'll have to try a gray screen for sure. Man, it's such a huge difference compared to the HT1000, which had nearly perfect blacks.

The Z1's image overall doesn't quite have the depth that I'd like. The LT240 is better in that regard. However, I have yet to tweak the Z1 much. I'm hoping there is room for improvement. I do notice some "fixed panel" noise...that is, static images are not smooth, but somewhat pixellated, as if adjacent pixels which are supposed to be of similar shades are of vastly different brightness to each other. It almost looks like bad dithering.

Couple of problems: The Z1 has amnesia when I try to feed it 967x544 with my HTPC. I can get 1:1 pixel mapping by adjusting the settings, but the Z1 insists on forgetting the settings on the next power-up or when I switch inputs! Arrrrgh.

The LT240 has great depth when viewing PC images. The Z1 isn't as good...it seems to miss a bit of detail. Although, in some respects, the Z1 is better than my RPTV simply because of the resolution.

The colors on the Z1 are very nice. Reds are noticeably redder than the LT240 (at 65 hours lamp use), and slightly redder than the HT1000 (with 20 hours of use before I returned it).

I'm glad there are no rainbows and no eyestrain. Picture flaws in the HT1000 and LT240 can sometimes be hard for me to see because a rainbow streak when I move my eyes would distract me.

Now I have to unlearn my new habit of not scanning the image when watching movies. I loved looking around the image to spot little details, but with rainbows I found it disconcerting to do unless I sit far back (2.0x distance).

Oh yes...I love the lens shift feature on the Z1. However, it peeves me that I can't move the image upwards very much at all. I can move it down easily, to the point where the middle of the image is aligned with the lens, but I can't raise the image more than a few inches above it! Grrr. This will make ceiling mounts difficult without using a longer pole to lower the projector, which is impossible on a 7'8" ceiling unless I feel like cracking my head on it.

I overpaid for the Z1 though...but I decided to reward my dealer for allowing me to return the HT1000.

 

[Max Leung]

Oh yeah...one other thing...the Sanyo PLV-Z1 stinks! I mean, literally! It smells like burning plastic. You know...the new projector smell but much stronger!

My LT240 had a similar (but weaker) smell. The HT1000 had hardly any smell(was it a refurb? Hmm...).

It was so strong I could smell it on my clothes when I went to bed last night!

 

[Gordon Groff]

Thanks for the comparisons, Max! I know the PLV-70 has better blacks and contrast ('specially on a high-contrast screen)than the Z1, but it sounds like your HT1000 was in another league! Also, what is the LT240 you mention?

I take it from this all that if you had your 'druthers and did not see rainbows, you'd much prefer the HT1000. That's cool, and probably as it should be!!

Gordon

 

[Max Leung]

what's a druthers?

Hmm, I heard that the Z1 is as good or slightly better than the PLV-70 with regards to blacks, although with the extreme brightness the contrast should be a bit higher on the 70.

I was referring to the NEC LT240, which looks just like an HT1000 on the outside, with a dark grey finish. It is a 2x color wheel DLP with 4 segment (RGBW) wheel. It's better than the Z1, except in color saturation and rainbows.

yep, the HT1000 is in a different class altogether...I think it would stand up well with a Sharp Z10000 or the Marantz S2, if you can find a unit that isn't defective in some way.

The HT1000 I had seemed to have focus problems, perhaps as a result of a big dust blob behind the lens. There was also a uniformity problem on the bottom left corner, where it was dimmer than the rest of the picture. And, the fan was pretty damn loud after it hit 18 hours of use. Other owners had dead pixels (one had replaced 3 projectors!) and uniformity issues. A few comments were made on blurriness too. But, overall, the HT1000 is very good.

I will miss the inky blacks. Of course, the rainbows love coming out in the very dark scenes...ouch!

I almost dread calibrating the Z1...that is where all its problems (and any defects) will be exposed. Maybe I can pretend I bought a cheap-ass RPTV that I will throw away in a year or two!