To get a sense of the current state of the 720p market, we picked out three models: a pair of LCD front projectors from Sony and Sanyo and a DLP unit from Planar. This group ranges in price from $1,300 to around $3,000, and the models vary pretty widely in terms of features and performance. So if you've maybe had your eye on a 720p projector and are looking to seal the deal, read on.
IN THIS REVIEW:
Sanyo PLV-Z5
Sony Bravia VPL-AW15
Planar PD7060
Sanyo PLV-Z5
For an affordable projector, the Sanyo is packed with tons of useful setup features. Its 2x zoom lens gives you a throw-distance range of 9.8 to 20 feet with a 100-inch screen. Along with manual zoom and focus controls, there's a set of horizontal and vertical lens-shift dials located on the projector's side. Another notable feature is a twin-iris system to fine-tune picture contrast by modulating the amount of light hitting the LCD panels in the projector's display engine as well as the light entering the projection lens. And then there's something Sanyo calls 3D Color Management that gives you color-tweaking options that go beyond the standard saturation and hue controls found on most projectors.
The generous assortment of connections on the Z5's back panel includes a pair each of HDMI and component-video inputs, as well as a VGA port for an analog computer connection. Its mini-sized remote control has a toy-like appearance, but the buttons on its keypad are cleanly arranged and the whole thing is backlit. A set of five direct input buttons let you switch sources quickly without toggling through onscreen menus, and there are also dedicated buttons for tweaking brightness, color, contrast, and the Lens Iris adjustment. Pressing the Screen button lets you toggle through the Sanyo's aspect-ratio selections. For high-def sources, these include Full (16:9), Zoom, Caption In, and Natural Wide (a stretch mode). With standard-def sources, you get three additional options: Normal (4:3), Normal Through, and Full-Through (displays the image "as is" without scaling).
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The Short Form |
| Price: $1,700 / sanyolcd.com / 888-337-1215 |
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Snapshot
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| An affordable 720p LCD projector that combines solid performance with a high level of setup flexibility. |
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Plus
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| •Extensive setup features •Bright, clean pictures •Good black depth with twin-iris feature engaged |
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Minus
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| •Somewhat soft 1080i HDTV downconversion •Screen-door effect |
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Key Features
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| •1,280 x 720-pixel LCD display •2x zoom lens •Manual zoom and focus and horizontal/vertical lens shift •Auto and manual dual-iris settings •Lens shutter door •Inputs: 2 HDMI and component-video; VGA; composite-and S-video •15 x 5 x 12 in / 11 lbs Full Lab Results |
The Z5 offers a dizzying array of features for adjusting its picture. Too many, in my opinion — home theater newbies and old hands alike are bound to get lost in the confusing cascade of menu options. After using its lens-shift features to set the picture squarely in the center of the screen, I selected the Eco Lamp mode. With this option enabled, the Z5's fan noise was minimized to the point where I barely noticed it. After spending a long time toying with innumerable Lamp and Lens Iris permutations, I settled on an Auto 2 Lamp and -22 lens setting as the best pairing for watching movies and also adjusted Gamma to its middle (0) setting.
Seven picture presets are available, along with four customizable User presets that you need to call up when switching inputs. The projector's Low 2 color-temperature setting delivered reasonably accurate out-of-box colors. But by making further RGB gain and offset adjustments in the Advanced picture menu I was able to get the projector's grayscale performance near perfect. Intrepid tweakers will also want to check out the Color Management menu. Among other things, it enables you to adjust the level, phase, and gamma of individual colors and save your results in a custom color "list." It's often tricky to get good results with this type of advanced feature, but I was able to use it to correct for some color imbalances (see Test Bench).
PICTURE QUALITY
Two things became immediately apparent to me when watching movies and high-def TV programs on the Sanyo. The first was that, as with the Sony VPL-AW15 LCD projector, screen-door effect was a definite factor at seating distances closer than 13 feet. The second was that getting satisfactory black levels and picture contrast on the Z5 depended greatly on careful tweaking of its twin-iris adjustments.
Native 720p clips, such as an episode of Lost and a soccer game from ESPN-HD, looked very crisp and solid on the Sanyo. Colors were vivid, yet balanced, and the picture appeared packed with fine detail. In contrast, the 1080i programs that I watched didn't look as detailed as they did on the Sony and Planar models — the difference was subtle but fairly easy to spot during a three-way comparison. On the other hand, black-and-white films on DVD, such as Only Angels Have Wings, looked fantastic on the Z5. Picture uniformity was exemplary for an LCD projector, with no sign of color tinting at all on the classic movie's monochrome image.
BOTTOM LINE
The Sanyo PLV-Z5 delivers very good video performance, and at $1,700 it's priced right (Sanyo is additionally offering either a $100 rebate or a free digital camera with the purchase of a Z5 until August 31, 2007). This projector's excellent setup features and extensive video adjustments also help it to stand out from the crowd. If you've never owned a piece of Sanyo gear before, the Z5 would be a fine introduction.
Sony Bravia VPL-AW15
Sony's 720p LCD front projectors have been strong performers in the past, so it was only natural for us to stand up and take notice when the company announced its Bravia VPL-AW15 720p LCD front projector. Along with a 1,280 x 720-pixel resolution display, this $1,300 projector features a 165-watt UHP lamp and 1.6x zoom lens. Zoom and focus adjustments are manual, and there's also horizontal and vertical lens shift controls to aid during initial setup.
Sony's full-size remote control for the VPL-AW15 features a sparse keypad with a cleanly arranged, backlit buttons. I had no trouble at all using it to operate the projector in a pitch-black room. A set of buttons located on the bottom half enable you to switch directly between the Sony's six picture presets, and there are also dedicated rocker buttons for making on-the-fly brightness and contrast tweaks. Another button labeled ADJ PIC gives you quick and easy access to the picture adjustment submenu. You switch inputs by repeatedly pressing the Input button to toggle through the choices. And pressing the Wide Mode button lets you toggle through the Sony's various display modes: Normal (displays 4:3 pictures with vertical sidebars), Full (for anamorphic widescreen DVDs and HDTV), Zoom, and Wide Zoom (a combined picture stretch and zoom). All display modes can be selected for both standard- and high-definition programs.
I placed the Sony approximately 13 feet away from an 87-inch wide, 100-inch diagonal Stewart FireHawk SST screen (with that size screen, the projector's 1.6x zoom lens provided a throw range of 9.5 to 15.5 feet). After initially choosing the Low lamp setting, I changed it to High when I discovered that the projector's already strikingly low fan noise increased only slightly in that brighter mode. Among the projector's presets is a relatively accurate one called Cinema. There are also three customizable User presets per input on the VPL-AW15, and I usually achieved best results when using those modes. I also ended up engaging the Custom color temperature menu adjustments to improve the projector's grayscale performance (see Test Bench for details).
Sony gives you plenty of options for tweaking black levels on the VPL-AW15 — a good thing, particularly for LCD, which traditionally suffers in that characteristic relative to other projection technologies. During setup, I ended up switching both the Black Level Adjustment and Gamma Correction menu items to Off and set Noise Reduction to either Middle or High depending on what source I was watching (both settings eliminated noise without obscuring picture detail). My use of the Sony's Auto Iris feature was also strongly program-dependent: Movies with a deep range of shadows benefited from having it turned on, while it didn't make much of a difference with regular TV.
PICTURE QUALITY
Having reviewed numerous 1080p front projectors over the past year, including a few LCD models, I was surprised at how much of an issue the LCD "screen door" effect was with this Sony. (I guess I got spoiled in the interim.) From my usual seat 11 feet away from the screen, the texture of the LCD display panels — something that I didn't see at all from the same distance on the 1080p LCD models I tested — was not only visible, it was distracting. But shifting my seat back to 13 feet or more away reduced the effect to where I could barely notice it.
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The Short Form |
| Price: $1,300 / sonystyle.com / 800-222-7669 |
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Snapshot
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| This 720p projector delivers very good performance, with only minor compromises, at a very modest price. |
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Plus
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| •Crisp 720p picture •Iris feature delivers deep blacks •Very affordable price |
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Minus
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| •Screen-door effect •Poor picture uniformity on black-and-white movies |
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Key Features
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| •1,280 x 720-pixel LCD display •1.6x Zoom lens •Manual Zoom and Focus and Horizontal/Vertical lens shift •Auto and Manual Iris settings •1080p/24 input via HDMI with 48-Hz display •Inputs: HDMI, VGA, component-, composite-, and S-video; RS-232C •14.6 x 4.8 x 12.6 in / 13.3 lbs Full Lab Results |
Switching to another program — Kill Bill Vol. 1 on TNT-HD — I was impressed with how good the 1080i-format program looked when downconverted for 720p display by the projector. In a scene where O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) suddenly leaps onto a table and beheads a gangster in mid-sentence, the picture had punchy contrast, and the rapid-fire action looked solid and clear. And in a subsequent close-up shot of Liu, I could see the fine lines of her eyebrows and creased lips, as well as faint freckles dotting her face. Although I didn't have a Blu-ray player capable of providing a 1080p/24 signal during my test, the VPL-AW15 accepts signals in that format, scaling the image to 720p and then displaying it at 48 Hz, according to Sony, twice the native 24-Hz frame rate. Regular DVDs also looked very good on the Sony, although I noticed a marked improvement in the sharpness and overall clarity of 480i signals when I used an HDMI rather than component-video connection. Watching the new DVD release of Pan's Labyrinth also gave me reason to turn on the projector's Auto Iris setting. With Auto Iris switched off, dark scenes such as the one where Ofelia enters her Mom's bedroom to sleep beside her on their first night at the Captain's home looked relatively murky and flat. Switched on, the same scene had a much stronger sense of dimensionality, with dark blacks achieving inky, film-like depth.
Despite its mostly strong performance, the Sony exhibited poor picture uniformity with dark images. This was primarily an issue when looking at full-field gray test patterns, but it also showed up on scenes in black-and-white movies. Basically, the darker the black-and-white image, the greater the pink and greenish tinting that could be seen at either side of the screen. I didn't see this tinting on any of the color programs that I watched, however.
BOTTOM LINE
Sony's newest LCD front projector delivers a crisp high-def image — and at a very affordable price. And its Auto Iris feature really helps boost picture contrast on dark movies. The main tradeoff here compared to a 1080p model is an increase in screen-door effect — you'll need to sit a decent span away from the screen to avoid that particular LCD-related artifact. But if you're looking to get a truly big picture at a price that barely exceeds that of an average high-end projection screen, the Sony Bravia VPL-AW15 720p LCD front projector should be on your short list of models to check out.
Planar PD7060
The gloss-black PD7060 has a sleek, rounded design and is compact enough that it won't dominate the room if mounted on a ceiling. Its light engine is built around a single Texas Instruments DarkChip3 DMD, the company's latest and greatest 720p offering. Compared to the setup features provided by the other models in this test, the Planar's can be considered minimal, at best. Zoom and focus controls are manual, and the projector lacks a lens shift function. Also, its modest 1.16x zoom lens allowed for a throw range of just 11 to 12.8 feet with 100-inch screen.
Things start to look up a bit when you check out the PD7060's back panel. Along with both an HDMI and an installer-favored DVI input, the projector has component-video and VGA connections. There's also a 12-volt screen trigger output and an RS-232C port for connecting the PD7060 to an advanced home control system. The projector's remote control could use some work. It has a backlit keypad, but the layout's a bit cluttered, and I often found it difficult to locate the exact black-toned button I was seeking. One thing I did like was two sets of direct input keys for switching sources and selecting custom picture memories. To switch between aspect ratios, meanwhile, you repeatedly press the Aspect button to toggle through them. Choices include 16:9, 4:3, Letterbox, and Native (displays incoming signal as-is without scaling), with all options selectable for both standard- and high-def signals.
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The Short Form |
| Price $3,000 / planar.com / 866-752-6271 |
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Snapshot
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| Planar's debut home theater projector shows promise but misses the mark on both performance and price. |
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Plus
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| •Crisp 720p picture •Very good black depth •Good looks |
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Minus
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| •Below-average picture contrast •No color and tint adjustments for HDMI and DVI inputs •Noisy overall picture •Limited setup features •Expensive compared to competition |
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Key Features
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| •1,280 x 720-pixel DLP display •Texas Instruments DarkChip3 DMD •1.16x zoom lens •Manual zoom and focus •12-volt trigger output •Inputs: HDMI, DVI, VGA, component-, composite-, and S-video; RS-232C •13.5 x 5.8 x 12.5 in / 9 lbs Full Lab Results |
Screen-door is always less of an issue with DLP than LCD, so I had no problem sitting closer to the screen with the Planar than the other two projectors in this test — about 10 feet seemed to work best. After choosing the reasonably quiet Eco Lamp mode (fan noise was much louder with its other two lamp options), I selected Video Gamma (the two other gamma settings, Film and Cinema, actually delivered less satisfactory black levels than this one), 7,500-K color temperature (a more accurate option than the 6,500-K preset!), and Auto color space. After adjusting the Planar's standard picture settings for its HDMI and component-video inputs, I then stored all my adjustments using the projector's four Custom picture memories.
One thing that I quickly found wanting when setting up the PD7060 was its lack of color and tint controls for the HDMI and DVI inputs. Ideally, you shouldn't have to muck with color/tint settings on a projector's high-def inputs, but having access to those controls usually turns out to be a useful, if not absolutely necessary, option. And I experienced frequent HDMI hiccups where the picture dropped out completely and was replaced by a noise-filled screen — a non-issue with the Sony and Sanyo projectors when connected to the same HDMI sources. The Planar's 7,500-K color-temperature preset delivered fairly accurate color, but I got better results after making adjustments to the RGB gain and offset controls.
PICTURE QUALITY
With most programs that I watched on the Planar, I was impressed by the projector's crisp picture and deep, satisfying blacks. Watching 720p-format World Cup soccer from ESPN-HD, the green turf covering the field looked crisp and detailed, and the colors of the players' uniforms as well as the signage surrounding the field had a natural look. High-def programs in 1080i format also looked fairly crisp, although they lacked the solidity of native 720p programs. When I watched the Adam Sandler flick Happy Gilmore on HD DVD, the projector's lack of color controls became something of a problem — Sandler and the other actors' skin tones looked too reddish, and there was no easy way to adjust for it. Another issue with the Planar that I noted while watching this particular disc was a noisy, pixilated appearance on flat patches of color, such as the blue sky over a golf course. And with no noise-reduction processing to speak of in the projector, I had no choice but to suffer through the noise.
BOTTOM LINE
The Planar PD7060 DLP front projector has its good points, but its overall performance pales when compared to that of the two LCD models in this test. And with a list price of $3,000 — the same as for a few current 1080p models — it simply can't compete price-wise. Planar recently acquired the video projector manufacturer Runco, a company known for its dedication to video quality and cutting-edge technical development. Lets hope that some of that Runco magic dust rubs off on Planar.
Full Lab Results
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Shootout: Three 1080p Front Projectors
Shootout: Eight Budget HDTV Projectors
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