Sanyo’s New Projectors Include Market’s First 4LCD Model

Sanyo has begun rolling out to retailers a series of front projectors that include what the company says is the first 4LCD model on the market, and a flagship projector that is said to be the first 5:5 pull-down projector with a 120Hz Full HD panel.

The XGA model PLC-XP200L ($9,995) uses the 4LCD proprietary Sanyo optical engine, which adds the QuaDrive Color Control Device over the green in the conventional 3LCD red/green/blue system. The device filters out yellow light, according to Sanyo’s Mark Holt, vice president and general manager for the Presentation Technologies Div., to yield richer reds and greens. A boon for installers is the projector’s AMF (Active Maintenance Filter), a single cartridge that holds 10 lengths of “clean filter” along with a sensor that automatically detects when the projector’s airflow is being obstructed by dust and then rotates a new filter into place. “Since filters need to be changed about every thousand hours of normal use, AMF lengthens the necessity for hands-on maintenance tenfold,” explained Holt. It is rated at 7,000 Lumens of brightness, and offers a contrast ratio of 2,200:1.

The Model PLV-Z3000 1080p LCD projector ($3,295; December availability), which replaces the PLV-Z2000, uses a new panel set operating at 120Hz. “Think of the old line-doublers and how they interpolated and smoothed images,” said Holt, “and you can get an idea of how this works.” It boasts a 65,000:1 contrast ratio and 1,200 Lumens brightness, and Holt said it is one of the quietest projectors on the market, with noise levels that never exceed 19dB in the energy-saving mode. Adding to its installation flexibility, he said, is its lens-shifting technology and short-throw capability, whereby it can project a 100-inch-diagonal image from 10 to 20 feet away from the screen.

The PLV-Z700 1080p LCD projector (early October availability), a Full HD 1080p model, will sell for $1,995 with a $200 consumer rebate effective through the holiday selling season, said Holt.

The PLV-Z60 is Sanyo’s entry in the 720p LCD projector category ($1,299). It improves upon the model Sanyo fielded two years ago with a better contrast ratio and Lumens rating. “We didn’t have a 720p model out last year,” said Holt, “but 720p still accounts for around 50 percent of the market, so we wanted to be represented.”

Suitable for classroom and conference room use, the PLC-XL51 LCD projector (early October availability), due to its ultra-short-throw lens, can produce an 80-inch image from just three inches away from the projection surface. A second-generation model, it improves upon the earlier model’s Lumens rating at 2,700. Also, it has an SD memory card slot and is network-enabled, permitting the monitoring of the projector through a Web browser.