Sanyo PLV-1080HD High Definition 1080p LCD Home Theater Projector

by Sanyo

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 13.6 x 17.7 x 5.7 inches ; 16.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 23 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B001GCUIK8
• Item model number: PLV-1080HD
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,509 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

If you're looking for a home theater projector, you want one that is full high definition (1080p), easy to install and still affordable. Sanyo is one of the largest LCD projector manufacturers in the world. For many years it has been a leader in projector technology with professional grade equipment.  Now Sanyo brings this high level of technical expertise to home theater.

The Sanyo PLV-1080HD offers many advanced features at an affordable price. First you are getting the best video quality with full 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution which is the highest available from any source material. The picture quality from HDTV, Blu Ray movies, HD video games, HD camcorder videos and still digital photos will look stunning on a truly big screen. With two state-of-the-art HDMI (version 1.3b/Deep Color) source inputs and two component inputs you have the flexibility to connect all the HD sources available today. 

For home theater projectors contrast is king. When this projector fills your screen with 1200 lumens of light, you also get a 10,000:1 contrast ratio which provides the rich colors and deep blacks of a great picture. Sanyo uses their exclusive TopazReal technology which includes a 3D color management system that addresses changes in color phase and color level to obtain a perfect color reproduction. Sanyo further enhances color and focus with inclusion of a 14-bit digital signal processor and a real-focus HD lens system. 

The PLV-1080HD is designed to be easily installed by the home owner. Advanced lens shifting allows you to move the image throw of the lens up/down or right/left for maximum flexibility when positioning this projector in your room. Combined with the 2x zoom, automatic iris control and 5 preset calibrations, the PLV-1080HD will produce a stunning, high quality 100-inch image from a little over nine feet away.  And it's quiet too, producing as little as 23db of fan noise so you hear the movie, not the projector.

Product Description

Product Details and FeaturesProduct MPNMPNSANYOPLV-1080HDKey FeaturesType LCD ProjectorsDisplay Technology TFT Active MatrixImage Brightness 1200 ANSI lumensContrast Ratio 10000:1HDTV Formats 480i • 720p • 1080i • 575i • 1080p • 480p • 575pForm Factor DesktopWeight 16.5 lb.ImageNative Resolution 1920 x 1080Image Size.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Performance & Value, December 8, 2008

By 

J. Ratchford - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sanyo PLV-1080HD High Definition 1080p LCD Home Theater Projector (Electronics)

We had been holding off buying a home theater projector since technology was improving and prices were coming down. I revisited the market this fall, doing some extensive research both online and at the local stores. I came across this Sanyo 1080p projector that seemed promising in its initial reviews -- and certainly was an attractive price point at $1,599. We have a large living room (29' by 16') that we intended to maintain as a multi-purpose living room/home theater. The room has one wall that has floor to ceiling glass with vertical blinds, which allows us to darken the room during daylight but certainly not to pure theater levels. For our situation our local retailers were promoting projectors that would cost $5,000 -- to be coupled with sound system, screen and installation that would push the cost to $10,000 or more. After researching the options, we bit the bullet and ordered this Sanyo 1080p projector from Amazon -- figuring it was cheap enough now that if it turned out to be a mistake we would just live with it for a few years until technology improved and prices came down further. In preparation for its arrival, we had our local cable company upgrade our service to digital which gave us access to their HD programming through their set-top box.

I am delighted to report that we could not be more pleased or impressed with this purchase. We had it up and working within 10 minutes of its arrival, using our white wall for our initial screen. I have to tell you that it looked so good that we decided to make the wall our permanent screen. The up-down and left-right lens shifting allowed us to place the projector about anywhere we wanted -- so my son and I designed a permanent installation with a wall mount near the ceiling. We added a $250 Sony "home theater in a box" for sound, concealed the wires, rearranged the living room furniture and have a complete home theater system for less than $2,000.

And the picture quality? Oustanding! We've set the picture size to the maximum for our room, which provides a picture that is over 6' tall with a 13' diagonal picture size. David Letterman is larger than life, and football games allow you to see the blades of grass and faces in the stands even on wide shots. With the 1080p HD, the "screen door" pixels are very sharp and clear at the wall but are virtually invisible when more than 3' away. The picture is as bright and clear as anything we saw in the local retailer home theater demo rooms -- maybe even better. Ambient light is no more of a problem than it would be with any TV in the room, and we find that we are using this as our primary TV. The setup and operating instructions were clear, setup was simple, the on-screen menus are easy to use, we don't hear the fan, and for our purposes, we can't think of a single thing we would change. If we have a concern, it's that we'll use it so much we'll have to buy that replacement lamp a lot sooner than we would like (3,000 hours they estimate) -- but we're beginning to consider that $300 cost a bargain compared to the entertainment value we're getting.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars BEWARE! Reduced Warranty!, December 19, 2008

By 

Mark T. Wait (Provo, Utah, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sanyo PLV-1080HD High Definition 1080p LCD Home Theater Projector (Electronics)

What on earth is a PLV-1080HD?? If you are looking for a Sanyo PLV-Z700, the 1080HD is the exact same thing with one big difference; a REDUCED WARRANTY.

I had to call Sanyo to figure this out. All the specs are the same as the Z700, except that the 1080HD has a black faceplate instead of grey. The Sanyo rep told me that Amazon wanted their own model number for marketing purposes, so they rebadged the Z700 as the 1080HD exclusively for Amazon. Only one difference I could find: the Z700 has a 3 year warranty and the 1080HD has a 2 year warranty. Bummer! I didn't find this out until I received the 1080HD. Amazon doesn't exactly brag about the reduced warranty. It would have been a hassle sending it back, so I just kept it.

On the upside, Amazon sells the 1080HD for $1600. Everyone else sells the Z700 for $1800 with a $200 rebate to bring it down to $1600. If you hate rebates like I hate rebates, it's nice to not have to deal with it. As long as my 1080HD doesn't break down in the third year, I'm happy.

I'm thrilled with the picture and performance of the 1080HD. Anyone who complains about the picture is either ridiculously picky or they have it set up poorly (or it's defective).

I did have one huge complaint that took me a while to figure out. The Variable Iris is AWFUL! In order to increase the contrast spec for marketing purposes, they have a mechanical barn door mechanism that opens and closes to automatically make dark scenes darker and bright scenes brighter. How can any videophile think that is a good thing? The pumping of the brightness is very obvious and very distracting. It has the exact same effect as overly compressed audio. It makes dark scenes too dark. I say let the filmmaker decide how it should look without the projector second-guessing him 60 times per second.

The good news, the Variable Iris can be shut off. Set the Iris Mode to "Fixed" in the Advanced Menu. The problem I had was that it would only stay shut off until I turned off the projector. The next time I watched, the Variable Iris would be on again. It took me awhile to realize I had to turn it off, and then Store that and all my other preferences as one of the 5 available User Image modes.

Now I'm thrilled to death with the projector. I've been wanting to make the jump to 1080 for years, and I'm so glad I could jump in for only $1600. I doubt very strongly that the 1080 projectors that are selling in the $2500 range have any significant advantage.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bright and colorful, November 10, 2008

By 

M. Kumar (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sanyo PLV-1080HD High Definition 1080p LCD Home Theater Projector (Electronics)

This is my first projector and so there is not much I can compare it with.

First the pros:

a) Great value for money. This is the first sub $2k 1080p projector I found.
b) Simple to setup. It has two HDMI and two component inputs. I just plugged the power in hooked up my HD tuner and DVD player in and I was up and running in a couple of minutes.
c) The image is bright, crisp and colorful. On my first attempt I projected the image onto a dark wall and yet I could see a lot of detail and colors.
d) The zoom combined with the vertical and horizontal shifts mean that you can pretty much install it wherever you want and control the size of the image.
e) The lens cover is motorized and shuts off when you power off the device, keeping out unwanted dust.

Cons:

1) The projector is a bit bulky.