The recent price drop of the Sanyo Z5 coupled with an offer from a friend to purchase my Z4 has come up. The difference to me would be about $250. Is the Z5 that much better? My main peeve with the Z4 is the frustrating calibration dance I've been doing with it and I know it's still not perfect, I'm just living with it. I understand that the Z5 is much better out of the box (calibration wise) than the Z4. Also, from reading the threads it appears to be marginally brighter and have slightly better shadow details than the Z4 which is important to me.

Ideally I'd like to have a 'quiet' DLP 720P machine with a short throw and vertical lens shift (room constraints) but I don't see anything on the radar screen even close to the price of the Z4/Z5. Additionally, I got in on the free lamp promo for the Z4 so I still have that in the closet and I understand it fits the Z5 so that is what's helping steer the choice. Is it worth it?

I upgraded from a Z4 to a Z5.

Read my post here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=791142

There are improvements and they are noticable, but then again they are pretty minor and I am not sure you would notice if you didnt have them both at the same time.

I guess I should have used the 'search' feature instead of posting a new thread, my bad. That said, thank you for posting, that information is very helpful. Have you ironed out the sync and fade out issues? My Z4 does not exhibit any of those traits.

I may just wait until after January 31 to do the purchase (if at all) as that's when the current rebate promo ends. As with all electronics there will be another promo and it may be a bigger rebate, a drop in MSRP or simply an extension of the current rebate (Sanyo does this a lot). It certainly won't be more expensive. Maybe I'll stumble on that elusive DLP machine that fits my needs :rolleyes:

I probably won't buy one until after April 15th (yes I wait until the last minute). That's also when my current expendatures get settled out. Based on past experience, the Z5's price will never go up. If the rebate goes away, they will drop the price by the same amount. More likely, they will drop the price a little more and extend the rebate (that has been their pattern, which started in the middle of the Z3 sales, IIRC). Thay way they make more money from those people that buy and forget to send in the rebate form.

Who knows, by that time, there may be an affordable (under $2K) 1080p released (Epson D6 maybe?). The Epson 400 uses the D5+ panels (maybe they'll have a D5 C2Fine PJ :rolleyes: ). I'm taking a "wait and see" attitude right now.

BTW itsdon, I still like my NS75H, although I wish they had a defeatable Sharpness control (setting it to 1, the lowest, is still too much).

Guys I have question about sanyo projectors since you guys owned one....I bought my sanyo plc xw15 xga projector 07/2002 do you anybody knows exactly how the lamp hours
count on the sanyo in general? I know sanyo itself don't published the lamp life of their projectors. (maybe I am wrong). a few questions...

1. my sanyo lamp hours shows 980hrs this was 3 yrs ago and then about last month I got curious of how much lamp life I have in my sanyo is It shows lamp life 50 hrs so I started shopping around and then I checked my sanyo again last night and it shows lamp life 81hrs
I was expecting it should go down to 20 hours left. I am really confused if someone can explain to me how sanyo's lamp life works...thanks again

Peter

BTW itsdon, I still like my NS75H, although I wish they had a defeatable Sharpness control (setting it to 1, the lowest, is still too much).

Hey Claus, yeah I still have (and really like) my Sony 75h player. It complements the Z4 very well. However, in addition to waiting for the price to drop even more on the Z5 I'm also keeping an eye on the latest batch of HD players (Toshiba A2) and waiting for their prices to get a little more reasonable. Seems like I'm always waiting for a price drop!

My other thought was to try the XBox 360 HD-DVD player and run it through to the second component input on the Z4. Currently my Sony is hooked up HDMI and my Dish 942 HD-DVR is plugged in through Component 1, leaving Component 2 wide open. Have you (or anyone else) tried the Microsoft HD player with your Projector? Is it any good?

Itsdon,

I think I've tracked one of my issues to the cable box. The long sync when switching between signal types still exists.

I also have the XBOX 360 HD DVD player. It looks great. The only issue with it (which has been reported and talked about a ton in the HD DVD player thread) is the lack of next generation audio support. Also, it lacks the HDMI audio sync benefits of HDMI 1.3 that is noticable at times. That being said, it is a GREAT player for the money and strongly recommended if you already own an XBOX 360.

rutlian,

The Z4 and Z5 lamp counters are incremental (they count up not down).

That being said, it is a GREAT player for the money and strongly recommended if you already own an XBOX 360.

I second that opinion. If you already have an xbox 360, getting the HD DVD add-on is well worth the $200 spent. I just bought a Z5, and king kong looks amazing on it.

The recent price drop of the Sanyo Z5 coupled with an offer from a friend to purchase my Z4 has come up. The difference to me would be about $250. Is the Z5 that much better?...

This review on Audioholics (http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/avhardware/sanyo-PLV-Z5p1.php) doesn't seem to suggest Z5 a significant upgrade over Z4. In fact, it does not seem to recommend Z4 owners to upgrade to Z5.

Disclaimer: I have never seen/owned Z4, but am a happy Z5 owner.