[pamajmudar]

Hi group,

I've been poking around this site for about 2 weeks now, and it's been both educational and overwhelming.

I am looking for a middle of the road HT setup. I have an 18x15 room, with low ambient light, and I want a simple set up...Projector, Screen, DVD, DSS, and speakers. No interest currently in external line doublers, HTPC, etc. I would primarily use it to watch DVDs and Sports on Direct TV. (I may go with HDTV Satellite as well)

For those reasons, my thoughts are to go with a 16:9 native projector and a 16:9 screen. (I don't want to, at this time, fool around with a 4:3 proj and add-on lenses) I have seen the Sony 10HT in action, and it's nice, but I am told that the Sanyo PLV-60HT is much better. Any thoughts?

I want to stay in the $5-7K price range for the projector.

Thanks.


Parag

 

[DanHouck]

Sounds like a good start. Be warned, however, that once the hook is set you'll keep adding goodies and upgrading. Particularly if you hang around this bunch of perfectionists who have basically written the book on HT.


Keep your screen size reasonable so you won't be too bummed by screen door and other artifacts and hold off on the DVD purchase until you read the DVD Shootout II which is coming out very shortly. These new Kenwoods could be hot stuff!


Dan


Dan

 

[scottyb]

Hey Parag, If your kinda new here you might not know about the search function. You will find lots of info on the Sanyo if you give it a try. If you know about it disregard this.


Scott

 

[kmartin]

I bought the PLV-60 about 2 months ago and absolutely love it. The brightness of the picture and black level on this projector is very good. I had the chance to demo the Sony 10HT (calibrated using Steve Smallcombs photo diode method - see the Sony forum on the bigpicturedvd.com site) and the PLV-60 in my home at the same time and after testing both projectors for several weeks I ended up keeping the PLV-60.


While the Sony looked quite nice on DVD, the Sanyo had more of a punch to the picture. On HDTV, there was no contest, the Sanyo easily beats the Sony. The 3-year 72-hour turn around (free shipping, too) warranty on the Sanyo is also a nice plus.


I watch DVD's and HDTV (Toshiba DST-3000) mostly. Satellite is OK, but the highly compressed image is somewhat soft. I've tested several DVD players (Denon 2800, JVC XV-723G, and the Panasonic RP-91) and the best so far is the Panasonic. Sharp and colorful picture, no image drop-out issues (both the Denon and the JVC exhibit image drop-out problems on the Sanyo), and lots of user tweaking menus (including aspect ratio control), make it the best DVD player around for the price ($450 at ecost.com), IMHO.


I've had no dust problems and only one pixel issue (1 pixel on the blue panel is stuck off - you cannot see it when watching movies, etc., only when calibrating and bringing up an all-blue screen).


I have it mounted to the ceiling using a Chief mount and I got my cables at bettercables.com.. Fan noise is OK, the Sony was quieter, but I don't notice it while watching movies except occasionally during a really quiet scene. Right now I am shooting it at a wall, but I plan on getting a Greyhawk screen sometime soon. Also, my room is 18x15 and I do not notice any screen door effect from my sitting distance of 13 feet.


Well, hope that helps!


kmartin


p.s. - I think the best price on the Sanyo right now is around $5,700 (Sanyo authorized dealer). Good luck and let us know what you decide on!

 

[UpSide]

I am very pleased with my sanyo plv60... Screen door is not very obvious to me and the colors are great! No problems at all with it. Call medical video systems, they are wonderful and really know what they are doing.

-Jeffrey

 

[noah katz]

Here's a forum for the PLV60:
http://www.thebigpicturedvd.com/cgi-...conf=DCConfID1


Depending on the actual street price, $7K just might grt you the new Sharp 1280x720 DLP.


------------------

Noah

 

[cam]

Infact, both the Sanyo PLV-60 and Sharp XV-Z9000 are retailed at 900,000 Yen in Japan. I will presume the eventual price of the Z9000 will be around US$ 6k.


Cam

 

[haysdb]

I have no wish to "plug" Studio Experience, as I have no experience with them, but if you are considering the PLV-60 then you might also want to consider the HD13. It's essentially a rebadged PLV-60 in a different color case, with a longer warranty. I'm going to at least give them a call when I start evaluating projectors in a couple of months, as the PLV-60 is one of the projectors I am interested in (the others being the Sony 11HT, the JVC G15, and the new crop of 16:9 DLP's).


David

 

[Paulbert]

Doesn't the PLV-60HT come with a three year warranty?

The 5 year warranty from Studio Experience is an additional charge.


I like the idea of more personal attention from the dealer, but I'm trying to understand if there are other benefits than the Value Added Reseller aspect. Of course, being that Sanyo does not have much of a Home Theater specific dealer network, this may be the way to go if you want any kind of support.

I don't have any personal dealings with Sanyo, so I don't mean this to sound negative against Sanyo. But in speaking with Sanyo Reps at Infocomm, I could tell they were looking for HT related resellers. Which is actually good because they realize what their projector distribution consists of and want there product supported for the HT market.


Paul

 

[pamajmudar]

Thanks for all the valuable insight and info on searching and the links. I went to Tweeter yesterday and they thought they might have the Sharp 9000 in several weeks, but their (inflated) price was $10K. I don't know if I can wait long enough for the street price to get down to $6K!! I want to buy all my goodies ASAP!


Parag