I have seen the Sony 10HT and the Sanyo (actually the Cinema 13HD) together. Both produce wonderful film-like images better, than any other LCD projector that I have seen. I currently own the Sharp XV-96U which was considered a top of the line 4 or 5 years ago. Both these projectors blow it away easily. IMHO the 10HT when in CinemaMode (lower bulb output) the blacks do appear deeper than the Sanyo (Cinema 13HD). Outside of that, there was no contest between the two. The Cinema 13HD had brighter more vibrant colors and produced a better image with Standard Definition sources (ie regular satellite transmission).
I had set up the Cinema13HD with the quadscan scaler. unfortunately I did not have time to really calibrate it well. the resulting image was a little bit soft. The 10HT was using a Miranda scaler to produce its image. The really amazing thing was that when I had taken the quadscan scaler out of the loop, DVD images became three dimensional, almost as if they were high definition. I did minimal calibration using the video essentials disk and the Cinema 13HD just came to life. The DVD image was supplied via a Proscan "DIVX" machine (Remeber DIVX, I figured it would be a collectors item someday) using 480I component video cables. The satellite was using a standard S-video cable. Depending upon the channel one was watching from satellite the picture resolution was either outstanding (not quite the quality of the DVD but very good indeed) or poor for channels like IFC where the source was not that spectacular to begin with.
For the 10HT the satellite image was poor at best. even for the better movie channels. The images appeared soft and grainy with the 10HT with less vibrant colors. Don't get me wrong the picture was watchable but it was like watching a new VHS tape, nothing spectacular. Then I had the lights turned on for the 10HT and that is when it fell apart. With full lights on the 10HT became unwatchable (even from straight on and no color picture when watching from an angle). Not so for the Cinema 13HD. With lights on it did lose some vibrancy in the colors and the edges of the picture appeared somewhat washed out but it was definitely watchable. Hands down the Cinema 13HD produced the better images. The only thing I wish is that I had more time to work with the quadscan and the Cinema 13HD. But I understand that the quadscan does not scale to the 1366x768 panel (no output for that configuration)
I did use a first generation DVDO doubler with the Cinema 13HD for satellite S-video. This did improve the quality of the image but it was not significant compared to what the Cinema 13HD did with its scaling. Both appeared to be about equal IMHO.
I was wondering about the differences between the PLV-60HT and the Cinema 13HD (I hear Runco has a version of it coming also, I'm sure that Runco will price it version out of reality). But the price drop I have heard is only from a single retailer who is dumping there projectors because they are first generation PLV-60s which need firmware upgrading, ie to resolve solarization and improve its scaling. Although I understand that the scalers are the same but the firmware in them is different. I guess that since the retailer has so many of them and they want to move them out before Sanyo puts out the upgraded PLVs they want to get rid of them. From what I understand with these PLV-60s, to match the Cinema 13HD one would need to bring on an outboard scaler like the DVDO iscan plus. Hence, I guess, the $1000 drop in price.
