Help please. Sanyo PLV Z3 or Z5? Buying tomorrow!

martin purnell · 03-12-2006, 2:59 PM

Previously posted somewhere else but no replies!!On another thread for newbies, I mentioned that I too was in the hunt for my first PJ. Living now in Northern Ireland has big limitations when coming to demoing PJs (golf courses, plasma and LCD not a problem!) but I have found a local shop that has a Sanyo Z3 for sale at £900. Having trawled virtually every review and shop price on the internet, I have come to this conclusion (also based on other views);
The Z3 is a really good machine that handles SD Dvds etc really well indeed. Sharpness, blacks etc are good.
The Z4 seems to have been tweaked to improve the HD signal. Whilst having done that, it was at the expense of SD picture quality (see reviews on line at Home Cinema Choice for instance).
The Z5 has been improved on the Z4 for clarity and depth of colour/contrast.

On monday, I have to make my decision. I will be buying a PJ but has anyone compared a Z5 to the Z3 for SD quality? I know there have been great postings re the Z4 attributes but if anyone can give me good reasons for sticking with buying a 2 year old but brand new Z3 i would be very grateful. Also, you can now get great deals on the mainland for the Hitachi PJtx 300. Richer Sounds will do one for £999 inc a 6ft screen. Same offer is on at PRCDirect but for £855. Have I confused matters by mentioning this other LCD make?!!! Help please....and thanks in anticipation.
Martin

T0rNaDo · 03-12-2006, 6:09 PM

ouch £900 for a Z3 ?

you can get a Z4 for a little less that then...

if i had a choice of a Z3 or a Z5
i would go for the Z5

martin purnell · 03-12-2006, 6:24 PM

Thanks Mr Tornado for your reply. I would be grateful if you could elaborate on why you would choose the Z5 over the Z3 though. I note that yo uhave a Z4 so any feedback would be really helpful.
Thanks,

Martin

Oakleyspatz · 03-12-2006, 7:19 PM

The Hitachi PJTX300 would ourperform all but the Z5 and maybe even that in my opinion. The single biggest influence on SD image quality on a HD resolution display comes down to the quality of the de-interlacer and scaler. Many of the more expensive models use outside manufactures to provide these scalers such as Faroudja and Pixelworks to name but two. Whilst others use their own scalers which can be better but usually lack some of the points that make the likes of Faroudja so good.
The very latest models have addressed these concerns with their own scalers and now use such image enhancing tweaks as 10 Bit Video Processing
and Motion Adaptive Progressive Scan which all go towards producing a more filmic image with smoother motion, better scaling and less staircasing on diagonal lines.
The new Hitachi not only gives you these abilities, but offers considerably better contrast (10'000:1 claimed) than the Z3 (2000:1) and is slightly brighter too which will give you an image with more depth and 3Dimensionality.

Put it this way, The Z3 was slightly bettered by the Panasonic AE700, the Z4 was slightly bettered by the Panasonic AE900 and the Hitachi PJTX200 bettered the AE900. The new Hitachi PJTX300 betters the older PJTX200 by some margin. The Z3, good as it was, is yesterday's technology and I would say it has to be between the Z5 and the PJTX300. ......Unless you consider DLP or want to save a little longer for a 1080p model...

But that's another matter entirely!!