[wizard of oz1]

I beleive that Sharp XV-Z3000 deserves a brand new thread. I have been usung it almost a month and delighted with its performance.
My research to find a "best projector for less" goes back to last year January. Oakleyspatz's Sharp XV-Z200e was "the bargain of the 2006" and impressed so many people because of it's quality and price (£499). I have missed out that projector because I did not have the money that time. Since then I have been searching so many forums and websites to find that kind of bargain. There was no luck ....Until now
I have demoed Optoma HD72i, Hitachi PJTX200, Infocus IN72 and beriefly seen Hitachi PJTX300, Panasonic AX100.
Sharp XV-Z3000 offers something I beleive others can not be able to offer:
SUPERIOR CONTRAST!. If you look at websites such as
www.cine4home.de
http://www.projectorcentral.com/sharp_z3000.htm
http://www.projectorreviews.com/Shar...3000/index.asp
http://www.hometheatermag.com/frontp...ors/0906sharp/
You will understand what I mean.
Sharp claims the contrast ratio as 6500:1 and the brightness 1200 lumens. Especially the contrast ratio is the highest in DLP standarts (of course a couple of 1000's pounds will give better one!) unlike LCDs "high on paper but quite low in real word" contrast, DLP projector provide very close to real world cotrast ratio. But again, even with DLP projectors,in order to achieve highest contrast ratio, which manufacturer claims, you have to sacrifice some brightness (lumens). For instance there are projector out there which has 3000:1 contrast ratio and 1100 lumens brightness. If you want to get the brightest picture (during day with light coming through) projector may drop its contrast ratio to 1000:1 or 1500:1. on the other hand if you want very contrasty picture with deep blacks you have to sacrifice the brightness and this can cause most of times dim and dull picture because lumes level drops to 200. This is even dangerous if you projecting big screen (over 2 metres wide) which need more lumens.
The Z3000 reaches a maximum contrast of believe it or not 5600:1 (!!) and strikes so almost every other projector at the market, also most High end variants of Marantz, Yamaha & CO. However this contrast gain with a not insignificant light loss is bought, approximately 360 lumens remains to the projector here. This is however for the usual display widths to 2,5m quite enough.
The Z3000 reaches a flexibility in things contrast and brightness, like hardly another DLP projector at the market thanks to it's high quality IRIS.
The projector has 3 IRIS settings:High Contrast,Medium Mode,High Brightness
with the lamp settings on either Bright or Eco+Quite
Following is a measuring table with colour temeperature 7500K (which is very close to recomended 6500K)

Mode Light (Eco+Quite)/lumen Light (Bright)/lumen Contrast

High Contrast 308 360 5600:1
Medium Mode 546 637 3600:1
High Brightness 962 1134 2000:1

The picture has huge amount of detail even in very dark scenes. It has full of dynamism and 3 dimensionality which is feature of DLP technology.
In terms of placement, it has almost no lens shift. I am projecting from 8 ft which gives 178cm x 100cm picture, lens shift is about 6-8 cm. However it has very usefull feature due to its native resolution 1280x768, called "image shift". So when you are using 1280x720 resolution,you can use image shift button to move the image up and down around 10 cm.
Two extra points to mention:
NOISE: Unless you are very far from the projector, you are advised to use Low lamp setting (Eco+Bright) to avoid very distracting noise. Even with the low lamp setting it reminds you its presence during qiute scenes when wathing film. But not distracting when your sound system is operating. It sits 60 cm above my head I am quite comfortable with its level of noise. In addition, I was very worried when I was buying it. Because on paper it has 32dB noise level which is qiute high and I am very sensitive to noise. So it hard decision to make. But I am very happy with it.
DEINTERLACING: I recommend to use external deinterlacing since its progressive scan capabiltiy is not very impressive. So get a DVD with good quality deinterlacing.
PRICE: You can have this projector for only £579 including delivery from laskys.com which is part of Comet.

Cut the long story short, You need to spend over £2000 to get a better projector which would be Darkchip3 DLP. Unless you have a placement issue because thereis no horizontal lens shift, and you want complete quiteness, IT WILL BE CRIME NOT TO BUY THIS PROJECTOR.

Note: I wanted to send some pictures, but I could not manage them to stick them here. If you know how to do it please let me know.

[sdb123]

You can upload pictures to a site such as www.photobucket.com.

[wizard of oz1]

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x.../06_12_482.jpg
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...foz2/Bild2.jpg

[Doctor Smith]

How would one of these be setup I have my av gear at one end of the room with the plasma.

Would i have to move everything, also what screen would be best for it.

I was going to buy a 50 plasma but this looks a bargain

[gunark]

As Comet also do it I phoned them to ask if a) they would price match to Laskys - part of the same group, and b) would I be able to pick it up locally. The helpful woman on the phone stated No - Laskys are not a pricematch customer and are not part of the Comet group. Pfff - should read your own websites love. Still, if she didn't know that, I wasn't about to discuss spending £600 odd with her.

[gunark]

Also apparently the offset is 7" which is less than my W100 which is 8. That happily sits on a 4.5' foot shelf needing only a slight tip and minor keystoning (i know, bad but I live in rented accom) to get a good image roughly 3' from the floor (@ 10.5' throw) so the Sharp's throw 'issue' may not be so much of one after all?

[NICMAC]

Wizard of oz1
Hope you can help me with a couple of questions regarding the sharp....i am new to projectors so please humour me.
Does this PJ have to be in line with the top of the screen it is firing at, i ask this because ideally i would like it high up on the ceiling, the screen i will be purchasing will be ceiling mounted and have a 30cm black border at the top which will bring the viewing area down.
How do you have yours mounted please?

[pal]

Well spotted!...I was one of those who took up the Sharp xvz-200 at £650 in December 2005.
I've been tracking the XVZ 3000 at Nexnix which is up at £975.

Strongly influenced by the projectoreviews review.

The only problem is that it has a very short throw ratio and viewing from 3m the unzoomed picture is between 6'-7'. Which might be too big.

Nexnix want a £50 odd restocking fee if it proves unsuitable.

[Jonstone]

Looks like a great projector for the price, the only downside seems to be the cost of the replacement lamps which seem to be £400 unless anyone knows where they are cheaper?

[Zag]

Originally Posted by wizard of oz1

Cut the long story short, You need to spend over £2000 to get a better projector which would be Darkchip3 DLP. Unless you have a placement issue because thereis no horizontal lens shift, and you want complete quiteness, IT WILL BE CRIME NOT TO BUY THIS PROJECTOR.

Great PJ for that price I have to agree. Important to me is the fact that it uses a 6 segment, 5 speed colour wheel. RBE should be fairly minimal.

[ChrisAllenFiz]

Whose idea was the throw distance though, it really is awful. I can`t bring myself to buy it because I know it wouldn`t fit right.

[wizard of oz1]

Doctor Smith, I am using white matte screen. My experience tell me if you have dark coloured walls you will get minimal reflection from them back to the screen so you get minimal washed out colours, and darker black. However if you have light coloured wall like mine it would be better to get high contrast gray screen. Before I used this screen, I painted my wall to light gray and it gave better black but unfortunately the wall was not flat so I bought a screen. I am thinking to paint it to light gray though.
Gunark, I do not think Comet will price match with Laskys even though they are the same company, and all we know from our experience that there are always useless 'sales advisors' in retail whose purpose is just to take your money. If I were you do not waste your time complain about them. because the stock in Laskys will not last long.
Nicmac, I have just checked that there is 19cm lens shift. so the center of projector lense is 19cm higher than top of the image on the screen. The 'image shift' I mention, gives you 4 cm 'down' or 4 cm 'up' vertical lens shift (of course it is based on my 8ft projector distance). I am using a shelf actually and projector is up side down. But caution! if you want put it on shelf make sure you do not put projector straight on the shelf because top of the projector will get heat up quickly due to lack of air circulation. Therefore I placed it on a sort of container which has big vertical halls keeping projector cool.
Jonstone, you are right. I forgot to mention that. Sharp projector bulbs are always expensive and Z3000 is not an exception. the cheapest one I found was £370!!!! But it will give around 3000 hours in Eco+Quite lamp setting which is a long time. If you watch 2 hours film every single day, bulb will last approximately 5 years.
Zag, I do not see RBE. I know some people get headache from it.

[wizard of oz1]

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...oz2/Bild27.gif
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...z2/Bild27b.gif

[Jonstone]

Originally Posted by wizard of oz1

Jonstone, you are right. I forgot to mention that. Sharp projector bulbs are always expensive and Z3000 is not an exception. the cheapest one I found was £370!!!! But it will give around 3000 hours in Eco+Quite lamp setting which is a long time. If you watch 2 hours film every single day, bulb will last approximately 5 years.

If it came with a guarantee that the bulb would last for 3000 hours then I agree it wouldn't be a problem but bulbs don't always last as long as manufacturers claim

It does however sound like a good price for a decent projector, though I have given up jumping for a product because it seems very cheap. In the av market todays bargain is invariably tomorrows normal price. With increasing numbers of 1080p displays starting to hit the market you can expect to see 720p projectors starting to fall in price so that in a couple of months this really won't seem like a bargain.

[Mad Monk]

If you're in the market for a projector right now and are not sensitive to rainbows and can put up with the projectors throw/placement restrictions, this seems like a great bargain.

I own a Sharp projector and the build quality is excellent on these machines. 3000 hrs rated on the bulb is years of normal viewing. If the bulb does run out you can always buy a cheap replacement from the far east.

I haven't seen one in person but going by the reviews this is a great bit of kit and well worthy of £579.

[MikeK]

Originally Posted by Jonstone

If it came with a guarentee that the bulb would last for 3000 hours then I agree it wouldn't be a problem but bulbs don't always last as long as manufacturers claim

True - in fact when a lamp manufacturer quotes a lamp life, what they usually quote is time to 50% failure rate (median life) - ie if you take 1000 of a particular unit rated at 3000hrs, then c.500 (50%) will fail before 3000hrs, while the other 500 will fail sometime after (assuming the lamps are ALWAYS operated as designed).

Obviously this means that no manufacturer is going to guarantee a 3000hr rated lamp will actually last 3000 hours - they already know beforehand that 50% of the units shipped won't last that long!

[just wondering]

Very tempted with one of these , reviews well and its at a great price , even if you bought it at this price i'd say in 12 months you'd still be able to sell for around 400 , as long as you've not gone crazy with the bulb usage......only thing i have a z4 at the moment which i'm happy with , the reviews still state the sharps is a better projector when compared to a z5 (but not much difference between a z4 and z5)....plus i'm thinking about selling my old 55inch rear pro tv that is downstairs and setting up a 2nd screen just for standard day to day tv viewing , so the z4 would be very useful down stairs , plus it has the all important lens shift ,so z4 downstairs 70-80inch and sharps for upstairs on the bigger screen ......very tempting and a big saving over a 60 inch plasma or lcd panel , which in general i've still to be impressed by , they all seem terrible on SD material on anything over a 50inch..........hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[nero0410]

wizard of oz1

Since the ventalation is on the sides, I wondered if you could let me know how much space (in inches) you can have between the rear of this unit and the wall? (obviuosly allowing sufficiant space for wires)

As I only have about 8-10 inches of space behind mine at the moment as the ventalation is on the rear of the unit and wit the z3000 having it on the sides it would be very handy in my case having just the room for the wireing etc....

Thanks

tris

[cyberheater]

Ok. I've just ordered one of these. Fingers crossed it's not too noisy...

[just wondering]

Well cyber if you've ordered one , i might just do the same , i know your a big fan of the HD70 , so it must be a fairly good deal

What made you go for one of these , considering you have a hd70.

[just wondering]

Just taken the plunge , BUT wont be delivered until the 20th !!!!Next wednesday......... but i'm sure it will be worth the wait....

before i bought the z4 , i had a dlp , i do like my dlp projectors and was really tempted with the idea of a hd70 , so this has got to be a bargin with great reviews to boot.

Cyber when is yours due for delivery?

[cyberheater]

Originally Posted by just wondering

Just taken the plunge , BUT wont be delivered until the 20th !!!!Next wednesday......... but i'm sure it will be worth the wait....

before i bought the z4 , i had a dlp , i do like my dlp projectors and was really tempted with the idea of a hd70 , so this has got to be a bargin with great reviews to boot.

Cyber when is yours due for delivery?

Mines the 19th mate. And the reason for the change is simply the spec and the results from cinemahome.de . The blacks should be a huge improvement on the HD70. I'm really looking forward to it.

[Canary_Jules]

Jeez guys after all the good reviews this Sharp has had and the price it's at I'm wondering if it would be a good move to sell my HD73, buy a Sharp and have circa £500 in my pocket! Any one care to comment about the Sharp's performance relative to the HD73? I achieved a real contrast ratio of about 2900:1 in normal mode (AI) on my calibrated HD73. From what I've read the Sharp would compete well with that...

[cyberheater]

Originally Posted by Canary_Jules

Jeez guys after all the good reviews this Sharp has had and the price it's at I'm wondering if it would be a good move to sell my HD73, buy a Sharp and have circa £500 in my pocket! Any one care to comment about the Sharp's performance relative to the HD73? I achieved a real contrast ratio of about 2900:1 in normal mode (AI) on my calibrated HD73. From what I've read the Sharp would compete well with that...

Have you seen the cinemahome.de review http://www.cine4home.de/tests/projek.../Z3000Test.htm

They say it's something like 4300:1 contrast ratio in high contrast mode and that's calibrated. Very impressive.

[Canary_Jules]

Yes indeed, I saw that! Which makes my deliberations even harder. As far as I can see there's little between the HD73 and the Z3000 - apart from £600! I'd love to try one against my HD73 so I could then make a decision which one to keep.

[Canary_Jules]

Hmmmm..... Lasky's customer services tell me that I could return the PJ within 7 days if it isn't right for me and that right applies even if the unit has been switched on and used. It may be a case of buying it and returning it if it's not up to scratch compared with my HD73!

[just wondering]

Sounds like a win win situation , just the return cost , which i guess would be around 25.00 with the right insurance etc.

[gunark]

Does anyone know if the warranty with it is with Laskys or Sharp. If it's with Sharp does it cover the bulb prematurely expiring within the 1 year? If so I'm sold!

[cyberheater]

Originally Posted by gunark

Does anyone know if the warranty with it is with Laskys or Sharp. If it's with Sharp does it cover the bulb prematurely expiring within the 1 year? If so I'm sold!

Bulbs are normally covered for something like 3 months or normal use. Not for the full year.

[Canary_Jules]

Has anyone gone for the 3 year warranty at £139?