A Projector Bewitched : Sanyo PLV 70

I use my Sanyo PLV-70 in a room built specifically for watching movies but I also occasionally watch sports and other television programs when I’m in the mood for the large screen effect. Before purchasing my Sanyo PLV-70 I did a little bit of research because I didn’t want to spend too much yet I wanted to have a projector that was loaded in options. I went ahead and purchased it last year for about $4500 and I haven’t been happier.

I use it in a room in my basement that is virtually pitch black because I have doors that shut out the light. Unfortunately I didn’t have the option of turning it into a real “darkroom”, which my neurotic side told me to do by adding the right angle hallway door to eliminate all light, because that would have been expensive to add. With this being said, the PLV-70 probably doesn’t need to be totally isolated to take advantage of its power. It can produce a brilliant light with its 2200 ANSI lumens and I have tested this by taking my projector on the road, so to speak.

I have a decent sized backyard and during the warmer dry nights last summer I brought it outside and projected the image onto a screen that I had purchased. Sometimes we would start the movie while there was still light out (my kids have a curfew thank you), and it really wouldn’t be a problem. Combined with a contrast ratio of 900:1, which is still better than many new projectors, the PLV-70 delivers wonderful color saturation and a very smooth, non-gritty picture. Unless you watch from a very close distance, which my kids sometimes do, it is hard to tell that there is any kind of screen-door pattern.

To take advantage of its native resolution of 1366x768p it also has a DVI input and this is coming from a projector that was built in a time when inputs were lacking. Way to go Sanyo! The brighter can be attributed to the 200W projector lamp that the PLV-70 employs. Like I said, watching movies with ambient light are no problem with this baby although I just replaced my projector lamp and that was a doozy.

I was re-visiting my DVD collection the other day and I broke out good old Terminator 2, Arnold and his exoskeleton never looked so sharp especially in relation to the ultra black scenes. The only thing that I might consider to be a slight problem is the fan noise, sitting at 35db’s, but this is hardly noticeable when I turn up my thumping sound system.

Overall it is a good projector but you must be prepared for its setbacks and know how to work your way around them! After all, I did!