Audioholics recently took a look at the excellent Sanyo PLV-Z5 projector, those lucky dogs.

Remember that the PLV-Z5 is a 3LCD projector with a resolution of 1280 x 720. It has a contrast ratio of up to 10,000:1. It has a brightness of 1100 ANSI lumens. This projector has an MSRP of $1,995. It includes two HDMI inputs.

We’ve talked about this projector before. How great it is, how sharp it is. Etc. So I thought I’d just poiunt out that this is one heck of a good projector, and you can’t do much, if any, better for the price. Especailly considering the the $2k is just the MSRP and you could probably get it for much less than that.

Sanyo PLV-Z5 Projector Review

The VPL-VW50 projector’s been making waves. Remember that it’s a 1080p SXRD projector that includes a 1080p HDMI input, excellent contrast ratio, great blacks, and it costs only $5k. Remember also that some have complained about a less-than-sharp pictures, while others have pointed out that you need to turn off a certain factory setting to do with overscan to get a sharp image.

S&V Magazine recently took a look at this projector, let’s see what they thought.

All in all they liked it very much. Though they did have problems with less-than-stellar deinterlacing of 1080i imagery and colour uniformity. The latter, though, was fixed by an adjustment in the service menu. That’s nice to see, but I don’t want to enter the service menu.

Sony VPL-VW50 1080p SXRD Front Projector

I don’t think that I reported on this when the news broke, so you might not know that Westinghouse actually announced a 2160p television. That’s right. Twice the vertical, and also twice the horizontal, resolution of the highest HD standard - 3840 x 2160 pixels. It’s a 52″ LCD display and Westinghouse calls it their Quad HD display.

Never mind that there are currently no mass-market sources that are 3840 x 2160. Nor will there be for the forseeable future. But if that doesn’t bother you, Westinghouse announced a price for their Quad HD - $50k. At least according to Cybertheater.

That’s a lotta dollars for a lotta pixels.

Westinghouse Quad HDTV with 2160p

There are a couple things about a video display that makes it look good. One of those things is the contrast ratio. Historically, CRT has had the best contrast ratio. Ever since, display manufacturers have been trying to match or exceed CRT’s historic contrast ratios. Many manufacturers are doing this with a dynamic iris on projectors. But a flat panel display doesn’t use an iris, so they have to find other ways to do it.

Sharp at CES 2007 showed off a 37″ “Mega-Contrast” premium LCD panel with a supposed 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. (How they would measure that is beyond me.) The Engadget folks said that this set’s black levels looked better than SED televisions (based on the same principles as CRT) they’ve seen.

Ah, we live in interesting times!

Sharp’s 1,000,000:1 Mega-Contrast Premium LCD vs regular LCD

The HDTVExpert, Peter Putman, took a look at the Sharp Aquos LC-52D62U LCD HDTV.

Physically it’s a really nice looking set, with a piano-black finish. It also has two HDMI connectors, and other inputs, but no VGA or DVI inputs. But that’s not what counts, is it. How about the picture? The picture has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.

And how do those pixels look? Well, the set had big problems upscaling SD signals. Even deinterlacing a 1080i signal didn’t work so good.

This 52 inch television is only $4k MSRP (available on the street for much less), but the scaling is so bad you’d need to use an external scaler. So your mileage may vary.

Review: Sharp Aquos LC-52D62U LCD HDTV

“D-ILA” stands for Digital Image Light Amplification. I think… Well, I’m pretty sure the “D” is for “Digital”, at any rate. But the important thing you have to know is that D-ILA is JVC’a LCoS implementation, just like SXRD is Sony’s. LCoS is a good technology base upon which to build televisions, and Sony and JVC have been doing so now for a number of years.

Now JVC is coming out with some super-slim rear-projection televisions based on D-ILA technology, with full 1080p resolution. “The Slim HD-ILA series will include the 58W-inch HD-58S998 ($3,299.95 estimated selling price) and 65W-inch HD-65S998 ($4,199.95), with cabinet depths of 10.7 and 11.6 inches, respectively.”

So they’re not even a foot deep. For all you folks out there who were going to stand-mount your plasma or LCD anyway, this is a great, cheaper, alternative. (You can’t get a 65″ 1080p LCD or plasma for anywhere near $4k.)

The 58″ set is due to arrive in January, while the 65″ set will follow in March.

JVC also introduced a D-ILA projector, the DLA-HD1 (shipping in February at $6,299.95). It has a contrast ratio of 15,000:1, a 2x zoom lens (yay!), and both horizontal and vertical lens shift. It’ll be interesting to see how this piece of kit stacks up to Sony’s $5k VPL-VW50.

JVC Shows Slim-Cabinet D-ILA TVs

We’ve already seen Ultimate AV’s Sneak Peek at the Sony VPL-VW50 “Pearl” projector. They thought it was a very good projector, though other sources have said that it’s many good qualities are outweighed by the lack of detail.

This projector can take the 1080p/24 HD signal on the HDMI input and display it at 96Hz. That means that this projector would work great with any of the HD disc players that can output 1080p/24. (That list does not currently include the PS3, unfortunately.)

But of course, the thing that I was waiting for in this review is how sharp they found the projector. Strangely enough, they found it to be quite good. Fortunately, they also included an explanation! If you turn on the OverScan function, which would “hide the outlines of the picture”, the resolved resolution went way down. This option is on by default. Interesting, very interesting…

To sum up, the VPL-VW50 is an excellent excellent projector. You can’t go wrong buying this thing, just remember to turn off the OverScan feature.

Sony VPL-VW50 “Pearl” Projector SXRD Projector

Engadget HD recently took a good long look at the Panasonic PT-AX100U LCD projector. Remember that this projector is the successor to the successful PT-AE900U, and has a resolution of 1280 x 720, horizontal and vertical lens shift, and a 2x zoom lens.

Those Engadget HD folks don’t beat around the bush, either. They say right up front that they like this projector, and think that it’s one of the best bargains to be had at the $3k (MSRP) price point. The projector has an amazing picture, no screen door effect, and of course an HDMI input. What more could you want?

Check out the full review below.

Engadget HD Review: Panasonic PT-AX100U

ProjectorReviews.com took a look at one of the hottest new 1080p projectors around, the Panasonic PT-AE1000U. It’s a 1080p 3LCD projector not to be confused with the 720p little brother, the PT-AX100U. Why they decided to name them so similarly is beyond me. This 1080p has an MSRP of $6k, but you might be able to find it for as low as $4k, making it the cheapest 1080p projector option around. It has a contrast ratio of 11,000:1, 1100 ANSI lumens, a 2:1 zoom lens, and both horizontal and vertical lens shift.

Projector Central recently reviewed this PT-AE1000U projector as well. They said that on SD material it was stunning, but on HD material it was good but slightly soft. ProjectorReviews thought it looked good as well, noticed the softness issue, but had some different caveats. The unit may have been damaged, giving the picture a slight discoloration that shift across the screen. The brightness isn’t very good, so you can’t have any ambient light when watching. On the other hand, pixels are invisible, the projector is quiet, and the picture quality was good out of the box.

For more, follow the link!

Panasonic PT-AE1000U Review