Price: $4,999 At a Glance: Vivid, bright picture • Good black level and contrast • Excellent color with PC-accessible picture controls
The new XV-Z30000, however, retains and even improves upon that earlier design’s strengths. It doesn’t eliminate all of its weaknesses, but it puts some of the most significant ones to rest. While it resembles its predecessor in some ways, by and large it’s a clean-sheet redesign.
Description
The XV-Z30000 is a compact, single-chip, DLP design. Its lens is mounted front and center, protected by a clear cover. The latter remains in place when the projector is in use, with the picture projected through it.
The roughly 2:1 zoom ratio can fill a 100-inch-diagonal, 16x9 screen at throw distances from 10 feet, 4 inches to 20 feet, 9 inches. (Sharp has conveniently provided formulas for this in the owner’s manual: for a 16:9 screen, minimum distance = 0.1032 x screen diagonal; maximum distance = 0.2079 x screen diagonal.) The lens’ zoom, focus, and shift (vertical and horizontal) are all motorized—a major upgrade from the manual lens in the XV-Z17000. Just as significant, the lens offset in the new model offers a much more practical range of vertical mounting positions. The older projector had to be placed either very low or very high to fill the screen without producing keystone distortion (a trapezoidal rather than a clean, rectangular image). There is a keystone control here (horizontal and vertical), but with lens shift it’s not needed. (Keystone correction reduces image resolution and is always best avoided.)
Another new feature is a lens memory with two different settings. Each of them saves not only zoom, focus, and shift, but most other important picture settings as well, including Picture Mode. I did find that minor lens shift tweaks were needed when I switched between the memories. But this feature is nevertheless a godsend for users who have need of it, such as using the zoom method to go from a 16:9 to a 2.35:1 screen.
The exhaust vents are located along the curved front of the chassis. There’s a significant amount of light leakage from these vents—not enough to affect the onscreen image but enough to be annoying, depending on the viewer’s location relative to the projector. The XV-Z30000 isn’t as quiet as the latest, near-silent
Sony or JVC designs, but even with its lamp on high (Eco+Quiet Off), while standing 3 to 4 feet from the projector, the fan noise was masked by most soundtracks and was never distracting.
The Sharp refreshes at 120 hertz (60 Hz for each eye in 3D). In either 2D or 3D, the projector converts 24 fps (frames per second) sources—essentially all movies on Blu-ray—to 60 Hz by adding 3:2 pulldown. This isn’t the best approach, as it throws away the advantages of 24 fps (which avoids frame judder). But on a wide range of program material, it produced no obvious visible artifacts.
Each of the 11 Picture Modes can be set up separately for 2D and 3D. I worked with User1 and User2 for 2D, and Dynamic (3D) for 3D. Using Dynamic mode doesn’t exactly send a thrill up a video perfectionist’s leg (more likely a chill), but you need all the brightness you can get with any projector for 3D, provided it doesn’t do serious damage to the image. Dynamic mode also engages the Bright Boost control—a control I’d never recommend for 2D.
A CLR Temp (color temperature) control offers five fixed-white balance settings. Finer adjustments, which you’ll need for a precise calibration, were limited in my sample to single overall red, green, and blue controls, not high and low. The adjustment possible with two so-called CMS (color management system) controls was even more limited. Each can deal with just one color, chosen by the user. After hours of tedious fiddling, with test tools at hand, I decided the visible benefit of these CMS controls was so subtle and inadequate that I left them off for all the results presented here.
The single color temperature/grayscale adjustments, however, proved more useful than you might expect, since the grayscale deviations out of the box were relatively uniform across the brightness range. After a few hundred hours of use, however, that might not necessarily be the case. It will depend on how consistently the projection lamp degrades with age at high and low brightness levels.
There are two iris controls. Iris1 (Manual) offers just two fixed settings: High Brightness and High Contrast. Iris2 (Auto) engages a dynamic iris that closes down on darker scenes to enhance the projector’s black level.
The Eco+Quiet control switches between the high- and low-lamp modes. Sharp claims a lamp life expectancy (to half brightness) of 3,000 hours with Eco+Quiet set to On (low lamp), but does not specify the life expectancy with it off (high lamp). A critical viewer will likely want to use the lamp on high with a screen of the most preferred sizes, and should plan on replacing it much sooner than its specified life—perhaps in as little as 1,000 hours. The MSRP for a replacement lamp is $500.
A gamma control offers five different fixed settings. The -1 position ultimately worked best for me in 2D, but other settings were useful on some sources. The measured gamma is a little non-uniform with Iris2 selected (Auto), but that’s typical for a dynamic iris. The projector also offers Custom Gamma control, but this proved less useful than I had hoped
Color and Detail Enhancement controls offered no improvement in the accuracy of the Sharp’s images, so I left them both at their minimum positions. There’s also a separate Anamorphic control (directly accessible on the remote control) for those who plan to use the Sharp with an anamorphic lens.
The projector offers no motion smoothing/motion interpolation. DLP projectors, despite their high operating speed, can’t totally eliminate motion smear, but they are generally a little better at it than other projection technologies. In any case, since I never use motion interpolation, even when it’s included, I didn’t miss it here.
A Reset control returns all of the settings for the mode you’re in to their factory default settings. But be careful. There is no “Are you sure you want to reset this mode?” warning. On two occasions, I accidentally reset all of the controls while making some fine adjustments. Luckily, I’d written down all the settings—a word to the wise.
A 3D menu offers controls to turn 3D off or on (although it will come on automatically when the projector senses a 3D source), select the appropriate 3D mode when necessary, and enhance or subdue the 3D depth in 16 steps. There is no 2D-to-3D conversion mode.
The Sharp XV-Z30000 comes standard with two pair of active glasses and an external IR 3D transmitter to activate them. The glasses offer the option of turning off the 3D effect for individual viewers who may find 3D uncomfortable, allowing them to see a 2D picture without a double image.
The remote lacks backlighting but can directly access each of the projector’s inputs (including two HDMI), select or deselect the two iris modes, change the Eco+Quiet (lamp) setting, cycle through the picture modes, adjust the most often used picture controls, activate the lens memory modes, and more.
2D Performance
All of the testing and viewing of the Sharp XV-Z30000 was done with between 100 and 225 hours on its projection lamp. The projector’s HD video processing was good (see the Video Test Bench). The 2:2 HD failure was borderline.
While I alternated on occasion between the two screens available to me—a 101-inch-wide, 2.35:1 Elite (specified 1.1 gain) and a 78-inch-wide, 16x9 Stewart StudioTek 130 (specified 1.3 gain), the Elite saw the heaviest duty. The observations here, unless noted otherwise, reflect the results on that larger screen. The low-lamp setting (Eco+Quiet on) was far too dim for use on a low-gain, 101-inch screen, so I chose high (Eco+Quiet off). I also set Iris1 to High Brightness, which together with the high-lamp mode produced a peak 2D brightness of about 20 foot-lamberts on the Elite. I actually had to turn down the Contrast control by several steps to get the level this low: This is one very bright projector! I would have preferred a multistep adjustment for Iris1 instead of the two fixed options.
I did all of my viewing with Sharp’s auto iris (Iris2) engaged. Automatic (dynamic) irises can dramatically improve the peak (full-on/full-off or sequential) contrast ratio, but they don’t always do so without side effects, such as obvious pumping of the image brightness as the iris opens and closes. However, the XV-Z30000’s auto iris (Iris2) worked beautifully. The only times I thought I caught a hint of it operating turned out to be in the source material itself.
Similarly, the ubiquitous single-chip, DLP rainbow effect (brief, random, and annoying flashes of rainbow-like color) was virtually absent here. The Sharp uses a six-segment (RGBRGB) color wheel operating at 5x, or 150 revolutions per second (6x or 180 rps in 3D). In dozens of hours of watching, I can’t recall a single serious attack of the rainbows, and I’ve always been hypersensitive to them. Some individuals are not.
Out of the box, and after properly setting its Brightness, Contrast, and Sharpness controls, the Sharp produced a subjectively good picture. Its color balance was definitely off, but not in a way that would be obvious to most viewers. Once the lamp had settled in, however, a full calibration improved matters significantly. But as noted earlier, short of that new firmware, there were simply not enough color controls, with sufficient flexibility, to massage the projector into a first-class calibration.
The most serious offender was the color gamut. The location of green, in particular, was oversaturated and pulled slightly toward yellow. This slices off some required colors on the left side of the CIE chart (see HT Labs Measures), colors that are needed for an accurate HD (Rec. 709) color gamut. This green position, according to my ISF contacts, can also add as much as 20 percent to a projector’s brightness.
Was the Sharp’s color, to the eye, truly awful? Not at all. Post-calibration, the grayscale was both measurably and subjectively respectable. While the color gamut was definitely off target, the deviations were not anywhere near as visible as you might expect. The oversaturated reds made bright-red objects pop a bit too much, magenta edged toward purple, and cyan was a bit undersaturated. But the average viewer will not likely notice any of this and will be fine with the Sharp’s color as is. The poppy red fan club has a large, happy membership.
Still, I wasn’t happy that I couldn’t hit the HD standard dead-on. The fussy videophile (like me) can hope for the day when Sharp at least provides a full set of white balance/grayscale controls (high and low), and a full color management system that works properly, with full adjustments for the three primary and three secondary colors.
Improving on the Sharp’s color would be a big deal, because in all other respects, this projector blew me away. I wasn’t impressed with the earlier XV-Z17000, but the changes Sharp has made with this new model, both functional (a better dynamic iris in particular) and ergonomic (full motorized lens adjustments, with memories), puts it squarely in the home theater projector race.
The Sharp’s picture is as detailed as any projector I’ve reviewed, and sharper than most. That includes some far more expensive models. Its sharpness extended across the full width of the 101-inch Elite screen; when viewed close up, the pixels at the edges were very nearly as well defined as those at the center. Single-chip DLPs have an inherent advantage here over LCD and LCOS designs, since with only one imaging device, there are no panel-alignment issues. Chromatic aberration—a lens artifact that can produce misalignment of the colors as well, particularly as you move away from center—was not totally absent . But it was not an issue.
The Sharp’s black level, even with its dynamic iris engaged, was not quite as deep as in the best of the recent
Sony and JVC projectors. But it was nevertheless very good (see HT Labs Measures).
The result of these strengths, which was not really compromised subjectively by the projector’s inaccurate color, was compelling performance on a wide range of material. Despite its shaky-cam cinematography, Battle Los Angeles looked terrific. It’s a mostly brightly lit film and was consistently crisp and sharp. Its inherent color balance is subdued in most scenes, but its flesh tones on the Sharp looked natural and believable. War Horse, apart from its battle sequences, is far more colorful. The green of the British countryside looked realistic and not in any way cartoonish (turning the Color control down a few steps helped). The special features on this box set, all of them in HD, looked even better. The outtakes from the film, the behind-the-scenes shots, and the talking-head interviews looked truly spectacular on the Sharp.
As for black level and shadow detail, only the darkest, lowest-contrast scenes turned a little foggy. But such scenes are rare, and very few projectors I’ve reviewed can do significantly better with them. In any event, you will want to use the dynamic iris. Without it, the dark scene performance was significantly degraded. With it, the gloomiest scenes in, for example, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 were rich and deep, with fine shadow detail.
3D Performance
Sharp claims this projector produces a bright, punchy 3D image, and in a relative sense that’s true. But also true is the fact that there is a dramatic loss of brightness from 2D levels, even in the Dynamic Picture Mode. In that respect, the XV-Z30000 is little different from most 3D displays we’ve tested.
But even the Sharp’s 3D was punchier than you might expect—more so than many of its competitors. One reason for this is its relatively low gamma in 3D (mostly under 2.0 at best). A low gamma lightens the middle of the brightness range and gives the impression of a brighter image, despite a low peak-white level. The dark 3D glasses help minimize the image washout a low gamma can often produce.
The Sharp’s convincing and satisfying 3D images were also notably free of ghosting. On The Adventures of Tintin, reviewed on page 77, it worked beautifully, offering some of the best 3D I’ve seen—a credit both to the source material and the projector. Ditto the remarkable, live action plus CGI on Legends of Flight, a 3D IMAX documentary about the building of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
In much of the 3D I watched on the Sharp, I went back and forth as to whether I preferred the 3D versions, with their greater depth, to the 2D versions with their much higher punch and brightness. As usual, I came down on the side of 2D brightness. But watching 3D on the Sharp was great fun, and I never regretted the time I spent doing it.
Conclusions
Ultimately, the Sharp misses a Top Pick selection by a nose, largely because of its color issues and value. I could have easily gone either way with the call. But my video perfectionist side won out on color. On the value side, both the Sony VPL-HW30ES and the JVC DLA-X30 are available, similarly equipped, for about $1,000 less. Both offer superior color and deeper black levels, although they are arguably less achingly crisp, somewhat less bright (but bright enough), and more prone to 3D ghosting than the Sharp.
You pay
your money and you take your choice. But I enjoyed my time with the Sharp so much that I could easily live with it indefinitely if I had no need for more accurate color or state-of-the-art blacks. I do have these needs, but if you’re not a video perfectionist, or even if you are, you owe it to yourself to see this projector.
Back in the day when all home projectors that mattered were DLPs and priced at more than $10,000, Sharp produced one of the best on the market, the XV-Z20000. These days, price pressures have made the boundaries more restrictive, but if the XV-Z30000 is any indication, Sharp could yet do it again.
(Editor’s note: At press time, upon seeing our review for fact check, Sharp suddenly informed us that new service menu “firmware has been added to the XV-Z30000 to provide full CMS control of all the primary and secondary colors.by thomas j norton
After securing each of the speakers' aluminum bases, I connected them to my current reference system, which consists of the spectacular Cary Cinema 12 processor, which I recently reviewed, an Integra DTA-70.1 multi-channel amp, an Oppo BDP-93 Blu-ray player, a Cambridge Audio DacMagic, a MacBook Pro and a Music Fidelity V-Link USB to S/PDIF converter. For playback software, I used Stephen Booth's Decibel, a solid audio upgrade over iTunes that will only set you back $33. All of the cabling came courtesy of WireWorld.
The Downside
Conclusion
Crisp, Clear Moving Pictures
Ultimate Black Even in Any Condition
Richer Black Details
Smooth Reproduction of Web Movies
Easily Convert 2D Images into 3D
Turn Your Living Room into a 3D Theater
Image Calibration Customized to Your Home
A New TV Sound Experience
Change the Way You Operate
Change the Way You Operate
Takes You to a New World
Large-Screen Web Browsing with Your Family
Neat and Comfortable Wireless Internet Connection
A Home Network Linking the Entire House
Get More Excitement Out of Gaming
Play Various Types of Formats Easily
One Remote Controls Them All
Environment-Friendly Panel
Years of Beautiful Images
