If brightness-to-price ratios were the only standard by which a projector were chosen for churches, the new Sanyo PLC-XM150 would be a top contender. At 6,000 lumens and with a street value of about $5,000 the XM-150 provides a lot of brightness per buck. However, the limited resolution (XGA - 1024x768) is a significant jump backwards to a picture quality that represented the average projector ten years ago.
Today's Windows and Mac personal computers start with both higher resolutions (1280x800, 1440x900 and, becoming more common, the crisp and beautiful 1920x1200) and are widescreen (16:10 aspect ratio). Compared to the old-fashioned 4:3 aspect ratio of the XM-150, these new computers have people accustomed to the benefits of wide-screen. Most notable in churches is the advantage of widescreen for displaying more lyrics per line, making songs easier to follow. Though the projector does a good job at handling widescreen modes, both the picture quality and image height is reduced by 25% through blacking out the top and bottom pixels in order to make the image wide.
Still, the image processing is solid, and the colors are bright and vivid thanks to the proven inorganic LCD technology. The contrast ratio is rated at 1,000:1, which simply means the whitest white is 1,000 times brighter than the blackest "black" (projecting light means you can't project true black, since that's an absence of light). For a budget projector, this is a good ratio. The contrast ratio is often misunderstood as it makes less of a difference for computer images than it does for video content, where contrast ratio really counts. Image uniformity was very good, partly due to the mature LCD light engine and also due to the standard zoom lens. There was no "hot spot" at the center of the image, which can happen with some economical projectors.
Making such a bright projector economical means trade-offs, such as resolution, but Sanyo has put a lot of extras into the XM-150, further increasing the value, but not the cost. At a glance, here are some nice features of the projector:
* Interchangeable lenses (great for close-up or long zoom applications)
* Unique Active Maintenance Filter - a cartridge that contains 10 filter rolls rated at 10,000 hours use.
* Mechanical shutter (physically blocks the lens light output for scenes without projection)
* Generous horizontal and vertical lens shift (great for off-axis projection)
* Three inputs with DVI, HD-15 pin, 5 connector BNC, S-video and RCA component/composite video
* 3,000-hour lamp
* Optional PJ-NET organizer for network control of the projector
The projector handled a wide variety of input types and resolutions well, but HD video playback (720P, 1080i and 1080p) looked pixelated due to the limited resolution of the unit. Out of the box, the unit seemed to really crush the black levels, but simple controls via the remote control allowed for adjustments to fix the image. Additionally, on the MacBook Pro I tested it on for computer graphics, the default image color profile was to blame. The Mac recognized the projector and auto-assigned the XM-150 profile, but it simply looked awful. Building a custom profile solved the problem.
The projector was not terribly loud for the first hour of testing, but after heating up the lamp, switching the fan to Max mode created a lot of noise.. Too much noise, in fact, for a classroom setting. In a medium to large auditorium or even rear-projected, the noise factor would not be an issue.
Finally, the remote control was limited to about 20-foot distances for consistent performance. For longer situations, it can be wired (three wire, not the standard two wire) to the projector.
SUMMARY
For budget-minded churches with existing 4:3 aspect ratio screens, the 6,000-lumen brightness at around five-grand is a very affordable projector. However, for churches wanting to move up to widescreen, the XGA resolution keeps this unit from being on the recommended list of projectors.
Company: Sanyo Product: PLX-XM150 LCD Projector Phone: (888) 337-1215 URL:www.us.sanyo.com Suggested Retail Price: $5,460
