Projector Reviews

Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio: 3,469:1

All the measurements here were taken with the projector in a User mode, adjusted for the most accurate image. The Lamp Control was at its highest setting, the Gamma at 0 (centered), and the Iris in Mode 1.

The full-on/full-off contrast ratio above (sometimes referred to as the peak contrast ratio, the sequential contrast ratio, or the dynamic range) is about average for a good, modern projector—which is to say not state of the art, but impressive nonetheless. With the lamp turned down to its A2 setting, the black level dropped to 0.003 foot-lamberts, and the peak white decreased to 12.73 ft-L, for an image with slightly less pop but a peak contrast ratio of 4,066:1.

The Color Tracking charts show how well a display adheres to the D65 standard white point; the tighter the overlap of the three primary colors, the nearer the result is to D65. The Before Calibration result was taken with the Natural mode selected. In the After Calibration chart, the result is significantly improved.

The color gamut shown in the pie-shaped CIE chart above shows the Sanyo’s highly oversaturated colors. The correct color gamut would comply with the Rec.709 HDTV color standard, shown by the black triangle. Such a wide color gamut rarely looks unnatural to most viewers. It simply looks more richly saturated. But it is not accurate.

The Sanyo’s luma (black-and-white) and chroma (color) HDMI resolution was good but just a hair short of excellent at 1080i/p. It was marginal in 1080i component, excellent in 480i HDMI (within the limits of 480i), and satisfactory at other resolutions.

Overscan never exceeded 0 percent in any HD resolution (either component or HDMI) and was a trivial 1.5 percent maximum on any side in SD.—TJN