Sanyo has three 1080p video projectors: the PLV-Z2000, the PLV-Z3000 and the one we're looking at here, the PLV-Z700.  It's the most basic model in the range, and is a close rival of the Epson EMP-TW980.

Hardware
Sanyo's video projectors are always great examples of design that some other manufacturers could learn a lot from.   Nothing is left out, with two HDMI ports and two component video links providing all the connectivity you'll need.

What's more, the PVZ700 is incredibly quiet, and we found that it ran at only 24 dB on average.  The downside, though, is that's fairly sizeable: at 400 x 154 x 346 mm and 7.5 kg on the scales, this isn't a projector that will go unnoticed in your sitting room.  It also rules out the PVZ700 for use on the road as a mobile projector.

The focus follows the zoom, which is a nice detail that we're always glad to see.  Power consumption is around 1.1 W in standby, increasing to 201 W during normal use; in Eco mode, it's 161 W.

The remote control is back-lit and has a number of useful shortcut buttons.  It's the same as the one that ships with the PLV-Z2000, but we've got nothing to complain about there.  

Finally, despite how big it is, there's no built-in speaker.

Image Quality
In dynamic mode, moving from a very bright scene to a very dark scene causes the projector's iris to contract sharply, producing a very slight--but still noticeable--jump, that won't go unnoticed to the trained eye.

Nevertheless, we recommend keeping the projector in dynamic mode as this gives darker blacks, improving contrast.  In our tests, we found that black averaged a brightness of around 0.23 cd/m², which is a reasonably good score.

Despite this, though, black bars above and below the image took on a blue tinge and stood out against the projection screen in dark rooms.  The result is that movies with a lot of dark interior scenes end up looking a little washed out.  


When it comes to upscaling Standard Definition sources, Sanyo's algorithms are applied quite rigidly to produce a sharp image, which sometimes looks a little pixellated.  It's the opposite approach to Epson, whose upscaling blurs out these imperfections.  Neither solution is perfect,  so it's up to you to decide which you find the most pleasing to the eye.

Sanyo PLV-Z700 or Epson EMPTW980?

Sanyo's video projector definitely has the better-quality hardware, with more HDMI inputs, less noise and lower power consumption.  The zoom and lens shift both work very well, too.

That leaves the quality of the images--and the main battle ground here is the upscaling of SD sources. As we mentioned, both manufacturers take a different approach, with Sanyo going for a sharp, very geometric image, while Epson blurs out some of the detail.

Epson holds the advantage when it comes to portability, as its EMPTW800 is much smaller and much lighter than this PLV-Z700, and its more realistic blacks.