Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent projector, but DirecTV issue
By Steve Noll
Great projector...easy to set up (although it had limited picture adjustments, so you need a good place for it). Great image. I'm projecting it on a 150" screen in dedicated light-controlled room. EXCELLENT 3D...better then I've ever seen (including IMAX). Only real disappointment is that it does not play 1080p24 3D. This is the format DirecTV uses for it's PPV 3D, so new releases like Tangled 3D and Tron Legacy 3D won't play. It's channels, like n3D and 3Net look great and play just fine. Blu rays, of course, look great.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Affordable and Uncompromised 1080p 3D movie experience
By Amazoned
I wanted a big screen like a movie theater, and wanted to utilize all of 1080p, and also full 3D while also be able to play 720p 3D games. This one has the best street price out there by a long shot at around $3K.The concern from reviews were 1) not flexible in positioning (e.g., keystone doesn't work in 3D mode), 2) projection size versus distance, and 3) not bright enough.My setup is a 14.5 x 12 room. Ceiling mounting with a universal mount was good without keystone help. I put the projector 14 feet back and it projects a maximum of 125-inch diagonal 16:9 screen. Not the biggest and widest, but good for my setup.Initially I projects onto an Elite 120-inch screen with 1.1 gain. In the high brightness mode, during a typical sunny day out and a bright window, one can see the screen good enough if it's a bright scene. The darker scene are harder to see. I installed light-blocking curtains. With 90% of the light blocked, and I can see the dark scenes well. In total darkness (e.g., at night), it's obviously quite clear and bright enough.With the brightness turned up, the black is not as black but it's pretty desent. I still ended up returning the Elite screen and bought a Da-Lite Pearlescent 1.5 gain screen. The more reflective property helped to make it much brighter and clearer during the day, and even at night it's a total welcome experience. It's just as bright as a rear-projection TV, and I can turn down the brightness a bit to get a darker black.In 2D 1080p mode, the picture is highly detailed, but "natural" (not artificially sharp like a glass-screened plasma/LED). The DLP experience to me it's as close to theater as it can possibly be. Just wonderful! The Da-Lite 1.5 gain screen has angle viewing limitations of approximately 45 degrees, but that doesn't apply to DLP as I can see the screen very well at 70 degrees.In 3D 1080p mode with included Sharp 3D glasses, the picture look REAL sharp like glass-screened HDTVs (as oppose to "natural"). There is a 3D menu button on the projector. The default depth is 0, and can go +15 or -15. The added depth gives more wow factor but can have ghosting effect and more frequent blur moments (movie dependent).For 720p mode, I can set in natural mode, which projects a smaller screen, or standard mode (full screen). All PS3 games look great in 2D, and 3D (e.g., KillZone 3, Socom 4, Resistance 3) looked sharp through the glasses.Hooking up my laptop via VGA port to the projector shows a clear 1900 x 1200 desktop. From 14 feet back, I can see every detail and can actually work! Hooking up via HDMI through displayPort is a bit less natural as the best way I can put it.3D glasses comparison: The 2 pairs of Sharp AN3DG10 3D glasses are comfortable for movie viewing, but fogged up when I have sweaty eyes during intense game play. The button battery (CR2025) lasted me through more than 20 hours over period of a month. I bought a pair of Xpand 103 glasses and one from 3DTV Corp also. Xpand 103 is made like sports glasses with flexible plastic, and almost wrap around the head. It's also comfortable and best for gaming especially with PS3 Move. The 3DTV Corp is quite cheap in price, but works well also. All three have different comfortable characteristics. I can put each pair on in sequence and feel "refreshing".All in all, I'm very pleased with SharpVision XV-Z17000. I wanted big, clear, and beautiful 1080p full and 3D experience and I got that. The projection coupled with a 1.5 gain screen is bright enough during the day, and nice bright with curtains down for view at night.
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
3d home projection!
By Brad L. Senatore
This review will rely heavily on comparison to my previous experiences with the Optoma HD20. I don't have experience with other projectors, so this is pretty much my only reference point. My review might be ignorant on a number of issues, but all I know is what I do and don't like based on my personal experience with the two projectors.About a year ago, when 3d TVs started popping up in abundance, I was getting very annoyed at the fact that there weren't 3d projectors available or even in sight. The most popular 3d TVs were DLP, so I didn't understand why that would be such a hard thing to translate onto a projector. Makes sense to me. Anyway, I started refusing to watch movies that were available in 3d, until I got my 3d projector. I set a price point, and was not willing to pay above that amount. Lo and behold, this projector shows up right around the area that I set, ready and raring to devastate my pocket book.My previous projector was an Optoma HD20. I can't recommend that projector enough for a 1080p standalone, and honestly, I feel a bit bad betraying it. Alas, 3d is what I always wanted, and here it is.First; the physical aspect of the projector. I couldn't say how heavy the average projector is, so maybe this is ignorance; the XVZ17000 is heavy. More than twice as heavy as the Optoma HD20. I had to add reinforced shelf brackets to my current setup in order to feel safe that my expensive new projector wouldn't fall and break. (Never mind cracking a head, I have health insurance.)I also don't like that the screw holes for ceiling mounting aren't placed very well for proper balancing. Quite a bit of adjustments had to be done in order for proper center of gravity mounting to be obtained. Even then it wasn't perfect, but sufficient.The focus knob has a very nice and stiff feel to it. It feels like it was easier to make small adjustments to obtain perfect focus, whereas the focus knob on the Optoma is quite a bit more loose. However, I felt it was difficult to obtain that really crisp focus, despite the superior knob. I don't know if it is the way the video is projected or not, but I still am slightly dissatisfied with the level of focus on the XVZ17000. The Optoma had a very solid sweet spot where the pixels were very clear and defined if you worked at it a bit. Maybe that's just the perfectionist in me, and I might have to work on it a bit more when the wife doesn't have dinner cooling off as I try to set up the new system.There is a nice sliding cover for the lens, to keep dust out when not in use. I'm a big fan of this sort of thing, as the Optoma had a plastic push in cover that would wreck the focus absolutely every time you put it on or took it off. The XVZ17000 doesn't have anything coming near the focus knob. However, the sliding cover is a bit stiff, and has two notches (open and closed) where it clicks into place. Pulling open the slider from one of these notches takes a bit of force, and if your mount is not very tight, there is some worry that it could pull it slightly out of alignment. I like to close it mostly before the notch, but it won't turn on unless it is slid to the point where the open notch clicks into place.There is the standard set of inputs, nothing special back there. Standard set of buttons as well. The fan on the XVZ17000 is quite loud with eco mode turned off, perhaps a bit louder than the Optoma HD20, but on eco mode it's very quiet. As for the remote, as any remote it will take a bit of getting used to. One thing I loved about the Optoma remote (which I hear a lot of people actually didn't like) was the remote would light up when a button was pressed, allowing you to see all of the available buttons. The remote for the XVZ17000 glows (mildly) in the dark. I suppose in time I will know where they are, but as of now I'm stuck holding it up, trying to use the light from the screen to see what button to press.Now onto the video quality: As I said before, the focus seems difficult to get a very crisp look to it, but it could just be that the projector throws a bit of a soft picture at a 102" screen. It could also be that the contrast levels on the menus and such aren't good enough to see individual pixels compared to the background. The Optoma had a nice white grid setting that could be used for focus, but also the main menu had white on dark blue background which could also be used. Despite that, during movies the picture quality does seem to be good, so perhaps I am just paranoid about the focus. I had to set the focus on the Optoma every time I used it, so I am/was used to refocusing it every time to get a sharp picture, and as I said; I had a bit of trouble doing this with the XVZ17000, so perhaps in the back of my mind I imagine having to do it every time I use it and that unsettles me. On a sharp looking bluray disc, the picture looks great.I do have one or two complaints about the picture quality, and they have to do with brightness levels, or rather perceived brightness levels. I mentioned earlier that the economy setting is quiet, but I honestly don't use it. Maybe I should when I watch DVR shows , and save the projector's lifespan for movies, but I don't think about it. The picture is pretty dark on eco mode, and I know I can get used to it, but the picture without eco mode isn't amazingly bright either. The Optoma is much brighter.Onto the Iris feature: I had this turned on for quite some time because I read online that it is supposed to be a good thing, and many people seem to like it. I have recently turned it off, because I don't. As I mentioned, I'm no projector connoisseur, but it just seems very distracting to me. It makes dark scenes darker, which doesn't make details seem easier to make out, plus it is very jarring when something dark starts to fill up a scene and there is a sudden and very noticeable jump as the iris turns into its dark mode. I don't know how the iris works on other projectors, and it could be just how the feature is in general, but I feel like if it were a more gradual change of some kind instead of the obvious jump in brightness it might be a feature I could use. I finally decided to turn it off while watching the movie Sunshine. In the beginning there is a shot of the sun in the center of the screen bordered by the stark blackness of space. The iris kicked in (not noticeable like I said before, on this instance) and the sun just looked dull. Turning off the iris, and the sun was bright. I've read that the Iris is supposed to hide the illusion that the background is actually a white screen, but perhaps I've just gotten used to that so I'd rather have the brighter contrast.Now for (probably) what most people are even trying to learn about in a review for this: the 3d. I have seen a number of 3d movies in the theatre, so I know what to expect in general. Some movies flaunt the 3d technology with things trying to poke out of the screen at you, and others are more tasteful about the technology, and use it as simply a subtle sense of depth. I personally feel that there is little to no reason why every movie made shouldn't be in 3d. People don't like the glasses and I can understand that, but more than that; people don't like the gimmicky aspect of it. I don't like that it is considered a gimmick, and I don't feel that way about it at all. I have two eyes, and when I look at things I can see where they are in relation to the room where I am. I can see depth, and this isn't a gimmick. Movies are in color now, so let's just continue the progress.Back on topic, my appreciation and love for 3d aside, I am mostly pleased with the 3d quality. However, some people who like the gimmick aspect of 3d might be disappointed. Again, I am no professional projector review, and I haven't had much experience with home 3d, so this could just be a byproduct of the technology, but I find that the sense of objects emerging from the screen is very rare. It could easily be an issue with the size of the screen in comparison to that of a theatre, and I can accept that and get over it, it's just something I noticed. I can count on my hands the number of times I've noticed an object coming out of the screen. I've read that turning up the 3d levels on the remote can increase the depth, and it does that, but it actually seems to just extend the picture further into the screen, essentially eliminating that screen popping effect altogether. Lowering the effect does seem to bring the picture closer, thus making it seem more "in my living room" but it also pulls in the rest of the picture nullifying the sense of depth into the screen. I find that the default setting is the best. There is a scene at the end of Despicable Me that showcases that sort of gimmicky 3d effect, and in that instance it does exactly what is expected. However, that scene is meant specifically to exaggerate the 3d effect and isn't a representation of the effect in general. I must say that on several occasions there has been snow, or rain or dust floating in a scene in a movie, and it seems to be in the room. Once I thought there actually was dust or something in my living room. It was a pretty cool effect.Overall I am pleased with my purchase. I have 3d in my home on my big screen and that is exactly what I wanted. I didn't have to pay and arm and a leg (and wouldn't..) but maybe a few fingers. That's the price to pay for jumping on board with a new technology in its infancy. Could it be better? Yes, it could. Could it be better for the price? Also yes. Am I satisfied for the money I paid anyway? Absolutely.12/02/21 Update : Have to take it in for service.. :/
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Highly recommended - a great projector for the price
