Sharp XV-Z12000 Home Cinema Projector Review
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Sharp XV-Z12000 Review
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The first factor we should address in this review is contrast since Sharp claim a whopping 5500:1 contrast ratio in best conditions for the XV-Z12000. And yes, it is a significant improvement over the Z10000's 2600:1, and quite easily betters the Mitsubishi's (HD2+ chipped) HC2000's 3600:1 too. The picture is shockingly close to the highest pedigree CRT offerings in-fact, even with minimum picture quality adjustment from Sharp's recommended out-of-the-box settings. We used “Black Detail” Gamma mode, and toyed with “White Enhance” on and off - after tweaking brightness and contrast for both we were happiest with White Enhance on. The IRIS was easily adjustable - a dedicated button on the remote toggled quickly between modes: “Medium” worked best in “lounge” conditions but as so many Z12000's will go into dedicated rooms we ran the rest of the review in full Cinema mode which gave the projectors lowest light output and highest contrast level (quite surprisingly "Medium" offered a very high contrast level too). Even though this mode requires absolute minimal ambient light, with some dimmed reading lights the image was still hugely alive and vibrant with whites looking almost unaffected by the change. |
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DIY calibrators will love the menu system this time round. Every aspect of picture quality adjustment is within a few clicks of the remote (many more being present in the standard menu than with earlier models), with each attribute having a seemingly unbounded range with very smooth adjustment to give more than enough control over the image. The menu system is easily navigated with colour, gamma and general settings having a couple of custom memories each. Physical installation is simple enough with a wide lens shift range (plus or minus one screen height) and digital keystone adjustment (not that it's recommended!). While we did note that this isn't the quietest of the big DLPs we've seen (the Mitsubishi HC2000 currently has that award!), it certainly isn't obtrusively noisy and will barely be noticed in a permanent ceiling installation (except to admire it's gorgeous looking case!!).
Inputs are simple and effective. A single DVI-I socket (for HDCP DVI or Analogue RGB), two sets of 5 RCA plugs which can accept Component, full RGBHV or RGBs (from RGB scart sources), a single composite and single S-Video which will rarely be used! |
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So did the picture cut it? We've certainly seen that the contrast is significantly higher than others of this league (although I doubt that we were looking at a full 5500:1 contrast image), and I can certainly say it has it in the black level stakes. What also separates the Z12000 from other HD2+ projectors is it‘s undeniably accurate colour reproduction. From the moodiest Sci-Fi demo material, to vast outdoor scenes, to outright fantasy even, the Z12000 faithfully reproduced every skin tone, every natural colour and every texture to what I have to say was more than our satisfaction. |
When the Z12000 was fed some basic interlaced material (courtesy of a Netgem Freeview decoder and the interlaced output of our DVD spinner), Sharps own video processing engine went into overdrive and produced a slick image, with bags of unforced detail and very few errors. How the Z12000 will deal with High Definition material I can't possibly imagine, needless to say it will be very hard to beat!!!
Before seeing the Sharp XV-Z12000 we didn't expect Sharp to list it at almost £8000, but we can honestly say you do get your money's worth. No other projector similarly priced to this one faithfully reproduces an image quite like this and I am sure it will find pride of place in many a happy AV Enthusiasts home!