First Look at Sanyo’s New 4LCD Projector

The PLC-XP200L is currently available at $9,995.

The PLC-XP200L is rated at an amazing 7,000 lumens with an impressive high contrast ratio of 2,200:1.

Sanyo, who has been producing front projectors for many years and is considered one of the world’s largest manufacturers of LCD and DLP projectors, is going “one step beyond” by creating a completely new optical engine, called 4LCD. While other manufacturers are focusing solely on 720p or 1080p models, Sanyo is looking for ways to differentiate itself from the pack of projector brands. Currently, the market for front projectors is divided into 90-pecent commercial and 10-percent home theater. Technological innovations, therefore, come to the commercial sector first before trickling down to the home cinema arena. 

The demand for brighter projectors continues to come from the field as systems integrators are asked to install video displays in extremely large venues such as convention halls, conference rooms, auditoriums, houses of worship, and large home theaters. The problem has arisen, however, as to how to increase brightness levels on 3LCD projectors, but not dilute the colors on screen. Up until now there has been a reverse effect in color reproduction as brightness is added to 3LCD projectors. As 3LCD projectors become brighter, colors become noticeably washed out, lacking vibrancy and realism. What to do?

4LCD – How Does It Work?
Sanyo has come up with what it believes is a unique and perfect solution. 4LCD builds upon standard 3LCD optical engines by improving color reproduction with something the company calls “QuaDrive.” The QuaDrive optical engine makes a noticeable difference in shades of color that contain yellow, and range from green to red. According to the company, its goal is to produce more photorealistic images.

Sanyo’s QuaDrive system (see image below) starts with a conventional 3LCD optical engine, which is comprised of a lamp, light integrators, three dichroic filters, three LCD panels, and a combining prism. Then, it adds a fourth, single pixel LCD panel to filter and pass yellow spectral energy as needed. Basically, 4LCD adds a Color Control Device to conventional 3LCD (red/green/blue) systems. In other words, the additional Color Control Device in the 4LCD optical engine allows a projector to automatically control the amount of yellow light in the image, producing higher luminosity with improved color accuracy and clarity. It works by slightly changing the spectral response of a conventional 3LCD engine. Sanyo’s new Color Control Device (the 4th LCD) panel gives the viewer shades of colors that are apparently closer to what is seen in the real world under natural daylight, which the manufacturer believes gives the viewer a more photorealistic image.

Reportedly, color gamut isn’t the only thing affected by adding the Color Control Device. According to Sanyo, image brightness also increases by as much as 20-percent, while image contrast remains about the same. It should also be noted that Sanyo’s QuaDrive system does not require a special projection lamp to achieve its goal. Conventional short-arc lamps used in other projectors will work just fine. According to the company, the lamp’s inherent spectral imbalance is corrected by the specially-tuned dichroic filters, which results in higher frequency response in greens and yellows.

Sanyo PLC-XP200L
The first projector to launch this innovative new 4LCD engine is Sanyo’s PLC-XP200L. The PLC-XP200L is rated at an amazing 7,000 lumens. Coupled with the impressive high contrast ratio of 2,200:1, the PLC-XP200L is capable of generating clearer, richer and more realistic images than was ever possible with high brightness 3LCD projectors. For a first offering, this projector offers a screen resolution of 1024 x 768, and an aspect ratio of 4:3. While the PLC-XP200L is a commercial projector, Sanyo expects to offer a widescreen (16:9) home theater version with 1080p resolution next year. The PLC-XP200L is currently available at $9,995.00.

Sanyo has also developed a new high-speed image compensating LSI for the 4LCD engine. The combination of the 4LCD engine and the new LSI allows for up to a reported 20-percent more color space than conventional projectors. With the controlled yellow light, Sanyo’s Advanced Color Correction technology separates each color histogram for additional color processing and correction, resulting in beautiful and naturally rich colors.

Additionally, the PLC-XP200L is equipped with a high-output, single lamp that is designed for exceptional light efficiency. Aside from generating sharper and brighter displays in large halls and meeting rooms, the 4LCD design is well suited for digital signage and advertising in brightly lit environments. So, Sanyo’s seemingly innovative solution appears to overcome the limitations of 3LCD technology by opening the way for new projectors capable of extremely high luminosity without the trade off in color accuracy.

For quick and easy installation the XP200L is outfitted with a motor driven vertical and horizontal lens shift. Up/Down/Left/Right lens shift ensures image projection at any angle of up to 360-degrees, allowing ceiling or floor image projection. A special mechanical shutter is also placed behind the lens and activated by the remote control, which allow the user to close the lens and temporarily darken the screen.

Maintenance and dust have always been problems for front projectors, and Sanyo has come up with an intriguing solution. Sanyo has also included its proprietary Active Maintenance Filter (AMF) with this projector. AMF is a single filter cartridge that contains ten lengths of filtering material plus an airflow sensor to detect when airflow is obstructed by dust. The AMF system automatically advances a clean section of filter when needed. When the last section of filter material becomes obstructed an on-screen graphic appears telling the user to change the cartridge. Each filter lasts approximately 10,000 hours with a cartridge lifecycle of about 2 years (calculation based on 14 hrs/day projector use). The filters are easy to replace due to the side loading access on the projector. To further increase reliability and performance, the PLC-XP200L uses Sanyo’s unique Durable Inorganic Optical System (DIOS).
An optional feature available for the PLC-XP200L is the PJ-NET ORGANIZER, which allows the PLC-XP200L to be connected to a wired network via Ethernet. Using the PJ-NET MASTER software all projector functions such as power status, lamp status, input mode, signal condition, lamp-use time, etc. can be monitored and controlled from a remote location. The lens is sold separately, and five optional lenses are available.

There is also an abundance of digital/analog video input terminals including a DVI-D (digital and analog video), component video and D-Sub15. The input signal compatibility includes UXGA, SXGA+, SXGA, WXGA, XGA, SVGA, VGA, and MAC. It is also compatible with HD resolutions including 1080i 50/60, 1035i, 720p as well as standard definition (480p, 480i, 575p, 575i). The projector uses a NSHA 330W projection lamp. Housed in black cabinetry, the unit measures 14.57 (W) x 7.36 (H) x 17.32(D) inches, and weighs 25.1 lbs.

Preliminary Impression
My first impression of this display device is of a projector that offers deep, rich colors with improved black levels over standard 3LCD projectors. Movie content from several blockbusters (Pirates of the Caribbean, Spiderman, Superman Returns, among others) utilizing Blu-ray Disc technology were placed on the screen for perusal. What was surprising is the fact the room was not completely dark, but that there was quite a bit of ambient light streaming into the room from an open doorway. Even in this lighting situation, the display images were quite vibrant. In a darkened setting, the colors would literally jump off of the screen.

I think that Sanyo may be on to something here with its 4LCD optical engine. It certainly holds great promise for home theater projectors. While the current incarnation—the PLC-XP200L – is not appropriate for your favorite home theater, I suspect that its successor model will. The current model, however, would be just the ticket for a large educational, academic or business venue. And, hopefully, by CEDIA next year its 1080p big brother version will burst onto the scene bringing 4LCD to a home theater near you.