PLC-XT16 Features & Favorites

We had a limited amount of time to play with the Sanyo PLC-XT16 projector, but I wanted to give it a brief run-through in a context that comes up a lot on our forums and in discussions with custom installers. We took a look at this bright, flexible Sanyo projector from the perspective of installing it in a house of worship (that's a church to us Southerners). The Sanyo seems well-suited to the task and indeed my church already uses two older PLC-series projectors with much success.

Goals of a Good Church Projector

In a house of worship you are looking for a couple of key items:

Ability to project a bright image, even with some (or even significant) ambient light

• Low noise for a near silent ceiling mount install
• A plethora of video input options
• Long range-capable remote so that projectors mounted to 14'ceilings can be controlled without having to walk up to the projector and jam the remote at the IR sensor
• Easy access to lamp and dust filter(s)

The Sanyo had all of these items covered with the exception of fan noise, which was excessive if you were utilizing the projector at maximum output. If you plan on doing this, we recommend making sure that parishioners aren't going to be distracted by the noise (doubtful if your worship service doesn't have extended periods of silence). If noise is a problem, experiment with sacrificing some brightness which will knock the fan down to a near-silent noise output level.

Features and Favorites

The Sanyo PLC-XT16 is not short on features and here are some of the ones that popped out to me:

• Vertical Lens Shift
  Not only do you get vertical lens shift, but you get electronic vertical lens shift which can be controlled from the remote. This is a perfect way to guarantee an easy installation process and give you some flexibility when mounting the projector on the ceiling.
• Electronic Zoom and Focus
  The ease of installation continues with remote control over Zoom and Focus controls.
• Mouse Control via Remote
  With the optional PJ-Net Organizer option you can control the cursor on-screen with the remote control's center mouse and right/left click controls.
• Remote Control Range
  We had the remote control operating at over 60 feet and were able to successfully control the projector. This is essential for ceiling mount installations and presents a very high set of "kudos" for the Sanyo PLC-XT16.
• Plethora of Inputs
  The Sanyo features DVI-D, VGA, component, s-video and composite inputs which makes it compatible (and then some) with all of the common video formats and PC output devices.
• Power Management System
  The PLC-XT16 will automatically power down the lamp and the projector when a signal is undetected for 5 minutes. Once a signal is reacquired or detected, the projector will power back up and continue functioning. This saves precious lamp hours and is just a pretty good feature overall (especially since it can be disabled if desired).

Sanyo's attention to detail and extensive feature set makes this a very serious contender for use in a house of worship. You have just about everything you'll need and a projector that can handle the fact that many services utilize larger projection screen size and include some level of ambient light.