Sanyo has also answered the call for a longer throw distance with a lens that is indeed longer than the PLV-60, but
not quite as long as the Sony VPL-W400Q, which a great number of people built their home theaters around a few
years ago. The throw is rated at 5.0' to 51.3'. According to the chart in the manual,
you can have a screen size anywhere from 115" to 150" at 19.1' out.
I was anxious to see if the PLV-70 would occupy the same space behind the rear
wall of my theater, but no such luck. The offset lens and taller case than my old
projector prohibited me from the test without major structural modifications to my
wall enclosure, which I would most certainly be willing to perform if I were
purchasing this projector.
Regardless, the whisper quiet fan removes much of the motivation for placing the
projector behind a wall to begin with. I'd even go so far as to say that I can't
imagine anyone wanting to build or buy a sound enclosure for this projector. There
is simply no need to.
Sanyo also heeded the call for a back-lit remote control. Well, a partially back-lit
controller, at least, which in practice, ain't much better than one which isn't lit at all.
The most significant change in the electronics, other than the inclusion of the Micro
Lens Array, the increased contrast ratio and higher brightness (neither spec appears
in the manual), is the new color management system, which allows you to adjust
the level, phase and gamma for selected areas of the screen which you choose,
allowing you to replace the colors with others if you wish.
Frankly, this feature intimidated the heck out of me and I really didn't want to mess
with it. But the idea here, is to compensate for changes in color fidelity as the bulb
ages. At least, that is my understanding. You select the "target" area of the screen
you wish to manage the color on, then choose your colors from a palette. I'm sure
that there are those among you who will relish this feature and make great use of it,
but this is one bell (or is it a whistle?) that I wasn't anxious to mess with, for fear of
messing up my settings that I worked so hard on. Like the PLV-60, there are four
