5. Sanyo PLV-Z4, Continued

Installation was very easy, thanks in part to horizontal and vertical lens shift functions that adjust via two dials and can be locked with a button on the right-hand side of the shell. The 2x zoom lets you display an 8.2' image at a throw distance of only 8'! Incredible, and very practical if your home theater room is cramped.

With all these adjustments made, we can then go into the menus and fine-tune the image. And here, the Z4 is very well equipped, with a series of near-professional adjustments that most users won't have to mess with. You'll find the usual gamma, contrast, and brightness adjustments, but also grayscale balance (RGB), de-interlaced mode, black-level expansion, adjustment of light and dark colors, and test screens, plus presets for home theater, TV, game console, and so on, for more conservative users.

The icing on the cake is the ability to activate the famous dual automatic iris adjustment system. Dual, because there's one iris associated with the lens and another for the lamp. That means that by tweaking the opening and closing of the two irises, you can get the ideal balance between brightness and contrast. You can also opt for an automatic mode that'll provide excellent results without too much expenditure of brain power.