The Sharp PG-D45X3D, as mentioned back in the overview, is one of those DLP projectors that can deliver very good color even in its brightest modes. The first image here was taken with Picture mode set to Standard. Presentation mode is a bit brighter still, but isn't as well balanced, color wise. Use Presentation Mode when you need every last lumen, Standard for best combination of brightness and color. The other modes are Movie, Game, and sRGB. Each of the mode images below were taken with the same exposure, to show relative brightness, as well as color differences.
Below are each of the preset modes. All were taken with the same exposure, which provides you a guide to their relative brightness. Note, that while Game mode is a bit more contrasty than Presentation, it has a bit less green push, and may make an excellent alternative (and it's almost as bright), color wise.
Most impressive though are the Sharp's handling of the reds and yellows. Even in the brightest mode, the PG-D45X3D does very nicely. Easily the best color of the DLP projectors considered in the Education report!
This PG-D45X3D, is your standard XGA (1024x768) resolution projector. To test it, it was fed XGA, WXGA (1280x800), 1440x900 (Mac), and UXGA (1600x1200). The projector typically took 2-5 seconds to lock onto a resolution change, that is not only reasonable, but a good deal faster than several of the others. In addition, as mentioned, on the digital video side, no problem handling 1920x1080. Higher resolutions than the native XGA, are of course, softer, but the Sharp's compression algorithms are just fine. Being too far from the screen will be a much bigger issue, than the quality of type, even with the higher resolutions.
Video performance looked very good. With its kinship to the Sharp Z15000 and Z17000 home theater projectors, that wasn't surprising. It not only handled video rather effortlessly from a PC, but also did a really nice job on an HD movie off of satellite. Oh, the PG-D45X3D lacks the much better black level performance of the home theater variations, but, of course, in exchange, it's far brighter.
The HDTV feed was brought in from that satellite boxe's HDMI port into the Sharp's DVI input. It worked as advertised, no issues, handling a 1080i signal no problem. We did not test the PG-D45X3D's 3D abilities on Blu-ray 3D content, as the projector's DVI port is not HDMI 1.4a compatible which Blu-ray 3D cites as the standard needed. Sharp confirms that the projector is not Blu-ray 3D capable. None of the 3D ready projectors (all DLPs) considered in our Classroom Report are Blu-ray 3D capable. That really is a "too bad" because there really is some quality content out there - it may not be coursework, but some of it could definitely make it in a classroom setting.