I have a Sanyo PLV-Z60 720P projector. It is 6 months old and has maybe 50 hours on it tops (only used for movies). I always use it according to the instructions (warm up, cool down, etc) and I keep it covered and unplugged when not in use. This was my first projector. Anyway… I recently noticed that the picture quality has diminished a bit. Hard to explain, but it does not have the hi def “pop” that it once did. The colors appear a bit washed out. It is nothing dramatic, but definitely noticeable to my eyes. So I am bummed. I checked all the settings, restored the factory defaults. I tried changing the source to make sure it was not the Blu-ray player, etc. Cleaned the lens. Tried different movies, etc with no luck. I am at a loss here, but I am a noob when it comes to projectors. With less then 6 months and 50 hours on the bulb, I have a hard time believing it could be the bulb. Any thoughts? On a side note, I am using a Da-Lite hi-power screen and I have the projector mounted at eye level. I appreciate any input !!

When I use my Macbook Pro DVI out from my laptop DVD player or laptop hard drive to my projector (Sanyo PLV-Z60) I lose all detail in the blacks and the falloff into detailless black happens quite swiftly -- in an average situation maybe 40% of the screen is black -- in a dark scene, it's all black. This does not happen when I play DVDs from my standalone DVD player. I've played with brightness and contrast on both the projector and the laptop. The image on my 24" monitor looks perfect. Any idea how I may fix this?

Thanks - It was the thermal reset switch. Disappointing that I bought a bulb for nothing. So let this be an important post for all Sanyo PLV-Z60 owners. If you have a power outage and your projector does not power up correctly afterward with a blinking "Replace Lamp" indicator, don't go out and purchase a new lamp until you take off the top and reset the thermal reset switch. That's all it was. Thanks for the info. Son can get back to xbox now. Fredster4