(Though, I guess I should say is "Special!" in line with new network censorship guidelines...)

It was a wee-bit slow yesterday around the old Custom Theater and Audio shoppe so we decided to do a bit of back room housecleaning. (By “we,” I mean I decided and my installer did the clean-up.  After my initial, “Why don’t you go clean the backroom?” my involvement was fairly limited to sitting at my desk and shouting responses of “YES!” and “NO!” to questions like, “Can I throw this away?” or “Do I seriously have to do this?” That’s really the beauty of an Oligarchy.)

So, two of the items that cropped up in the “What am I supposed to do with this?” pile were a couple – yes, “a couple” as in TWO – of old Sharp video projectors. (Like you don’t have any lying around your back room either!) Not just any projectors mind you, but two XV-Z9000U projectors. Now, this might sound like so much bar code gibberish to you, but to people in the know, this bad girl is a bit of a home theater legend. You see, it was the FIRST front projector to employ the brand new high-definition version of Texas Instruments’ DLP chip! Digital micro-mirrors! Whipping their hair back-and-forth! Multi-segment color wheels! Spinning round-round, like a record baby right-round! Oh, tell me more, Mr. Peabody!

And at a time when LCD projectors looked like you were watching an image through a screen door – and not a clean one like my dad had just made me re-do it for the third time – and CRT projection was like a $15,000 investment that required walking-the-line of all the CRT-diva related demands – I only perform in a completely black room! And no smiling! The light reflecting of your teeth is washing out my image! Did someone just check their PHONE?! That is specifically forbidden in my rider!!! – the XV-Z9000U was capable of pumping out nearly one-million eye-pleasing pixels of 1280 x 720 goodness! (Remember, this was many a year ago, and our eyes didn’t know any better and the promise of 1080p’s 2-million pixels was just a pipe-dream to be contemplated at some point in....the FUTURE!). And that made it a superstar. And in her day – no, I’m not sure why she is a she, but she is. Apparently ships, cars, planes and now projectors are referred to in the feminine – she sold for nearly $10,000 and we installed a good many of them. I can recall the first time that I saw it; it was back in CEDIA 2001. Roaming the halls of the Indy Super Dome and checking every home theater demo I could find.  I waited until the Sharp presentation was over, then I just stood there in a completely black room watching the credits and marveling at how black the blacks looked. (Let’s take a moment and reminisce and chuckle at young, painfully full of fresh-faced newb questions and industry wonderment, John.  He’s bright-eyed and has his whole writing future ahead of him! And his hair was darker.)

So why then are these once titans of industry languishing in boxes in our back room you ask? Well, with tech, what is hot one day is most decidedly NOT the next. And 10 years is an eternity in technology. So, one of them belonged to a customer – this very unlikely, 80-plus-year-old tech/movie lover named Mr. Rogers that used to come in and wander around our store a bit confused at times carrying manuals and reviews that he’s had for used with yellow-sticky notes and highlights and underlines through the most pertinent bits and will often repeat what you say (I remember once when I suggested a CinePro amplifier to him he muttered “Ahhh. Sin-ah-pro. Sin-EEE-pro…” a few times) but then drop some coin on some SERIOUS gear like Lexicon and top-end They Who Shall Not Be Named speakers – that upgraded to a 3-chip Runco 1080p DLP model; the other was a customer who had just been WAITING for his bulb to die so he could have an excuse to upgrade to the new Runco lampless Q750.

So, since I already know that electronics hold their value like John Mayer holds women – though with presumably significantly less of the sexual napalm which I imagine would only gunk up the works and with fewer catchy hooks – I headed to E-Bay to see what one of these projectors might fetch. I was thinking maybe $250-400 dollars. So imagine my surprise when I saw this: (Here is the link to the ACTUAL ad on E-Bay; I’ve italicized his actual text, misspellings, gross-overstatements and all.)

“The Lucky Winner receives a " SHARP XV-Z9000 HOME THEATRE DLP HDTV PROJECTOR " in EXCELLENT near New Condition in original packaging in BOX will all original accessories.  Everything is in perfect working order and is practically brand new. We are buying you a brand new lamp, so there is no lamp time on the projector. The lamp alone is worth about $400”

First off, if anyone buys this thing for even CLOSE to $5000 they need to be placed into a quiet, safe place covered in padding and soothing, non-fluorescent lighting with gentle, synthesized music playing where they can do no more harm to themselves or financial ruin to those around them. Whoever buys this is many, MANY things but “Lucky Winner” they are not. Nor are they just "Lucky" by itself and and in no circles of the galaxy -- not even if Sheening -- are they considered "Winner." Also, it is not even like this is some found-on-shelf brand new unit. It is USED! And for $5,000 now, you could get an actual, brand-new, current gen Runco that would spew out broken parts better than this thing. Braaaaap! Look! It just barfed out a brand new, Dark Chip4 1080p DLP! The lamp alone IS worth $400 IF you get an actual Sharp replacement model and not some $170 Chinese knock-off.

Description - EVERY ELECTRONICS LEADING EXPERT WILL TELL YOU WHY SETTLE FOR AN INFERIOR LCD with inherent motion blur problems or a PLASMA which can be bulky and take up space if you dont mount it when you can have a Digital Laser Projector like the movie theaters which can project an image from a 40 inch up to a 300 INCH DIAGONAL if you have the room. You can adjust the picture size. The more distance from the wall, the bigger the screen size gets. A standard 12 to 13ft room wall to wall distance will project about an 80 to 90 inch screen.

Description: ALL CAPS MAKES ME SOUND MORE IMPORTANT! Kneel before Zod! But, umm, when you get passed the impressiveness of the Caps Lock key, I’m not so sure about that first part. No, not sure about it at all. In fact, there are a GOOD many “LEADING EXPERT”s that will tell you how awesome some JVC and Sony projectors – using LCOS technology – look. Quotes like “Best I’ve ever seen” and “Such inky blacks I worried for a moment that I’d gone blind!” often accompany the reviews. And, well, LED backlit LCD TVs are pretty much the market leader in current flat-panel display. But, since you are stealing your text entirely from a decade ago, I guess this was the prevalent thinking of the day. Like I could probably go back through some Nat Geo’s and pull some ads where the doctors of the day are recommending swallowing tapeworms to lose weight or where the concept of a world of interconnected computers sharing information is labeled unworkable and preposterous. And while “Digital Laser” indeed SOUNDS cool, it has nothing to do with this – or any other – projector. (Mitsubishi DOES have a rear-pro DLP set that uses a laser as the light source, but that has yet to be adopted by any front pro models, and certainly not back in 2001. The “L” sadly just stand for Light, and not Laser Light...) Just regular, lame old UHP lamp light. “You can adjust the picture size” is a key sales feature? Really? Cause you could also adjust the image size on my dad’s oldy-old school Kodak slide projector, but we retired that bad girl like 20 years ago.

Original value of this DLP when we purchased this from Sharp was $11,999.99 so you are saving about SEVEN to EIGHT thousand DOLLARS on this purchase! This projector is unavailable any more and was the CES CONSUMER ELECTRONIC SHOW AWARD winner when it came out.

OK, the original value of this MIGHT have been $11,999 but I think like every Sharp dealer on the planet sold it for $9999 or less. It’s like master Simpson’s attorney Lionel Hutz would say. “There’s the truth (shakes head side-to-side) and there’s the truuuuth (nods head slowly).” And there’s the MSRP and then there’s the actual price. And, news flash! This projector is unavailable any more – except the two I have in my back room! Let’s not forget about them! – because it is 10 years old and no one wants it anymore! This isn’t a bottle of cult Cabernet or a highlands single malt. It’s technology. And it don’t get better with age.

This projector upconverts all standard dvds automatically to HD native resolution to make your DVDs look in our opinion probably better than most blu-rays.

Wow! It upconverts DVDs? That's amazing! And I'm sure all of those millenium parties are gonna be off-the-chain, yo! Want to know what else upconverts? That DVD player I found next to that anti-fungal ointment at Wal-mart selling for $29.95, but I don’t go running up and down the aisles screaming about it. And if it is your opinion that upconverted DVDs on this 10 year old Sharp projector in 720p looks better than most Blu-rays, then it is MY opinion that YOUR opinion is rancid.  Like runny, green-brown pig diarrhea. After the pigs have gotten into that trough of infected cheese, expired cans of Spotted Dick and medical waste.

We had it professionally installed on a ceiling mount so it was virtually never touched, only operated by remote, and it was calibrated internally to provide the best deep blacks that this projector can give so this particular model is better than any other same models available. The result is a truly color rich sharp high contrast picture.

Translation: This thing looks mostly new, the remote works as far as we can tell, and I used an Optimizer test pattern I found on my Star Wars DVD to lower the blacks and up the contrast. All of this will save you like 3 minutes of time! 

You can watch TV , DVD , BLU-RAY , USE YOUR PC or MAC and even play your Wii , PS3 or XBOX 360 on the projector.  Imagine playing your games on a screen that fills up the entire wall rather than just a 40 or 50 inch. It will project on your wall, but for optimal results of course a pull down projector screen is better which we have one available so if the buy it now is used we can throw it in for free. I think it is an Da-lite model-b 80 to 92 INCH screen but it is stored away in the original box so I will check later.

You can watch all of these things, but be sure to ONLY connect a component video cable (or rock it S-video style!) and not DVI or HDMI because, well, both of these were just a glimmer in some lab-designer's eye back in 2001. And also, I think you were in some deceased prince’s will, and if you’ll just send me $1000 to get started, I can help you move $50,000,000 out of my country. Seriously, does the rest of this not just scream of Nigerian Prince talk?

I was using a PS3 Blu-ray HD DVD player and a regular dvd player both connected in the back and the picture was spectacular.  If you like having movie parties or just for your own personal enjoyment this is the projector for you.  Do not be fooled by cheap projectors you see in stores.  Those are more for simple work video presentations and are not home theatre projectors.  This projector was built and meant to recreate a movie theater in your home.

GAMES from XBOX 360 and PS3 LOOK MAGNIFICENT.  THE BLACK LEVEL is incredible and is perfect for FANTASY SCI FI MOVIES as you can see from the pictures below as you achieve true BLACKS.  THE COLORS and WHITE BALANCE have also been calibrated for your for razor sharp colors. On screen menus give you full control of the picture to adjust it to your personal tastes.  Best of all this does not take up the bulky space that flat screens do.

This projector was utilized for a few audio video presentations and is in perfect working order at home.  Comes with all original accessories and original Manufacturers packaging and original BOX etc.  Looks and practically is BRAND NEW.  This was SHARP ELECTRONICS FLAGSHIP DLP PROJECTOR and in our opinion the best projector to make all your regular DVDs look like Blu-Rays and to make Blu-RAYS to their superior picture job. It is perfect for DVD , BLU-RAY , VIDEO GAMES , movies and television.   This is an HDTV PROJECTOR so put in those Blue Rays and HD DVDs and watch the screen come alive.

So, I’m going to counter. I’ve got two of these bad girls for sale. That’s twice the projector! Pull off an exciting double-stack! Try and create your own left-eye/right-eye Frankenstein 3D double-stack! And I’d be willing to let you have them BOTH for $2000. That’s TWO projectors for less than half of this one! One to show and one to go! You decide what to do with the second unit! Install it in your bedroom and project images of Keira Knightley onto your wife’s face! Or images of Keira Knightley onto YOUR face! It’s your call! Make a giant POWER POINT slide show that runs on a continued loop shining onto your garage detailing all of your neighborhood grievances! Carry it around as a moderately bright and incredibly inconvenient FLASHLIGHT! Hold down that unruly pile of paperwork! Still not convinced? I’ll throw in ONE ceiling mount! Does it have all the parts? Who knows! But wait! That’s not all! I’ve got ONE original BOX and ONE even more expensiver Runco BOX! THAT'S TWO BOXES! Plus, if you want to tell people that you own a Runco (box) I totally will LET YOU! There may or may not be a WORKING BULB! Act now...supplies are definitely limited TO TWO UNITS and they (probably) won’t last!