Sony VPL-FHZ61 Commercial Laser Projector Review – Hardware 2

Sony VPL-FHZ61 Commercial Laser Projector Review – Hardware 2: Control Panel, Remote Control, The Menus

Control panels are generally pretty basic, but the VPL-FHZ61’s panel is a bit different from many other projectors. I believe it’s similar to that lower-cost portable Sony I reviewed earlier this year, with just about the strangest four-directional navigation layout around. It consists of an Enter button that toggles left, right, up, and down, to navigate the menus. I found it weird then, and I find it weird now. Either way, it’s effective, and probably something that’ll be used just once for installation, then be abandoned in favor of the remote control.

Next to all that is the Menu button, the Input button, and one for Power. Below that, in the second row of the control panel, are the buttons that control the motorized lens functions. Those are Shift, Zoom, and Focus, and will also likely be used only when setting up the projector. The final button, to the right of those three, is the ECO Mode button.

The Sony VPL-FHZ61 has a remote control that is well laid out, though I do have some qualms with it. The first section of the remote consists of two green buttons – Standby, or Off, on the left, and On, on the right. Below that is a section comprised of eight input buttons, one for each input. As mentioned on the previous page, the inputs have letters assigned to them. This is where that comes into play.

The first six inputs are assigned A-D, with only Video and S-Video getting their own names (E and F are not available on this model). For this reason, I suggest taping a key of which connecters correspond to each letter, so that the user doesn’t forget. I forgot which letter was assigned to HDMI not five minutes after plugging it in. So, here are the inputs and their corresponding letters:

A = RGB/YPBPR In/Out
B = DVI-D In/Out
C = HDMI
D = HDBaseT

The next section below is all about navigating the menus. On the top left corner of the configuration, we have the Menu button, then the ECO Mode button on the opposite corner, a Reset button on the bottom right, then the Return button on the bottom left corner, which is used for backing out of the menus.

Below that, we have the Focus, Zoom, and Lens Shift buttons, followed by the Aspect, Keystone, and Pattern buttons underneath. The next section consists of the Digital Zoom +/-, which punches in and out of the projected image, like zooming in on your computer. Stacked next to that are the Blank and Muting buttons, next to the Volume +/- buttons. The bottom section has an APA button (which doesn’t work on this projector), a Twin button for split screen between two inputs, and the Freeze button, which freezes the image, much like a pause button.