We always get questions about front projectors and why we don't spend
more time on them. After seeing some of the presentations and demos at
CES, we see why so many people these days are opting for this kind of
setup. There's nothing like a 100" screen to create the true "Home
Theater" experience. The newly announced JVC ILA and Panasonic 3LCD
projectors that will be available later this year are already stirring
a lot of interest. We're hoping to check them out when they're
available, but for today we picked a different 1080p projector to look
at, the VPL-VW50 SXRD from Sony. This little wonder, sometimes called
the Pearl, retails for only $5000 - a great deal for a 3 chip, native
1080p front projector.
Overall, as you would expect from a Sony SXRD, the quality is
amazing. We watched it on a Stewart screen, which helps
contrast a bit, but it didn't seem like the Sony really needed much
help. Image quality and color representation were nearly perfect.
Every bit as beautiful as a rear projection. The pixel structure
wasn't ever noticeable from normal viewing distances, and there was
never any motion delay or artifacts that we could pick up. At only 900
ANSI Lumen, the Pearl isn't as bright as a rear-pro, or some of the
other 1080p projectors on the market, but it did a solid job. It
offers an economy lamp mode, to preserve bulb life, but unless your
room is 100% light controlled, you'll probably want to run it in full
brightness. Our viewing room had some ambient light, and that did
effect picture quality when we tried to preserve lamp life.
The
VW50 uses a standard 100 watt bulb, which will last between 2000 and
3000 hours, depending on what mode you watch it in. Replacement bulbs
cost around $300. When you do the math, 2000 hours of viewing lets you
watch the projector for four hours a a day for about a year and a half
before you need a new bulb. Not bad, but something to factor in.
Another cost you need to remember is the cost of the screen. That will
run you between $1000 and $5000, depending on how "high end" you go.
With this projector, a $2000 screen should be about right.
We watched several sources on the projector, including DVD,
upconverted DVD, HDTV and HD DVD. All of them looked amazing, and
increased in quality, as you would expect, in that same order. We
weren't able to check out standard def on the projector, but honestly,
who buys a 1080p projector to shoot a 100" SD image up on a screen.
This projector is built, from the ground up, for HD material, and it
does it superbly. The conspiracy theorist in us thinks that a Sony
Blu-ray player may have topped them all, but we'll never know. What we
do know is that the Pearl looks every bit as good as an SXRD rear-pro
if you feed it the right content.
The unit itself isn't very big, not as big as you'd expect,
and it looks great. Ara might say they stole some plays from the Apply
playbook, because then case and structure of the unit are every bit as
beautiful as the picture it produces. Even the Sony logo lights up
when the projector is powered on (not bright enough to be distracting,
though). And man is it ever quiet. You'd never even know it was
there. It is a bit heavy, and blows some really hot air (no comments
about the HT Guys, please), so those are two things to keep in mind
when installing it.
Overall, it's a great projector at a great (for the
functionality) price. The JVC and Panasonic projectors will really
have something to live up to when they come out.
Specs (from the website):
SXRD™ 1920 x 1080p Full HD Panels
SXRD
is a display technology developed by the legendary television engineers
at Sony to meet and exceed the demands of a high definition image at
its full 1080 line resolution. It is a 1920 x 1080p panel characterized
by several key benefits—full HD resolution, smooth film-like image with
minimal screen door effects, high response times (2.5ms rise and fall), high contrast ratios and accurate color rendition.
Advanced Iris 2
The
latest evolution of Sony's own Advanced Iris function uses algorithms
designed to analyze the histogram of each picture along with nonlinear
amplification to dynamically adjust the iris for its optimum opening.
The result is a stunningly high contrast ratio of up to 15,000:1.
Images in bright scenes are crisp and clear and black levels in dark
scenes are deep and detailed. A manual adjustment option is also
available to fix the iris opening for specific image conditions.
Ultra Quiet Fan
Designed fan efficiently removes heat at a
barely noticeable noise spec of 22dB. Obtrusive fan noise is virtually
eliminated to allow for flexibility in room placement.
ARC-F (All Range Crisp Focus) Lens
A specially developed crisp focus lens was developed to take full
advantage of the full 1920 x 1080 HD resolution that the SXRD panel
device offers. It offers superior resolution and focus.
RCP (Real Color Processing)
Real Color Processing allows the user to target specific colors on
the picture and fine adjust their color and hue without changing the
overall picture's color and hue. For instance, the color of a
strawberry can be fine adjusted without impacting the skin tones. Or
the blue in a sky can be adjusted without affecting the color of water.
And green grass can be adjusted without influencing the other colors in
the picture.
Acceptable Video Signals: 15 kHz (RGB/Component) 50/60Hz,
Progressive Component DTV (480/60i, 575/50i, 480/60p, 575/50p, 720/60p,
720/50p, 1080/60i, 1080/50i), 1080/24p, 1080/60p (DVI and HDMI channel
only), Composite video, Y/X video
- Native Resolution: 1080p
- Display Resolution: 1920 x 1080
- 2 HDMI Inputs
