Ok, so how do the Sony LCOS projectors compare for features and differences in design, and in performance? I'm curious about contrast and black levels, sharpness and convergence and colour/brightness uniformity. Here are the one's I know of in approzimate order of how I understand they sit in the lineup:

VW40
HW10
VW50 (Pearl)
VW60 (Black Pearl)
VW70
VW80
VW100 (Ruby?)
VW200

One specific questions I have is, how does the VW40 compare to the HW10? I have a chance to grab a VW40 for about 60% of the price of the HW10. I am pretty sure I'm going to go for the HW10 but I am a little tight for cash, so if the VW40 is pretty close in performance, I could save and use that for now. I am worried it isn't as sharp and doesn't have as good quality control, convergence and uniformity wise.

Any thoughts?

I had a VW40 on loan for a couple weeks and did some comparisons against my Infocus 7205 in this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1090035&page=2).

It went back to the owner and I ended up buying an HW10 which I just got last week. (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15456334#post15456334)

I thought the VW40 looked terrific. I didn't have a chance to compare them side by side but the HW10 may be a bit brighter. Both were sharp and again, because I didn't see them side by side I couldn't say whether one topped the other.

The VW40 had motorized zoom, shift, and focus; the HW10 is manual. The manual controls are fine for me because I'm going to set and forget them.

Bottom line - if I could have purchased a new VW40 for 60% of a new HW10, I would have probably grabbed the VW40 and would have been happy with the $$$ saved. I got a good deal on my HW10 and am very happy so far.

Thanks for the feedback. One thing I notice about the VW40 is that it lacks Deep Colour support. Not that important now, but....if Blu-Ray releases start having it, that would be a nice feature and the HW10 has it.

I guess I was mainly wondering how the uniformity of the VW40 was. QC and other issues.

Thanks for the feedback. One thing I notice about the VW40 is that it lacks Deep Colour support. Not that important now, but....if Blu-Ray releases start having it, that would be a nice feature and the HW10 has it.

Blu-Ray will never have it as it's not part of the spec.

Blu-Ray will never have it as it's not part of the spec.

Right. I see that now. Kinda stupid. I guess they are "saving" that for the next format.

there's always the possibility including deep color in Profile 4.0 due 4Q2009
along w/ the new standardized 'small' hdmi connector.

j/k about deep color

I own a VW60 and i am very happy with that great machine!
Deep colour is not an important feature for me, because the picture quality is already very impressive. So dont use that feature as a important thing for your decision! :rolleyes:

Gotcha. Deep colour is not important now, nor will it be in the near future. HDTV may use it, but not Blu-Ray.

My main interest was the comparison between the HW10 and VW40. (and to a lesser degree the HW10 vs VW60 and the VW70 and VW80).

I have no experience with VW40 but I was in a similar situation a while back... I was considering VW40 but heard about HW10 coming out a few months later and decided to wait. What I gathered from the reviews on the net:

VW40:

+ motorized zoom & focus
+ better build quality than HW10 (case)
- bright corners more pronounced than in HW10 which eliminates them almost completely
- less contrast than HW10
- color balance greenish vs. HW10 which has very good color balance out of the box
- no convergence control vs. full field convergence control in HW10 +-2 pixels
- smaller horizontal lens shift range and hard to set (lens cover needs to be removed and screws loosened/tightened)
- less bright in best mode

I bought HW10.

So what is the big feature benefit as you move up the price chain? If I'm looking for 1080p & 120hz which model has those?

VW80 has 120 Hz mode

mine does. VW80.

VW80 has 120 Hz mode

I looked on Sony site and didn't see VW80. I saw VW70 which didn't look like it had 120 Hz mode.

VW80 is not offered for sale in the US. It is sold in Europe and Asia. The VW80 can be considered to be a supercharged VW70, in that it looks like a VW70 and includes all the features of the VW70, but also has dark frame insertion and motionflow. Due to the recent currency exchange rates, the VW80 could be obtained from Australia for not much more than the cost of the HW10 (roughly half the list price of the VW70). Several people here (me, circumstances, and a few others; I think 8 people total) were lucky enough to get this model via Autralia. The dealer in Australia is hoping to get more projectors shortly, though there was some speculation that SONY may have a price increase, and not sure how favorable the current exchange rate is.

The VW80 includes 1 year warranty from Sony Australia. I purchased an additional 4 year warranty (service in the US) which includes up to 2 bulb replacements, if needed, during the first 3 years of ownership from Tapeworks for $300.