Official Sony VPL-VW80 Owners Thread

I just got home from work, unboxed the projector, plugged it into the wall with the universal AC cord that I bought, and watched the "on/standby" light go on.

That's about as far as I got before I needed to do a few things, but I wanted to stop by here and start this thread for all who follow as owners.

Here's to a great projector experience with this model.

k. i have no screen. i just have a 5' x 10' sheet of gatorfoam. i made a black border 104" x 58" (119" diagonal), because that is the largest i calculated i can safely go with my throw distance.

i had a friend come in and hold the gatorfoam approximately where i plan to temporarily mount it. i ran a 25' blue jeans cable HDMI cable from my denon dvd-3800BDCI. i threw in the Wanted blu-ray disc (haven't watched it yet, it was just sitting there on the table from blockbuster).

i hit power, and *bam*, there was the intro screen for the movie. being a projector newb it took me a while to do lens shift and lens zoom to center the movie on the gatorfoam, but once i did it was definitely a "holy crap" moment. it really looked awesome without focusing or anything else other than taking it out of the box and centering it on the screen (which isn't even a projector screen). i called my folks over to stun them, which they were sufficiently stunned, then i had mercy on my friend who had been holding the gatorfoam in place the whole time, i held it while he watched a few minutes of the movie.

i didn't get to check if it was 1080p24 (it should have been), but the sound was definitely DTS-HD MA

i should be doing the temporary mount for the gatorfoam in the next few days, so unfortunately until it's up i won't be able to do any more messing around with the projector.

the plan is to order swatches of various screen types and affix them to the gatorfoam, eventually decide what i like best, then order a 118" retractable screen of that material (the projector screen has to go in front of my television in my living room).

one thing i immediately noticed is how bright the room was when there were bright scenes in the movie, so i'm already thinking of ways to make the living room more conducive to projector-viewing.

one more thing - this thing is plenty bright for my taste (yes, i know the bulb is brand new and it won't always be this bright, but i can't see brightness ever being an issue with this projector in my room). and no, i don't know what lamp setting it was on - if any of you know what setting it comes with from the manufacturer, that's the one.

sorry i can't be more informative instantly, that's the problem of getting the projector before the temporary screen goes up.

i'm in fort lauderdale florida. the unit was dropped off at the local post office in australia on november 28th local time (november 27th here).

so it took seven days, including saturday and sunday.

it's very bright for me, so i will definitely be switching to low. i haven't tried dark frame insertion, so we'll have to see if it's too dim on low if i want to use DFI mode 1.

after watching Wanted (which is a 2.35:1 aspect ratio) for a few minutes last night with the black bars on the top and the bottom, i'm now mulling doing a 2.35 setup for the first time (which i know absolutely nothing about). sigh.

i guess i'd need an anamorphic lens, and need to buy a wider screen that i can mask on the sides somehow?

are any of you going to do this/planning to do this with the VW80? if so, a very brief synopsis of what i'm in for would be great (yes, i'm going to read the CIH forum). thanks.

good point. i guess my issue wasn't so much with the black bars, but with the thought "gee, this movie would look great if it filled the entire height of the screen."

too bad i didn't have a 1:78 AR blu-ray laying around, i probably wouldn't be having these evil thoughts right now.

i'm experiencing home theater overload

plus if you are interested in Motionflow and Dark Frame Insertion.

i haven't taken any, but a friend in australia took some when he got his unit and posted them in this thread:

http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=72717

guys, chime in with what mode you are preferring: dynamic, standard, or cinema.

and high or low lamp.

and auto iris 1, auto iris 2, w/what sensitivity.

and do you switch any of these things depending on what you are watching, or do you pretty much figure out what you like best, dial it in, and leave it regardless?

also, what does the ZOOM feature do to the aspect ratio of the film? if my screen is 16:9 and I am watching a 2:35 movie and hit ZOOM to fill the screen, how exactly is that affecting the picture quality?