Official Sony VPL-VW80 Owners Thread - Page 8

Ken, try Iris set to Manual at 92. See how that looks.

Or even numbers way south of that as this is the first Sony DI equipped projector that I'd contemplate turning the DI off and using a manual iris setting because it's native on/off is so much better than previous models. Having said that though the DI implementation on the VW80 is very good and I may even change my preference for always using the less aggressive Auto 2 mode which to my eyes has always produced more mid APL "pop" for want of a better word and less brightness compression artifacts.

On the 200 that setting is perfect for movie viewing. It does clip anything and you keep a nice consistent black level... Just a suggestion...

What ceiling mount are people using with the vw80 projector. I will need a mount that can be screwed to a pipe protruding from the ceiling.
Thanks
Steve

I along with multitudes of others have used a Chief mount for our VPL-VW50 and VPL0VW60. Exceptional mount VERY flexable and it screws into the pipe. Check them out at their web site and then buy it through AVS

I ordered a Chief RPA020 mount. This mount seems to be recommended the most for the Sony projectors.
Steve

I know there are not a whole lot of these out yet but it's been really quiet lately....is it just the holiday?.

DarinP....what did you decide to sell?

Steve....your thoughts

VW80 owners....show us some love


Thanks
Ron

Very happy with the picture quality..... Just adjustments here and there, and bang here we go. It's just time to enjoy movies!! I have yet to place my new toy in the right place, just play it on the table. I am quite sure that the color is better than JVCs, but the static contrast is still behind. without considering the price, I will probably pick HD750>VW80>HD350.

I have looked at HW10 for some adjustment tips....

Darin, please try side-by-side with the RS20 and compare motion sharpness during fast horizontal camera pans. The dark frame insertion stuff is meant to decrease the loss of sharpness during fast motion scenes caused by the sample-and-hold effect. You should not compare this with a DLP projector because due to the way DLP works it has less problems with sample-and-hold than LCD and LCOS based projectors to start with. So you should compare the VW80 with dark frame insertion to another LCD/LCOS based projector without dark frame insertion and without frame interpolation. So the RS20 would be a good comparison candidate...

I've gone back and forth a few times. My RS20 was calibrated with a PR650 meter for both grayscale and primaries and the VW80 was calibrated for grayscale (both off a StudioTek 130 screen). We didn't see a way to get the primaries with the VW80 to match REC.709 with the luminance values being close, so just set it to Wide. I'm currently leaning toward keeping the RS20, but I could change my mind again.

I think comparing it to a DLP too makes sense because it still has the issue to some degree and we did that some along with comparing the RS20 and VW80 in this regard. For the LCOS projectors I didn't see much difference with the clip from Inside Man from DIRECTV that I was looking at. However, that test disc that contains the hammock scene with the girl where the JVCs have banding on her arm during movement (the one posted in the RS20 owners thread) has some good test patterns for seeing the advantage of this film frame mode in the VW80. They are all 1080i60 as far as I know, but there are some resolution test patterns that show static for a little bit and then pan from right to left. There is one that shows vertical bars at different resolutions and then one that has English text at different sizes as well as what I think are probably Chinese characters.

As far as the dark frame modes in the VW80, mode 1 dimmed a full screen white test pattern about 55%, mode 2 dimmed it about 25%, mode 3 didn't dim it at all compared to off, but on the hammock test pattern had some weird coloring around part of the girl's hair. I preferred mode 2 and that is what I used. On the test patterns we didn't see any flicker from it, but on the menu for the patterns with a blue background we could see the flicker.

Anyway, as far as the resolution during movement, with the film projection mode off the VW80 and RS20 seemed to be similar as far as blur during motion, with the 11S2 resolving more (closer to the 720p lines in the vertical lines pattern). However, with film mode 2 the VW80 looked like it resolved more in the moving part of the test patterns than either of the others and made the smallest words easier to read. The most telling part to me was the hammock material which was something like white nylon. With the 11S2 and RS20 I got kind of a double or smeared image trying to follow the hammock material as it moved, but with the VW80 in film mode 2 I could easily follow the hammock material and it looked pretty natural as far as movement goes. I'm not sure how much real material would show this advantage and can't currently think of any specific scene not on a test disc where I've seen this kind of advantage from it, but I haven't spent a lot of time testing that.

If you have any specific fast horizontal pans in mind to test I could try to take a look if I have those.

--Darin

Yeah, what I really meant is "you shouldn't compare it to DLP alone". If you compare it to RS20 and DLP that's even better than comparison it to RS20 alone...


Thanks, these are very interesting results! Did you turn that interpolation frame calculation stuff off on the VW80 when testing this? If so, it would be interesting to see whether turning it to "low" and leaving film mode set to 2 at the same time would clear motion sharpness up even more?

Would you mind giving these 3 projectors a (purely subjective) "motion resolution loss percentage" number (100% being: no sharpess loss at all)? I'm asking because you did say which was better than which, but I'd love to know how far away they are from each other in terms of motion sharpness/clarity.

Have you had a chance to test your AE3000 for motion sharpness, too? Would be interesting to know whether it's similar to the RS20 or better/worse. I'd expect that with the AE3000 motion interpolation stuff turned off, it should be similar to the RS20 because both are hold-type projectors? But I guess if you turn on that motion smoothing algorithm on the AE3000, it might show cleared up motion sharpness (and add artifacts, as most of these algorithms do)?


My first thought right now is: Soccer! This is 50i or 60i material, though. I wish I could name a movie which had fast horizontal camera pans but there's none coming to my mind right now. I'm sure there are some because I'm often bothered by such pans with my false-contouring-loving plasma. If I run across such a movie again, I'll let you know...

One more thing I'm interested in: How well does the dark frame insertion stuff work with various source material? E.g. is it more effective with 60i video content? Or with 24p movie content?

----

Finally, do you now prefer dark frame insertion at mode 2 compared to having it off? Or does the loss of image brightness bother you too much? IIRC you do have a HP screen, though, right? So the loss of brightness shouldn't bother you too much?

Try Casino Royale at 1:11:20. That could be the worst pan you can get when the camera move in a circle back and forth around the table. Motionflow in High works wonder in this scene.

I'm still waiting for delivery of a 25 foot HDMI cable and ceiling mount, so I have not had much chance to play with it. Right now, I have it perched on the back row of chairs in the theater connected to a ps3 that I placed next to it, connected via a 6 foot HDMI cable. This allows me to at least check out the picture (without sound in this setup).

Once the mount arrives, I'll have 4 people over to drop the NEC 10pg projector (weighs 252 pounds), install the VW80 in its place, and I will be able to make a better observation.

However, my initial impression is positive. Projecting onto a 106 inch wide 1.3 gain screen, I see no scan lines, nor do I see any pixels from a normal seating position (first row of seats are approximately 10 feet from the screen). The picture appears to have less noise than the NEC projector, although, to be fair, this is based upon a comparison of a blu-ray source with the VW80 and the counterpart DVD source for the NEC. The VW80 is also brighter than the NEC (the NEC is calibrated to 6500K).

Due to the current setup, I have not spent much time with the DFI and MotionFlo features, other than to confirm that they do have an effect. After the projector is installed, I will spend time deciding whether or not I like these features.

I come from the group that believes that CRT projectors produce the best (most film like) picture possible. So far, I do not think I will regret replacing the NEC with the VW80.

More once its fully installed. The holidays are slowing down all shipments.

BTW, a friend of mind who lives nearby called yesterday saying he bought a HW10. Perhaps we'll try to do an A/B comparison.

Steve

I have a favor to ask of VW80 owners: Could you tell me what the lens shift specs are? I would like to build a PJ box on the ceiling and just slide the PJ in right side up. My ceiling height is 7'2" and the screen to PJ lens distance would be about 13'. The VW80 is one of the PJ's high on my list and I'd like to know if this kind of install is possible with it. I do have a Chief mount now for my present PJ, but a PJ box install would be so much more versatile. Thanks to all you lucky VW80 owners.

The lens does not protrude from the unit. I'll check later to see whether the manual says anything with respect to distances to provide for an enclosure.

Not sure why you would want to do that; you would have to make accommodations for ventilation. I think the unit is very attractive looking (especially compared to my NEC 10pg crt projector), and extremely quite. It is barely audible when next to the VW80 with the lamp in the low mode, and not audible when you are seated a few feet away from the projector. This is in sharp contrast to the NEC, which has 5 cooling fans, and the NEC is one of the quieter crt projectors.

Steve

I do happen to already have ventilation in place because of the heat output of my present PJ in my basement HT. I, too, like the looks of the VW, but it's black and my ceiling is white (I know, I know, but WAF....), plus when I stick an anamorphic lens of some kind (don't know which yet) in front of it, that adds a whole different "issue". I know that it's a quiet PJ, that is an important requirement in my case since it will be right over our heads. However, I don't really need the box to be a "hush box", but mostly to sort of hide the PJ and to ease PJ changes in the future.
Thanks for checking on the specs.

I'll check the manual for you regarding how much space to leave on each side. I'll also let you know how much the lens can shift the image up/down, left/right in case you don't have the projector perfectly mounted. This is not an issue for me, because I'm mounting the VW80 from the pole hung for the NEC, and CRT projectors require "perfect" installation, as they do not provide for shifting the image (or even zooming the lens in or out to fill the entire screen). Needless to say, installing the VW80 is a piece of cake compared to a CRT projector.

Page 12 of the manual indicates you should have at least 11-7/8 inches between the projector and the left of the projector, the right of the projector, the rear of the projector and above the projector. Based on that, you gotta have a pretty large enclosure.

The lens is able to shift the image to the left or right by a max of 25% of the screen width (page 24 of the manual) and up or down by a max. of 65% of the screen height (page 25 of the manual).

BTW, eventhough the projector is not sold in the U.S., page 2 of the manual states it conforms to Part 15 of the FCC Rules, and provides Sony's U.S. customer care center telephone number. Go figure.

I have a dedicated theater with a black ceiling, so the Sony will blend in well. Unlike the NEC, which is a white color case.

Hope this helps you.

Steve

Not an owner but this is a link to the manual....

http://www.aboutprojectors.com/pdf/s...w80-manual.pdf

Hi,

can you confirm that the new combo (enter, enter, RIGHT, enter) enters the service mode on the VW80?

And are there any new service settings compared to the VW60?

cya

BINGO! We have a winna, excellent choice mount for your PJ... enjoy

Still waiting for the ceiling mount and HDMI cable. Delievery seems to be slow due to the holidays. The HDMI cable (a 25 foot Blue Jeans Cable Series 1) was shipped on Friday, but still have no confirmation as to the shipping of the mount.

Amigenius, I believe that Bytehoven confirmed that the combo (enter, enter, RIGHT, enter) enters the service mode. The sequence is listed in an earlier post.

Steve

MY ceiling mount just arrived today. Hopefully I can get a group of people over on the weekend to drop the NEC 10PG from the ceiling and hang the VW80 in its place. Then I will spend time fine tuning everything. Right now the projector is sitting on top of its shipping box, which is sitting on one of the seats in the second row. Impressed with the unit out of the box. Only issue I notice so far is that there is a slight bright spot in the lower left corner when there is no image. I have been told that this goes away as the bulb ages. I hope that is true. One thing about crt projectors is that black is truely black.

How do you actually perform the "cheap man's zoom method" on the HW 10 when changing aspect ratio from 2.35 to 16:9 (and back again to the 2.35 aspect ratio). Is there much involved?

I am considering the Panasonic 3000U but the memory lens may not work properly for me since I will mount the projector at least 8-10 inches above the top of the screen.

anyone know where i can buy a VPL-VW80.. I am in the U.S.

I'm pretty sure it is "enter, enter, LEFT, enter".

BTW: The latest update on the VW80 I bought is that I sent it to a friend, he checked it out and decided to buy it from me (although a partial trade where I'll get a Sharp 5k/20k back).

--Darin

yes enter enter left <- enter

So he concluded that overall (for him) it had a better PQ than a Sharp 20K??