Official Sony VPL-VW80 Owners Thread - Page 11

Originally Posted by SonyHome

Ken,
I see that you are in Australia so why are you so curious about this being compatible with 120hz.

Based on these information I decided to go ahead and buy the VW80 from a Korean seller. I got good price due to exchange rate difference.

Originally Posted by Ken Tripp

Congratulations on the purchase, and the good price, damn fine projector. My interest in it's 120hz ability is for the benefit of others, mainly those in the USA which is where most of the Australian delivered VW80's ended up going and no doubt where most of the next batch will end up as well.

Originally Posted by gtb5

The black in this VW80 is just incredibly black, much better than my old VW60, but I do have a better screen this time but I think the improvement is quite significant and low lamp mode is bright enough for me.

Originally Posted by gtb5

Wow 126", I'm watching in my study so it's a tiny 62", if I have that size I will definitley go for a 1:2.35 masking screen for that full aspect ratio instead of gray bars on top & bottom (although the "gray" is already quite darkly produced), but of course a good conversion lens is more expensive than the VW80.

Originally Posted by elemtyong

Can somebody tell me about the picture in picture feature of the vw80? Can you watch 2 hdmi or component sources and can you vary the size of each? Thanks.

Originally Posted by mark haflich

The vw80 was not offered in the US so as to not hurt vw200 sales in the US. There is not much difference between the 80 and the 200 except for the xenon bulb. While thebulb makes quite a difference, most just don't perceive it. So Sony decided only to offer a dumbed down version of the 80 in the US, calling it the 70. A bad move in today's global market. Sony won't do that again with the 70/80 replacement coming in the fall.

Originally Posted by OzHDHT

My experience with my other VW80 is that so far I'm no huge fan of the new motionflow and darkframe insertion modes. On the other hand, having tried both auto iris and fixed iris with the VW80(and projectors since the VW100), I'm still comfortable enough with the auto iris 'compromise' - guess I'm not enough of a purist to let the down side get the better of me (my ISF trained mate who calibrates for me is in the same boat).

Originally Posted by A/Vspec

Does the "motionflow and darkframe insertion modes" work with 1080/24FPS of BR?

Originally Posted by OzHDHT

Ah yes, it does. Has already been discussed in this thread.

Originally Posted by A/Vspec

Can you tell me what you do not like about it?

I have been thinking about upgrading my VPL-VW60 but if the motion flow does not help with picture then I might as well wait for the LED projectors.

Originally Posted by mark haflich

The dark frame insertion by itself really dims the picture.

Originally Posted by OzHDHT

Well I decided to bite the bullet and get another VW80 since I was able to get it at the old Oz price of just over $A5200. So I'm going to finally move up to front projection in my upstairs theater area from my current 70" XBR2 SXRD. I've managed to source a 110" Studiotek 130 G3 at a good price, so it should prove a nice combo. It's probably about time I get to enjoy front projection in the place I spend the most time rather then on certain weekends. My experience with my other VW80 is that so far I'm no huge fan of the new motionflow and darkframe insertion modes. On the other hand, having tried both auto iris and fixed iris with the VW80(and projectors since the VW100), I'm still comfortable enough with the auto iris 'compromise' - guess I'm not enough of a purist to let the down side get the better of me (my ISF trained mate who calibrates for me is in the same boat).

Originally Posted by mark haflich

Ken, I agree. I said dark frame insertion by it self. If you increase the gamma for the frames before and after the dark frame (an added trick) your eyes average things out and brightness improves. Of course this would result in the gamma enhanced frames having some crush annd klipping I think.

Originally Posted by mark haflich

Look for things getter better in the 70/80 replacement.

Originally Posted by darinp2

I hope their fake frame stuff for motion gets at least as good as Panasonic's mode 1 in the AE3000. From what I saw of the VW80 when I had it, the frame interpolation stuff to smooth motion was much worse than Panasonic's version. To my eyes the frame interpolation stuff in the VW80 for motion (not the dark frame modes) was like a proof-of-concept to prove that something could be done, even if the side effects were so bad that few would actually use it. There is a scene in Inside Man with a long pan around a room where the Panasonic does well, but the VW80 would go from smooth to jumpy to smooth to jumpy. It was way worse than just having the thing be jumpy the whole time. And there were some pretty bad artifacts at the beginning of The Dark Knight with this mode in the VW80. With the Panasonic I like using mode 1, but with the VW80 I would have just left that turned off other than to show people what might be possible some day.

If Sony can up the native on/off CR significantly (I should note that something like 50% improvement probably wouldn't be enough for me) and can get the frame interpolation stuff working at least as well as it does in the AE3000, then I will probably be pretty interested in Sony's next model. Of course depending on what the competition does.

--Darin

Originally Posted by SonyHome

Where did you get it for that price? I'm interested. Could you PM me with the details?

Originally Posted by OzHDHT

No, read my original thread about the Aus price.

Originally Posted by SonyHome

LOL! I thought you just got another one recently. You definitely did the right thing by getting more than one at that great price.

My HW10 is still in transit (taking a lot longer than expected for some reason) so I guess I'll have to use that until newer models hit the US.