Official Sony VPL-HW15 Thread - Page 3

G'Day,

Not sure on the "offical" Aussie release date but Trevor Lees Hi-Fi in Melbourne was taking advanced orders only a few weeks ago at a a pretty good price. Give him a call for the price.

I'm personally waiting for the release of the Epson TW5500 and the reviews before I make my decision.

Currently I own VPL-HW10 with bright corners issue.
Does HW15 still suffer from it?

Thanx.

How bad is it? Anything in service menu to tweak? What about warranty?

Well, this thing was already discussed in HW10 thread and as far as I understood its common thing for LCOS PJs - Sony and JVC.

It's annoyingly visible during start-up. Mine has top left and lower right corners too bright. After 5-10 minutes bright corners became much less visible, but during dark scenes or 2:35 format movies top left corner still little brighter.

After week of owning I've returned to dealer's store with my PJ and checked 2 more HW10s. One had all four bright corners at start up and slightly worse color uniformity than mine (mine is very good - tested thoroughly). Second had two bright corners but opposite to mine top right and low left.

At that time I still had mine Panasonic PT-AE2000 with good color uniformity, but "infected" with dust blobs that I had to blow out again and again.

So I've decided to keep HW10 and sold my AE2000. That's it.:-)

Thanks. Another dealer has info from Sony that it gets released around the 26th of October.

I pre-ordered the HW15 from a dealer a couple of weeks ago as they said they were shipping the unit mid-October (I'm in the UK). Just had an e-mail from the dealer today saying Snoy has pushed back the UK release date to mid-November.

As to your original question re the HW15, I don't think there is an answer to that yet. Too early to tell. It could be a potential issue, but from what I understand, the LCOS panel and light engine etc is not identical in the HW10 and HW15. Who knows if they will have similar characteristics and QC etc.

I literally picked up my HW15 a few hours ago and so far have been unable to recreate the "bright corners" issue that existed on some the HW10 units. Unfortunately I haven't spent enough time with it to say much more than that. Although, I will say that i am thrilled with "out-of-the-box" performance of this projector when compared to the Epson 6100 that it's replacing...no surprise there. What did surprise me was the Sonys' ability to deal with ambient light. While it is not the "light-cannon" that my Epson was; it is plenty for anything i could ever hope to throw at it (plus the additional brightness in "best mode" doesn't hurt. )

I'm looking forward to you getting a few more hours on your PJ and letting us know what you think. I am really interested if you watch sports with no frame enhancements.

I think -- think is the key word -- I have it narrowed down to the Sony or the Benq W6000. I currently have a W5000 and don't know if I can give up the sharpness of the Benq and the really good picture that it produces.

The W6000 beats the 5000 in every category including audible noise unfortunately.

The Sony looks like a solid choice all the way around. I am wondering however if the Sony and Benq will come down in price a little in response to the Panasonic 4000 shocker (price that is).

That's really great you're enjoying your new device, congratulations!!!

Concerning "bright corners" - there's nothing special you should do to recreate the issue. Just turn off the lights in your room and switch the PJ on. They are visible on the black screen only - first very bright, 5-10 minutes later - dim white I would say. If your blacks are uniform right after switching on - everything is OK then, so please check it if it doesn't bother you much.

No problemo! I've gotta be honest though, there were a few times while i was waiting for the hw15 to ship that i thought about canceling my order and blindly picking up the AE4000 based on the spec sheet alone It is an absolute beast...on paper. The lack of FI has been bothering a little though...not because the sony needs it, but because i don't have the option to find out. Originally i was between this and the JVC hda550 but i couldn't justify the added cost considering the room is limiting any tangible performance increase.(white walls and ceiling) Hopefully the addition of a soon-to-ordered Da-lite high power will help with the room.

Sweet! well in that case there is nothing to worry about. Unless it could somehow manifest itself as the bulb/projo ages. I'll try to snap some pics if i can ever get my dang camera to work.

Sony HS15, and Panasonic PTAE4000U, both with 2 year warranties, and a spare bulb, for same price. I'm assuming the 4000 bulb will be near $400. Why would I pick the Sony. Assuming, for arguments sake, based on articles, that the 4000 is a nicely improved 3000. For me ... not a theoretical question. In fact, in my case, the Sony would be around $350 cheaper, after factoring the extra bulb in. After a lot of reading, and with the price factored in, I'm certainly leaning for the Sony, but the FI, and some of the specs on the Panasonic are enticing as well.

How close to the wall can you place the HW15? The HW10 was essentially similar. I can't find the info. I am guessing 4".

this is an excerpt from the manual:

(To maintain the performance and reliability of the projector, allow at least 30cm (11 7/8 inches) between the projector and walls.)

Although i have mine shelf-mounted about 5" from the back wall.

Nevermind my prev question. Found a thread with the same question, but for the HW10, and the AE3000 ... seems to be still pretty much the same situation, and it gave me what I was looking for.

To nail my setup, with the HW15, I'll need to put it about 7 inches from the back wall ... I see that scorpinaut is risking 5". Doesn't mean it's a good idea, but ... I won't be alone. And I have lots of breathing room around, and under ...

NEW QUESTION ... couldn't find this one in the manual.
I need the dimensions of the foot ... or more precisely,
the measurement (front to back) from the 2 front adjusters/legs and
the back of the projector base ... I'm trying to make sure my shelf is deep
enough that this thing won't be hanging it's front height adjuster off the shelf.
If so, I'll need to buy something different to support it.

Thanks for any help.

Hmmmm. Is the back where the intake and/or exhaust is?

mlbspike- I measured just over 13 inches from the front of the adjusters to the farthest edge on the rear of the chassis. here's a pic.





cpc- The Primary vent for the intake is on the rear of the chassis. But there is also a secondary intake tapered much farther into the body. While my situation isn't ideal i don't forsee any issues in regards to airflow.

Excellent.
Thanks, scorpinaut ... just what I needed.
I'll squeeze in with 2 inches to spare.
Guy at work just got an HS15, and said when he turned it on,
he thought it was broken, because it was making no noise.
... Then the picture came up.
If it's that quiet ... does that mean:
A. The airflow is modest
B. They just did a great job of moving the air quietly
C. A little of both.

If the airflow is modest, it'll get me more confidence about
my clearance ... I imagine you've considered that, when
you decided 5" was do-able.

Again ... thanks for the quick answer about the foot-size.

LOL! the same thing happened to me! the projector is almost dead silent. Not to mention the "black" startup screen is actually black compared to my older epson 6100s' "grayish-purplely-black." I sat staring at that blank screen for 5 minutes "troubleshooting" until i gave up and looked into the lens to verify it was, in fact "on".

Then simply change the color to blue. You can do this from the menu.

Wow, thanks. That helps me. Guess I'll adjust things according to my situation. I just don't want to push the projector too far into the the room, and also not use too much zoom.

Well, im obviously aware of that now . This is my first "ultra-contrast" projector and i definitely expected an improvement in all aspects of performance. What i didn't expect was that the "black floor" would be lowered so significantly given the poor environment that it's in. For instance, "fade-to-black" scenes are a completely different experience; with me actually being blinded until my eyes adjust....Freaking Awesome! And yes, I know this seems like a minor detail, but given how much room there is for improvement
(HP screen, darker paint and floor, calibration, etc.) I can't help but be excited.

Well, I'm hoping the black level is similar or better than the 1080UB I had briefly.

Easy fix would be getting a piece of 1/2" MDF or something similar to support the PJ directly (essentially adding depth to your shelf); a few screws into the top shelf or some small c-clamps at the back should keep the board in place so it doesn't accidentally get tipped off the top shelf.

Please tell me this thing has anamorphic stretch? I read the manual it doesn't seem likely.

I think I'll have it close to the wall, like 4 to 5"...but, there will be nothing there. I will have a shelf under the projector where the feet are, but past that, there will be open space. PJ will be in a basement so only issue I face is humidity. In summer doesn't get very hot down there.

As with the HS-20 (my previous projector I just sold) the HW15 is not available much heh. Esp. in Canada. Waiting.

New projector season is always a waiting game...

...and yes, being in Canada, there's often more delay in new product arrivals than the bigger US market.

Has anybody from Canada bought a Sony projector from the USA (or outside Canada) and gotten warranty coverage in Canada?

I originally wanted to use the HW15 at the longest throw, so I would get the highest contrast, lowest black levels and sharpest geometry. The throw distance from screen to lens would have been about 15 feet. Now that I am thinking of doing an Acoustically Transparent screen, I will have to reduce my throw and use the zoom. Distance from screen to lens will be about 12 feet and 8 inches. It appears that I will be using the zoom at about 1.27x. Looking at the zoom contrast numbers, my performance would be about 7000:1 ON/OFF vs 8000:1...so that's not too bad. Not sure about black levels and sharpness/geometry.

Is using the zoom at about a 1.27 X not going to affect contrast, black level and sharpness/geometry enough to be concerned, and want to use a longer throw/less zoom instead? I plan to use pretty much zero lens shift.