Official Sony VPL-HW30(A)ES Owners Thread - Page 82

Nope. Swapped it once, had almost exact same behavior with the new one. Sony wasn't particularly interested in swapping again. I'm living with it. Honestly, it's not noticeable with video content unless you really look hard.

Does it annoy me? Yes. Do I think even the most basic projectors should have consistent focus? Yes. Can I live with it? Yes. There isn't a better projector that fits my needs (and price range), so I don't really have any choice but to deal with it.

I'm very impressed with the PJ in all other categories.

Finally got my HW30 back late last week. All they did was replace the bulb...and my fan is still louder than what I think it should be...but all is well.

Watched Hugo 3D tonight. Great movie, but ghosting galore. I haven't watched too many 3D movies, but never noticed ghosting like this before. I tried different depth settings, but nothing seemed to help.

I guess I really need to get those MonsterVision glasses. I've been delaying it because I have no desire to have yet another attachment to deal with. But those Sony's are the most uncomfortable hunks of plastic I've ever worn.

Are you using 3D MAX Brightness? I would adjust the brightness first since that adjusts the shutter open time on the glasses. Even with my Monsters dialed in I still get a tiny amount of ghosting on some content. I see ghosting in the 3D cinemas, but I see less with my home setup.

Hugo really has some pronounced ghosting, especially when Borat is in the scene. The monsters help a bit, but is still really noticeable.

Hey guys,

I'm moving my projector to a bigger room and upgrading to a 133" 16x9 screen. I want to try to keep the lamp in economy mode and not run it in high lamp mode, both to keep the fan from running in high and to preserve bulb life.

Should I mount the projector as close to minimum throw distance for the size screen (which is 14' I believe) in order to keep image brightness high (around 16-20 ftL) without running high lamp mode or can I move it further back (the room is 19' long) without it affecting overall image brightness?

Or would running manual iris setting with the iris fully open negate any image brightness drop off associated with a longer throw distance?

Thanks!

The screen will only be 1.3 gain

Off question: how many rows of seating do you have with your 133" screen? How close is the closest row to the screen?

Appreciate the response. So 12' back isn't too "in your face"?

The room I am planning will have two rows of seats, with the front row being 12' from the same size screen as you. Just want to make sure that's not to close to cause problems or discomfort.

Hey guys,

So ever since I replaced my lamp I started using Advance Iris 1 (before that I use manual iris at 56). Since the lamp replacement and use of Auto Iris I have been noticing image retention when the a movie has a somewhat bright scene and then a fad to black.

An example is the TV show Justified I was watching last night. The last scene has a US marshall standing in a well lit doorway and then it fads to black for about 3 seconds. During the all black screen an outline of the marshall can be scene clearly on the all black screen, much like old school image retention on plasma tvs. Is this normal?

Thanks.

Not normal. I used to get some retention occassionaly with a LCD unit. Did you notice the retention on other content? It could be a poorly encoded source.

With the LCD unit I had long ago, you could see remnants of the WB home video logo on a black screen during transition to the menu/feature.

It also happened while I was watching bluray movies the other night. Like going from the menu screen of the bluray player to black screen during loading of the movie.

Could it just be because the image is so bright with advanced iris?

It goes away as soon as a new scene displays so its not a constant retention. Not sure what to make of it.

Hey guys, getting rdy to pull trigger on this projector and am trying to find out the best ceiling mount for it. Ive been trying various search phrases but all i keep getting is posts that contain the word mount, which is like 30% of them.

Im not trying to spend a bajillion dollars, but if spending $150 vs $70-80 is going to get me a much better functioning, more durable mount, im all for it. I really don't need a $3500 projector falling off the damn ceiling ;-).

I sit 12' back from 120" and can't help but think it could be a little bigger.

I use the Sanus mount that was around ~$80 on projector people. Used it with my old Epson, and now my Sony.

Just thinking out loud. What colorspace are you set to? Are you using one the gamma curves? I have my colorspace set to normal, gamma off. Also I have lamp set to low and iris set to Auto 1 with recommended speed setting. It would be interesting to know if the retention still exists with other settings.

Hey gang. I've been doing my homework on the 30ES and its been looking like the machine for me. However, a spanner was thrown in the works when I came across this shoot-out between the 30ES and the Panasonic AE7000:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/shoo...ony_hw30es.htm

Basically, just about everything in that article conflicts with the other information I've gleaned in my research.

I've been led to believe that the Sony has better contrast, deeper blacks and less 3D crosstalk than the Panasonic but that link clearly states the opposite in all those departments.

So, what do you think? Can this assesment be trusted? Is the Panasonic an arguably superior projector in these regards? Consider me confused!

Buy one you won't be disappointed, provided you have a good screen and good source material you'll like it. I came from a Barco Cine8 onyx and I think it has a great picture. I'll take it over my Cine8.

I hate to crosspost. But I don't know if I am missing a projector setting or if there is an issue with my HTPC. PowerDVD can't enable 3D on my projector:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1406445

No, it cannot be trusted. The Sony has brighter best modes and darker blacks, much brighter. If comparing to the Panny, the Epson 5010 is better if wanting an LCD, or the JVC if wanting an LCOS with darker blacks.

For blacks, the Sony's Native On/Off contrast maxes near 10,000:1 even if you just close the IRIS at farthest throw without the dynamic IRIS in action. The Panasonic 7000 in Rec709 Mode relying on the IRIS only gets to around 8,000:1 on/off (again with the IRIS). If you turn the Dynamic IRIS mode on for the Sony, then the max on/off approaches around 15,000:1 to 20,000:1 or so starting from 5,000:1. Only the Panny's cinema mode IRIS can beat that, but it's too bouncy.

Overall we are talking an easy win for the Sony in brightness and a small win in black levels for the Sony.

The Sony has the better pixel fill, even though the Panny has smooth screen. I'm not sure which one is sharper, guessing they are about the same, Panny might be slightly sharper don't know. The Sony most likely has less ghosting in 3D.

can you temporarily bypass that adapter with a straight HDMI cable? I use an HTPC with the Nvidia GT430, direct HDMI to the HW30 and the 3D works great with PDVD and TMT as well. I haven't tried it with an AMD card, but there's plenty of folks who have them that work.

fyi - the IR emitter has to be plugged in before turning on the projector, or it will not go into 3D mode until you power it off then on again.

Any word on the filters? My window for returning to Amazon is closing.

I haven't tried calling again... I sent mine back a week and a half ago.

I own the Panasonic and I can tell you the blacks are pretty average on it. I've done quite a bit of A-B testing between it and my Mits hc3800 dlp that it replaced and with the Pana in Rec709 pictuer mode and lamp on eco with the iris off the blacks are only mildly darker than the Mits, a bit disappointing really at least in that area. However the picture for the most part does look alot better than the Mits despite black levels being only moderately better, it would seem there is more to image quality than just having good blacks but if you want them to look inky or something close to it than I would look elsewhere than the Panasonic ae7000. The 3D can be a bit too dark on it aswell and ghosting can be an issue, alot seems to depend on the machine you're lucky to get or unlucky and how you set it up.

Thanks guys. I thought those shoot-out results seemed a bit odd.

Some of the review sites are run by dealers also. So take somethings with a little skepticism. Some of those guys are trying to point you to the products they have the highest margins on.

I would say the HW30 is a pretty good all around unit. Not knocking other units, but I would be skeptical of anyone claiming no ghosting in 3D. If that's true I would imagine that the 3D picture is very dim. The Sony is flexible enough that the viewer can find the best trade off between image brightness and crosstalk.

I am also very impressed with the quality of the 2D image it throws. It's plenty bright and it is has a very natural look. You can tweak more if your a spec head trying to hit all the image standards, but the unit is pretty good right out of the box. I really question the need for ISF calibration with the newer units.