Official Sony VPL-VW95ES Owners Thread - Page 9

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My current projector is a shelf mounted PT AX 100 et 14.8 feet distance that has more than enough light in bright mode to fill 145 inches of a my very white painted wall.(zeo gain I presume). Can The Sony VW95 fill that size with sufficient brightness. What about 3d in my case ?

Since I was unable to put together my final comparative thoughts on the RS50 vs the Panny 7000, maybe I can stitch together some frankensteinian enthusiasts' comparison of all three, infused with the cold blood of the long-since lifeless (for me) VW85 and VW90 for good measure.

Gee, to think I missed Halloween by just a few days with this sophomoric statement....


Or I can just sit still and watch something for a change...

Yes please. But to me of course.

Im up for it!!!

If these numbers are anywhere near correct, that's over a 20% increase in brightness for JVC (more for the 45). I am changing to a 115" wide scope screen, and I have concern the Sony would be far to dim, compared to the JVC, on a close to unity gain screen.
Joe, what are your viewing conditions? I know you use a very high gain screen, as do I.

Because I am a hog!

Actually there was a shipping snafu and I ended up with two. I figured I might as well be thorough. Plus avs is a tough crowd!

Gary, I use a vutec ss and an electric 1.4 white screen for 3D. It is very cost effective but gets the job done! Which i why I love the picture position memories.

lumen output can easily be taken out of context. Cine4home's measurements of the RS50 were 200+ lumens higher than my RS50 (with 2 different lamps) @ shortest throw on my 142" 16:9 screen.

There is no guarantee that the 2012 JVC lamps aren't going to dim like the one in my RS50 which was fine @ first but quickly lost 40% of it's output in less than 250 hours. I have an HP screen so it's still ok in 2D (I am down to 300 lumens now), but if I had a low gain screen, it would have been a deal breaker.

i'll gladly take it... although my "review" wouldn't be worth a darn, as i don't have enough experience to do any proper comparisons....

like i posted, i'm glad you take the time to do it... i guess i thought it would be more "review-y" (for lack of a better term)... i have no "brand loyalty" here, just another guy stuck on the fence (well, leaning hard off the fence, but on the fence nonetheless)...

i'll go back to lurking quietly now...

It's cool Chris. No worries.

I shouldn't be so defensive. It's been awhile since I had a review on avs I guess. We're cool.

Hi Joe. Does HW30 also have the same "low" noise as in 95?
I am debating between a HW30 and a VW95... of course I would like the VW95, but it is quite a bit more expensive (I do not know what AVS sell at, and I emailed one of the representative but no answer )... I usually watch movies at night and although it is pretty pitch black, my ceiling is white, so I am not sure I would benefit much from the higher contrast anyway...I like the 3D sensor, and the automatic lens cover.. but those are mostly stuffs that I probably can get by.. any other things I should be aware of?

cool. just wanted you to know that i appreciate the effort, and that i wasn't just tyring to be a noodge...

joerod do you notice the dynamic iris when there are scene changes? Specifically going from a dark to light scenes and vice versa? I'm really contemplating on upgrading to this projector from my RS20. Any input would be a huge help!

Another classic Joerod review . . .

Thanks to everyone for their comments and Joerod for sticking your neck out there and reviewing. I know there will be more reviews and anecdotes coming out as this thread progresses. I've pretty much decided on the Sony, but alas I am unsure as to which one 30 or 95. If Joerod or anyone else with intimate knowledge of these two projectors can give me a percentage of performance increase between the two, that would be of great benefit to me.
I can now order the 30 as it is available here in Alberta, Canada, but the 95 won't be available to me until ETA of December. I have a preference to who I am purchasing thru as I can obtain a decent price from them.
I have been slowly updating my electronics and this is the last piece in the puzzle.

I for some reason ended up without that comment in my Review. It is undetectable. Works perfectly fine. I tested the opening of Star Wars (part 4) to check.

Not to much. You pretty much hit the high points. The 30 is pretty quiet as well. Depends on how much Sharpness you like. If you are not a Sharp freak you could probably get away with a 30. I like the background being more detailed and the extra ooomph in Sharpness. Plus the other features make it a no brainor for me.

I appreciate it.

It is a 29.7% performance increase.
Major and minor differences aside the 30 is a great bang for the buck model. I would say motorized Lens with the 95, increased Sharpness, more features, better depth make it stand out a little more. Of course the 30 will get most people excited anyway so as long as you do not A/B them you would be fine.

Same here.

Joe - nice review as usual.

Any chance you could create a seperate review thread and have the mods move the review discussions from the owners' thread into your review thread?

From past experiences we know this will get more and more contentious and just clog the owners' thread.

Great point. I am all for that.

And thanks.

Yes Thrang I can tell you 100% they are fully interchangable. I've had both the Optoma and the MonsterVision vision glasses and have operated them at the same time with no problem. The Optoma glasses will work with the Monster emitter. I even watched the Monster emitter transmit the firmware to the glasses (as they do upon first use) successfully. As far as I can tell it is just an OEM labeling and the glasses and physically and functionally the same. Let me know if you have any q's. BTW I *HIGHLY* recommend these glasses.

Joe - did the IR/RF repeater show full signal strength with the sensor taped to that position? If not did you try facing the sensor back at the pj instead of the screen to see if that made a difference?

Great question and I'm happy to answer...

I've had a JVC in my HT now for about 4-5 years. First an RS1, then an RS20. Before that a Ruby and a Sharp 10K.

Main reasons for looking seriously at the Sony VW95 instead of the RS55 are:

1) Over the years I have come to realize that I am mostly watching TV series, sports, Discovery Channel, specials like the Emmys/Grammys, video games and other video (as opposed to film) based content.

I think most people agree that the Sony has a clear advantage with such materials, whereas the JVC has a clean advantage with film - movies and in particular dark movies.

I'd say only about 10% of the time I turn on the pj its to watch a movie, and even then more than half that time its bright, animated movies. So I am looking more seriously at the Sony because it plays better into the type of content I watch most often.

2) I am a sharpness freak. Period. For years I have longed for the days of a super razor sharp image. My JVCs are soft for my taste. Its not that they are bad, but rather I find myself wanting it sharper. I understand that latest gen (current and upcoming) JVCs are sharper so that is good. But from reports of CEDIA and Berlin it sounds like the Sony still has the advantage in sharpness.

3) I want to be with a company that I feel is best positioned to acknowledge and address deficiencies with their products in a timely manner.

4) A year ago I purchased a Samsung PN63C8000 Plasma. Instantly my RS20 was dethrowned from king of the hill in my household. Since then I do the majority of my viewing there, because IMO it is a far better picture. Brighter (not a fair fight with a front pj I know) and FAR sharper.

But the biggest thing I like about the Samsung plasma over the RS20 is the Samsung's motion handling. It is terrific. Never before did I focus on motion or worry about it with the JVC, but now that I have experienced it I don't want to be without it.

Because of Sony's reputation of being outstanding in this area, I can only assume that its motion handling is at least as good, if not better, than the Samsung. And likely significantly better, from what I've heard, than the JVC.

As for lumens, sure I'd like the brighter lumens of the JVC but for my situation the lumens for the Sony should be suffiicent (I estimate about 15ftL with a new bulb, then will just replace the bulb as needed).

I probably will miss the deeper blacks when I watch a dark movie on rare occasions, but to me it seems like a worthwhile tradeoff for the Sony's other advantages.

I'd not worry as much about the difference in the contrast ratios that have been seen so far with the 95 and RS45/55 models. The low light level reading of the devices that most people are using is around 0.001 fL. If you are getting 25 fL with white, and 0.001 fL with black, that's 25,000:1. Going just up to 0.002 fL is pushing that down to 12,500:1. However, those measurements could actually be 0.001499999 and 0.001500000, with one being rounded up, and one being rounded down, and causing a huge shift in results.

As black levels fall lower and lower to where measurements will struggle to measure them accurately, any contrast readings really need to be taken in context to what the numbers are. If your black levels are 0.015 and 0.007, then huge differences in contrast ratio might mean something. If you are at 0.002 and 0.003 or so, then that's causing a 33% swing in values where it might really be 2% but the measurements round funny. A difference of 18,000:1 and 21,000:1 can easily be due to taking more or less favorable measurements for one or the other, and I'd basically consider those about equal. Perhaps one person chooses the best case result, and one chooses the worst case, and one averages? Then you'll get a spread like that for the same projector most likely. There's just too much that can go into those measurements to make a judgement about them when the numbers are so close, and from different sources.

I'd not worry as much about the difference in the contrast ratios that have been seen so far with the 95 and RS45/55 models. The low light level reading of the devices that most people are using is around 0.001 fL. If you are getting 25 fL with white, and 0.001 fL with black, that's 25,000:1. Going just up to 0.002 fL is pushing that down to 12,500:1. However, those measurements could actually be 0.001499999 and 0.001500000, with one being rounded up, and one being rounded down, and causing a huge shift in results.

As black levels fall lower and lower to where measurements will struggle to measure them accurately, any contrast readings really need to be taken in context to what the numbers are. If your black levels are 0.015 and 0.007, then huge differences in contrast ratio might mean something. If you are at 0.002 and 0.003 or so, then that's causing a 33% swing in values where it might really be 2% but the measurements round funny. A difference of 18,000:1 and 21,000:1 can easily be due to taking more or less favorable measurements for one or the other, and I'd basically consider those about equal. Perhaps one person chooses the best case result, and one chooses the worst case, and one averages? Then you'll get a spread like that for the same projector most likely. There's just too much that can go into those measurements to make a judgement about them when the numbers are so close, and from different sources.

Thanks lovingdvd, your reasons make perfect sense for choosing a Sony. I watch 95% movies in a dark colored room and have a large screen, so it still looks like the JVC is better suited to my needs.

I agree with you about the motion, probably the main downfall of the RS20, but surprisingly motion improved if I had the projector on 60Hz even with the 3:2 pulldown conversion (not noticeable to me).

Good luck with Sony. Do post your comparisons between the two when you get the new Sony!