I own both a G15 and a VPL-VW100. The G15 was not Wm. Phelps. calibrated, though I have done a lot of work on it myself. Long story short, the Sony cured all of my JVC complaints but added two of its own. The convergence is a lot worse than the G15... just the luck of the draw between the two I'm sure. But the biggest thing that jumps out is the brightness... or lack there of. At the time (July 06) I bought the Sony, well aware of the reduced output, to hold me over until a "real" 1080p projector was available. I traded what was a much brighter image for an image that is better in most every other way. Each has its short comings and I am happy with neither. I have had a year to get used to the Sony and my impression not only has not changed, but as the bulb has aged, the image is even less impressive. As irony would have it, the G15 is hanging in the theater right now, as the VPL-VW100 is in Texas being repaired, and I am reminded of the huge brightness price that I paid. And after 1 week I can't wait to get the Sony back and get rid of the G15 issues.
Between the two what you notice is:
- How much better the Sony is right out of the box. Back in the day there were all these hoops you had to jump through before you could even consider any critical viewing.
- Then you notice how much darker the Sony blacks are and how milky the G15 blacks are and how much more the G15 "lights the room" with a completely black picture.
- Then you notice how much darker the Sony image is.
- Then you notice how much cleaner the image is feeding the Sony through the DVI or HDMI inputs vs. the G15 that only has analog.
- Then you start to notice other things like color accuracy, uniformity, convergence, resolution, etc.
So here I am, over 1 year later, still waiting for a PJ I can be happy with. It's not the G15. It's not the VPL-VW100. And from reading this forum today I don't think it's any other PJ either currently available or tentatively announced. All I see is vendors sticking new advanced features in the same old dim engine. This is not helping me any. I bought the Sony as a temporary, throw away solution as the bridge between the G15 and a real 1080P PJ. Looks like I'm going to get my monies worth out of the Sony.