WSR Greg Rogers Sony VPL-VW60 Review, official thread! - Page 2

All HDMI receivers (all versions) accept 10-bit and 12-bit YCbCr 4:2:2 signals. (Technically all DVI transmitters and receivers can also transmit/accept 10-bit/12-bit YCbCr 4:2:2). So what matters is the bit depth of the internal processing.


Not day one (just didn't have time to implement it for the first release). But you will note on our web page (new feature #4) the HDG-4000 is fully field upgradeable so who knows ....


We won't take any orders until all the parts have arrived and the first batch of generators are built and tested. I don't want anyone sending us money and then waiting if there are any manufacturing snafu's in the first production run.

It appears to be the same as previous. The luminance changes with changes in the RCP Color control. I did some experimenting with the red and green primaries, but I didn't have much time to really explore the tradeoffs between those changes and the Wide color mode. The Normal color mode was really quite good without the RCP so I put my time into exploring other non-color areas of the projector's performance.

I didn't measure the CR at the minimum throw since it visually dropped a lot and the brightness was pretty darn good without giving up contrast. I would stick with the middle of the zoom range to the max throw depending on the amount of light you need.

You can see that my lumen numbers are much higher than Jason's and the projector was about 25%-28% brighter than the VW50 I measured in my previous review.

I haven't really considered it but I will give it some thought.

The answer is in the review (Brightness and Color Uniformity section).

You align the red and blue images with the green. Sony provides a test pattern with 2 pixel-wide horiz and vert lines. I suspect they did that to sort of mask what happens to the width of the red and blue lines when the adjustment is turned on. It is much easier to do the alignment with single pixel 1080p lines. In that case you align the red and blue lines to minimize the perceived fringing around the single pixel-wide green lines. This is easiest to do if you can input just two colors at a time, which you can do with the HDG-4000 generator or a PC.

Yes, I talked to them about it. They specifically told me that they had read my previous VW50 review criticism in that regard. I just wished they had put in 3 color space modes. One for SMPTE-C, one for Rec 709, and then their native mode. This is a case where the manufacturers could get what they want (over saturated primaries, which sell more projectors to the masses) and video enthusiasts could also get accurate colors. Everybody wins. Sharp and Yamaha learned that a long time ago.

I didn't have them side by side, but I believe the VW60 was at least as good as the RS-1, plus there was no noticeable color fringing on the VW60 (from a normal viewing distance) using the new panel alignment feature.

The brightness compression hasn't been "solved". It is basically an intrinsic result of a dynamic iris with dynamic gamma. In the VW100 (Ruby) which was the first Sony front projector with a dynamic iris it was quite troublesome because the DI algorithms were so aggressive (to get higher perceived contrast). In the VW50 (Pearl) the aggressiveness was dialed way back so the perceived contrast was not as high in many scenes but the brightness compression was much less obvious. Plus the Auto 2 mode was added, which allowed the user to select an even less aggressive mode for brighter films where shadow detail was not as important and brightness compression was more likely to occur. I think the algorithms have been tweaked again in the VW60 (along with a wider aperture range) and brightness compression is even less obvious. You will note in the review that I still used the Auto 2 mode in several cases to reduce brightness compression. However, I think in many cases the viewer won't even recognize brightness compression without freezing the frame and comparing the Auto mode to the Iris Off mode. So for many people that don't recognize it when it happens it is probably a non-issue. But for other people just knowing that the image gamma is not always exactly as intended is an issue. Even if you do recognize it when it happens, it is usually modest enough to be considered just one of many tradeoffs when picking a projector.

Yes, but that is not a negative, it is an improvement in sharpness. The pixel structure was only visible from a close distance.

Nothing to add other than it was consistent with the VW50 out of the box.

I think you should compare my RS-1 review to this review and make your own assessment based on ALL of the details that matter to you. There are clear differences in color accuracy and in native contrast ratio. I suppose those are the biggest issues for most people. Sony wins big on color, JVC wins big on native contrast ratio. Then there are the "do you feel lucky issues" which are convergence, and brightness and color uniformity issues. Sony has gone a long way in the VW60 toward removing the convergence issue (and apparently will take another big step in the VW200). The uniformity was quite good on the VW60 that I reviewed but wasn't so good on the VW50 that I reviewed. So have they "solved" uniformity issues or was I just luckier this time? There are so many other factors to consider that its impossible for me to know how important each one is to you. Brightness, calibration adjustments, input setup options, fan noise, odd performance quirks, etc. etc. There is just no way that I can weight all of the issues based on what is important to you.

You can legally watch HD DVDs and Blu-ray discs using digital signals on the VW60.

The Auto 2 mode produces somewhat less perceived contrast (the minimum aperture setting is larger) but less brightness compression. I used the Auto 2 setting for brighter films where shadow detail is less prominent and you are more likely to run into brightness compression. I used the Auto 1 mode on some darker films that have a lot of shadow detail.