The Sony VPL-VW295ES offers true 4K, HDR and gamer-friendly 60p HDR with low input lag plus near silent operation and a flexible motorized lens.

Click this link to read the review: https://www.avsforum.com/sony-vpl-vw...jector-review/

Ill be getting this for sure. Thanks for the great review as always.

Thanks for the excellent review. It's good to know that Sony finally released their entire 4K projector line with 18 gbps HDMI but I still find it unfathomable that their 2017 4K projectors still had 10 gbps HDMI.

I was considering the Sony 295ES and the JVC NX5 but I discovered that I could get the JVC RS440 for a deep discount brand new from an authorized dealer. I couldn't justify true 4K for almost double the price of the RS440 so i pulled the trigger on the JVC a few weeks ago.

Side note: Billy Lynn may not be the only 4K60 HDR disk for long. Rumor is that WB will release the Hobbit trilogy in its originally filmed 60 frames on 4K UHD in 2019.

Thanks for the review. Does the 295ES beat the same priced JVC with just 4K eshift?

You lost me at, "However, I suggest pairing the 295ES with a 16:9 screen and not looking back since variable aspect ratio presentations are becoming more common."

As the owner of a 2.35:1 CIH setup, I despise variable aspect ratios in film. I don't even like them in commercial cinemas. This is the wrong direction IMO.

Glad I picked up a JVC a few weeks ago. Not native 4k, but spectacular enough visually to make a huge difference, and flexible enough to meet any AR demands.

I believe they were 13.4Gbps HDMI for 2017, but I agree they should’ve been full 18Gbps.

I been a JVC and Sony fan for awhile, I went for the 295ES because of picture quality and price.... Pretty damn impressive so far, I wanted the new Solo Screen by SI in a 110-120 inch, but went the fixed route for now since they have had some issues with those screen sizes with the Solo drop down screen. Here is a pic, and I am loving it so far, best Projector I have had to date, just got done building my new Theater and had a chance to sound proof it and got the sound dialed in with Dolby Atmos, more of a 2 channel guy but love a decent movie on a big screen or watching a decent Hockey/Football or Soccer game etc.. Very impressed with the Sony, almost went the JVC route, either way both great PJs. Got some Hunter Douglas Auto Blinds coming in next week, as I only have a sliding glass door to worry about in this walk out basement. The 295 impresses me every time I turn it on, plan on some gaming action in the near future, as I put a 55" above the bar so you can have dual screens going when gaming.

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Thanks for sharing your pictures! Great to see another audiophile with theater setup. I’m working on my first theater room with color scheme and box ceiling very similar to yours.
What made you pick Sony over JVC? I’m torn between both 295 and JVC NX5/790R.

I feel like Sony has a more organic picture with good detail between black and white. JVC on the hand has great blacks and brighter on low lamp setting. I want to keep projector noise to a minimum so low lamp performance is important. JVC does have more of a “digital” look to my eyes with highlights and near black detail getting lost.

Mark, (and anyone considering this fine PJ),

Have you seen this thread about incompatibility between Sony Projectors and ATV4K?

https://www.avsforum.com/forum/39-ne...rojectors.html

AppleTV4K and Sony projectors are my 2 favorite things but they don't get along currently.

Apple Senior Advisor (listed below) told me the amount of resources they put to this depends on the amount of users that express interest in having it fixed. Which makes perfect sense actually but this is why I am asking others (who may also want this fixed) to help me report it.

This issue is completely simple to reproduce and it's not HDMI cable related.

Seem to be an incompatibility in the way ATV4K converts it's native DV content to HDR10.

Anyone who gets this fine PJ or (any Sony 4K PJ) can contact Sony and Apple and request they investigate further.

[email protected]
Sony case 04032776 Attn Eric

[email protected]
Apple Case 100647166479
Gary Hart
Senior Advisor

Specifically Mark - You have the ATV4K to test with. If you want, I'll buy you a Sony movie (Hotel Transylvania 3) if you will simply enable HDR and reproduce this issue and include information about this problem in your review and in your communication with Sony and Apple. In iTunes the problem is there. Go to the Vudu app with the ATV4K and you can play back the movie with HDR just fine. (Because it's not a DV stream being poorly converted to HDR10)

I've decided to have my movie collection in iTunes and when I purchase a DV movie it's 50/50 that it will play back correctly. (note - many DV encoded iTunes movies play back correctly.)

Thanks,

-Brian

Thank you! In my world music comes first so I spent it on good speakers and equipment and mostly the room. I have in the past tried to go with more expensive pre/pro route and just found that keeping my systems separate works better for me, I have a built in rack into the back area of room that houses my Home Theater gear and that runs my bar area and main Atmos system. Here are a few more pics.. I use to work in the AV world years ago, so I knew how to build a good room, I wanted something more multi-purpose, hence media room, that flows into a bar with a TV in their as well. As far as your question goes I wanted a true 4K image with great quality on both 4KMovies/Blu-Rays and wanted to do some 4K gaming and the Sony checked off all the boxes and kept the price reasonable. You can't go wrong with JVC/Sony or Epson for that matter, all depends on what your needs are, plus I put the money into the room, so any speaker sounds better in this place, just need to add some bass traps and a drop down door to keep all the sound in..... >>>> https://www.acousticalsurfaces.com/d..._doorseals.htm The nice thing about this place verses my old theater in older house, I couldn't turn the sound up without waking or interrupting the rest of the house, this place no issues so far..

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Being a JVC fan, I would like to know if you have calculated the native contrast of the Sony?

I have been buying JVCs over Sony's over the past few years for that one reason: better native contrast, and although I never had the chance to compare both brands head to head, I must say the JVC RS500 I currently own has become my "reference" when it comes to absolute black level.

I would hate to lose perceptible native contrast and get a narrower colorspace (JVC is 98% of dci P3) just to gain native 4K and the same lumens (1500).

Edit: I just went to the Sony USA webpage and was unable to (quickly) find any advertised contrast ratio?

Interesting. I use Vudu so I guess I would not run into this. Thing is, I'm going to be away from home traveling for a bit so I can't even contemplate trying this until next week at earliest.

Everyone (here) knows JVC has the deepest blacks, so if that's your priority then you made the right choice and there's no need to second guess it.

I did not try to measure native contrast. I find the blacks on the Sony are "deep enough" but of course in the end there are variables at play like whether you have a totally black theater, if you dig sci-fi movies or spend more time watching football and playing games etc.

How are you able to accurately review Red Dead Redemption 2 on the XBox One X, when the HDR is "broken" and needs to be patched for that game? God of War would've probably been a better choice for HDR.

@imagic ,

You briefly mentioned the DCI-P3/REC2020 coverage "The 295ES only gets part way there, but is better at reproducing some colors than others...", did you actually measure it and if so what percentage of those color gamuts did the Sony reach?

Also what is the lumens output after calibration? Black level measurement? Lots of details that seem to be missing from the usually thorough review.

Thanks.

Well,

Thanks for reading it anyhow. Chances are good that they won't fix it this week anyway. It's been 3 weeks as this problem started with the release of TVOS 12.

Good news (sort of) is a Vudu UHD copy will port to iTunes in 4K via Movies Anywhere so you may have all you need to try this out.

-Brian

Yes, I measured. It's basically identical to other Sony projectors. It can cover rec.709 fully and about 90% DCI/P3 although the exact number is hard to peg since CMS tweaks make it fluctuate a bit. Let's just call it 90%.

You are correct, I did not have time to drill down in a dark room and explore technical performance. I noted early in the review that I had not had much time with it. And now, I am going away for a week... so no time to do any more tinkering (for now anyhow).

I did not want to wait to post this, sometimes reviews "die on the vine" waiting to publish. Busy season is here. So, I somehow doubt I'll get to do more calibration or measurement before (at least ) Black Friday has passed.

-----

I have my CalMan charts from the one calibration (on the StudioTek 130) but I'm not interested in sharing those. Post-calibration I got a deltaE of 0.9 on StudioTek 130 for grayscale with decent brightness. I can't say I've had the time to explore every mode and every feature and how it impacts measured performance. I'll likely never have the luxury to delve that deep.

What I will say is the brighter you try and get, the more it has to deviate from "proper" gamma but it's not like an Epson where if you calibrate it it gets way dimmer.

The 885ES I reviewed last year achieves a "tighter" calibration that stays accurate even at max brightness, but the 295ES calibration is nothing to scoff at.

There's no new ground as to how the SXRD panels perform, that I can tell you. Color gamut is the same as other Sony PJs I have reviewed. Differences between the models have to do with iris/no iris, lens quality, light source... but not 4K SXRD panel color gamut or native contrast.

I'm not sure I'd buy too many movies on iTunes. Apple has removed some movies recently - even movies people bought. That didn't sit well with some folks on Twitter.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/column...8jPZXk.twitter

Anyone have ideas why this 295 projector is 1500 lumens when the old HW45 is 1800? Is it just marketing games? Or I'll just chalk this one up to another AVS thing going over my head I don't understand......frustrating hobby.

A valid fear but I’ll take my chances.

Either way this thread is about 295. And the issue I raised applies to 295 (and every Sony 4K PJ)

I went from VW60 to HW30 to HW45 to VW285 and can assure you those specs mean nothing. It is marketing.

I won’t mention my VPH 1271 or VPH G70

Thanks for the review Mark. I've owned 3 Sony's and I could see this being my 4th!

Of course everyone knows that!

What I (we?) do not know is the VW295ES's native (or whatever) contrast value.

Even clicking on "full specifications" from the official Sony webpage does not reveal any number. Sony is simply advertising "deeper blacks" and "rich, inky blacks". Not very helpful...

Native contrast is still an important value to consider when shopping for a new projector, I believe. Of course, real life contrast reading will vary a lot depending on the viewing environment, etc...But we all know that.

No, this has been proven to be false. Apple never removed any movies from people's libraries. This issue arose when a user moved from the US or Canada to Australia. The license for some of the movies in this persons purchase library was not available thru iTunes Australia. This was not Apple's fault it was the license issue for international sales. As a result those certain titles were in the US iTunes library but not in the Australia library. The user complained to Apple but it was out of their hands. If and when the user moves back to the US those titles will be available again.

Apple has never removed titles from anyones personal library. Also if you are extremely worried you can always download the titles and save the to the internal drive on the AppleTV.

Interesting. OK, good to know.

I have to think more reviews that include calibrated lumens and contrast measurements will be coming soon.

"The Sony VPL-VW295ES makes for an easy Top Choice 2018 selection."

Are you planning on reviewing any of the New JVC's dropping in the next couple weeks, or is AVS a Sony only review site?

I dont see how it can be awarded that when you haven't reviewed the rest of the 'playing field' properly. It does not even have a DI or iris of any sort, no way to tune light output for your screen... No lens memories, Those are huge cons.

I've asked JVC for projectors as I was at CES. Maybe they figure AVS does not need it since the community is so robust? I have not got the answer for you because my last three emails to JVC went unanswered. So there's that.

If I get one I'll review it. I can honestly say I have not heard anything from JVC recently so I am not at all hopeful. Sony's been very nice about providing projectors and I am glad to review them. Also I will be focusing on IMAX Enhanced which includes Sony projection so I'll be discussing them more throughout the next year.

As for the award, I can award more than one Top Choice. So that's what it is. I've seen the JVCs they are also a top choice. Also a Best of CEDIA which I gave to both Sony and JVC for this year's projector crop. But unless I review one, I can't award a JVC Top Choice. Really, it's up to them not me.

Yep and I'll gladly link to 'em from my review so that way I don't have to do redundant work.

I'm not eager to be the one to put out a number that everyone then treats as "official" TBH. But am not opposed to measuring some more. Notably, with the 285ES I could measure a ratio up to 15:000:1 and I'll see what I can do with this projector, but I would not expect it to be markedly different either since there's zero technical reason it would be.

Over Thanksgiving weekend I'd be willing to mess around with the meter a bit more, but I have to fly to S. Korea tomorrow morning, so nothing is gonna happen with this projector while I'm away.