Sony VPL-VW50 Review |
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Reviewed: 05 May 2007
Design
Sony's VPL-VW50 simply oozes style with its sleek lines and a symmetrical appearance that will have friends and neighbours open jawed in admiration.
Main operating buttons hidden beneath the top curve of the projector complete the elegant minimalist look.
Features
Sony's VPL-VW50 may seem expensive, but for your money you get a state of the art projector with a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution capable of displaying 1080p and 1080i sources without scaling down the image.
Resolution: 1,920 x 1,080 Brightness: 900 ANSI Lumens Contrast: 15,000:1 Dimensions: 395(w) x 174(h) x 471(d)mm Weight: 11kg OTHER FEATURES: CONNECTIONS: 2 HDMI, VGA, Component, S-video.
Connectivity on the VPL-VW50 is good, with 2 HDMI (both deliver the full resolution of 1080p), VGA input for a PC, along with Component and S-video inputs.
One of the most useful features of the VPL-VW50 is the remotely adjustable zoom lens which means you can make adjustments from where you will be seated, or up close to the projector's screen.
The Sony VPL-VW50 has been designed for optimum colour reproduction with a triple panel structure, one each for the red, green and blue picture elements. This setup produces an impressive claimed contrast ratio of 5,000:1.
Sony's Advanced Iris system on the VPL-VW50 has been designed to extract more darkness/brightness from on screen elements.
The 200w lamp sports an UHP (ultra high pressure) design which Sony claims to enhances hues by boosting the quality of reds and maintaining a correct white balance.
Performance
The first thing you notice about the Sony VPL-VW50 is how quietly it runs. This is surely the least obtrusive projector we have come across and is whisper quiet.
High Definition (HD) performance from the VPL-VW50 is exceptional, with a level of detail and sharpness that is truly exceptional. Sources such as Sky HD reproduce superbly, and HD DVD just has to be experienced to believed, especially when the picture is ramped up to around 300in which is where the full 1,920 x 1,080 resolution comes into its own.
Black levels and colour saturation are exceptional, and exactly what you would expect from a projector in this class.
Standard Definition sources also reproduce well, with Sky TV's 1080i resolution images showing how good a 1,920 x 1,080 projector can be when there is no downscaling of the source image.
The most disappointing feature of the Sony VPL-VW50 considering all the picture processing technology on board is colour accuracy. In this respect the Sony quite often misses the mark to quite a noticeable degree. Red and Green coloured objects are just not rendered realistically.
Conclusion
The Sony VPL-VW50 is an accomplished performer, and offers an unrivalled home cinema experience for the price with superb picture clarity and sharpness. A few niggling colour problems take the edge of slightly.
