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Picture bliss big time
Driving the Sony VPL-VW10HT projector.
By Max Christoffersen
September 2000
Sony VPL-VW10HT LCD video projector. $15190
“Bloody
hell !!!!” That was my first unedited response to the Sony image
- stone cold out of the box.
Pity it was Pokemon on TV2, but when a projector like this arrives
mid-afternoon you want to see what it can do... like NOW!
Almost immediately, the strengths of the Sony were clear; bright image,
vibrant colours and clear edge definition - and where were those pixels
and what about the low fan noise..'hmmmmmm..this is something special!'
But let me start at the beginning. I can't say I'm president of the LCD
projector fan club, but the glowing reviews of this Sony LCD projector
were stacking up big time - everywhere. The Sony 10HT ($15190 including
GST) is the hottest HT product on the block. It is the iMac of projectors
and there is a waiting-list to buy one in some parts of the world.
So why is it so hot? What has got everyone so excited about this small
white box. Well a couple of things.
- It is a dedicated home theatre projector (hence the HT designation)
that has successfully tackled some typical LCD problems; fan noise,
pixelisation and black resolution
- The 16:9 panels (Three 1.35" polysilicon panels) are designed
for widescreen viewing, which enables the user to view more information
on screen - it's purpose built for letterbox images
- It handles any input you care to throw at it - RGB, S-video, progressive,
480p, 720p etc
- To date: this is the best image produced from LCD so far
The HT10 is the ideal solution to those wanting a convenient consumer
friendly HT projector - with a great image to match.
But with this thought in mind, I sat there for a good 20 minutes or so
trying to figure out why I couldn't get an image big enough to fill my
100" (4:3 diagonal) Draper screen. Only then did I read the manual.
And reading the manual confirms it - this is no plug and play projector.
You must place the HT10 at a specific distance to the screen - there is
limited zoom, so find your (floor or ceiling) place, mount it and leave
it alone. This is a very CRT like set-up for an LCD projector - but when
it's done, it's done.
Let's cut to the chase and let me make this clear - the 10HT with the
progressive scan 480p output from my Toshiba 5109 is the best HT image
I have ever seen aside from some heavyweight and heavy price CRT projectors.
Sure the blacks weren't quite there - (more about this later), but frankly
it was doing everything else so well who cares? It's a little like saying
the Ferrari understeers a trifle and the suspension is a touch too soft
- “yeah right - just shut up and let me drive the thing!”
Some favourites from my four days with the Sony:
The intro scenes to The Fifth Element - Egypt 1914. The visitors
waddling into the scene looked like metal...not a facsimile, not a rough
estimate; not a copy - the texture looked like I could walk up to the
screen and hit it and I would get a 'ping' of finger nail hitting metal.
It looked like pure real-deal metal.
T2 Intro scene after August 29 1997. I have watched this scene
more times than I care to count. Only I never noticed before what was
happening in the background. Most attention goes to the foreground..but
there are details away in the back of the scene I never noticed before.
And the cyborgs looked like metal (see above)
Starship Troopers - The Big Mistake. This scene has a lot of large
ships crashing and burning into each other. There was far more detail
on the ships 'rigging' than I had been used to before. And when the ships
collide and burst into flame it looks very realistic - fire looks like
fire and well... metal again looks like you know what.
A Bugs Life - The Grasshoppers - "Where's My Food!!!". Frankly A Bugs Life looks great on almost anything. But with the Sony there was more depth and it stopped being a computer-cartoon style caricature and became more realistic with more detail than anyone has a right to expect. It looked like I had taken the iMac image of A Bug's Life I had seen earlier in the day and merely blown it up with no loss of detail or image fidelity. Stunning imagery.
Eagles Hell Freezes Over. I had to try a real studio setting with
a video source and this was it. What can I say - the Sony and the Toshiba
together made Joe Walsh look more off-the-wall than ever and the detail
on the stage floor and in front of row one was evident - small detail
I had never noticed before.
The Matrix - Neo and the Bug-Machine. When the machine unplugs
Neo from the battery grid the attention to detail on the bug-machine that
suddenly appears is stunning. You want to pause the scene and just look
at the creativity that has gone into the thing. It was breathtaking and
I played this scene over and over and over again. Blew me away every time.
I was totally transfixed by what I saw. Familiar scenes breathed with
life (I never really noticed the multiple colours in Leeloo's hair before)
and it is this ability to reproduce small detail in large images that
brings DVD to life via the Sony 10HT.
Make no mistake that the garbage in = garbage out rule applies. Feed
it crap and you'll get BIG crap - feed it quality and you will be rewarded
big time. Surprisingly the composite input of this projector was a highlight.
Out of the box it is a stunner. And perhaps that is the knock-out blow
- this projector is fundamentally a very good projector and if you raise
the bar it can rise to that level too - and then some. But at its worst
(composite inputs) it is still looking great. I would be intrigued to
take it to its limits and project a 300" image just to see how it
would handle the size.
A good friend has just got the HT bug and the dedicated HT room to match
and the little Sony did it for him. Why? “When I went right up to
the screen - I still couldn't see any pixels or any scan lines.”
So what's the bad news?
There will always be a problem with the black resolution with LCD. I've yet to see an LCD image that did reproduce blacks well. For example when the house lights go down at the end of the songs on live concert DVDs (Sarah McLachlin - Mirrorball) you are aware of a grey sheen where there should be a total black-out, just as it would be at the venue: no light = black.
The Sony can do a lot - but it can't quite reproduce black - even with
its innovative Dynamic Black feature which is designed to reduced the
brightness and enhance the blacks to a suitable level. As good as it was
- it's still no match for the best of CRT projectors.
Similarly with the introduction to Lost In Space there is a lot
of action set against dark space. Only it's not black - it's more a very
dark grey. When you do become aware of this failing it actually crops
up elsewhere as a lack of visual dynamics, as if there isn't quite the
contrast from total burst of light to total black - as a result some scenes
appear to be limited in their dynamic impact.
Secondly pixel failure is a genuine concern. Although this unit had one,
it took me several days to find it. Once you're aware of it, it is almost
always there (this one was faulting intermittently). But the word on the
street is check when the unit is new, as it seems this is a manufacturing
fault not a 'die-over-time' fault.
Using the projector was a little more confusing with so many screen options
including Full (x), Normal (x), Zoom, Full Through, Normal Through, Wide
Zoom and Subtitle. After much squeezing expanding and unsqueezing anamorphic
and straight 4:3, I longed for a permanent set-up where the Sony could
strut its stuff. Four days with the Sony was just too short.
Be sure to do your experiments when your screen size is settled and all
calibrations are complete. Frustration rules when you can see what it
should be doing only the position for the unit is not optimum and nor
is the image.
The 10 is still behind the best of CRT but it is easy to say that the
LCD fly-screen days are gone - the fan noise is low and the image with
a quality screen is among the best there is. If you're looking at projection
and have given it away based on the old LCD displays - forget it. LCD
has really arrived.
I may not be president of the LCD fan club. but I am now prepared to
be secretary/treasurer!
And coming from a die hard CRT fan and owner that is high praise indeed.
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