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A year in the life
Sony's replacement for the VW10
by Max Christoffersen
November 2001
Sony VW11HT LCD projector. $17,499
Twelve
months ago LCD bowled me over. The projector that did it was the Sony
VW10HT.
Genuine break-through products like the Sony are rare in HT, but the VW10 was one. And everybody knew it. It caught the imagination of many because it introduced a real alternative to the big CRT rigs. It was convenient, easy to install and very bright, clean and vibrant. It was a damn exciting home theatre product that was introduced at just the right time.
So how do you follow an act like that? By making improvements to bonifide weaknesses and adding one number to the nametag. To be fair, hindsight now says the VW10 was not a perfect beast and there were gaps in its performance (black level, bulb life, colour blotching, dust problems) that needed to be addressed.
So enter the Sony VW11HT.
And make no mistake: this is a battle for outright supremacy in the LCD ranks. While the VW10 was the undisputed king of the pile for some time - it wasn’ t too long before that lead was lost. Amongst other LCD projectors, the Toshiba TLP-MT7 came from nowhere, got little press, but was a genuine better all-round performer. So the word was out - the VW11HT had better deliver.
So what to do? Out of the box, first up I admit to some surprise to find that the chassis is identical to the 10HT. Surprised only because the trend is now on for smaller, lighter and easier to install digital projectors than the (now) somewhat beefy looking VW series.
But there the comparison ends as the VW11HT has undergone a complete redesign to incorporate newly developed wide-screen high-resolution 16x9 LCD panels, an upgraded lamp and new video processing.
The specs suggest the unit will output 1000 ANSI Lumen while reducing the projector's black level by more than 50 per cent. The new lamp lasts up to 50 per cent longer (3000 hours), reducing running costs down to more modest levels than the previous 80 cents+ an hour.
The same easy RCA/S-video all round connections and RGB/component and HDTV resolution capability remain, making it one of the easiest projectors to hook up. It also retains limited zoom functionality requiring instead a fixed position relative to the screen. Last are new air filters designed to absorb smaller dust particles and prevent the often-noted VW10 dust problems for the newly designed panels.
But of real interest is the claimed 700:1 contrast ratio and the addition of 3:2 pull-down video processing designed to provide a more film-like image when using film based NTSC sources. These two specs put the new Sony into a new class - if the specs translate into a viewable difference. And that may be a big ‘if’.
So second verse same as the first?
Turn it on and find out! The first visual on-screen image confirmed that some of the traditional LCD problems haven’t been entirely eradicated. A greenish blob on the bottom right of the screen confirmed that the VW10’s reputation for colour blotching remains, but the good news is that the blacks do appear to be deeper than the VW10.
It’s not drop-dead striking - (a side-by-side comparison with the ‘10’, would make for very interesting viewing!) but it is a noticeable shade deeper. While not in CRT or even DLP territory, the needed improvement in black level is ongoing.
And to sort out some confusion: LCD can do black - look at the black cap on the submarine captain of Das Boot or Wesley Stipes black helmet in The Fan. It’s black all right.
But look at the lack of gradation between black and grey in the shadow detail of any ‘dark’ films (Aliens and Dark City, Starship Troopers) or the inability to produce a truly blank screen when there is no image on screen at all (“It’s an ugly planet, a bug planet”) and there you have the often stated black problem.
Despite the improvements in black the LCD ‘smokey-veil’ remains, that results in a lack of real depth of field and sense of something getting between viewer and image, despite their being no graphic on-screen evidence of pixel structure. This is something that appears to be generic to LCD rather than specific to the VW11.
The
Report Card then probably shows that the VW11HT is top of the LCD class.
There are other LCD machines that compete for less, but the Sony started
it all. And twelve months later they deserve some customer support for
that!
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