Sony VPL-VW200 1080p Projectors Review

2007-Sony flagship projector, the VPL-VW200 1080p projectors, uses the LCOS variant, called SXRD, and like most high-end projectors, it offers a native resolution of 1080p projectors. The jargon in the months of May and impress your friends, but the real story is the image. The VPL-VW200 is the most accurate color to the projector, we have seen less than $ 30,000, and smoke no or almost in its price range in all the details of the images. Sony must have listened to our incessant complaining about inaccurate primary and secondary colors, the company has delivered near perfection in this field. It adds a flexible configuration, and seems very attached to the ceiling. To date, the Sony VPL-VW200 is the new high-end projector to beat.

Design
In the great tradition of high-end Sony SXRD 1080p projectors, the VPL-VW200 an elegant and high-tech industrial design that should appeal to almost everyone. In our opinion, is the most attractive projector since the days of Ferrari-inspired, Pinafarina designed Vidikron CRT chassis. Sony is a gray metal finish with black accents on the top and bottom, and the cabinet reminds us of an eye when viewed from the front.
The design of the Sony remote is equally impressive. It seems as if it weighs 10 pounds, while instilling a sense of construction of high quality not unlike the projector, which, in turn, a strong weight 44 lbs. The removal is fully backlit, making adjustments in the dark a snap. The internal menu system is identical to the Qualia 004 SXRD Projectors 1080p, and his younger brother predecessor, the VPL-VW100. We found it very easy to navigate, and we loved the vertically organized set of pages.

Features
The VPL-VW200 is loaded with a number of useful functions - and some who should be warned against their use. Sony is not official "year of the award in the category with his band projector Adjust function which allows you to move the LCOS panels to improve alignment, such as the convergence of a CRT of the three weapons. And 'the wider role of its kind , and also includes an option for the area that lets you adjust the red and blue anomalies all around the screen.
Another option that has emerged from the CRT projector era, which is rare, even in the most expensive fixed-pixel projectors, is the cutting operation, thus eliminating the surface (loss of light beyond the boundaries of the screen itself) the right the edge of images. We were a little 'disappointed that the VPL-VW200 lacks horizontal, vertical, but is to help change the objective of the institution as part of the projector.
Sony offers the usual range of choices of image and color temperature mode. Modes include Dynamic, Standard and Cinema, while color-time high, medium and low, with independent controls for each level of gray. Cinema Black Pro feature controls the configuration of the iris, which gives you Auto 1, Auto 2, Manual, and beyond. We are not happy, because it provides a light output, has remained stable and blacks - that the automatic Black Level that the content of the images changes.
Experts in the creation, you'll find Film Mode 2:3 pull-down, which should be set to "on", and the gamma correction, which disables the best gamma curve.
There are also two dubious features that we recommend that you leave off. The first is RCP (Real Color Processing), which was originally conceived as a system of color management, but has not worked well in our experience. In reality, it is not necessary to include this function as the primary and secondary colors on the VPL-VW200 is exceptionally close to high-definition standard in the adjustment of color space standard.
The second is MotionFlow, which is the name of Sony's 120Hz video processing dejudder. MotionFlow creates enough problems, in our view, which has just come out, see the Performance section for details.
Connectivity is fairly comprehensive for a front projector. Two HDMI inputs are the most important video connections, followed by a single component video input. An S-Video and composite video will be a legacy LaserDisc, VHS and S-VHS sources. There is also a 15-pin VGA input for computer link and an RS-232 for the touch screen to control programming. A marked red flare port Ethernet connectivity.

Performance
In terms of image quality, Sony VPL-VW200 is simply the best projector in its category by a wide margin. In particular, the company has done an excellent job of significantly improving the accuracy of color in the previous VPL-VW100 and VW200 statement specifies how the colors, we saw almost all the projector, except for ultra-high-end Runco units.
Sony is not perfect of course like to see society improve system processing and video capabilities VW200 full 1080p sources without loss but most of all fairness see on the market, has the same problem. For now, $ 15,000 can not buy a better performance - which will require about two times as much.
For color accuracy, the color decoding, monitoring grayscale and primary and secondary colors themselves. Decodes Sony color spot-on and monitoring of levels of gray is excellent, but the most gratifying for us is the accuracy of the six primary and secondary colors. While not exactly perfect, they are close enough to the HDTV standard that we do not believe that any improvement is needed. We seriously doubt that anyone, even a professional can say that I am not perfect, without the benefit of certain test equipment is very expensive.

White field uniformity, which can be a problem with the three-chip projectors, also looked very good on Sony. The scene at the beginning of Chapter 5, the Blu-ray version of the work, where the crew is being held in the snowy Austrian Alps, is a good proof for this. The snow has some small spots of color - red in the top right corner to be precise - but it is subtle and not distracting. The Carl Zeiss lens, the VPL-VW200 is also a passage from the VPL-VW100, and panel alignment, especially after the adjustment was much higher.

The extent of 1080i and 1080p, both HDMI inputs, the amplitude decreased slightly, indicating a slight loss of resolution because of the procedure. The same is visible on the HD DVD version of Silicon Optix HQV test disc. This area of action could be some improvements, but not a great success. In particular, the Sony passed both tests HQV loss of resolution, which indicates the proper de-interlacing material 1080i.

Together with the iris off, we had a nice bright image in a 80-inch wide Stewart Grayhawk RS screen. However, the 400-watt xenon lamp for the projector is unable to light much as we had expected, so the maximum screen size will be rather limited. Auto Iris modes are a little 'brighter, but not to use black level, because the changes on the fly, and we found the change clearly visible and distracting, like 'image content changes.
Blu-ray and HD DVD looked excellent in the VPL-VW200. Chapters 4 and 5 of the excellent transfer of the Italian Job on Blu-ray looked awesome, with exceptional accuracy and color saturation. Moreover, the spinning of the HD DVD of Batman Begins to take a look at some dark material. Start the scene where a young Bruce Wayne falls into the cave, revealed excellent performance in black. In the same chapter, when the adult Wayne ends up in a prison in China, there are many details in the shadow of the wall. Overall, blacks looked rich and Inky Sony.

To test MotionFlow 120 Hz video processing, will be played repeatedly in the opening scene date Blu-ray transfer of The Departed. Motionflow on Low and High changed the look of bread to a cartoonish movie. In Chapter 5 of the Italian Job, serious artifacts were introduced around Mark Whalberg's face when he was hired. These two scenes were enough to convince them to leave this feature Hyped video set to "Off" with the VPL-VW200 1080p projectors.