Sony made a big splash at the CEDIA trade show in September with the announcement of the Sony VPL-VW50. This is Sony's newest 1080p resolution projector featuring their proprietary SXRD technology. The biggest draw was the price tag--a mere $4,999, which makes it one of the two 1080p projectors to come to market this fall below the $5,000 price point. Reactions to the CEDIA demonstrations were mixed, and we were anxious to get our hands on it to see what it was really capable of. To sum it up in one sentence: the VW50 has outstanding black levels, color saturation and contrast, but the image is softer than we'd like to see from a 1080p resolution projector. Whether this projector is right for you will depend on your willingness to give up some image sharpness for increased black level and contrast. For us, 1080p resolution is all about maximum sharpness and detail, so this is not a trade-off we'd want to settle for. But if deep blacks and maximum color saturation are performance factors you value most, then the VW50 is a projector you will not want to miss.

ANSI lumens: 900

Contrast (full on/off): 15,000:1

Light Engine: 1920x1080, native 16:9, 0.6" three-chip SXRD, with a 200W UHP lamp.

Video Compatibility: 1080p/60/50/24, 1080i, 720p, 576p, 576i, 480p, 480i. NTSC/PAL/SECAM.

Connection Panel: Two HDMI, one 15-pin VGA, one 3-RCA component input, one s-video, one composite, one 12V trigger, one wired remote port.

Lens and Throw Distance: 1.72:1 power zoom/focus lens with vertical powered lens shift. Throws a 100" diagonal 16:9 image from 10.1' to 17.5'

Lamp Life: Unpublished.

Warranty: Two years.

Physically speaking, the VW50 is the largest of the new low-cost 1080p projectors we've seen this fall. It weighs 24.5 lbs and has a footprint of 15.6" in width by 18.6" in depth. The top of the stylish case is all white, with a SONY logo in subdued silver. It has a clean, elegant look and despite its size it will appear unobtrusive if ceiling mounted against a white ceiling.

However, with the VW50's combination of long throw distance and somewhat restricted lens shift, ceiling mounting may not be the best option. The unit features a motorized 1.72x zoom lens that makes it capable of throwing a 100" diagonal image from as far back as 17.5 feet (throw distance is always measured from front of the lens to the screen). So in many average sized home viewing rooms, the long zoom range will allow for easy rear-shelf placement.

Meanwhile, the powered vertical lens shift is limited to a range of almost two picture heights. In neutral position the centerline of the lens intersects the center of the projected image. From that point, the projected image can be raised or lowered a total of almost 50% of its height, so that the centerline of the lens at maximum offset will intersect close to the top or bottom of the image. This variance is more than ample for most rear-shelf mounting situations. However, if the unit is ceiling mounted, the lens shift may not provide enough of a downward projection angle to get the image low enough on the wall. In that event, a drop extension tube is the only solution. Tilting the projector and using keystone adjustments to correct the trapezoid is not recommended under any circumstances, as it will force a rescaling of native 1920x1080 video. That is something you absolutely do not want to do on a 1080p projector if you want maximum image definition from 1080p sources.

There is no horizontal lens shift movement, so the projector must be placed on a projection line that is perpendicular to the center of the screen.

The connection panel and controls are on the projector's right-hand side panel, assuming you are behind the projector and facing the screen. This helps in particular with rear-shelf mounting; since the projector is already 18" deep, a shelf that is deeper that the average bookcase is required to mount it. However, you don't need too much additional clearance at the rear for cable connections.

The exhaust vents are on the front corners, and they direct exhaust to the front and away from the light path. This is another feature that makes the projector more "rear-shelf friendly" since there is no heat build-up to the rear of the unit. The VW50's air filter needs to be cleaned every month or so. It is located on the underside of the front casework just below the lens. It is designed in a manner that allows the filter to be removed and reinserted without having to take down the projector from a ceiling mount, and it is particularly easy to access when the projector is on a shelf.

Since this projector has a long zoom lens, its lumen output will depend in part on where you install it. If it is installed as close to the screen as possible so that the zoom is in its widest angle setting, lumen output is maximized for all operating modes. If the projector is moved back so that the zoom lens is set to its longest throw distance, lumen output for all operating modes is reduced by 25%. Ceiling mounting will let you position the projector closer to the screen and allow you to use the brighter end of the zoom lens. Since the VW50 is not one of the brighter home theater projectors on the market, this will be a factor to consider in deciding to ceiling mount vs. rear-shelf mount.

The VW50 uses Sony's SXRD technology, which is their proprietary version of LCoS. There is a separate reflective SXRD chip for each of the three color channels, so there is no spinning color wheel and hence no possibility of encountering color separation artifacts as there is on single-chip DLP projectors.

A widely recognized benefit of LCoS is the virtual elimination of pixel structure, and there is indeed no hint of pixel structure on the VW50. If you stare and the screen from just a few inches away, you can discern the presence of pixels, but they are absolutely invisible from any normal viewing distance.

The VW50 uses a 200W UHP lamp with a replacement cost of approximately $350. Sony does not publish an estimated lamp life. However, since lumen output degrades significantly over the course of a lamp's life, and since the VW50 is not exceptionally bright to begin with, we would anticipate the desire to replace the lamp every 1000 hours if we were to be using this projector in our permanent theater. The reason is that the lamp can be expected to lose at least 25% of its brightness in the first 1000 hours of use. If we are spending $5,000 for the projector to begin with, the incremental expense of $350 every 1000 hours is not an onerous burden to keep it running at or near its peak performance. (This is true of many home theater projectors, not just the VW50). As with the air filter, the lamp housing is designed to allow replacement of the lamp without taking down the projector from a ceiling mount.

The VW50 is an exceedingly quiet projector. Rated at 22dB in high lamp mode, the audible noise that is produced by the projector is very low in pitch. From anything more than a few feet away, you may not even notice that the projector is on.

Overall, when set up to get the best image possible, the VW50 is capable of delivering a dazzling, high contrast picture with extremely deep black levels. Color saturation is outstanding, and color balance is close to ideal. As noted previously, pixelation is non-existent. These performance factors combine to give the picture a rich, natural quality that is easy to enjoy for hours on end.

With the projector's supremely high contrast, one does not need an exceptional amount of lumen output to generate a satisfying picture. That is a good thing, because at video optimized settings most people will opt for, lumen output can drop to lower than average levels. The maximum lumen output we were able to measure on our test unit was 562 ANSI lumens. That was with the projector set to "Dynamic" mode (not ideal color), the lamp on full power, the zoom lens set to its widest angle position, and lens shift set to neutral.

From that starting point, lumen output can be curtailed in any of several ways. As noted previously, using the telephoto end of the zoom range will cut lumen output by 25%. Switching to low lamp mode reduces light output by 35%. Switching from Dynamic to video-optimized Cinema mode reduces light output by 28%. Moving the lens shift from neutral position to maximum offshift up or down reduces light output by 5%. So as you experiment with combinations of these various options, the VW50 will produce anything from a reasonably bright 500+ lumens to well below 200 lumens.

Keep in mind that all of these measurements are with a fresh lamp. The lamp's lumen output will degrade by 50% over its usable life, which is why we expect many users to be replacing the lamp before it reaches the end of its usable life. Most users will probably prefer to use the full power lamp mode since a 35% cut in lumen output is a significant sacrifice on this particular projector. Fan noise is very low even with the lamp on full power, so there is no reason to opt for the low lamp mode to reduce the audible noise.

The bottom line is that the VW50 has an adequate amount of lumen power to deliver a beautiful high contrast picture in a dark theater. With color balance optimized and the lens in its long throw configuration from a back wall, the user should expect to net about 300 ANSI lumens out of the box. We would not go too large with the screen size, ideally keeping it to no more than about 100" diagonal. If you are viewing nothing but bright, high contrast source material, it will light up a 120" screen quite easily. But with a lot of darker standard definition material in the mix, users with larger screen sizes will find themselves wishing the projector was a bit brighter.

Contrast and black levels are two of the VW50's strongest attributes. With either HD or standard def material, black level was deeper than on any of the other new 1080p projectors we are currently evaluating.

The VW50 needed a minimum of color balancing to produce a pleasing image that read near 6500K across the grayscale. With a bit of fine tuning, we neutralized our test unit's slight greenish-yellow cast, and the result was balanced, natural color with excellent saturation. Brilliant color performance is one of the VW50's strongest suits, and we do not see another low-cost 1080p model that will outperform the VW50 in this area.

On-board deinterlacing is quite good, but it is not quite as comprehensive as that of other 1080p models in the same price range. Nevertheless, there is not much to complain about here. There were occasional artifacts in challenging material, but on the whole there is no serious deficiency. Deinterlacing has gotten very much better on digital projectors across the board over the last two years, and it is becoming less of a distinguishing performance factor among the better home theater projectors.

The most noteworthy flaw in the VW50's image quality is that it is softer than the competition. We noticed this in the demos at CEDIA, and were discouraged to find the same problem in our production unit. In our view, the primary rationale for investing premium dollars for 1080p resolution is to get the sharpest picture possible. If you don't care about maximum clarity and detail, one of the new 720p projectors for 1/3 the price will deliver most HD source images with close to the same high resolution quality as the VW50. We do not know the source of the softness in the image--it could be the lens, something inherent in the SXRD chips, something in the video processing, or some combination thereof. But the fact is that other 1080p products in this same price range are able to deliver noticeably sharper images, both with SD and HD material.

That is not to imply that the VW50 looks blurry. It does not. It will deliver a supremely watchable picture that looks clear enough on its own. Its lack of image acuity becomes most apparent when you place it side by side with other 1080p models and feed them pristine 1080p material from HD DVD or Blu-ray. It is only with such a comparative demo that the VW50 owner would ever become aware that his/her projector was not resolving the full detail in the source.

Finally, the VW50 exhibits an average level of image noise, especially with standard definition but to a smaller degree with HD as well. When sitting at 1.5x the screen width or greater this is not a particularly visible artifact. The VW50 does have a noise reduction circuit, but setting it too high will further reduce image sharpness.

The Sony VPL-VW50 is a solid 1080p projector that offers beautiful color saturation, contrast, and black level as its most noteworthy advantages over the competition. However, it basically offers the consumer two trade-off propositions, neither one of which is particularly appealing. The first is that along with the beautiful color saturation and contrast you give up some sharpness and detail that is available from other 1080p models. Accordingly, it is difficult to rate this model on our five star scale--if rated on sharpness alone it would get two stars in performance (remember, our 5-star system rates a projector against others in its same resolution class). But if rated just on black level and color saturation it would get five stars. So we will average the two and call it 3.5 stars. It is up to the buyer to determine which of these are the most important factors in selecting a projector.

The second trade-off relates to ceiling mounting vs. rear shelf deployment. The relatively long throw distance potential and limitation in vertical lens shift argues for a rear shelf mount. However, the lumen output may be curtailed in that set up, and since video-optimized lumen output is not particularly high to begin with, we can see many users going for the ceiling mount in order to get the incremental brightness. This adds cost and complexity to the installation, not to mention the possibility of the projector being suspended in the middle of the room from a drop extension tube. But if you are going to ceiling mount anyway, it is a non-issue.

On a personal note, I feel strongly about the VW50 in two ways. It certainly produces a beautiful picture, and if you have not seen how razor sharp 1080p can really be, you probably will not sense any deficiency in sharpness on this projector. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching it in the theater, although with darker material I found myself fiddling with the adjustments to squeeze a few more lumens out of it. I am quite sure that many owners of the VW50 will be 100% satisfied with it. But since I have seen the competitive 1080p products, I find myself being aware that I am not seeing all the detail that is in the source.