Sony Vpl-vw50: New, Lower-priced And True Hd

[Stephen Dawson]

I've just screwed the VPL-VW50 to my ceiling and now I need to ask: do any of you owners find the motorised focus control incredibly hard to get just right?

[TommyGNR]

I've just screwed the VPL-VW50 to my ceiling and now I need to ask: do any of you owners find the motorised focus control incredibly hard to get just right?

Yes when you first try it is difficult. Once you learn the delay between pressing the button on the remote and getting movement in the lens you can make much finer adjustments. It is not the easiest projector to focus, although teh remote focus allows you to focus it very well once you have the hang of it.

[Jliang70]

Nice, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. Do you have it up and running yet? I whipped mine out of its box again today because the cabinets and screen were finally installed and it was exciting to finally project on to a proper screen!! I've updated the thread in my sig with some photos. I'd add a screenshot or two but our camera is rubbish i could barely make out the pixels from a photo i took from 50cm away. Time for a new camera I think. We paid $6480 for the pearl, did it cost you higher/lower or the same if you don't mind me asking?

I paid the same price. The first thing I did when I got home was to unpack vw50, then unplug my HDMI cable from the old projector into the new VW50 and change the DVDO to output 1080P/50Hz and visually this projetor is absolutely stunning even with SD DVD upscale to 1080P, the first disc I chucked into my DVD player was the Priate of Carribean at 1080P/50Hz and I can easily see the extra detail that are missing from my old 720P projector. I only had 1 hour to play with the new PJ but I am extremely happy with the new toy. The next thing for me is to set up this projetor properly and then when budget allowed adding new HD format players. As for my 720P projector my mother will use it to view her favourit chinese programs.

[TommyGNR]

Tom, I am joining the club of Sony VW50 owner today. After seeing the VW50 at Trevor Lees I decided to bite the bullet and buy the Sony VW50. As you will probably know it will be paired with my DVDO VP50 and for the next two months it will be water and bread for me to pay for the projector off and then I will be start to look at HD format such as Blu-ray or HD-DVD. Initially like many other in this forum I was considering to wait and see the JVC RS1 but since I blow some money on the DVDO VP50 there is no budget and very little need for me to get RS1 as I don't need the projetor with built-in scaler

Nice, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. Do you have it up and running yet? I whipped mine out of its box again today because the cabinets and screen were finally installed and it was exciting to finally project on to a proper screen!! I've updated the thread in my sig with some photos. I'd add a screenshot or two but our camera is rubbish i could barely make out the pixels from a photo i took from 50cm away. Time for a new camera I think. We paid $6480 for the pearl, did it cost you higher/lower or the same if you don't mind me asking?

[cwt]

I paid the same price. The first thing I did when I got home was to unpack vw50, then unplug my HDMI cable from the old projector into the new VW50 and change the DVDO to output 1080P/50Hz and visually this projetor is absolutely stunning even with SD DVD upscale to 1080P, the first disc I chucked into my DVD player was the Priate of Carribean at 1080P/50Hz and I can easily see the extra detail that are missing from my old 720P projector.

This is good news jliang70.From reviews the scaling of the pearl is pretty good - any comments on sd disc quality compared to the DVDO doing the job? I would guess the DVDO would put out a custom timing of 1080p/24 [theoretically no 3/2 pulldown judder]- is this better than 1080p/50 to your eyes ? Do you have the star wars judder disc or similar?

You got a good deal ;mine cost 7000

[DuyKha]

Jliang and Tommy - congrats on your new PJ. I'm thinking of upgrading from a BenQ 8700 (720p) and looking at the Pearl (or maybe waiting for the RS1 as I'm still happy with the BenQ).

I was in a well-known AV specialist store today to view the Pearl - The setup they had was not ideal and I felt that they were trying to steer people to towards the more pricey Ruby! Comments like "the Pearl has inferior optics" quite annoyed me when most of the information suggests that the optics are probably the same.

How is the setup at Trevor Lees? I would like to demo this PJ in a well-setup environment. Also, could you tell me if there is significatnt light-spill on your units. The unit I saw had about 10cm of light spill (all around the image) when projecting a 100-110" diag image. Also, is the misconvergence < 1 pixel on your units - this is expected for a 3 chipper and I'm not fussed if it is < 1?

Thanks, DuyK

[Jliang70]

Yes when you first try it is difficult. Once you learn the delay between pressing the button on the remote and getting movement in the lens you can make much finer adjustments. It is not the easiest projector to focus, although teh remote focus allows you to focus it very well once you have the hang of it.

Tom, I am joining the club of Sony VW50 owner today. After seeing the VW50 at Trevor Lees I decided to bite the bullet and buy the Sony VW50. As you will probably know it will be paired with my DVDO VP50 and for the next two months it will be water and bread for me to pay for the projector off and then I will be start to look at HD format such as Blu-ray or HD-DVD. Initially like many other in this forum I was considering to wait and see the JVC RS1 but since I blow some money on the DVDO VP50 there is no budget and very little need for me to get RS1 as I don't need the projetor with built-in scaler

[norpus]

Tom, I am joining the club of Sony VW50 owner today. After seeing the VW50 at Trevor Lees I decided to bite the bullet and buy the Sony VW50. As you will probably know it will be paired with my DVDO VP50 and for the next two months it will be water and bread for me to pay for the projector off and then I will be start to look at HD format such as Blu-ray or HD-DVD. Initially like many other in this forum I was considering to wait and see the JVC RS1 but since I blow some money on the DVDO VP50 there is no budget and very little need for me to get RS1 as I don't need the projetor with built-in scaler

Well done jliang, nice pj

[Guest Naz]

Hi guys,

Had my Pearl for a couple of weeks now and wanted to give an update.

I've been watching quite a few SD DVDs on my Toshiba DVD upscaled to 1080i via HDMI. Initially I wasn't stoked with the clarity. Contrast, richness of colour and depth of black were all great but it just wasn't as sharp as I was hoping. Then recently I decided to switch the DVDs back to their native resolutions (480p for my US DVDs and 576p for my Aussie DVDs). I noticed a marked improvement in clarity doing this. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the Pearl is better at scaling up to its native 1080p pixel array than than my $200 DVD player is at scaling up to 1080i.

Also I've been having a few problems getting 1080p working on my Xbox 360. Selecting 1080p via component led to the Pearl saying "frequency out of range" and when I tried it via VGA the signal went dark and out of shape. Even more bizarrely the 360 on-screen res that I could see stated 1024x768 (this is also what the Pearl said it was being fed in its menu).

Obviously these are frustrating problems but I'm confident the problem lies with the Xbox and not the Pearl. 1080p on PlayStation 3 worked perfectly. I'm going to do some reading up on the Xbox and see if I can get to the bottom of it because I'd like to use it as a cheap HD DVD drive when they release the extra drive in 07. I just wish Xbox would hurry up and release an HDMI cable already.

On the upside - I was flicking between Harry Potter and Jerry McGuire last night - both running in 1080i on HDTV last night and was absolutely stoked with the picture quality. If 1080i TV looks this flawless I really can't wait to check out some 1080p Blu-ray and HD DVD in the coming months.

Naz

[Christopher1503559517]

Hi Naz

I've had a similar experience with my 2 week old Pearl and my one week old Xbox 360 + HDDVD add-on. Also "think" I perceive a slight lip synch delay when I let my Denon dvd player do the upscaling to 1080i. I'm using the Xbox as a "cheap" HD DVD drive (for now) - the HD DVD picture on the Pearl is amazing...

Was relieved to read that there's a compatability issue at 1080p between XBox 360 and Sony LCD displays - best we can get is 1080i for now...(and even when/if the Xbox update comes you'll only get 1080p via vga connection).

At the moment, no Sony SXRD 1080p displays, which include the "Pearl" 1080p projector, all of the A2000 line of SXRDs, and the XBR2 and XBR3 1080p LCDs, are capable of correctly displaying the Xbox 360's 1080p signal via VGA (none support 1080p at all via Component). Sadly, our 1080p reference display is a Sony VPL-VW50 "Pearl" projector, which means we were unable to actually test the HD-DVD drive's true 1080p performance. Microsoft has stated that it is aware of this compatibility issue and has a solution in the works...

from here: IGN: Xbox 360 HD-DVD Review

cheers

Christopher

[cwt]

Also I've been having a few problems getting 1080p working on my Xbox 360. Selecting 1080p via component led to the Pearl saying "frequency out of range" and when I tried it via VGA the signal went dark and out of shape. Even more bizarrely the 360 on-screen res that I could see stated 1024x768 (this is also what the Pearl said it was being fed in its menu).

Naz

As Christopher says Naz 1080i only through component except for 24 frame de-interlaced 48i.Its all in page 63 of the manual - memory number 3-11. All our problems would be over if they released a hdmi output for the 360

[Jliang70]

This is good news jliang70.From reviews the scaling of the pearl is pretty good - any comments on sd disc quality compared to the DVDO doing the job? I would guess the DVDO would put out a custom timing of 1080p/24 [theoretically no 3/2 pulldown judder]- is this better than 1080p/50 to your eyes ? Do you have the star wars judder disc or similar?

You got a good deal ;mine cost 7000

I actually run VW50 again today, let me say this the deinterlacing and scaling of the pearl is good but DVDO still easily take the crown and that is hardly surprising given VP50 is at least more than half the price of VW50. The disc I tried tonight was region 1 Gladiator and I toggle between 480p, 1080p and 1080i on DVDO VP50, the option for 1080p/24 is grey out on DVDO and overall 1080p/60hz produce the sharpest and smoothest picture for Gladiator. On the previous night I did get DVDO to sent out 1080p/24 I did not pay too much attention to PQ at this setting, the reason I tried it is just to see if 1080/24 work on VW50. I will be doing further experiement with VP50 in next week as I am having the whole week off.

[cwt]

I actually run VW50 again today, let me say this the deinterlacing and scaling of the pearl is good but DVDO still easily take the crown and that is hardly surprising given VP50 is at least more than half the price of VW50. The disc I tried tonight was region 1 Gladiator and I toggle between 480p, 1080p and 1080i on DVDO VP50, the option for 1080p/24 is grey out on DVDO and overall 1080p/60hz produce the sharpest and smoothest picture for Gladiator. On the previous night I did get DVDO to sent out 1080p/24 I did not pay too much attention to PQ at this setting, the reason I tried it is just to see if 1080/24 work on VW50. I will be doing further experiement with VP50 in next week as I am having the whole week off.

Thanks jliang ; wasnt sure If you had the VP30 or VP50 .I guess the reason for the greyed out 1080p/24 is video extra's on the disc shot at 60 hz .Dvdo may release a firmware update - the movies 24 frames .

If you were buying a HD DVD player would you buy the HD E1 and let the dvdo de-interlace or go for the HD XE1 which puts out 1080p? Probably the DVDO;s reverse telecine from 60 frames back to 24 will negate any judder.If thats how it works

[Jliang70]

Thanks jliang ; wasnt sure If you had the VP30 or VP50 .I guess the reason for the greyed out 1080p/24 is video extra's on the disc shot at 60 hz .Dvdo may release a firmware update - the movies 24 frames .

If you were buying a HD DVD player would you buy the HD E1 and let the dvdo de-interlace or go for the HD XE1 which puts out 1080p? Probably the DVDO;s reverse telecine from 60 frames back to 24 will negate any judder.If thats how it works

I had VP30 before VP50, I sold VP30/ATB102 to a very lucky friend of mine. I am using the VP50 right now which had a very slight edge in DI SD material over VP30 and has better HD De-interlacing. If I am to buy a HD-DVD or Bluray, I would output 1080i and let DVDO do the right of processing trick because I don't think the De-interlacing chip in Tosh is as good as the one in DVDO.

I had VP30 before VP50, I sold VP30/ATB102 to a very lucky friend of mine. I am using the VP50 right now which had a very slight edge in DI SD material over VP30 and has better HD De-interlacing. If I am to buy a HD-DVD or Bluray, I would output 1080i and let DVDO do the right of processing trick because I don't think the De-interlacing chip in Tosh is as good as the one in DVDO.

Couple of mistake in my post and it must be that brain is still half sleep....

[Guest Naz]

Re 1080p Xbox 360

Thanks for the info guys. Yeah I had noticed in the instructions that the Pearl doesn't accept 1080p via component but it definitely does over VGA so I'm still confident the problem is with Xbox.

I did some reading over the weekend and the second 1080p patch releases on 1/12 by Microsoft fixes the VGA glitch for some TVs but our Pearl is one of the TVs still not compatible with Xbox's VGA 1080p.

Christopher - I'm curious about your Xbox 360 HD DVD drive. Do you have an American HD DVD drive and does it work on an Aussie 360 or do you have both the 360 and the HD DVD drive as American components?

I'm keen to look at importing one if it will work with my Aussie 360 as Microsoft may not release it here until May or June.

Also if you are using it with an Aussie machine - are the HD DVDs region coded to America or Australia?

Lastly, does anyone know whether purchasing a VGA-to-HDMI adapter or a component-to-HDMI adapter would solve the Xbox 360 1080p incompatibility with the Pearl?

Naz

[Christopher1503559517]

Hey Naz

I've got an Aussie Xbox 360 console and a US HDDVD drive. I'd read on a few forums (oz and uk) that people had ordered the drives from the states with no problem so took the plunge. No AC power issues - just bought an $11 power lead from Dick Smith. The drive is made in China - box is labelled "only for sale in the USA". I reckon the drive that is released out here next year will be exactly the same.

HDDVD software was ordered from the USA (DVDPacific.com) - shipped in three days to my office and cheaper than the pre-order prices I'm reading about here in Oz.

I've read that region coding is not enabled on HDDVD players at this stage (and might never be...?). There's alot of info around on the net about rregion coding of HDDVD players and software - and what may apply to future players and future software releases.

Have a search on AVSForums - I read somewhere that difference between 1080i and 1080p is negligible as the Pearl de-interlaces the 1080i anyway...

I'm really stoked with the picture quality of HDDVD from the ad-on: it's very beautiful - only catch is there's not a lot of HDDVD software around to buy (yet)...but given the relatively inexpensive price of the ad-on drive it's a good way to dip your toe in the water until second generation players become available...

Christopher

[Miles B]

Most of the stuff I have read says that the content on HDDVDs is native 1080p 24fps. The first gen players are all doing pulldown for 30p/60i, which sucks. The second gen players will do 24p output, but for this "extra functionality" (less processing) you'll have to pay more!!! I have also read that the pearl takes 1080/24 and runs it at 96. I'll certainly be happy if that's the case, though wouldn't it have to delay the video by 3/4 of a frame, or show torn frames? Still, 3ms delay isn't too bad a tradeoff to get 96Hz.

The xbox not putting 1080p out is not a real problem to me. The games are mostly 720p/1080i, and from my short experimentation, look higher res but not as sharp at 1080i. I prefer to let the xbox render at 720 and the pearl scale to 1080. Looks great, and I bet it will be years before they get games running at 1080p anyway, if at all. I'm not really interested in xbox hddvd. They don't have hdmi, and all reports say the xbox is doing the pulldown crap. No word if they will add a 24fps output, which I will definitely want.

So I will go with a HTPC for HDDVD, and get a bonus media center in the price. HDMI, 24p output. But when do the PC drives come out? In the US, people are connecting the xbox drive to their HTPCs, but is this the best bet? I was interested in the 360 as a cheap media center extender, but it doesn't have HDMI. If only it did have HDMI and 24p output I could use it as an extender, my current PC as a media center, and save a wad of cash building an HTPC. But then the 360 is so freakin loud anyway. Oh well, can't stop spending now.

And the most important question: when the hell will Blockbuster start renting out HDDVD movies???

Edited December 5, 2006 by Miles B

[TommyGNR]

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QUOTE(Miles B @ Dec 5 2006, 12:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Most of the stuff I have read says that the content on HDDVDs is native 1080p 24fps. The first gen players are all doing pulldown for 30p/60i, which sucks. The second gen players will do 24p output

2nd gen toshiba HD DVD players will not do 24p output, still only 1080 60i or 60p for the dearer model. Some first gen Blu Ray players(remember more than OEM is supporting Blu Ray players at the moment) including the sony will support 24p output. Apparently a firmware update is coming to enable 24p output on the PS3, the update will probably be released before the PS3 launch in australia.

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QUOTE(Miles B @ Dec 5 2006, 12:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have also read that the pearl takes 1080/24 and runs it at 96. I'll certainly be happy if that's the case, though wouldn't it have to delay the video by 3/4 of a frame, or show torn frames? Still, 3ms delay isn't too bad a tradeoff to get 96Hz.

Yes the pearl will take 1080p/24. Why would the video be delayed 3/4 of a frame or torn frames be displayed? As each frame is sent over HDMI it is flashed on the screen 4 times and then the next frame is displayed.

[cwt]

When I went to the last sub menu it reported 576i - the component input lists Y pb pr [ progressive] and Y cb cr [component] but it obviously downscales a 1080i signal.

This is crap; My amp was transcoding s video to component and the component input was incorrectly assigned because of rgb hv only use.

[djOS]

$6500 is pretty much what I expect by Chrismas.

For the record, Insurance pricing on these lil beauties is $6,477 (which is cost + about 2%) - Anyone getting theirs for around $6,500 is getting a superb deal!

[Drizt]

Anybody else compared any of the other 1080p projects out there?

Just curious, I know this is one of the only projectors that accepts 1080p/24 (would work well with the sony blu-ray player ) can it also accept 1080p/48 ?

[zorg1503559539]

soundcorp in melbourne are advertising them at $6499..

http://www.soundcorp.com.au/product/?produ...;productid=1048

[Stephen Dawson]

Anybody else compared any of the other 1080p projects out there?

Just curious, I know this is one of the only projectors that accepts 1080p/24 (would work well with the sony blu-ray player ) can it also accept 1080p/48?

1080p24 is in the spec sheet for this projector, but 1080p48 is not, so it probably won't do it.

Not that it matters. For 24 frame per second film-sourced material from 60 hertz-type Blu-ray and HD DVD, delivery at 48p should make no difference whatsoever. It would simply be repeating the delivery of each frame twice. For progressive scan video-sourced material, then 50p or 60p as appropriate is the way to go.

Only if 48fps video capture starts to be adopted will 48p deliver any visual difference. I'd like it to, but a whole industry has to be convinced of its merits first, and they may just skip the whole thing and go straight to 50p/60p, depending on the part of the world they are in.

[Drizt]

1080p24 is in the spec sheet for this projector, but 1080p48 is not, so it probably won't do it.

Not that it matters. For 24 frame per second film-sourced material from 60 hertz-type Blu-ray and HD DVD, delivery at 48p should make no difference whatsoever. It would simply be repeating the delivery of each frame twice. For progressive scan video-sourced material, then 50p or 60p as appropriate is the way to go.

Only if 48fps video capture starts to be adopted will 48p deliver any visual difference. I'd like it to, but a whole industry has to be convinced of its merits first, and they may just skip the whole thing and go straight to 50p/60p, depending on the part of the world they are in.

Yeap I know all that

I was just curious if it does accept 1080p/48. The SXRD rear pro tv's accept 1080p/48 but they do not accept 1080p/24.

Its just wierd that sony went different ways with the two sxrd technologies....

[norpus]

very nice guys great review. here is hoping they come down a bit in price by March next year and we get a good auction result hehe

Is it March yet?

http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=46579