Sony VPL-HW50ES Projector Review – In Process – A First Look!
September 22nd, 2012 Art FeiermanGreetings, Let’s talk some more, about Sony’s VPL-HW50ES projector.
The HW50ES Projector - Picture Quality is Excellent!
Well, you’ve probably seen some of my previous home theater projector blogs from, and post CEDIA 2012. If so, you probably think I have led you to believe that one of the most impressive projector values I saw there is Sony’s new HW50ES – it’s full name, of course: VPL-HW50ES. If so, you got it right.
I’ve had the VPL-HW50ES here since Tuesday evening, except for the 24 hours away at Mike’s for calibration. I’ve got 20 hours of viewing so far.
BTW I believe this unit is one of the two used in Sony’s “shoot-out” against the Epson 5010 and the JVC RS65 I believe, (last year’s $11,999 projector with eShift) that they were showing to dealers (and press).
Before I get into this, a note about 4K… To date, I’ve reviewed exactly 1 4K projector. That’s the Sony VPL-VW1000ES our Outstanding Product of the year. All this upscaling to 4K, upverting to 4K, or just plain calling all these other projectors “4K” is simply NOT 4K!
Here’s the simple test. One that all the others fail, including eShift with its physically shifting the pixels a fraction of a pixel diagonally and then firing again.
Imagine true 4K – or perhaps the 4K equivalent of 1080p: 3840×2160. Now go pick out exactly 4 pixels in a square. Make the top left one white, the top right red, the bottom left blue, and the bottom right green.
It’s simple. In true 4K, you end up with exactly that. white and three discreet colors. In any other scheme, you end up with a mess, because, folks, instead of 4 pixels, you only have one to work with. so, depending on the algorithm, you’ll end up with various shades of gray or faint color.
I will blog or video, or write about this in depth. I really hate the 4K designator, showing up on LCDTVs etc. I believe I may have used it a couple of times in previous blogs about this projector without constantly defining what real 4K is.
Let’s say all this other stuff, is really ‘detail enhancement’ but that doesn’t sound as sexy as 4K.
Hey we all hate keystone correction as it softens the image and destroys 1:1 pixel mapping for precision viewing. These are essentially doing the same thing, with different goals in mind. yes they can give you a much sharper looking image, just remember all that fancy software still has to have an offsetting trade-off.
And that brings us back to the Sony VPL-HW50ES. Let me start with some basic info obtained since receiving this projector:
Yes, the HW50ES is definitely brighter than the less expensive HW30ES and even the more expensive VPL-VW95ES. Mike measured best mode (zoom at mid-point, of course) at a massive 992 lumens!
Brightest mode was just shy of 1300 lumens, but for best bright mode, Bright TV measured 1131 lumens. That may not be in the league of some flame throwers like the Epson and Panasonic projectors, but it is much brighter than any of those comparing calibrated best modes.
Good news. 3D brightness seems to be way up, thanks to apparently glasses, new algorithms, etc. Note, these glasses are not compatible with Sony 3D LCDTVs to the best of my knowledge. Glasses are rechargeable and come with a USB connector on one end, and a small plug on the other that goes into the glasses behind a soft cover that you move out of the way to expose the socket.
I did watch 3 Musketeers most of the way through, projecting about 100″ diagonal. I was very pleased to find the Sony to be reasonably bright at that size. Given, I had the glasses in the second brightest setting, but even there, the Sony looked rather clean in terms of crosstalk. I will say I was very impressed with the 3D on that setting. I’ve yet to go “hunting” crosstalk, like so many of you like to do, but I will for the full review. I did try Monster House for 5 minutes projecting 124″ diagonal 2.35:1. Definitely could have used a bit more brightness there. Oh, I can watch it, but I have that group of friends I like to bring in for opinions on such things, and I’m sure two of them have no interest in watching 3D with the brightness at that size (maybe if they will watch with the glasses setting at 4 – brightest.)
The picture looks great. Even my wife commented.
Black levels are very good. Better than the Epson 5010/6010? That’s probably the question many of you want to hear the answer to. You’ll have to wait. I could conjecture right now, but I’m saving that for the full review. I have yet to put the Sony VPL-HW30ES side by side against the Epson HC5010 I have here. That’s probably going to happen tomorrow night or Monday.
Reality Creation – Sony’s upscaling or upverting – or up something to “4k”. All the talk doesn’t matter, it’s not 4K. What it is, however, is rather stunning dynamic detail/sharpness enhancement.
This I can say about it. I consider the goals of Reality Creation to be similar to Epson’s Super-Resolution. That said, unless there’s a real improvement in Super-Resolution on the new 5020 and 6020 Epson projectors, then I think you can count on Sony having the better implementation.
The core difference – you can get more apparent detail/sharpness out of the Sony before artifacts start giving it an artificial look. In other words you can get a sharper seeming image out of the Sony before you start noticing things you really do not want to be noticing. Enough said for now.
I’m mostly keeping Reality Creation in the 35 and under settings level. (out of 100), yet it’s still creating an impressively crisp image. If I understand correctly (waiting for a white paper), the Sony’s algorithm is smart – not just the usual upscaling type processing, but rather clever. I believe it uses facial identification, etc. That is, the Sony projector tends to know what it’s trying to enhance, so that it doesn’t go over the top on things that would be obvious.
Manual zoom and focus – as usual, very little drop between wide-angle and telephoto. A good amount of vertical and horizontal lens shift. The same or similar (very good) remote control, from last year.
The panning problem detected on some older Sony’s (seen in a pan of the neighborhood in the movie RED, is not there. It’s a tough pan, but this Sony projector is comparable to other good projectors in this regard. That’s still a tough pan, for any projector but, for example, the older VPL-VW90ES had a bitch of a time with that scene. Not so, this VPL-HW50ES projector.
No CMS per se. No problem. there are at least 8 “preset” color space modes for the individual colors. Basically Sony has giving you many choices, instead of a set of controls.
Mike’s commented when calibrating it, that basically there’s no need for the CMS, several of the provided Color Space modes are excellent. For the calibration he settled on the color space Sony calls BT.709. Of note, Color Space 1, 2, and Wide 3, are all expanded color spaces.
At the end of the day, Sony’s strengths are overall color/picture quality, and for those that like, an exceptionally detailed and sharp looking image. Brightness is also a major plus with, really, only the 3LCD projectors able to significantly out muscle the HW50ES when you need maximum brightness, and they can’t do that in their calibrated modes.
If your thing is by far, movies first, dedicated or at least very good light controlled room, this Sony’s going to be really, really tough to beat. As big a fan as I tend to be of the Epson 5010, I suspect the new 5020′s biggest advantage over this Sony will be the much lower selling price, and the maximum brightness, rather than an advantage in picture quality. We’ll know, soon enough.
That’s all I have for you right now. Ah, a thought about 3D movies. The 3 Musketeers isn’t much of a great movie, but it is a great movie for viewing 3D. That, Hugo, Tron, Monster House, Alice, and one of Stephen Lowes movies – such as Tahiti 3D Ultimate Wave or Legends of Flight, and my new copy of Avatar 3D (finally) pretty much represent the 3D content I’ll be focusing on in commenting about 3D performance.
OK, give me 4-5 days to do my photo shoots, my side by sides, lots more viewing (football all day tomorrow), and get the full review published, with the other goodies you are waiting for, including how good those black levels are…
Thanks! -art
September 23rd, 2012 at 5:34 am
Outside of brightness, is the 50 as good as the 95? Looking to get one of these while 3d in my house will be a bit of a rare thing until 3d movies can be rented. Sports is primary with regular tv and movies used as well. This all assuming price is equivalent for a 95 b stock vs. new 50.
September 23rd, 2012 at 7:14 am
I hope you can make a comparison with the Epson TW5020/6020 before you have to send the Sony back.
It seems that Sony made some inprovements too.
I’ll hope so, otherwise I have to go Sony this time.
You wrote that 3D is broghter because of the glasses,… so when using Xpand X104 glasses, we will not see difference in brightness?
Or is Sony also gone RF instead of IR?
September 23rd, 2012 at 2:44 pm
[...] SONY VPL-HW40ES para IFA 2012 Primer quasi review [...]
September 24th, 2012 at 11:04 pm
one major and very simple question for everyone who games…
does the HW50 have a “game mode” like the HW30 and did and does it have the same amazingly short input lag? the HW30 was the only projector in its class last year that any gamer could buy. do we get that same awesomeness this year from the HW50?!
September 27th, 2012 at 10:51 am
Can’t wait to read the review Walt. Excited for this one.
September 27th, 2012 at 10:52 am
Art, your name is Art.
September 28th, 2012 at 7:27 pm
I liked what I saw with the hw30es and after text chatting with the Sony.com sales person found I could get an super deal on a pre-order of the hw50es. My company has a deal with sony for an employee discount and the sony sales person offered me several hundred more off. i ended up about $3300 (no tax to nh and free shipping). I’m not usually in early on a new model for fear of flaws so I hope the improvements don’t cause any major issues
. Any other review feedback before they ship mine would be great. Is there more coverage coming?
October 5th, 2012 at 10:05 am
The full review is up. I’m always adding a few pics, changing a few comments for about the first month. But, basically, it’s 99% there. Last major changes were to the summary page yesterday. -art
October 5th, 2012 at 10:25 am
Checking!
October 5th, 2012 at 10:30 am
Hi Matthieu, I’m good to go on that. Sony has said I can hang on to this HW50ES for a bit, until they need it. With the 5020 (or 6020 arriving next week, an decent overlap seems ascertained. Re 3D brightness. No, not specifically the glasses, but the glasses controls and the glasses (plus the brighter projectors). Glasses are IR. -art
October 5th, 2012 at 10:33 am
The 95ES has much better blacks, and lens memory and more placement flexibility. For movies, the 95ES for sports, you might like the 50ES better for its updated REality creation.
December 1st, 2012 at 6:10 pm
If we are specifically referring to dark scenes, I’ve read that some say the 95ES has better blacks than the 500ES but that the JVC RS45 has better black levels than the VW95ES. Having said that, do you feel if an owner of the JVC RS45 were to replace it with a HW50ES that the lesser black levels would immediately be noticed?
I’ve read the new RS46 is supposed to be a big improvement with ghosting however I love the idea of having FI in 3D which won’t happen this year with the JVCs.
Any thoughts?
December 8th, 2012 at 1:54 pm
Darrell, greetings!
OK, here’s the dilemma… but first – yes the 95ES has better blacks than the HW50ES. When it comes to the JVC, we’re talking about a projector without a dynamic iris. It has the fundamental advantage of getting excellent blacks without lowering the whites. That is, the blacks are consistently good on both really dark scenes, but also scenes with plenty of dark areas, but also a fair amount of very bright. With the sonys or any projector using a dynamic iris, on those latter scenes, all the bright prevents the iris from closing down, lowering the blacks.
Ok, with that in mind, technically the RS45 has more dynamic range to the image – as in better. But, the DLA-RS45, when I reviewed it last year, I said was about comparable to last year’s Epsons. ON the less than very dark scenes, the JVC had the advantage, the Epson did, however, have a slight – but real advantage on very dark scenes like the Bond night train scene. The 95ES should do better than either, on those dark scenes.
If you were to replace with the HW50ES, my thoughts are that you would consider it about a wash. Where you need great blacks the most, they should be about even, or the Sony will have the advantage (not great). The rest of the time, the JVC will have a blacker black, let’s say of a black car sitting in shadows on an otherwise sunlit street. We really aren’t going to appreciate small differences in blacks on such a scene, or at least it’s not significant relative to the really dark scenes.
The biggest problem you have is that you are going to spend a fair amount of money “upgrading” between two rather comparable projectors. Most likely the Sony’s Reality Creation feature will be the difference you may appreciate the most. I have a JVC DLA-X55 inbound. That’s the new step up from the RS45 / X30 from last year. The RS45 became the RS46, but the X30 became an X35. The X55 is an X35 with their 4K e-shift (4K should be in quotes, as its not true 4K by any means). Other than that, however, it ‘s supposed to be the same as the X35 and therefor the RS46. If it arrives on Monday I will have that review posted within a week. I don’t have either Sony here, but I do have an Epson 5020, which is the one I measure them all against, as a reference. This year’s Epson got some improvement in blacks, but not a whole lot. It will be interesting to compare the two. And that should allow me to shed light on the JVC vs Sony blacks… -art
December 10th, 2012 at 3:35 am
Hi Art, Happy Greetings and Merry Xmas, At present you may be working on JVC DILA-X55. Plz address the relevance and benefit of 4K e-shift for modest screen sizes of 120 inches and l viewed from 18 ft or more. Does 4K e-shift improve image in any way? Despite so much advertisement of 4K e-shift on the net, its actual utility on not so big screens and not so short viewing distances is not well understood. How does it compare against Sony DRC ? Regards. Shamim
December 14th, 2012 at 11:43 am
Hi Shamimui, I’ll do what I can. I don’t have the Sony here anymore. I did a side by side between the Epson 6020 and the X55 the other night. The JVC’s e-shift at my normal seating difference provides a sharper image than the Epson. However, I’m looking at a 124″ screen at 10 feet. I’ll drop back for some longer distance viewing.
I can say, in the side by side, at 7 feet back, when I’m projecting a pair of almost 50″ diagonal images, the JVC did look sharper than the Epson, even with the Epson’s Super-Resolution set for 2 out of 5.
However, that said, the Sony HW50Es also produced a visibly sharper seeming image than the Epson with the Sony’s Reality Creation on a pretty low setting. -a
January 11th, 2013 at 6:11 am
You note in the review you would take the Sony 95 over the 50 even though you were impressed with the increase in black level with the 50 over the 30 and the reality creation. Would a 95 with the darblet provide the same effect you are impressed with the 50 about with the reality creation thus leaving the 95 as even a better choice? Noting looking at B stock 95 and A stock 50 which puts the price about the same.
February 12th, 2013 at 2:10 pm
Jay, I wish I knew. Never worked with the Darblet, but it is an interesting possibility. Tough call without having played with it. Someday, perhaps. -art