Sony VPL-VW40 Home Theater Projector Review - General Performance

Sony VPL-VW40
Image Quality
General Performance
Warranty
Summary, Pros, Cons

Check out how the Sony VPL-VW40 fared in our comparison report.

For your convenience, the following links will take you to the appropriate sections in this page.

Sony VPL-VW40 Menus
Sony VPL-VW40 User Memory Settings
VPL-VW40 Remote Control
Lens Throw and Lens Shift, Pixel Structure...
SDE and Rainbow Effect
Sony VPL-VW40 Projector Brightness
Sony VPL-VW40 Light Leakage
Sony VPL-VW40 Audible Noise Levels
VPL-VW40 Projector Screen Recommendations
VPL-VW40 Calibration
Image Noise

VW40 Menus

Images and commentary to be posted shortly. Meantime, the VW40 and VW60 share almost identical menus, and operation. For now, follow this link to the VW60's review to learn about the menus.

VW40 User Memory Settings

The Sony VPL-VW40 has three main user savable settings in the Mode area, in addition to Cinema, Standard, and Dynamic. Further, there are three custom settings for Color Temperature. These can be integrated into the Custom mode settings.

The Sony's user defined modes will also retain settings for most other controls such as Iris, Gamma, Brightness, Contrast, and more.

All considered, the Sony VPL-VW40 is better than average in terms of ability to save your favorite preferences.

VW40 Projector - Remote Control

The VPL-VW40 remote control is identical to the VW60's, with more buttons and control than the one that accompanied the VW50. Overall, I liked using the remote a great deal. Not my favorite, but very good.

From right to left, across the top, you'll find a green Power button (press once for on, twice for off), in the middle top, the Input select, and on the left, the backlight button (note - none of the buttons on the top row light up).

Next comes two rows of three, mostly image quality controls, from left to right: Color Space, Color Temp, Black Level. On the next row: Gamma, Advanced Iris, and Lens (lens controls focus, zoom and vertical lens shift, and brings up a green test pattern for focusing and placement).

Further down you'll find the reset on the right, and the four arrow keys with center Enter button for menu navigation. Right below that is the wide Menu button itself.

The next row offers Aspect ratio, RCP (color management) and Adj. Picture buttons, which lets you toggle through most picture options, in sequence.

After a wide space, the next row has three buttons: Cinema, Standard, and Dynamic. The following row has User 1, 2, and 3, for all your favorite saved presets.

Lastly there is a row of rocker switches: One each for Sharpness, Brightness, and Contrast.

Buttons are larger than on many remotes, so the remote should work well even for those with really large hands. The range of the remote is very good. I had no problem getting more than 25 feet range including a bounce off of my screen, when using it in my theater room.

Sony VW40 Lens Throw and Lens Shift

Like both the VW50 before it, and the VW60, the VW40 has a 1.8:1 zoom lens, which provides for excellent flexibility. Owners can choose between ceiling mounting or shelf mounting in most rooms. And yes, of course, you can put it on a table.

To fill a 100" screen (16:9 aspect ratio), the closest the VPL-VW40 can sit to the screen is approximately 10 feet, 2 inches, and the furthest back, 17 feet 6 inches.

If you consider the 19 inch depth of the projector, and leaving some space behind that for ventilation, in conjunction with a 100" screen, you can shelf mount in a room up to approximately 20 feet deep, with a 2 foot shelf.

This Sony, unlike the VPL-VW60, lacks the necessary vertical stretch aspect ratio needed to support an anamorphic lens. For those of you interested in adding an anamorphic lens, you could always go to an outboard processor, except that it would likely be the same, or cheaper, to just buy the VW60, which does have onboard support.

On the subject of anamorphic lenses, there are several less expensive 1080p projectors that do support one, although the Epson Home Cinema 1080 UB, easily the toughest competition the Sony has at this price point, also lacks support.

The Sony has motorized vertical lens shift. It will allow the projector (measured at the center of the lens), to be about as high as almost 7 inches above a 100" screen (surface), or as low as 7 inches below the bottom of the screen. The projector also has a very small amount of horizontal lens shift, which is set manually. This is enough if you have to mount the Sony just slightly off center, or if your measurements were off slightly. This differs from other projectors with horizontal lens shift, most of which have significant range. The adjustment is not handy, rather designed to be accessed by your installer, if needed.

VW40 SDE and Rainbow Effect, Pixel Visibility

As previously noted, the Sony VPL-VW40 is a 3 chip LCoS projector (liquid crystal on silicon), which Sony brands as SXRD. LCos projectors have pixel structures (visibility of the pixels themselves) far less noticeable than standard LCD and DLP projectors. On a 100" screen, you'll have to get around 3 feet away before pixels are easily visible. As such, there are no Screen Door Effect issues, or even basic pixel visibility at anything considered normal seating distance.

As with the screen door effect, rainbow effect is also not an issue. Since this is a three chip device, not a single chip, (like competing DLP projectors), there's no spinning color wheel to create the color strobing effect called the rainbow effect.

Bottom line: Neither of these are issues

The VW40 is rated 2000 hours ( typical for most projectors) for lamp life at high power mode, and 3000 hours (also typical) in low lamp mode.

VW40 Projector Brightness

Brightness of the VW40 is very similar to the VW60. The measurements of the Sony VW40 are no surprise. Brightness was very good in best mode, measuring 460 lumens after basic calibration. The projector produced 16 more lumens before adjustment. This drops significantly to 307 lumens in low lamp mode. That's almost exactly a 1/3 drop. You can assume that the drop will be the same proportion in any mode, between low and high lamp.

Next was Standard Mode, which we used for watching HDTV/TV/Sports with brightness at lamp full power, but still using the Custom 3 settings I set up for Cinema. Doing it this way, it really isn't any brighter than Cinema mode at 475 lumens, but it is brighter, in its default Standard mode.

The Sony is brighter in best mode than the three of the four recently tested LCD projectors - the Mitsubishi HC6000, Panasonic PT-AE2000U, and the Sanyo PLV-Z2000, but can't quite match the Epson Pro or Home Cinema 1080UB.

Moving to Dynamic mode, this time I set up several customized variations, and depending on what I was after, the brightness varied dramatically.

In default Dynamic, I measured 568 lumens. Setting Color Temp to Low, for better color, though, it dropped significantly to 483. However, setting Color Temp to the default Custom 1, lumens jumped way up, to a much more impressive 895 lumens. But, taming the colors so they are more watchable, pulled brightness back down into the high 400 lumen range. In my last attempt, I tried to push the Sony as far as I could, keeping the overall color temperature under 7000K, but with green WAY up (great for cutting through ambient light), and I was back right at 900 lumens (which is what Sony rates the VW40 at).

Bottom line: The Sony set up best for movies, does mid 400 lumens with lamp on high. Standard mode is not much brighter, and Dynamic, if really color balanced, is more of the same. You can, though configure Dynamic to be far brighter, at the expense of color accuracy.

Even doing that, the Sony VPL-VW40 is still no match for most of the LCD 1080p projectors, when comparing brightness. For example, the Epson Home Cinema 1080UB, a particularly bright competitor, manages over 1500 lumens in its dynamic mode, after adjusting to improve color, and over 1800 lumens at default, which might be comparable in overall color accuracy, to the best 900 lumens the Sony could do. That makes the Epson twice as bright when you need it.

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VW40 Projector - Light Leakage

You can see some light leaking out of the bottom of the lens, but it is very low level, and you are unlikely to be able to spot it, unless there is no picture on the screen. Note, when I have been using the Sony, the lens shift has always been at, or very close, to maximum, and, I suspect the problem is even less with less lens shift.

VW40 Audible Noise Levels

Very quiet. Sony claims 22 db in low lamp mode. That's very believable. It is quieter than the vast majority of home theater projectors, and should be a total non-issue, even to those who are particularly noise adverse.

VW40 Projector Screen Recommendations

While the VW60 has even better black levels, the VW40 is extremely good. A projector with excellent black levels really doesn't need a High Contrast gray surface to further enhance blacks, although it still helps. Once you consider, though, that brightness of the projector is only average, you are generally best served by choosing the screen surface that will work best with your rooom conditions and screen size.

If you are a movie fanatic, and aren't worried about watching assorted TV/HDTV/Sports with some room lighting, then the Sony VW40 is going to be very comfortable on a 110" screen and you might push out to 120". Last night I watched segments from three movies. I tried filling about 124" of my 128" Firehawk, and felt I was a little underpowered. Interesting, since with the Epson, I was perfectly happy even a little larger. The cause for this, no doubt relates to gamma, and other subtle aspects of the overall picture quality. It's not that the Sony, overall, wasn't bright enough, just the picture balance left me wanting to reduce the zoom to a smaller size, something I never felt with the Epson. I conclude, therefore, that if you want to go much above 110" diagonal, I'd recommend a white surface with some gain (1.1 to 1.4). With the larger surface, overall black levels will be a bit darker, but they'll come back up with the positive gain screens. If you are a black level fanatic, and want a large screen, you just might be better off with a different projector, like the Epson, the VW60 (not brighter, but better black), and of course the JVC RS1.

For HDTV/Sports viewing with some ambient light, considering that the VW40 isn't that bright in brightest mode (if you want fairly good color), I'll stick with the same screen recommendations above.

I was able to do a lot of viewing in my testing room filling all of the 1.4 claimed gain, Carada Brilliant White surface. Every DVD I looked at looked great, no sense of being short of lumens at all.

In my theater (still off-white walls), using the Firehawk - the relatively brightest of all the HC gray screens, I was also very comfortable at 110" diagonal watching movies at night, with no ambient light issues. Football, on the other hand, during the day, with my shades leaking some ambient light, was just acceptable at that screen size. My JVC, with its extra 30%+ lumens was able to do equally well in its Dynamic mode filling the full 128" diagonal (as would be expected).

I must add that the Sony looked great on the Firehawk, with the projector showing rich colors and an exceptional feel of depth. And the Firehawk helps out significantly with side ambient lighting issue.

Sony engineers and product managers must have liked the Firehawk too. Sony got together with Stewart last year to create a special version of the Firehawk, for the Sony VW50, and it's called the Firehawk SST. Now there isn't anything really special about the SST relating only to the Sony. The SST has slightly lower gain, and works better than the Firehawk G3 (the one I use), if you are placing the projector fairly close to the screen. Stewart recommends the SST instead of the G3, if you are filling a 100" diagonal screen from 16 feet or less, as it will show less roll-off in the corners. That makes sense, so if you are mounting the Sony anywhere so that you have the zoom set for the middle of its range to full wide angle, the SST is the better choice.

Of course all major screen manufacturers have white surface screens, but if you do choose a high contrast gray, the Firehawk is the way to go, as it is the brightest (to my knowlegde) of the typical HC gray variety screen.

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VW40 Projector Measurements and Calibration

Ahh, where to start. Since the VW40, is essentially a repackaged (it seems) VW50, it's not surprising that the lumen measurements are similar. This time though, I spent more time setting up "custom" variations of the Cinema, Standard, and Dynamic modes, so measurements do vary. All measurements unless noted, were done with the lamp on high power.

Before I get into numbers, I should report here, that overall, the VW40 seems to oversaturate colors in default mode. For watching, I decreased saturation slightly. I think different screen types will affect your take on the saturation, so I won't get into numbers.

Cinema mode - This is the traditional "best" mode - however the Sony is definitely significantly off in terms of color balance, and really does need adjustment to get a first class image.

Ideal color temperature is D65 - which is 6500K (kelvin), for movie watching...

White (100IRE): 6818K
Light gray (80IRE): 6998K
Medium gray (50IRE): 7373K
Dark gray (30 IRE): 7668K

As you can see the projector gets cooler (shift towards blue - higher numbers), as you move down from white to dark gray. The background color of the VW40 also exhibits a blue caste to its blackest blacks.

Since setting lamps on low power tends to shift their color temperature, I measured white - with all other settings the same - at low lamp. It was very close at 6773K.

After a grayscale calibration of the Cinema mode, I ended up with these settings:

Gain: Red=1, Green=-1, Blue = -3
Bias: R=7, G=-5, B=-4

In reality this still ended up with a touch too much green at times, be advised.

Still, the numbers were dramatically improved:

100IRE: 6395K
80IRE: 6496K
50IRE: 6638K
30IRE: 6471K

Now thats a nice tight set of measurements staying extremely close to the ideal 6500K.

For Standard mode, I only measured with the same settings that you see above for Cinema mode, in terms of Gain and Bias. This created results much better than, and very different from the defaults: Here's the measurements after adjustment:

100IRE: 6507K
80IRE: 6618K
50IRE: 6580K
30IRE:6718K

For the Dynamic mode, this time I created several custom settings, some are focused on getting the best picture out, others on maximum brightness.

Dynamic: Default settings: (way, way, too cool) - color temp defaults to high

100IRE: 10,032K
80IRE: 10,123K
50IRE: 10,158K
30IRE: 11,030K

And strangely, green was measuring low, throughout. Most projectors in their brightest mode push green up, to get out more lumens.

Dynamic, same as above, but color temp set to low:

100IRE: 6860K
80IRE: 6927K
50IRE: 7251K
30IRE: 7490K

Dynamic, default, except choosing Custom 1 color temp instead of High, this was very bright:

100IRE: 7413K
80IRE: 7462K
50IRE: 7464K
30IRE: 7148K

This mode worked very well for sports viewing, nice and bright, and slightly cool. That makes these my prefered settings for Dynamic.

Lastly, an attempt to customize Dynamic, for accurate color around 6500K. While these settings do the trick, the end result is an image no brighter than Cinema, or Standard.

Based on Custom 1 color temp, these changes were made:
Gain: R=12, G=30, B=-11
Bias: R=14, G=1, B=-11

100IRE: 6955K
80IRE: 6976K
50IRE: 6899K
30IRE: 6537K

Bottom line: The Sony is a significantly better projector as the result of grayscale calibration. If you plan to just take the Sony out of the box and use it, without doing even basic adjustments (such as using the numbers I've provided), you aren't going to get your money's worth.

VW40 Image Noise

The Sony VPL-VW40 passed the HQV 1080 tests without difficulty. I did not run the Noise Reduction filter, despite the fact that the Sony does seem to have just a bit more background noise than some other projectors, when observed closely. Overall, at normal seating distances, just enjoying the content, the Sony did just fine in terms of image noise and motion artifacts.

Sony VPL-VW40
Image Quality
General Performance
Warranty
Summary, Pros, Cons