Sony VPL-VW50 Pearl
Image Quality
General Performance
Warranty
Summary, Pros, Cons
Menus
User Memory Settings
Remote Control
Lens Throw and Lens Shift
SDE and Rainbow Effect
Light Leakage
Audible Noise Levels
Projector Brightness
Lamp Life and Replacement
Projector Screen Recommendations
Calibration
Image Noise
Sony VW50 Projector - Menus
Sony offers a very good menu structure. With most non-initial installation items located nicely on the Picture Menu. Many controls typically require sub-menus, but there are only 2 levels of sub menus below the main menus, so navigation is easy.
The first option is Picture mode which has three presets: Dynamic, Standard, and Cinema, plus three user savable settings (shown below). 
There is also a "local" reset, which only affects the Picture menu.
Standard items like Contrast, Brightness, Color (saturation), and Sharpness, can all be controlled from the main Picture menu.
After the Picture Mode menu (presets) without a doubt the next key submenu is the Cinema Black Pro menu.
Selecting it brings up two choices, one - control of the Sony VW50's dynamic iris, and, two, lamp power!
Upon selecting the Advanced Iris option (not shown), you get four options: Auto 1 (recommended for movies), Auto 2, a bit more "extreme" and occasionally noticeable, Manual, which allows you to set the iris at a fixed amount, to increase contrast (slightly, but consistantly), and off, which leaves the iris wide open, allowing the maximum amount of light to get to your screen. In addition, for Auto 1 and Auto 2, you can choose from Recommend (which I used for all viewing), or Fast or Slow.
Lamp Control offers Low and High settings.
Also of note is the Color Temp submenu, (not shown), which allows you to select from Hi, Middle, Low, and three custom settings (1,2,3) In the custom settings, you can set individually, Gain, and Bias for Red, Green, and Blue, for doing a grayscale balance.
There is also a Black Level Adjust, with High, Low, and Off. I played briefly with these controls, and found Off to be my preferred setting. (On High, Low). In High, I noticed a loss of shadow detail.
Gamma Correction offers Gamma Off, 1, 2, 3. I relied on Gamma 1 for my viewing, I did not experiment 
much with Gamma 2 or 3. Gamma 3 produces a darker overall tone to the image. I would say that Off or Gamma 1 are best for most viewing. Note, Sony offers software called ImageDirector2 that will, if you are hooked up for computer control (to the RS-232), to create custom gammas.
Next on the main menu list is the Advanced Picture Menu, with two options - RCP, the VW50's advanced color management, which allows individual adjustment of the six total primary and secondary colors. There is also a Color Space control, which I selected and used Wide for most viewing.
The Screen menu comes next with its control of handling 4:3 aspect ratio content, and Overscan (overscan was set to off for all viewing except on occasional standard TV (SDTV) viewing where noise appeared at the top of the screen.
Next comes the Setup menu, 
with lots of goodies, most of which you will use but once, such as selecting menu language, cooling mode (Standard or High altitude), standby and power saving options, and lamp reset, when you replace the lamp. Power Saving mode will power down the projector if there is no signal for 10 minutes.
There is also an Installation Menu (shown below), which allows keystone setting, setting the image for front/rear projection, ceiling/table, the ability to turn on/off the front or rear IR sensors, and a 
Blanking feature which will allow you to move the image around on the screen. For example, with a 16:9 source, if you have the ability to lower your (pulldown or motorized) screen, part way, you could only expose a 16:9 shape, then use Blanking to move the image up, to fill it completely - voila' - no visible letterboxing (although the letterboxing would actually be off the screen to the bottom, not a problem if your walls are dark.
Also not shown are a Function Menu (Auto source search, Test Pattern on/off, and background color select. Lastly, there is an Information Menu, which, most notably, tells you how many hours are on the lamp.
Sony VW50 Projector - User Memory Settings
As noted above, you can create custom Color Temp settings, adjust Gamma, and many other options, and if you do this while User 1, 2, or 3 are selected in Picture mode, those many settings will be recalled when you select User 1, 2, or 3. The controls do not seem to be device dependent, so it looks like you have a total of only three user savables, despite the number of devices hooked up. Note, you can also make changes, however, while set for dynamic, standard or cinema, and the projector will remember those as well, until you change them.
Sony VW50 Projector - Remote Control
For a remote control that has a relatively limited number of buttons, Sony has come up with a very good design. Perhaps not the best ever, but a good one. First off, it fits well in you hand, and should work well, in that regard, even for those large handed. I never had the need to use my other hand to select buttons, while holding it in my right.
Starting at the top, there is a green power button in the upper right. (Once to power up, twice to power down.) Immediately to the left is the Input (source) select button, and on the right, the backlight button. The backlight isn't very bright. I would have liked it a touch brighter, but, in fairness, it was enough to illuminate the buttons (which are all labed so that they are readable when lit), sufficiently, even in a fully darkened room.
Moving to the next two rows of three buttons: These are your presets:Left to right are the normal - Dynamic, Standard, and Cinema, and below them, User 1, 2, and 3.
Below them comes Sony's somewhat funky arrow key setup. A small up arrow button below it a wide bar for left and right arrows (Enter is in the center), and another small button for down arrow.
Next come six major controls (left to right): Lens (for focus, zoom, and lens shift), AdjustPic, which lets you toggle through most Picture controls including brightness, contrast, gamma, etc., and on the right, Menu. The second row has Wide Mode (aspect ratio functions), RCP (the advanced color processing) and Reset. (I really wish manufacturers would stop putting reset buttons on remotes. A reset button just makes people nervous - especially when it's close to the Menu button.
Lastly two really large controls, one for Brightness, and the other for Contrast.
Overall, a very good remote - uncluttered, and I found I had learned where everything was in just a couple of days of normal use.
Sony VW50 Projector - Lens Throw and Lens Shift
The Sony VW50's zoom lens has lots of zoom range - 1.8:1 for excellent front to back placement flexibility. Overall the lens throw, would be described as short to medium long throw. For example, despite the excellent range, in my own room, I could just barely be able to place the projector on my back wall shelf (where my BenQ sits), without overshooting my large screen. If your room is fairly long, unless you have a huge screen, you may not be able to shelf mount. Here are the numbers: To fill a 100" diagonal 16:9 screen you can place the projector (measured from the front of the lens) as close as 10 feet 2.25 inches, or as far back as 17 feet 6 inches.
Lens shift on the Sony Pearl, is vertical only (which should not be an issue). The range on the lens shift is just a bit more than necessary to allow the projector to be mounted even with the top of the screen surface, or the bottom or anywhere in between. For example, a 100" 16:9 screen allows an adjustment (from the center of the screen vertically) up or down 31.875 inches. (A 100" diagonal screen has a total height of about 49.5 inches - half of which is roughly 25 inches, so the center of the lens could be mounted as high as approximately 7 inches above top of surface, or below bottom of the screen surface. That's pretty good. Those, howver with very high ceilings, that are ceiling mounting will still need a pole hanging down.
Sony VW50 Projector - SDE and Rainbow Effect
Straight A's here for the Sony Pearl. The pixel structure is essentially invisible. It certainly is from any normal viewing distance, as you would have to get within 2-3 feet of a 100" screen to spot those pesky pixels. Click on the thumbnail image below my of my cable guide, for an extreme closeup of the lower center. The thumbnail gives you a good idea of how small an area, the enlarged image is looking at. As you can see, the pixel structure is basically invisible (there's still the structure of the data itself, but not the projector).
For comparison, click on the thumbnail below for a similar enlargement from the BenQ W10000, a 1080p DLP projector.
Sony VW50 Projector - Light Leakage
No issues here!
Sony VW50 Projector - Audible Noise Levels
Extremely quiet, whether in low or high power fan mode. (Sorry, never tried the high altitude setting, but considering the other two modes, it's still going to be very quiet compared to others.
Sony VW50 Projector - Projector Brightness
For a projector who's reputation almost immediately included "not very bright", I was pleasantly surprised, both viewing and measuring the projector's performance. As many will say, the high contrast and excellent black levels make the projector, perhaps, seem brighter than other projectors with the same lumens, but poorer contrast. I should note, that to my surprise, I was able to watch the projector - in essentially Cinema Mode, Gamma 1, High Power lamp, and Auto Iris set to 1, and just about fill my 128" Stewart Firehawk screen. I found the brightness to be just (barely) acceptable.
First, an important consideration: When I set up the Pearl for measurement, I inadvertantly had the zoom lens about 3/4 towards widest angle (in other words, towards the largest possible image I could project from that distance). With the 1.8:1 zoom, there is a dramatic drop off in brightness from wide angle to full telephoto. I normally try to set the zoom at the halfway point. With most DLP projectors -with their very narrow zoom ranges, the difference might only be 10% or so between the two maximum settings. With Sony's 1.8:1 zoom, we are looking at a potential drop from full wide angle to full telephoto of about 50% of brightness. A quick estimate, based on where I had the zoom positioned, works out to almost 25% brighter than if I had it at the usual mid point on the zoom.
As a result, for the numbers below, figure that at the midpoint, measurements would have been almost 20% lower, and those numbers (shown sometimes in () ) will serve you better for comparing with other projectors measurements.
For convenience, based on where the projector sits in my theater for viewing, I filled only about 124" diagonal.
And despite all the Sony's strengths, that killed the Pearl, as my next projector. Remember - that' just barely handling the screen room, with a brand new lamp. I'd never survive watching the Sony with 500-1000 hours on the lamp, after it's dimmed 10-25%, especially since I would be almost full telephoto (dim) mode.
But, I digress. Let's consider the measurements.
First, an important consideration - which is, where I had set up the Pearl for measurement, I inadvertantly had the zoom lens about 3/4 towards widest angle (in other words, almost the largest image I could project from that distance). With the 1.8:1 zoom, there is a dramatic drop off in brightness from wide angle to full telephoto. I normally try to set the zoom at the halfway point. With most DLP projectors -with their very narrow zoom ranges, the difference might only be 10% or so between the two maximum settings. With 1.8:1, we are looking at a potential drop from full wide angle to full telephoto of
In "best" mode - Cinema - with lamp of full, I measured (after grayscale balancing for 6500K), a pretty impressive 538 lumens! (approx 430 lumens at mid-zoom point). In low power, the Sony drops off more than most projectors, and it clocked in at 373 lumens (298).
Where the Sony comes up short is in trying to get a brighter image when you really need it. The Standard setting on full power, still only yields 596 lumens (477).
Worse, Dynamic - where you expect to sacrifice image quality for some serious horsepower for fighting ambient light, was a real dissapointment. It yielded somewhat more, after adjusting Brightness, but still only 746 lumens (597). Interestingly green measured low, (most projectors push green hard, to get more lumens out).
Here's some good news. Because the 746 lumens just didn't cut it for me, for watching sports or, any TV, for that matter, with more than a very small amount of ambient light, I decided to play a bit.
The magic came when I set the Color Temp to Custom 1 with a boost of 30 on green. Color balance actually improved over the default with its weak green, and I was actually able to measure 1157 lumens (925 lumens at zoom mid-point) Note: Sony rates the VW50 at 900 lumens. Not bad at all, but todays brighter home theater projectors can with a bit of similar adjusting, often crank out 1300 - 1600 lumens in their "worst modes" and some break 2000 (although no 1080p projectors I've seen yet). By comparison, the BenQ W10000 pushed out about 150 lumens more, in its brightest mode.
So, to my surprise, the Sony, (if you work on the Dynamic mode settings so that you can get some decent lumens out when needed, actually turns out to be very average in brightness among the 1080p projectors (so far), and is, overall, brighter than the two LCD entries we have reviewed, the Panasonic PT-AE1000U and Mitsubishi HC5000.
And consider, that until Epson starts shipping their Cinema 1080p (shortly) at $4995 (about same list as the Sony), that makes the Sony the brightest under $5000 MSRP 1080p projector. Very cool! Note: Epson home theater projectors are usually brighter than most.
Sony VW50 Projector - Lamp Life and Replacement
Sony does not provide lamp life ratings for the VW50. This may be general paranoia, due to the other Sony SXRD projectors, the more expensive older VW100, and Qualia 004. Both used $1000 Xenon lamps, and extremely high operational cost per hour. (Fortunately, the Pearl, uses traditional UHP lamps, with more traditional (under $400) prices.)
The lamp door to replace the lamp is located on the bottom, back from the ceiling mount holes, but whether you can change out the lamp without unmounting is going to depend on the mount you are using. I suggest getting assurances from the dealer you buy (the mount) from, that they KNOW whether it will be necessary to unmount the projectors, with the mount they recommend, is required.
Sony VW50 Projector - Projector Screen Recommendations
The story goes that Sony went to Stewart Filmscreen and requested a custom version of the Stewart Firehawk G3, that would be optimized for the the Sony VW50 Pearl.
And voila' Stewart has created the Firehawk SST. Now that SST works with lots of projectors, but was created with the Sony in mind. What about the Sony VW50, you ask, made them want a special screen?
As noted elsewhere, the Sony has a very wide range zoom lens, and, in its widest angle settings can sit relatively close to your screen - For example, a 100" screen can have the Pearl only 10 feet 2 inches back.
Now, Stewart recommends that for use with the "standard" Firehawk G3, that the projector be a minimum of 1.6x screen width (more is better), to maximize the viewing cone, and provide the most even screen illumination. That works out (for that 100" screen) 87"(wide) x 1.6 = 11 feet 8" inches. In other words, many would want to mount the Pearl a bit too close for the Firehawk to perform at its best. Why? Because of brightness! The closer to that screen, the brighter the Sony will be because of the lens brightness issues just discussed.
The Firehawk SST has a wider viewing cone (officially 33 degrees instead of 30), and has slightly lower gain (1.1 vs 1.3). The Firehawk SST, of course would be recommended for any other home theater projector that you want to mount "close".
I spent the vast majority of my viewing time in my theater, on my Firehawk G3 (with the projector just beyond the 1.6x recommendation).
It really made the Sony look great. Based on the 30+ hours of watching, it is a great match. So, go with the SST if you mount close, or G3 for much further back.
Is the Firehawk the only screen for the Sony VW50? Of course not. In my testing room I had plenty of opportunity to watch it on my Carada Brilliant White, an excellent positive (1.4 rated) white surface. Thanks to the excellent black levels (and the lack of excessive lumens), the VW50 looked great on the Carada as well. And, it should look great on competing screens like the Stewart Studiotek 130, and entries from Da-lite, etc.).
Now my Carada is 106" diagonal, and with the projector setup in that room, also fairly wide angle on the zoom, the image was very bright.
As much as I really like the Firehawk combination. I'm going to have to vote for a white surface positive gain screen like the Carada, for 110" diagonal or larger screens. Actually 110 could go either way, and take into consideration your zoom settings... Let's say with the zoom lens at mid setting, 106 would be largest for me to prefer the Firehawk.
With zoom forward of middle setting, I wouldn't consider going above 120" diagonal, and if you are mounting further back, even with the Carada, you may not want to go over 106" diagonal.
I better stop writing about this, you get the idea: Where you place the Sony is going to have big impact on what sizes are maximum for different screen types. I think you have enough of my ramblings to figure it out for your room.
Sony VW50 Projector - Calibration, measurements
As always, all I do is set contrast and brightness, and do a grayscale balance of the "best mode". In addition, I have the color balance info for other presets.
Cinema mode: Out of the box, the Sony is way off - in the low to mid 7000K temperature range when it should be D65. Quick adjustments to Gain and Bias took this:
First, an important consideration - which is, where I had set up the Pearl for measurement, I inadvertantly had the zoom lens about 3/4 towards widest angle (in other words, almost the largest image I could project from that distance). With the 1.8:1 zoom, there is a dramatic drop off in brightness from wide angle to full telephoto. I normally try to set the zoom at the halfway point. With most DLP projectors -with their very narrow zoom ranges, the difference might only be 10% or so between the two maximum settings. With 1.8:1, we are looking at a potential drop from full wide angle to full telephoto of
- 100ire 7246 (white)
- 80ire 7356
- 50ire 7594
- 30ire 8072
To this:
- 100ire 6482 (white)
- 80ire 6448
- 50ire 6555
- 30ire 6668
- A drastic improvement!
To get those numbers here are the Gain and Bias settings I used:
Gain: Red = 5, Green = 0, Blue = -6
Bias: Red = 9, Green = 0, Blue = -6
Contrast adjusted to 83, brightness to 54 - but those two settings, are, to a degree, dependent on your screen. (Those were for my Firehawk G3)
I mentioned previously my "fix" to get better performance out of Dynamic mode, both in color balance and brightness. That was simple, select Dynamic, and for Color temp choose Custom 1 which boosts green by 30, (that did a nice job on color balance, though with a bit more work, you can fine tune). I also adjusted brightness and contrast as well.
Sony VW50 Projector - Image Noise
Clean! It performed extemely well on the new HQV 1080p test disk (beta). In watching, I never felt the need to turn on the Noise Reduction.
OK, almost done. Take a peak at the Warranty page (the only one less that only takes 30 seconds), and then on to the Summary info.
Sony VPL-VW50 Pearl
Image Quality
General Performance
Warranty
Summary, Pros, Cons