Review: Sony VPL-VW1100ES 4K Projector: Picture Quality

Out of the Box Color - and Color Modes

Skin Tones

Post calibration skin tones are excellent, but they weren’t far from that in the better modes.  The calibrated Reference mode, however, produces a picture that is both accurate, and extremely natural looking on skin tones.  (All images above are 1080i or 1080p, except the last which is 4K from a video from the  download service).

As great as these photos look, the projected image on my screen is way better, and more natural.  As many of you know, I usually have Epson’s far lower cost 5030UB here as a sort of reference projector.  While that Epson calibrates very nicely, I still encounter some scenes in some movies – especially when the director is affecting color, where that Epson just doesn’t look quite right even considering  the circumstances.  Somehow, though, the Sony never seems to have that issue.  In those same scenes, the Sony’s skin tones remain believable and right, within the affects of “lighting” adjustments.  I’m watching Ender’s game right now.  It’s an excellent example.  There’s a strong lighting caste (actually several different ones), yet  Ender, and Mazer, and Capt Graff (Harrison Ford), manage to be completely believable in different setups.

In other words I keep waiting for the Sony to show some failing in naturalness re skin tones, but haven’t found it yet.  Of course there are other ways to affect skin tones – by using controls like Reality Creation, crank them up, and affect naturalness (of textures and contrast) that way. That “detail enhancement” creates minor trade-offs, in the form of contrast and minor artifacts seen under close examination.

Sony VPL-VW1100ES Picture Quality - 1080p/1080i Images

These images are all from satellite, or Blu-ray disc, so 1080i or 1080p.  There’s no real difference in accuracy between these images and the ones in the player below, which are true 4K images downloaded from the 4K service, and other 4K content provided.  More thoughts about the picture will be covered in the Overall Picture Quality section on the next page.

Sony VPL-VW1100ES Picture Quality - 4K Content

Talk about “wow” factor.  Every one of these images above look killer even on my MacBook Pro.  The original 4K footage, projected onto my 1.3 gain Studiotek 130 screen, by this Sony, is far more dramatic.  The nature footage is so stunning when projected that I’ve had a great many hours of this type of content on, with my sound system playing favorite music, while I’m writing.  I would have liked to see some compatible 3D 4K content.  But that’s something that’s going to have to wait a bit longer it seems.