Sony VPL-HW45ES Projector – Hardware Tour 2

Sony Remote Control

Sony’s remote control for the HW45ES (not the same as the HW55ES’es) is a long well balanced remote control with a reasonably bright blue LED light when you press the button on the top left.

In the center position on the top row is the input selector.  The Sony has an auto sensing feature so it will search for  a live input source, but to switch manually (if there are two live sources), pressing that button once brings up the list of inputs. Each additional time the input button is pressed, it moves through the list to the next source. Power is the upper right button, in green.  As is most common, press once for on, twice for off.

Moving to the next section of the remote control, there are nine buttons for the 8 pre-programmed picture modes, and the last one is the User button (which we’ll save the calibrated settings in).

Navigation is next.  The four navigation arrows are in a round formation.  They are surrounded by three other buttons, the bottom one is the menu.  The upper left has a test pattern for focus and overscan.  Opposite on the right is the Reset button. I always consider that to be in a strange place, but don’t worry, pressing it once won’t get you into trouble.

The next second has 9 buttons, including direct access to most of the image controls.  I’ll just run through top row first, left to right:

Aspect Ratio, Motion Flow, 3D
Color Space, Color Temp, Color Correction
Gamma Correction, Contrast Enhancer, Reality Creation

That’s about it, but for the three rocker switches at the bottom:  Sharpness, Brightness, and Contrast.  That covers it for the remote.  Next…

The next section has all the major and most minor menus.

Bottom Line:  One of the better remotes around.  In the past I complained about Sony remotes not having discreet buttons for each source, but since this projectors has only two inputs (both HDMI), you just press the Input button once, and to change to the other HDMI, press it again. Done, easy!

Sony VPL-HW45ES Menus

All of the menu pictures are from the older HW55ES. The two sets of menus are virtually identical, if not identical.  The one major issue difference is that the HW55ES (predecessor to the HW65ES) has the controls for the dynamic iris, which the HW45ES lacks.