Sony VPL-VW1000ES Projector - Performance 2

Posted on July 26, 2013 by Art Feierman

Color Temp over IRE Range (Best Mode, Pre calibration)

Reference (or Cinema Film 1 which is seems identical)
30 IRE	7390
50 IRE	7082
80 IRE	7117
100 IRE	7127

VPL-VW1000ES Dynamic Iris

Effect of Iris settings on lumen output (Reference mode)
Iris on Auto Full	1209
Iris on Auto Limited	847
Iris on Manual (maximum opening)	1256
Iris on Manual (50% open)	869
Iris on Manual (minimum opening)	547
Iris Off	1269

As you can see, in manual mode, stopping the iris all the way down, the Sony is still putting out over 500 lumens in Reference mode.

That should give you a pretty good idea of the relevant settings and how they affect the projector's picture.

Sony VPL-VW1000ES Projector - Post Calibration

Color Temp over IRE Range (Post calibration) Reference Mode
20 IRE =	6256
30 IRE =	6456
40 IRE =	6615
50 IRE =	6518
60 IRE =	6445
70 IRE =	6371
80 IRE =	6477
90 IRE =	6506
100 IRE =	6814
Average gamma = 2.29

VPL-VW1000ES Best mode- Reference (calibrated): 1176 lumens @ 6814

VPL-VW1000ES Brightest mode- Reference (uncalibrated): 1269 lumens @ 7121

3D Brightness of the VPL-VW1000ES

This Sony with its roughly 1200 lumens (you can probably find an extra 200+ lumens by sacrificing picture quality) can do a nice job on 3D content with screen sizes around 100" diagonal. I was very comfortable with that size 3D image on a number of 3D movies. As one of my screens is a StudioTek 130 (Stewart Filmscreen), with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, I had the opportunity to fill it with some movies that are 2.35:1 in 3D, at the full 124" diagonal. Overall, I felt the image was definitely a bit less bright than I actually would have liked to call reasonably bright..

Mind you, I'm big on having a good bit of 3D brightness. This evening, about 3 hours before I am writing this, I was in a local IMAX 3D theater (Regal), watching Men In Black 3. No question about it: 3D at the 124" diagonal size at my house with this Sony may be a touch less bright than I like, but no question about it, this setup in my theater is significantly brighter than the image at the IMAX theater. I guess, I should stop complaining. I'd say that the brightness difference between my viewing at 100" and at 124" diagonals is a smaller difference than from viewing in my room at 124" compared to the IMAX.

From our calibrator: Mike's NOTES: This is probably the first projector I’ve seen where the brightest mode was arguably also the best mode. Reference mode, which puts out over 1200 lumens, has a decent RGB balance. By contrast, the dimmest mode (Cinema Film 2) is only 330 lumens and has terrible RGB balance, with an overabundance of green. Reference mode calibrated quite well, with an average Delta E of 1.2, rising above 3 only at 100 IRE.

As usual, Sony provides a range of color spaces that tend to make using a CMS unnecessary. BT.709 is just about right on the Rec. 709 standard. Color Space 1, 2 and 3 expand the gamut to varying degrees, with Wide 3 being the largest gamut of the three. There is also an even wider DCI color space, which is designed to conform to the new DCI standard.

The Calibration page provides the settings we used. That includes basic settings as well as gain and offset.