Sony VPL-VW600ES 4K Projector: Picture Quality 3

HDTV and Sports Viewing on the Sony VPL-VW600ES

While I sometimes used Bright Cinema mode, which seems at least a little intentionally punchy, (a good thing for tackling some ambient light), I switched back and forth between Bright Cinema and the post calibration User mode.  I tried Bright TV, and unadjusted, didn’t care for that as much as the Bright Cinema.  But this is really a projector that you can just watch calibrated, for everything.

Per Mike’s measurements, this Sony VPL-VW600ES projector measured almost 1600 lumens, which is more than enough to tackle a fair amount of controlled ambient lighting in your home theater.

Although we see the VW600ES to be bright enough to leave the home theater for some media or living rooms, the overall performance really does make you want to have a proper theater.  That said, I imagine the rich and famous can afford to put one of these anywhere they choose, and honestly, I wouldn’t be opposed to having 4K for sports viewing, in other rooms.

BTW the appeal of the Bright Cinema mode is that the image is a bit cooler, with white measuring around 7300K, rather than the 6500K of our calibrated mode.

Best I can tell, for things like sports, many people, including me, prefer a slightly cooler image with less red component to the white.   And that is also the reason why I did watch a signficant of sports in Bright Cinema, even if it wsn’t the slightest bit brighter than the calibrated mode.  If any of the sports images look a touch thin on reds, those would be the Bright Cinema ones.  (hint:  skiing)

Overall Picture Quality of the Sony VW600ES

First of all, that this projector is true 4K, the picture simply looks better in the sense of sharpness, than any 2K projector out there, and that’s with 2K content.   Of course when you start feeding the VW600ES true 4K content, the difference is about one magnitude superior.

With skin tones, and color in general to be basically dead on post calibration, it’s hard to find anything to complain about.  Only knowing that there is a VW1100ES for more money, with slightly better blacks, and slightly better optics (as Sony says), gives the VW600ES any humility.

I imagine I would still prefer the blacks of the top of the JVC line-up to this Sony, but the 4K advantage, to me is many times more important, even if the top of the line JVC may also have superior optics along the lines of the VW1100ES.

In other words, true 4K trumps a lot of other advantages, and especially differences in black levels at this level of projector performance.

Our photo player above has a wide variety of additional images that show off the VPL-VW600ES.  It really is just a shame that viewing them on your computer or tablet, (or mine) just doesn’t do the Sony projector justice – not even close.

Folks, the Sony’s picture is gorgeous.  Everything looks natural, yet there’s plenty of brightness to assure a lot of pop.  The 4K resolution itself has to be considered an integral part of this projector’s overall picture quality.

If I owned a VW600ES, I would be truly satisfied!   Even knowing that some areas such as black levels could be a bit better (despite being really great), would not damper my enthusiasm. I wouldn’t even dream of owning the VW1100ES!

In fact I’m pretty sure I would remain happy until about 2020, when it will be 8K resolution’s turn to dazzle us even further.

I don’t get to play with very many projectors over $10,000, but I have little doubt that the VW600ES reigns supreme for overall picture quality under about $25,000.