Sony BRAVIA VPL-VW90ES SXRD 3D Projector HT Labs Measures
HT Labs Measures
For the picture settings used in this review, go to HomeTheater.com. Except as noted, all of the measurements were taken with the projector in User mode, adjusted for the most accurate image, with the Lamp Control on Low, the Gamma Correction on Gamma 3, and the Advanced Iris set to Auto 1. There were just under 200 hours on the lamp. The screen was a Stewart Filmscreen StudioTek 130, 78 inches wide, with a gain of 1.3.
The full-on/full-off contrast ratio shown above was first measured directly off the projection lens using a Minolta T-10 (illuminance) light meter (the value shown here is the average of three separate, closely clustered results). Additionally, a White foot-lambert reading of 17.61 was taken off my 78-inch-wide Stewart StudioTek 130 screen using a Minolta LS-100 (luminance) spot light meter.
A Black level on screen (0.00044) was derived by using that reading together with the full-on/full-off contrast from the T-10.
With the Auto Iris off, in the Low lamp mode and Gamma 3, the VPL-VW90ES produced a contrast ratio of 11,219:1 (17.7 ft-L white, 0.0016 ft-L black—using the same derivation method as above). These black and white levels apply only to a screen of this size and gain (1.3); the full-on/full-off result is specific to the projector at the settings indicated, irrespective of the screen.
The black level on the full screen is well below a level directly measurable with any meter available to us.
The T-10 should provide a more accurate result from this method compared to the method we’ve used previously, so comparisons to black levels and contrast ratios in earlier reviews should be made with care. But even allowing for that, this VPL-VW90ES’s full-on/full-off contrast ratio and black level are the best I have yet measured on a video projector