Review: Sony VPL-VW1100ES 4K Projector - Performance

VW1100ES Brightness

Post Calibration Reference Mode

1514 Lumens!  Calibrated!!

Post calibration, Reference mode, which required little change because it starts out so good, still manages to deliver 1514 measured lumens, which is a drop in brightness of less than 2%.  Can you say? - "I can't see any difference in brightness."

DCI color will add a couple hundred more lumens, but since we don't have any available DCI content at this time, that's a "future thing."  Using DCI calls for a larger color space, so that Blu-ray and HDTV content won't be as color accurate with DCI selected as with the proper color space for REC709.

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Affect of Zoom Lens, and Eco mode, on Brightness

VPL-VW1100ES Sharpness

1080p and 1080i content looks really sharp, and even more so with the application of modest to moderate Reality Creation dynamic detail enhancement.

But the beauty of this projector really lies with what it can do with true 4K resolution, be it movies, other content, or even your photos (if they are high enough resolution.

The image player here has a series of twofers.  A photo of the screen showing a 4K image, then a close-up of part of that image, to better see how sharp/how much detail there really is.  I've repeated some of these image pairs from elsewhere in this review.

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Stunningly sharp comes to mind.  The images in this player, from the beginning, and ending with the 2nd (the closeup) of Saturn, are from true 4K content.  That's followed by a 3rd Saturn image, this one off of HDTV (1080i).  What a difference in sharpness.

Then comes a 1080i pair - closeup of a San Diego chargers helmut, and in 1080p a pair the scrabble coffee mug image from Skyfall.  Finally, a scrabble closeup from the JVC RS4910 with eshift3 operating, and the Epson LS10000 with it's 4K Super-Resolution engaged.  Note that the 4 (out of 5) setting for Super-Resolution.  That gives the Epson a very sharp look, but also adds a grainy feel to the image.  A setting of 2, would still look sharper than the JVC, without near as much graininess.

These pixel shifting 1080p projectors aren't that far behind this Sony, when handling 1080 content, but the Sony pulls away from them when comparing true 4K content.  And true 4K content from Blu-ray UHD, when available should look slightly sharper still on this Sony, since Blu-ray UHD will have less compression than Sony's 4K download service.

Audible noise and Image noise

Image noise!  I have no issues to report - the Sony tackled my Silicon Optix test disc without breaking a sweat.  I have no test disc, though, for 4K, and even if I did, I don't have a Blu-ray UHD player to play it on since they don't exist yet.  Oh, Sony could have put some test software on the 4K media player, but they didn't.   Panning, I should note, on 1080p seems to be smoother on 24fps content, than some of the other Sonys. I've found that to be my only previous complaint about Sony 1080p projectors when it comes to image noise.

Since we've mentioned low power and eco here, I thought I should mention that you won't want to own this projector if your goal is a projector with minimum power draw.  At full power the Sony draws between 450 and 500 watts.  Most home theater projectors (and most aren't near as bright calibrated) draw about 100 to 150 watts less.