Sony VPL-TX7 Projector - Performance

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Art Feierman

VPL-TX7 Projector - Brightness

Rated at 2000 lumens, the Sony VPL-TX7 met its specified output pretty closely. Far closer than most projectors do. Presentation Mode measured 1953 lumens and this is the projectors default Color Mode. Presentation Mode is the manufacturers suggested setting for PowerPoint like presentations.

Cinema Mode brought the projectors lumens down to 765. A pretty significant drop, but it is not surprising. The projector is trying to create an image at this point that is close to what a dedicated home theater projector would produce.

As is generally the case, dedicated home theater projectors are not very bright in order to improve the contrast in the image. I would recommend experimenting with Color Mode when you go to project movies. You might like Presentation Mode or some of the other settings more than what the manufacturer suggests.

Living Room mode produced 1234 lumens and I did not notice any kind of real improvement in the image. It just seemed like it was a middle setting that might not have been necessary. Another mode that I felt did have any real noticeable results would be Gaming Mode with 1225 lumen output and Standard Mode with 1032 lumen output. Dynamic mode boosted colors a bit, but did not help the image all thta much.

ECO mode dropped the lumens to a level that I expected and that was to 1593. From the looks of the image, this would be a great mode to use this projector in because of the increased lamp life.

Overall, Presentation Mode looked best, but you could easily get away with ECO Mode and save yourself some money in the long run as well. If the plan is to use the Sony VPL-TX7 as a fixed install projector then I would say it is a great choice. It size and shape do not make it the best travel projector since there are more powerful and smaller projectors on the market that are close to the same price, but for the most part I consider this projector a good overall value for the small deployments where an school district or organization does not have hundreds of projector to maintain.

Click Image to Enlarge

Audible Noise

Even though audible noise was not featured in the specification by the manufacturer, I can say the projector was very quiet. I would assume it put out no more than about 35dB even in its brightest mode. Which, by any account is just fine and will not distract you as the presenter or the audience.