Projector Reviews

Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio: 6,905:1

Note: The white and black levels shown here, and the resulting contrast ratios, were obtained on a 78-inch-wide Stewart Studiotek 130 screen, with each projector’s dynamic iris engaged. KD used a larger, 104.4-inch-wide Stewart Studiotek 130 for most of the other tests and viewing. The 78-inch screen was used for the contrast measurements in order to be consistent with other recent Home Theater projector reviews.—TJN

All the measurements here were taken in the User 1 Selection (picture setting mode), through an HDMI input, with the display adjusted for the most accurate picture in a darkened room.

For these measurements, I used the Auto 1 iris set to the recommended mode for the iris. Properly adjusted for home theater viewing, this projector fell short of its advertised contrast-ratio specification, as most do. But it still has the second best contrast ratio of this group and showed the most pop during mixed-contrast scenes.

Out of the box, the color temperature was a bit high at low levels and a bit low at high levels. With the user menu color temperature controls, I dialed in the color tracking in to very acceptable levels. I recommend a calibration to get the most out of this projector.

This Sony has two color modes, Normal and Wide. Normal was undersaturated, and the colors looked a little drab. Wide was slightly oversatured but had great luminance tracking and only some slight hue shift. Wide is our recommended mode for this projector. As you can see from the CIE diagram, the Wide color gamut is outside the ATSC standards, but it isn’t nearly as severe as many other 1080p projectors on the market today.

The Sony showed great resolution performance using our luma and chroma test patterns. The projector features a panel-alignment mode to tweak in the projector’s convergence. It is imperative that this mode is turned off when not in use as it affects overall resolution. With the alignment mode on, the projector had no problem resolving a one-pixel-on/one-pixel-off test burst.—KD