OTHER TECH

In the time since I wrote about the installation in my Telluride home for the September issue (Rocky Mountain Picture Show), I've updated the screening room with Sony's new VPL-VW200 1080p SXRD projector ($15,000). My benchmark for fantastic home-theater projectors has been the Sony Qualia 004, which hangs from the ceiling in my East Hampton home. The VW200 has many of the qualities of the discontinued 004 and some nifty new additions, but at a substantially lower price. With its three upgraded SXRD panels, the projector produces an almost three-dimensional image. It's sharp and contrasty and as saturated as you'd want it to be. And you can align each of the panels as well as sections of each panel.

Adjusting the panels produced spectacular results. I have never seen whiter whites on film credits, without any color bleeding. The VW200 also has many other new levels of sophisticated technology to make the images smoother and more filmlike. It operates at a 120-frames-per-second refresh rate, achieved either by either black-frame insertion or motion interpolation.

I decided to upgrade my screening room because of the new technology that lets you watch 2.35:1 movies using the entire screen, without letterboxing the top and bottom. The VW200 first scales the anamorphic image to fit the SXRD panel. Then a motorized external Schneider lens rolls in front of the projector's standard Carl Zeiss lens and returns the image to its native aspect ratio, filling the whole screen.

This optional attachment for the projector made me decide to enlarge my screen by 30 inches horizontally, creating a massive viewing area almost 15 feet wide. Stewart Filmscreen is supplying the new, 1.3-gain screen to replace the silver screen that I originally had in the room. Since my home theater is a dedicated room without windows, I don't need help trying to add contrast and blacks to a totally darkened space.

A final note about all the Sony projectors: They're really, really quiet. In East Hampton, I spent a fortune building an air-conditioned case for the Qualia 004 to sit in, only to discover that the unit was practically silent. With the VW200, I can hang it from the ceiling without any sound baffling at all.

Don't underestimate the importance of the noise your projector makes. The Sonys are the best I've seen, and heard.

Barry has directed such hits as The Addams Family, Get Shorty, and Men in Black. His new TV series, Pushing Daisies, is on ABC this fall.

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