News of Sony's VPL-V60 SXRD front projector, a sub-$5K successor to the incomparably popular Pearl had already leaked to the 'Net days ago. OK, so did the news of the high-end projector, but it's still cool and here's the straight dope.

The VPL-VW200 will be available in October at around $15K and has a lot more in common with the Qualia 004 mothership than with the Ruby or the Pearl. It will use a Xenon lamp ($999 each for replacements), custom lenses by Carl Zeiss and Motionflow High Frame Rate technology. Motionflow not only will display 24p material at a 5x multiple at 120Hz, it does a bunch of other complicated things I can't even understand. But what you need to understand is that this not targeting a price point- it's targeting ultimate performance. The PJ also includes the latest take on Sony's auto iris systems and claims ludicrous contrast.

Other niceties include the ability to align the three chips in this SXRD projector to tolerances of 0.1 pixels and the electronic processing and fittings for an anamorphic lens and 2.35:1 screen masking system. We'll be able to see this projector demonstrated on the show floor, so look for follow up on this.