Sony "Pearl" VPL-VW50 SXRD projector details leaked

All the cool kids have 1080p projectors for their home theater setup, but the coolest kids have 1080p SXRD projectors from Sony. At least if looks are anything to go by. Sony's new VPL-VW50 "Pearl" unit, a followup to last year's VPL-VW100 "Ruby" of equal sexiness, matches its big brother nicely in the spec arena. The projector of course has the same 1080p action, imaging courtesy of three third-generation SXRD 0.61-inch panels, and the 200-watt bulb is half the wattage of the VW100, but Sony claims the bulb manages comparable results. Sony's VW50 also keeps up with the VW100's 15,000:1 contrast ratio, has a pair of HDMI inputs and a mere 22 decibels of fan noise. All this info is courtesy of a leaked press release dated August 7, 2005, so we're hoping that "2005" is a misprint and Sony hasn't just forgotten to release this thing for a whole year. If it does prove true, the projector should be out in October, and while there's no word on price, we're hoping they manage to squeeze this one under the VW100's $12,500 pricetag. More pics after the break.

[Via HD Beat]

[Tsunamii @ Aug 8th 2006 2:28PM]

Looks nice, with their Plasma venture closed they are going to need greener pastures. I hope the low price point for this model pushes the rest down at a quick pace so the rest of us can afford a 1080p setup, even though Ill be sitting back over 15 feet and I wont be able to tell the diff between 720 & 1080 but Ill know and that is what is important.

[ccutlip @ Aug 8th 2006 2:38PM]

This should be awesome. The "Ruby," its predecessor, got the highest rating I've ever seen CNET give anything: a 9.1/10.

[tkmedia @ Aug 8th 2006 7:00PM]

This is old news from last month... engadget getting slow!:) Hopefully the Pearl has less QC problems than the Ruby, with panel misalighment, greenblobs, uniform image issues...

[Dave @ Aug 8th 2006 10:50PM]

Looks like the convex style is popular with Sony right now. Not complaining, makes me feel thinner.

[ragnar Engstr�m @ Aug 9th 2006 11:53AM]

view 2 videos with pearls little sister here. Same chipset presentation by director of dev sony europe.
http://www.cinenow.com/us/news-2128.html

[James Freeland @ Aug 9th 2006 2:20PM]

@ Tsunamii:

dude, the screen will be over 100" diagonal, if you're sitting 15 feet back or even 20 feet back, a screen that size will DEFINITELY show you the diff between 720p and 1080p. this isn't a 40" LCD we're talking about here.

[bogphanny @ Aug 9th 2006 8:35PM]

No-one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century...

[George Biernacki @ Aug 11th 2006 2:28AM]

Let's hope that the lamps are more reasonably priced.

[GhostDoggy @ Aug 12th 2006 11:19AM]

The VW100's pricetag of $12,500?? I thought the original list price was $10,000 and it was streeting for arounf $7,700.

[David Woodward @ Aug 29th 2006 10:34AM]

Anyone know if it will have HDMI 1.3 compatability for 32-bit color-depth? HDMI 1.1 is limited to 24-bit.

Plus to Tsunami... are you comparing 720p to 1080i that you can't tell the difference, and if so, are you talking about 'broadcast' 1080i? If so, you should check out the Wikipedia article on 1080i and scroll to the bottom where they talk about 'broadcast' 1080i being filtered from 1920 to 1440 horz. resolution and that interlacing degrades vert. resolution by 25%. It really hits home by looking at the graphical representations of 720p, 'broadcast' 1080i, and 1080p (say "Blue-ray" or "HD-DVD"). It is no wonder people can't see the difference between 720p and 1080i. But, brother if you all can't see the difference between 720p and 1080p, you need to get glasses, or the more modern approach...that being Lasik keraotomy.