Sony's 1080p VPL-HW10 projector gets unboxed and reviewed

Sony's VPL-HW10 SXRD projector was viewed as a fairly stellar bargain when it was announced back at CEDIA. A 1080p projector with Sony's name on it for $3,500? Yes, please. One Michael Smith purchased his directly from Sony, and he took the time to unbox it and share his impressions with the public at large. In short, the beamer was deemed "awesome," and words like "amazing," "high quality" and "crystal clear" were used frequently. In fact, he found it difficult to say anything negative, even going so far as to say that he's simply spoiled now that he has seen what this puppy can do. Don't take our word for it, though -- check the links out below to hear it from the horse's lips.

Read - Unboxing
Read - Review

[Jonthomasdesigns Posted Dec 29th 2008 11:49AM]

Me want ! .. To bad my Condo design will make that a little hard .. as if the 60" SXRD sitting in my living room wasnt already stealing the spotlight

Cant wait to build a house

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 12:17PM]

I can't say I share the reviewer's opinion on white wall vs. proper projection screen, but it's nice to see that there's a 1080p projector that will actually work in smaller rooms. Hopefully we'll see more stuff like this at CES.

[badweasel Posted Dec 29th 2008 1:41PM]

I knew that some people wouldn't agree with this, but it comes from 4 years as a projector owner - using it in multiple environments. In the early days my original 720P projector I would move between two houses, one with a proper screen and the other with just a wall. The advantages of the wall is a) when you use the right paint it actually is bright enough, b) walls are larger than screens - to get a screen the size of my wall would mean having a totally custom screen made ($$$), c) walls don't have aspect ratio limitations. In my house I did have a custom screen made. It was a cinematic 2.35:1 and was 11 feet wide. But then when I watched something 16:9 or 4:3 I had to adjust the zoom and the image was smaller.

My friends who have projectors with screens come over and are bummed that their picture is so small compared to mine.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 30th 2008 2:54AM]

I agree, no screen, right paint, works great,less hassle less money.

[badweasel Posted Jan 5th 2009 2:18AM]

I've now posted an article covering screens and why you might or might not need them, along with some good (cheaper) alternatives...

http://www.michaelsmith.tv/2008/12/30/home-theater-projector-screens/

[lakersin2025 Posted Dec 29th 2008 9:11PM]

Nice. I want one of theses!

[Bozster Posted Dec 30th 2008 7:00AM]

I just setup my new home theater with this projector.. Truly stunning.. it's slightly less bright compared to Panasonic AE3000 but has much better overall picture and blacks. It's extremely sharp and as I'm still waiting for the 106" higher gain screen material, I'm also using this projector on plain wall temporarily. I was really surprised how good picture looked like even without screen.

Installation and setting up was a snap. I ceiling mounted it. It's very user friendly projector and adjustments are more then enough for an average person to get the picture to look great.

My only issue with it is that it takes it a while to warm up, but other then that, superb projector.

I'm not a huge Sony fan overall, but this projector is really good buy.