Sony VPL-VW285ES/385ES Thread

[Dylan Seeger]

285ES aquired!



Javs, any word on those instructions? I can't remember which setting needs to be disabled in the service menu to get rid of some of these artifacts. I already pulled up the internal test patterns in the service menu and can confirm those odd snake lines and banding are there.  I just have it shooting on a wall at work at the moment, but will have it on a proper screen in a few hours to take a closer look. Don't pay attention to the moire as that was added by my cell phone. Proper images from a Canon DSLR will come to follow once I get home:



I can't really say much about this supposed "overhauled new lens system" as I've seen posted on the other forum. The false hyperbole really needs to be put in check. It looks to be the same lens with better quality control. In fact, I would say my 285ES is worse off at resolving individual pixels than both of the previous 665ES units here that had the supposed "worse" lens. Again though, I'll wait to make that final judgement until I see this on a proper screen. I think Kris Deering made an excellent point, in that  even the Sony reps at CEDIA were hesitant on saying that this was a better "new" lens. Same lens it seems with less variability on quality. Yes that's better for the end users buying these units but it does not seem to be a lens that has better resolving power.

[AVSCraig]

Looking forward to your report !

[Dylan Seeger]

Javs, never mind.  I found the setting. For anyone looking to disable the zone convergence correction software to reduce some of these image artifacts here's what you do.

On your remote press "Enter, Enter, Left, Enter". You'll see a window pop up asking if you'd like to continue. Confirm you want to proceed as this enables you to enter the service menu. Press  "Menu" on your remote. You'll now see a new submenu item listed called "Device". Press "Up" then "Enter" to go into this menu. Scroll down and highlight the "Display Engine" option and press "Enter". You'll see a new window pop up. Continue to press "Down" on your remote until you reach something that says "21 AREG/SERVICE ON". Press "Left" on your remote to change this setting from "1" to "0". By doing this you're disabling the zone convergence correction software. Press "Enter" on your remote to return to the main menu of the service menu. Scroll down to "Save to memory", press "Enter" and confirm that you want to make these changes. If you don't do this, the next time you restart your projector it will not have the zone convergence correction disabled. With that said, DO NOT make any other changes to the other settings in the service menu as you run the risk of doing damage or screwing up how the projector functions. I will not be held responsible for those who go in, make other changes, and damage their projector.

[Javs]

Javs, never mind.  I found the setting. For anyone looking to disable the zone convergence correction software to reduce some of these image artifacts here's what you do.

On your remote press "Enter, Enter, Left, Enter". You'll see a window pop up asking if you'd like to continue. Confirm you want to proceed as this enables you to enter the service menu. Press  "Menu" on your remote. You'll now see a new submenu item listed called "Device". Press "Up" then "Enter" to go into this menu. Scroll down and highlight the "Display Engine" option and press "Enter". You'll see a new window pop up. Continue to press "Down" on your remote until you reach something that says "21 AREG/SERVICE ON". Press "Left" on your remote to change this setting from "1" to "0". By doing this you're disabling the zone convergence correction software. Press "Enter" on your remote to return to the main menu of the service menu. Scroll down to "Save to memory", press "Enter" and confirm that you want to make these changes. If you don't do this, the next time you restart your projector it will not have the zone convergence correction disabled. With that said, DO NOT make any other changes to the other settings in the service menu as you run the risk of doing damage or screwing up how the projector functions. I will not be held responsible for those who go in, make other changes, and damage their projector.

Yeah he never got back to me as yet, good to see you found the setting!

[Dylan Seeger]

Just a quick update before bed. Here are some out of the box measurements made in Reference mode, which is the most color accurate mode on this unit,  with my Minolta CL200:

Brightness (max zoom):
     Low Lamp: 948 Lumens
     High Lamp: 1278 Lumens

On/Off Contrast:
     Minimum Zoom: 17,826:1
     Maximum Zoom: 12,989:1

[Dylan Seeger]

As noted in the first post of this thread, I really wanted to take a look to see if some of the issues I had with previous 4K SXRD projectors have been fixed or at least lessened. I can say from a quick look that they've been lessened compared to previous models I've seen. These models are the 1000ES, 1100ES, 600ES, and two separate 665ES projectors. It's known that the 5000ES received an updated firmware after several people had complained of excessive banding within the image. Based on what the few 5000ES owners I've talked to told me, they saw the same thing I'm seeing here with this 285ES after the firmware update; still there, but artifacts not as bad. So it seems this update to correct issues trickled down to the lower end models too. I think all but the pickiest of people will be happy. In this regard, I'm picky. This is especially so before this year where the cheapest 4K SXRD unit was priced at $10,000. It was not an issue I thought should be there on such an expensive piece of equipment. For $5000? Maybe this is an acceptable price for there to be image artifacts such as these in the image. Personally speaking, I'm still not entirely wow'ed by these 4K projectors from Sony. I really had hoped this issue would have been completely taken care of by now. This is my personal take on the matter. Yours may be different.

The lens does not seem to be better. As I said earlier, and can now confirm after seeing this on a proper screen, pixels are not rendered better with this "new" lens. I think Kris Deering got the right information gleaned from the Sony reps attitude and responses when asked about this lens. This seems like more of a better QC control situation rather than a "new" lens as several others seem to be talking about on the other forum. I think this whole "new" lens thing boils down to less variability in lens quality. I think if this was a genuinely new lens we'd be hearing and reading all about it in Sony's literature for these projectors. This unit is actually a bit worse than the two previous 665ES units I had here as far as how well this lens can focus down on single pixels.

I also got a chance to look at some test patterns to see how well this can do single pixel information. As noted previously, the zone convergence correction software should be disabled in the service menu if the end user (or dealer) is willing to do it. It really helps clean things up. I feel too many people worry about how well their panels are converged, especially when we're talking about zone correction. It really is not needed, especially when we can avoid artifacts like this if it's enabled:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/119519

With the zone correction off in the service menu, you can still use the global pixel correction software in the regular menu without adding these artifacts. The single pixel correction is more than enough. You're never going to be able to see misconvergence from a seated distance if you set the global pixel correction up. Again, zone (and less than whole) pixel correction is not needed.

As far as the single pixel test portion of that test pattern goes, I would actually recommend turning off Reality Creation (RC) as it adds some artifacts to the image that shouldn't be there (green and pink banding on any grey colored portions of the screen). While this banding is not visible in these shots, other grey squares on this test pattern did show very visible banding that should not have been there:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/119521

So if you turn off RC and have the sharpness setting set to 10, this can do single pixel information, not perfectly, but adequately enough that from a seated distance I don't think there would be a visible loss in resolution. I did highlight some "fringing" where it seems the panels were getting some off-shooting information sent to them that made pixels past the squares turn green or pink where they shouldn't have been (they should have been white). I don't think this was added by the lens as the fringing wasn't along the entire edge.

Just to highlight what enabling RC does, adding some odd artifacts, you can clearly make out how it changes shades of grey in this shot:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/119522

[DavidHir]

Great feedback.

How is the overall grey uniformity and any bright corner (black uniformity) issues?

Also, do you happen to have a JVC to do any A/B comparisons to the Sony with UHD BD content?

[Dylan Seeger]

Great feedback.

How is the overall grey uniformity and any bright corner (black uniformity) issues?

Also, do you happen to have a JVC to do any A/B comparisons to the Sony with UHD BD content?

I only had an hour or so with it last night before bed, but I will do a closer look into these areas over the next few days and report back. I have an RS400 here that I can do some comparisons to. Though the performance is very, very similar to a 665ES with the DI off and lamp in low mode. The huge difference is that now the price of these units are dramatically lower. If Sony can add a DI and maybe a little more contrast and brightness at this price point then I think this would be a killer deal. I had always thought these units were way over priced. Sony seems to be rectifying that issue.

[AVSCraig]

Hopefully more test info on Monday !

[Dylan Seeger]

Hopefully more test info on Monday !

I recently moved and haven't finished setting up a proper viewing space yet. I just finished converting half a spare bedroom into a black pit area to put a screen up today. The other half of the room is hot pink. Must have been a girls bedroom before I moved in. Maybe at some point I'll paint it another color.  I plan on mounting the screen to the wall sometime this weekend and then I can take a longer look.

[AVSCraig]

I recently moved and haven't finished setting up a proper viewing space yet. I just finished converting half a spare bedroom into a black pit area to put a screen up today. The other half of the room is hot pink. Must have been a girls bedroom before I moved in. Maybe at some point I'll paint it another color.  I plan on mounting the screen to the wall sometime this weekend and then I can take a longer look.

Hot pink ! Now there is a theater color - for watching 1960's movies !! 

[Dylan Seeger]

Hot pink ! Now there is a theater color - for watching 1960's movies !! 

Haha that is soon to be rectified. It's a little smaller than my previous theater space, but this new room is more than adequate now that I have some proper treatments up to soak up light in the room.  I have a fairly lengthy writeup coming soon.  A large portion of the write up is a comparison to the about to be released RS440 which we know a lot about based on the RS420 and RS400. This seems appropriate based on MSRP of each unit.

[woofer]

Haha that is soon to be rectified. It's a little smaller than my previous theater space, but this new room is more than adequate now that I have some proper treatments up to soak up light in the room.  I have a fairly lengthy writeup coming soon.  A large portion of the write up is a comparison to the about to be released RS440 which we know a lot about based on the RS420 and RS400. This seems appropriate based on MSRP of each unit.

Looking forward to this..

[AVSMike]

Thanks Dylan. Looking forward to the in depth review.

[lygren]

Just had a VW360 (VW385) installed in one of our demo rooms today and it´s certainly a nice machine... Will have the 260 / 285 installed tomorrow. We also had the VW760 (VW885) installed and calibrated.

In short, as for VW360;

1. Quite impressive blacks - albeit still not "JVC blacks", especially if compared to the X/RS7-9XX(X).

2. They have to have done something with their lenses, at least for this unit, sharpness was quite good... Still, if compared to - let´s say - JVC DLA-Z1 / RS4500, it might fall a bit short, but that´s a completely different league. 

3. As for HDR, I had to pull the "HDR contrast" all the way to 99 (out of 100), i.e. basically remove the entire effect - to leave enough light for the 10 ft wide screen. It´s simply not a HDR machine in my opinion, albeit it´s not only light output that is required in such regards as I do believe the DLA-X7500 (RS520) looks very well @ HDR with a bit of upward tone mapping applied to it. Still, using the new Sony UBP-X1000ES UHD player outputting HDR in SDR (maintaining 4K and 10-bit that is), it looked very very nice!

As for the laser VPL-VW760, there are several issues with the pre-production unit we have currently installed for this particular launch event, lens focus is off and there are some issues with the scaling and so on, but even so, it looks quite nice too on our 13 ft wide screen. Still, I can see quite the difference from the DLA-Z1 / RS4500 in terms of light output @ SDR (HDR is too dark anyhow...).

I´ll get back with more impressions after the event tomorrow!