Sony is back with a bang in the videoprojector product survey. Our last Sony test dates back to 2007 and the VPL-AW10. We’re making up for lost time with the VPL-HW10. Based on SXRD technology, this product is an alternative to the LCD and DLPs which dominate our survey.

Handling, ergonomics

Sony is giving us virtual perfection here. Powerful zoom, horizontal and vertical lens-shift, multiple connectivity, quiet, back-lit remote… nothing missing. The only reservation, that we come back to more and more often these days: energy consumption. On stand-by it is at 5.7 watts. Why so high? Other manufacturers are doing much better. Sanyo has 1.1 watts for its PLV-Z3000 and Panasonic 0 watts for its PTAE-3000E. In use, consumption goes up to 206 watts.

The connectivity, usually at the back, is on the side of this projector (on the left if you’re looking from the front). I’m not sure this is an advantage. I prefer the Mitsubishi solution with the HC6500 casing that advances and covers where the cables come in when the projector is placed high-up.

Projected image

You’re not going to get away with it. This section always starts in the same way. All the projectors in the Full HD braket are excellent. Whichever model you go for, you will be amazed by the quality. Here we do our testing with the images in parallel (thanks to our HDMI signal duplication set-up). So the differences between the models come out. These are the points on which we develop the following analysis.

Lets start with the settings. Although they are detailed in the inset I do want to come back to them briefly. We didn’t manage to get a warm image (tendency to reds). Whatever the settings chosen, we still ended up with an image with a colder tinge (blues/violets). In practice this makes white skin a little pinker and dark skin darker. The image below illustrates this (as well as upscaling that we talk about in the following paragraph).


Among the strong points on the Sony, we should underline the upscaling from SD sources. The final image is a little less sharp than with the Panasonic or Mitsubishi, however the diagonal lines in movement are better defined and less pixellised. To accentuate the sharpness, you can still increase this parameter in the image settings menu. Careful not to force it too far, otherwise you’ll get faces with overly marked traits. A happy medium is 10. Detail in the lightest white zones is well-managed and the video noise well-controlled, even if it has to be said that Sanyo is far ahead of the rest on this point. Lastly, the overall intensity of the image is good.

Natural or dynamic image?

Not a simple choice. After having tested over 90 projectors, I have to say that my choice is rather for the natural image. I don’t really go for a sensational image and prefer a natural result, even if this means that it seems subdued in comparison. Opinion is however clearly divided here at editorial – borne out by blind testing. A great number of the votes went for the Mitsubishis and Panasonic, with brighter more dynamic images. Only a few of us, among whom was our giant of a photographer Renaud, noticed that these models gave a slightly over-bright result and went for the Sony and Sanyo.