Sony VPL-HW30

Sony is one step ahead of rival manufacturers with the VPL-HW30, a 3D projector that's expected to sell for no more than £2,000. It fits neatly into Sony's projector range between the VPL-HW20 and the VPL-HW90.

Hardware & Handling

On paper, it doesn't look like there's anything really new in the hardware or handling. The HW30 is clearly heavily based on the HW20, but with added 3D-compatibility, 2D-to-3D conversion and a 200 Hz mode.

This projector therefore has the same bulky black plastic casing at the HW20 (a white version is coming in November 2011), with a glossy finish on the top but a matte finish on the sides. Similarly, like in the HW20, the manual lens-shift control is located on the top of the projector. There are also manual controls for the 1.6x zoom and focus functions directly on the projector lens.


The image above shows the projector's maximum lens-shift positions. As you can see, the projected image can be moved quite far up and down on the vertical axis. However, horizontal movement is much more restricted. Plus, once you've moved the image to the left or right, you can't then move it upwards—you have to bring the image back to the centre position to move it vertically.

2D Image Quality: perfect!

The graphs below show the contrast ratios we measured for this projector. The contrast ratio quantifies the relationship between the brightness of the white and the depth of black. We use two types of test card to measure this. The first card is 35% white while the second is just 1% white. The 35% card is used to evaluate how well a projector can isolate a small black zone in the middle of a very bright image—even though it's unusual to find this kind of image in practice. The 1% card is used to evaluate a projector's ability to handle large dark areas, which you're much more likely to find in films.

Like other video projectors, the depth of black in the HW30 varies in relation to the image displayed. However, the overall result is excellent. The contrast ratio reaches 2560:1 with our 1% white test card, which makes for very deep blacks. And with the 35% white test card, the HW30 is still up there with the best with a contrast ratio of 580:1. Note that this drop in contrast isn't visible to the naked eye as the black zone is surrounded by other, brighter colours. Since our eyes no longer have any points of reference to compare the black zone to, they are effectively 'tricked' into seeing it darker.


With the projector's settings adjusted (see inset), the delatE (which measures how accurately colours are reproduced) drops to 2. We therefore consider that the HW30 displays accurate colours.

The video noise reduction function hasn't been updated. The HW30 is therefore still a bit disappointing compared with competitors' projectors. Although a good deal of noise is effectively eliminated, some rogue pixels can still be spotted in the image. However, that won't be too much of a problem for the fussiest users, who don't usually use this kind of function anyway. In fact, if you turn this function off, you can watch a film exactly how the director intended the final cut to look.

This projector handles light and dark parts of images perfectly. The HW30 has an average gamma that's fixed at 2.2. As a result, the image doesn't lose any detail whether in bright, light or dark zones.

To keep the picture smooth when watching films, Sony has equipped this projector with a 200 Hz mode and Motionflow technology, which can be set to 'High, 'Low' or 'Off'. This is one of the best smooth-motion modes we've seen in a projector. When set to 'Low' images are excellent and perfectly smooth. However, you do end up with a slight 'camcorder' effect and a few digital artefacts in fast-moving scenes. We therefore don't recommend you go any higher than the 'Low' setting.

One of the main weaknesses of TVs and video projectors is the quality of their upscaling, and this projector is no exception. The image looks a little blurred and aliasing is visible in diagonal lines. We therefore recommend that you leave any upscaling to your Blu-ray player or games console.

3D Image Quality: some crosstalk

Sony has included a 2D-to-3D conversion function but, as is the case with most TVs, this function is more about marketing than actual functionality. The upscaled 3D really isn't all that great, with just a slight impression of depth added to the image.

With genuine 3D content (games, Blu-rays etc.), the HW30 really showed us what it was made of. Both the impression of depth and protruding objects are rendered well. It's really quite impressive, especially with the huge-sized images you get with a projector. However, we did notice some crosstalk, which is also a common problem in 3D LCD TVs. Crosstalk occurs when images intended for the left and right eyes cross over and make the overall image double up. Needless to say, it makes the 3D experience a little less comfortable. Turning down the brightness of the glasses in the 3D settings does noticeably reduce crosstalk, but this in turn makes the image a bit darker.

Here's how things looks through the 3D glasses (top: Sony VPL-HW30 / bottom: Samsung UE55D8000).

Power Consumption and Noise

When on and in use with a brightness of around 480 cd/m², we measured 215 watts of power used. On standby, that dropped to less than 1 watt.

Finally, the HW30 is a very quiet projector—we recorded just 25 dB with a sound metre placed at 1 m from the projector.