this video is on two brand new sony front projectors
the vw915 and vw715. these models replace their very popular
vpl-vw695 and vpl-vw895
if you want to read the full review on these new projectors click on the link
in the description to be taken to our written review on audioadvice.com
where we further break down the differences between these new projectors
and the ones they are replacing now let's get started
almost all of the same great features we loved on the 695 and 895 remain
but sony has made some massive improvements to the video
processing on the new units to give even better hdr picture quality than ever
before i'll first go over the upgrades with the
new vw915 and 715 then i'll get into the technology that
makes them a great choice for a serious home theater
first the big news on the vw915 and vw715 centers around improving the hdr
experience many people may have not even heard
about hdr and not know why this is a huge deal for projectors
stick around to learn why. hdr is short for high dynamic range
this technology actually came from digital photography
where it was an effort to improve the contrast between the blackest blacks and
the whitest whites the goal of hdr is to ultimately deliver
a better picture that is more lifelike we feel it's actually as big a jump as
we saw going from high definition to 4k the list of movies and tv shows using
hdr is growing rapidly with almost all new movies
incorporating hdr plus both netflix and prime video have
tons of hdr enabled content hdr gives us a better picture by
enabling us to see much smaller degrees of changes in brightness
with sdr or standard dynamic range for example a snow-covered feel may look
like one seamless white area but with hdr
you can see the fine highlights and shadows and levels of white
colors also show more super delicate gradations
and become more richer and lifelike basically everything
just looks more natural with hdr you would think this would all be great news
for all of us home theater enthusiasts who love our
huge movie screens but it turned out to be just the
opposite for front projectors with hdr there's metadata embedded in
the video stream telling the display how to handle the
image these instructions are assuming the video display is capable of a
certain amount of light output light output is measured in
foot laminates or knits with one nit being the light
output of a single candle the hdr content that commercial movie
theaters receive is based upon a very specific knit spec
of 106. this is a light level almost all
consumer home theater front projectors can reproduce
unless the screen is just super large the commercial hdr content
never asks the projector to deliver more light output than the projector can
produce unfortunately consumers cannot get this
type of hdr content hdr for consumer products is based upon
a range of knits from 1,000 to 4,000 and in some rare cases up
to 10,000 most hdr enabled consumer televisions
can deliver this level of light output or close to it
front projectors cannot even get close with most able to produce the light
output in the range of 100 to 200 nits this means when the metadata
from the hdr content tells the picture to get really dark
it's assuming really bright is up to 4,000 nits
and really dark will still be bright but the result on a front projector is just
a super dark picture that's not even close to what the video producer
intended us to see it's like the industry ignored their
biggest fans which are those of us with large movie screens and dumbed things down
for the larger audience of flat panel television owners
when hdr first hit the market all of the projector companies scrambled to redo
their software to help fix this issue and as a result hdr tone mapping
came about hdr tone mapping tries to deliver all of
those delicate highlights while maintaining enough brightness for
a great experience some projector companies lean towards
showing more highlights which results in a darker image
while others shift more towards a brighter image and reduce the level of
highlights you can see those that lean toward the brighter
image are actually moving the picture away from hdr and closer to
sdr okay now that you see the potential of hdr
but the complexities involved it's time to talk about how sony attacked this
with the new vw915 and vw715
this year for the first time ever sony is using their famous
x1 processor in these two new front projectors the x1 processor allows them
to do much more with the hdr signal and make
use of a brand new technology they call dynamic hdr enhancer the x1 processor
also looks at each object in the frame to improve clarity and reduce noise
as each frame of the video content travels through the x1 processor
it's analyzing every single part of that frame to determine which contain
dark and light levels what the sony dynamic hdr enhancer does in
simple terms is to enhance the bright areas
and the dark areas pull down the black levels beyond what the hdr
data is calling for to do this on a frame by frame level takes an
extremely fast processor like the great x1 model sony modified for use in these
front projectors both the new 915 and 715 have this
system what really excites us is the dynamic
hdr enhancer is not just fixed at one level there are three
levels of magnitude which means you should be able to apply
this to your screen size and screen gain those of us with very large screens and
less nits will likely want to set it on high
whereas people with smaller screens will probably prefer the low or medium setting
for those of you working with audio advice on your theater
we will do the calculation for you and set it up correctly or tell you which
setting is best for your situation if we're shipping you the projector
ideally we would like for sony to have a way to
input the actual foot lamits or nits of an individual screen
and have the processor adjust this based upon the data
but for now this is going to be a huge leap up for hdr content
and the new x1 processor will also offer vast improvements on non-hdr program
material as it's much better at up-sampling the
signal to 4k than the previous version if you dive deep in the menus on sony
projectors you will find all kinds of performance enhancements
we'll go over a few of our favorites here
one reason we love both of these models is their ability to give you the true
widescreen movie experience both have motorized lens shift
which means you can purchase a movie theater-like 2.40 wide screen and zoom
the image to fill the whole screen then zoom it back down for regular 16x9
tv content with just the push of a button
this gives you the full movie theater experience in your home and trust us
there is just nothing like it it goes without saying both the 715 and 915 use
true 4k panels to give you all the glory of a 4k picture
when these panels are developed by a company that makes almost all of the 4k
cameras used in film production you know they are not just sufficient
they are fantastic motion flow is a sony tech that has been
around for a while but is amazing how well it works
on many projectors when the scene moves really fast across the screen you can
see jerkiness or stuttering of the image
motion flow totally eliminates the stuttering of the
image nothing bothers serious gamers more than signal lag
both the 715 and 915 have input lag reduction to put them close to even the
best computer gaming monitors in terms of reduced video lag now let's
take a look at each one to point out the differences
as you move from the vw715 to the vw915.
the vpl-vw715 model uses a conventional lamp based system for the light engine
and is capable of about 1800 lumens sitting in between the lamp and the lens
is an advanced iris system that works in conjunction with the x1 processor
and its dynamic hdr enhancer this iris can change the amount of light
output to optimize both hdr and sdr content for better contrast
as more projectors go into living rooms sony decided to make a white finish
option for the vw715 this year along with a traditional black finish we
see the 715 as one heck of a great value with all of its great picture technology
and the ability to do full widescreen it will probably be the best selling
model in the sony projector lineup this year
if you remember the original austin powers you remember the scene
fire the lasers at audio advice we're huge fans of laser-based front
projectors there's just something about the color
reproduced by a laser light engine that looks more like real life
you also gain the advantage of a light engine that can give you a
great picture for close to twenty thousand hours
versus the typical lamp based projector that needs a new lamp about every
fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred hours
as you might have guessed the vpl-vw915 uses a laser light engine
the vw915 produces more light output than the vw715
with a spec of 2000 lumens with the laser engine
sony uses what they call a dual contrast control to work with the dynamic hdr
enhancer for better contrast the vw915 also has a digital focused
optimizer for an even sharper focused picture sony saw the vw915 being used in dedicated home theater rooms so black is the only color choice
for most people the vw715 will be a fantastic projector
on typical sized screens around 150 inches diagonal and below
it will be amazing the quality of the image should make your jaw drop
however if you have the funds for the vw915
the picture will be even more stunning we love the look of a laser light
engine and think it does bring you far closer
to real life than a lamp with its improved light output you'll be
able to use a bigger screen as well if you go with the vw915 you'll be
greeting ear to ear every time you turn it on
we work really hard to make sure our customers not only get
great product but it is also set up in the best way possible
when we install the projectors from one of our stores we calibrate it in the
field for you or for audioadvice.com purchasers we
email out you an optimized setting preferences for most
setups if you're in the early stages of planning your theater
go over to audioadvice.com and use our free
3d home theater designer tool to build out your theater
it will show you where to put your seats speakers screen and more
if you are considering upgrading your current projector
or have questions call or chat with us at audioadvice.com
or swing by one of our raleigh or charlotte north carolina showrooms
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