Sony Adds New Model To Its Range Of 1080 Full High Definition SXRD Home Theatre Projectors

Weybridge, 12th September 2006 - Sony Europe today announced the introduction of the VPL-VW50. Compact, stylish and highly capable, the VPL-VW50 has an enviable set of specifications ranging from 1080 Full HD resolution to twin HDMI inputs. Stand-out features include a contrast ratio of up to 15,000:1, the highest of any home projector available, and near-noiseless 22dB operation.

The VPL-VW50 builds on the success of the EISA 2006 - 2007 winning VPL-VW100 and the EISA 2005 - 2006 winning QUALIA 004, emphasising Sony's commitment to excellence in the home projector market. The VPL-VW50 is aimed at a wide audience and is fully compatible with the 1080p output from PLAYSTATION™ 3 as well as Blu-ray Disc™ player/recorders.

"Sony is driving the market for Full HD products," says Nathalie Muijtjens, Senior Manager, TV Marketing Europe, Sony Europe. "The VPL-VW50 is a significant addition to a range of products featuring Sony SXRD that includes professional cinema projectors, 55-inch and 70-inch Full HD Micro Display Projection televisions and of course Full HD Home Theatre projectors. We believe that Sony SXRD technology provides a crucial advantage when it comes to quality Full HD projection systems. We're very pleased that this launch will give people another opportunity to see for themselves just how good it is."

Sony SXRD™ - Silicon X-tal Reflective Display - technology is a key element of what makes the VPL-VW50 special. Three 1920 × 1080 SXRD™ panels combine to produce a 6.22 megapixel resolution, but even this is only the start. Sony SXRD™ offers:

    * Exceptionally smooth, cinematic-style image. The combination of small 7µm pixels and a very fine interpixel spacing of just 0.35µm means that there's no pixel grid ‘screen door' effect visible on screen.

    * Crisp fast moving picture for film and sporting action. The very quick response time of only 2.5ms abolishes latency and ensures rapid motion on screen appears clean and fluid.

    * Excellent colour reproduction. The triple SXRD ‘one panel per colour' approach to RGB projection means precision colour reproduction on screen with absolutely no colour breaking.

    * High native panel contrast of 5,000:1

With Advanced Iris 2, users can now fine-tune contrast manually or select between two automatic modes to have the iris respond dynamically to each scene. Bright scenes never whiten excessively, dark scenes are adjusted to reveal detail normally lost in the shadows and black really is black. The combination of Sony SXRD™ and Advanced Iris 2 yields a huge contrast ratio of up to 15,000:1, the largest of any home projector currently available.

Equal care has been taken to achieve superior colour, beginning with the choice of a 200W Ultra High Pressure (UHP) lamp much stronger in the red spectrum than typical mercury UHP lamps. The boosted red means the lamp yields a correct white balance, which in turn means more accurate colours on the screen. If desired, fine colour adjustment on specific areas of the picture can easily be carried out via the on-screen menu using the Real Colour Processing function.

The new ‘1-chip' image processing engine at the heart of the VPL-VW50 incorporates proprietary Sony algorithms. This means image processing of the highest quality carried out in a fully digital - and therefore low-noise - environment. The result is HD pictures rich with all the detail and clarity of the source.

When it comes to compatibility, the VPL-VW50 has the sought-after ability to handle a 1080/24p input. This means it's fully compatible with original cinematic 24 frames per second content, exactly as captured by the cine camera itself. This will soon be available from Blu-ray Disc™ players and PLAYSTATION™ 3. The VPL-VW50 also has two HDMI inputs to ensure there are enough to go around, particularly for more advanced HD home theatre setups.

To ensure that every detail is reproduced with the greatest fidelity the VPL-VW50 uses the specially developed All Range Crisp Focus (ARC-F) lens. As well as superlative optical qualities, the lens offers a 1.8x zoom, so the projector can be positioned anywhere from 3m to 5.5m from the screen when using a 100"/2.5m diagonal screen. Motorised vertical lens shift adds even more freedom to where the projector can be placed, making the VPL-VW50 extremely versatile and easy to set up and use.

As everyone knows, projectors should be seen and not heard. This is why the VPL-VW50 features a painstakingly designed Sony fan assembly that runs almost noiselessly on its non-contact spindle. When running, the VPL-VW50 emits just 22dB, which is like someone whispering - when they're 20 metres away.