Presentation

Hello Dear Readers,

The 4K projector Sony VPL-VW520ES was here at projectiondream.com and now you can read our detailed review! It is the latest Sony 4K high end projector and will be sold for 9990€.

Many thanks to Patrick Schappert from GROBI.TV who let us borrow his projector for the time of the review!

Sony is still alone in the home theater market with true 4K projectors.

It all began in 2011 with the Sony VPL-VW1000ES selling for over 20000€. Two years later the small brother Sony VPL-VW500ES was born selling for 10000€. Now 2 years later the VPL-VW520ES has arrived and we are all excited about the improvements which come along.

The Sony VPL-VW520ES is using 4k SRXD technology and is compatible with HDMI 2.0 HDCP 2.2 for the 4K blu-rays to come at the end of this year. It is also a 3D projector even if it is not anymore the main focus these last months for the consumer market.

Sony promotes their Reality Creation to upscale your current Full HD blu-rays and it should have been  improved this year.

The Sony VPL-Sony 520ES can be chosen in a white or black colour depending on your taste and your environment.

The projector’s weight is 14kg and it measures 495,6 x 195,3 x 463,6 mm. Despite its size, it is easy to integrate in a living room or a dedicated room thanks to its very flexible lens which has a very large zoom range and also allows to move the picture with a lens shift of great amplitude.

The throw ratio varies between 1,38 – 2,83:1 and the lens shift allows for a vertical shift of up to ±85 % of the height of the picture and a horizontal shift of up to ± 31 % of the width of the picture.

The Sony VPL-VW520ES has a motorized zoom and Lens-shift and it works wonderfully well. This is really a nice feature to have and it is hard to come back to manual afterwards…

The menu of the projector is accessible with the remote control, but also with a side panel of the projector. This can be very helpful in order to use the projector if the remote control is not available or even lost.

The projector Sony VPL-VW520ES has all connections needed on the side panel including 2 HDMI 2.0 inputs (only the number 2.0 is HDCP 2.2 compliant) and also a USB connection which is very useful to perform the firmware updates at home.

Sony uses the 3D RF technology, which allows for a user friendly 3D experience. The advantage of the RF glasses over DLP Link is that you never lose the 3D signal when turning your head and there is also no red tint in the picture like you get with the synchronisation flash of the DLP Link technology.

The Sony RF glasses TDG-BT500A are very light weight with a futuristic design.

The remote control allows for a quick access to all important functionalities like the frame interpolation or the Reality Creation to improve the sharpness. There is also a button to activate the backlight of the remote which is helpful while watching a movie in a dark room. The buttons of the remote control are big enough and as a consequence the remote is pretty long , but lies easily in the hand.

The projector in action

Movies in 2D: Full-HD Blu-ray

Out of the box the projector honors its 10000€ price category with a bright picture, very sharp (4K inside) with very high contrast and nice colors. The reference mode is the closest to the REC 709 norm.

After activation of the frame interpolation on the setting “Smooth low”, the picture motion is very smooth even in the most difficult scenes with travelling. There are almost no artefacts and the picture stays natural. For the more conservative people, the frame interpolation on the setting “True Cinema” will be perfect for a cinema experience.

The activation of the Reality Creation allows for an increase in sharpness without apparent disadvantages even when put as high as 40. Our advice is to use a level between 20 and 30. For the ones using a Darbee, it is totally possible to combine the two, but we advise to use the Darbee on 35% and the reality creation at the level 20. The result is a very sharp picture which allows to show all the details of your favorite Blu-rays.

Below you can see a few screenshots taken from the Blu-rays: Mission Impossible, Oblivion, The Dark Knight and Tron. You can click on each picture to open it in the original resolution.

Movies in 2D: 4K Player

We received with the Sony VPL-VW520ES a 4K player box with some 4K Demo videos to see the real potential of the 4K projector.

We had already prior to that seen some 4K footage played on the Red Ray 4K player on the Epson EH-LS10000 (which we will review soon on Projectiondream.com).

It is a real experience to sit 3.5m from the 2.52 large screen and to look at the 4K “window”. We really think the word “window” is the best way to define the feeling you have in front of true 4K footage on the VPL-VW520ES. We looked at various 4K Demos which all looked gorgeous.

If we should criticise this 4K experience, it would be because of the absence of frame interpolation available when playing 4K content. Whenever the camera was moving a bit faster, you would instantly notice that the fluidity could be improved. A firmware update from Sony for the coming 4K blu-rays would be welcomed.

Below a few screenshots to give you an hint of how real life it looked. Please click on each image to get the full picture resolution to better appreciate the details. 

Movies in 3D

We watched for the 3d performance evaluation a typical 3D Demo blu-ray: Sammy 2. The movie is an animation about some turtles with some strong 3D.

The 3D looks good, no doubt helped by the great contrast and the 4K sharpness.

However, there were some hints of ghosting which we would have prefered not to see in this price class. We also noticed some flickering due to a glasses/projector refresh rate of 96 Hertz which is tiring for the eyes. The projector EH-LS10000 or even the smaller brother the Epson EH-TW9200 reviewed here perform better for both absence of ghosting and flickering (120Hz refresh).

Still, the effects of depth and pop-out are strengthened by the high contrast and the deep black behind the glasses, that you don’t find in the DLP competition even with their ghosting/flickering free picture.

Analysis of the Sharpness

Convergence:

Unlike the DLP projectors, the tri-LCD projectors, like the Sony VPL-VW520ES with the proprietary SRXD reflective technology, as the name indicates, possess three color matrices for red, green and blue, which are supposed to be aligned perfectly. Naturally, in reality the overlap of the tri-LCD matrices is not perfect, often referred to as convergence problem. Our exemplar shows a good convergence which contributes to the sharpness of the picture. It is especially important for a 4K matrice to have a great convergence to really get the 4K precision at the end.

On the picture below you can see the alignement of the 3 colors with the electronical alignment of the matrices not activated.

The picture of the black cross below was taken with Reality Creation desactivated. If you click on the picture, you can see the very small 4K pixels.

When Reality Creation is activated (here on 20%), you see below some ringing around the black cross which should not be there.

 Sharpness vs REALITY CREATION:

Here we make an analysis of the sharpness of the picture with different levels of the Reality Creation, the numerical sharpness improvement system of Sony. The Reality Creation also serves as a great upscaling system to watch our favorite Full HD Blu-rays. It should in this case always be ON even if on 0%.

On the sharpness test pattern of the reference disc AVS HD 709, we have compared the desactivated Reality Creation with 2 different levels of Reality Creation: 20% to 100%. The Reality Creation system seems to change some colors in the process. However, some crosses were seen without Reality Creation activated and when Reality Creation comes into play, they disappear. The upscaling seems to work very well.

On the 2 pictures below, we compare Reality Creation desactivated VS activated at Max level. The effect can be seen in the red hairs of the clown mask. With reality Creation, the hairs are more detailed. However the effect of Reality Creation is subtle and that is the reason why we compare directly the desactivated mode VS the Maximum level of Reality Creation. You should click on the pictures to look at them in the full resolution to really see the difference between the two.

We can see the same behavior on the grass from the blu-ray Oblivion below. Notice the sharpness increase but also the subtle change of colors of the grass. Without Reality Creation, the grass had a deeper green color than after the activation of Reality Creation. It can be noted that this color change also happen at lesser levels of Reality Creation.

On the blue “Monster” below, you can see the new details in the blue hairs after the Reality Creation activation. Even on 100%, the effect is still watchable in real life without much artefacts from a normal sitting distance. Well done Sony!

We advise to use the Reality Creation activated between 20% and 40% for the best results.

Uniformity

The uniformity of the white and grey patterns was really good.No problem here!

Colors: Out of the box

Out of the box, the projector has 9 predefined modes. The mode Reference, Cinema 1, Cinema 2, Photo, TV, Bright TV, Bright Cinema and Game. Every mode was analyzed with the colorimeter i1 Display Pro profiled to the spectrophotometer i1 Pro 2 with the software Chromapure. The measurements were taken off our screen: Elunevision Reference Studio 4K 100 (gain 1).

The mode that is closest to the norm REC 709 is the mode Reference with a nice gamma value around 2.2 and an average CIE94 dE of 2.5 for the colors and 5.7 for the grayscale. That’s a good performance for the colors. The grayscale is very linear but the temperature measured a bit too cold off our screen averaging 6843K instead of the 6500K goal. Depending on the color neutrality of your screen, a calibration may be necessary to get the best out of the projector and like for us, correct for a small push of the blue color.

Ideally, you would like to have a flat gamma curve of 2.2 and a CIE94 DeltaE under 2 for all colors and the grayscale. With that, the black will not be crushed, the white levels will not be clipped and the color will be natural and as close to to the movie producer’s choice as possible.

Here are the Chromapure results for the grayscale and the CIE diagram for a saturation of 100% and brightness amplitude of 100%. The projector is positioned with zoom MAX. The lamp has 29 hours.

The picture width projected on the screen was 252cm for all these measurements.

Out of the box: predefined mode detailed analysis:

Reference

Cinema 1

Cinema 2

Game

Photo

TV

Bright TV

Bright Cinema

Calibration of the projector

The measurements were taken off our screen: Elunevision Reference Studio 4K 100 (gain 1).

The calibration is based on the “User” mode (same as Reference) with the lamp brightness put on LOW.

For the color calibration, we used  patterns of 75% saturation and 75% brightness.

• Grayscale & RGB analysis:

The Grayscale after calibration of the mode User shows an almost perfect behavior with a CIE94 DeltaE below 2 from 20% APL level to 100% ADL level. For 10% and 20%, this is probably our calibration sensors showing their limit for very low brightness level.

Grayscale (pre=Reference=User & Post=calibrated):

• CIE and color management analysis:

The colors in the CIE after calibration of the mode User show a very good behavior with a CIE94 DeltaE under 2 for 75% brightness and 75% saturations for all colors.

CIE chart at 75% saturation (pre=Reference=User & Post=calibrated):

• Gamma analysis:

The gamma curve is pretty linear around 2.2 between 10% and 55%. The gamma increase then progressively to reach 2.3 at 90%.

Gamma (pre=User & Post=calibrated):

In-depth analysis of all saturation levels after calibration for 75% brightness:

For 75% brightness, the Sony VPL-VW520ES shows a good tracking within the CIE diagramm for 25%, 50% and 75% saturations. However, it shows a small deviation for 100% saturation with a tendency to display a bit oversaturated color which is for sure better than the contrary! Overall it looks very nice.

The exemplar we reviewed of the Sony VPL-VW520Es coupled with our screen Elunevision Reference Studio 4K 100 showed good colors out of the box in the reference mode. The gamma was looking nice around 2.2 and the grayscale performance out of the box was very linear but minimally on the cool side.

After calibration with the very responsive controls made available by Sony, the Sony VPL-VW520ES displayed excellent colorimetry resulting in a even more realistic and impressive picture on the screen. Congratulation to Sony for that!

Brightness & Screen size recommendation

The projector after calibration on the low lamp mode still has: 908 Lumens with maximal zoom and iris fully open. This is perfect for a screen width between 2.6m and 3.5m.

The highest number of Lumens is achieved in the reference mode on high lamp with 1408 Lumens! This is also the mode closest to the REC709 norm.

Closing the iris to 50% corresponds to 83% of the brightness value with a fully open iris .

Closing the iris fully corresponds to 53% of the brightness value with a fully open iris .

Please click on the table below to get the brightness for all predefined modes and also for the calibration. A recommendation for the right screen size is also given.

Note: since the Sony VPL-VW520ES is using a true 4K panel and not a UHD one, its true resolution and format is 17/9 instead of the usual 16/9. This mean that to get the real maximum number of Lumens for a true 4K picture, you need to multiply the Lumens times 17/16=1.0625. It would give for example 1496 Lumens for the Reference mode (High lamp / Full Zoom / Iris Fully open).

Advanced contrast measurements

A great number of contrast measurements were made to deliver you results that are unique in the world. Actually, in the different tests of projectors around the world you can often find native contrast measurements (ON-OFF with one picture completely black and one completely white) and sometimes ANSI contrast measurements (checkerboard with 50% white and 50% black).

The problem is that these contrast values are two extremes, but most images from movies are in between.

Have a look at our article where we made a big brightness analysis of 57 movies:

http://projectiondream.com/en/movie-brightness-adl-contrast-measurements/

Therefore we have created appropriate patterns in order to give you contrast curves BETWEEN 0% and 50% white in the middle of the screen:

Also our optimized room has the advantage of being transformable into a room with white walls and ceiling. Thus it is easy to compare the contrast performance under very different conditions:

• with opened curtains (comparable to a living room with white walls, reality of home theater in many homes)
• with closed curtains (optimized room with black floor, ceiling and walls)
• measurement at the lens (highest contrast possible, but not reachable in any room)

Illustration of our reversible room:

Left: opened curtains / Right: closed curtains

In the following table are the calibrated contrast results measured in the middle of the screen for the Sony VW520ES:

 

To visualize these numbers, here the resulting 3 contrast curves.

The scale on the contrast axis is logarithmic to represent the perception of the human eye. For example your eyes will see the same difference between a contrast increase from 1000:1 to 2000:1 and a contrast increase from 10000:1 to 20000:1.

 

The contrast curves of the Sony VPL-VW520ES are exceptionally high between 1% white and 50% white. This is the combination of a very high native contrast (ON-OFF contrast=15000:1) and a very high ANSI contrast of almost 400:1 at the lens.

Bravo and congratulation to Sony for such a contrast result. With that you can enjoy your favorite movies with a high contrast in dark scenes and bright scenes as well.

Remember our results from the ADL analysis (with a gamma of 2.2) of 53 famous movies:

• 90% of all movie pictures have a brightness below 20% (ADL=% of white)
• 80% of all movie pictures have a brightness below 13%
• 50% of all movie pictures have a brightness below 5%
• The average brightness/ADL of all analyzed movies is 8%

The contrast measurements of the Sony VPL-VW520ES show that the projector is very exceptional in its performance and can deliver deep blacks but also give some real pop to scenes mixed between shadow and light!

CONCLUSION

The projector Sony VPL-VW520ES gives a extremely enjoyable experience for the home theater. It is a projector with an excellent picture in 2D and 3D.

The contrast is high in every movies and is now our new reference.

The motion is nicely smooth with frame interpolation set on “smooth low” except for 4K content where the frame interpolation is lacking.

The Reality Creation does an excellent job at upscaling our favorite Full HD Blu-ray and allows for a nice sharpness boost without much artefacts.

The projector is relatively silent on the low lamp mode but a bit noisy on the high lamp mode.

The Sony VPL-VW520ES is bright and can light up screens up to 4m without effort on high lamp mode. Thanks to its fixed iris, it can also be adapted to screen size half the size of about 2m width without being too bright.

The motorized lens and lens-shift are really some nice features which make setting up this projector a breeze in every room.

If you have 10000€ to spend in a projector right now, then the VPL-VW520ES should be at the top of your list!

Positive

– the flexibility of the projector

– the motorized Lens and Lens-shift

– the high brightness for big screen sizes or projection in daylight

– the controlled brightness thanks to the fixed IRIS for every screen size in a dedicated room

– the very high contrast and details in dark scenes and bright scenes

– the frame interpolation which is working very well

– the sharpness improving system “Reality Creation” which is doing extremely well to upscale your Full HD movie to 4K

– the 4K window effect with real 4K content

– good out of the box colors with a linear grayscale and gamma

Negative

– the price

– no frame interpolation available on 4K content

– noisy in the high lamp mode which is necessary to watch 3D

– a bit of ghosting and flickering in 3D

 

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