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like Panasonic’s DP-UB820
Ultra HD Blu-ray player, or the
excellent Lumagen Radiance
Pro video processor.
Sony’s Equalizer 2 was also
an enjoyable ride—and a great
example of how state-of-the-art
projectors with outstanding
optics can reveal the good and
the bad in video content. The
movie looks like it was shot
with several different cameras
of varying quality and even
includes stock footage fill-ins
for some shots. This can be
jarring for someone like me who
really focuses on image quality,
but even my wife, a more casual
viewer, commented on it. For
example, one scene in Crazy
Rich Asians was clearly shot
with something like a GoPro
rather than a high-quality digital
cinema camera. It’s this kind
of precision that the VW995ES
delivered with aplomb.
HDR gaming was something
I experienced for the first time
with Sony’s projector. Using an
presents an extremely bright
image in every respect and
quickly demonstrates how one
HDR tone mapping seing will
not work for all content. (I had to
crank the projector’s Contrast
HDR seing way, way down to
prevent white clipping on this
title.) Engaging the Contrast
Enhancer seing brought life
back to the image, which now
showed richly saturated colors
and detailed highlights that
created a convincing HDR
effect. Since Sony’s very limited
HDR seings don’t provide
enough range to adjust the
tone map to compensate for
lower light output or less-than-
optimal viewing environments,
the Contrast Enhancer function
is the only solution I found to
help with the occasional dark
or drab movie image. As with
all HDR-capable projectors I’ve
reviewed to date, best overall
HDR performance is achieved
by adding an outboard device
that handles the tone mapping
Xbox One X system, I tried out
a few HDR games including the
latest Tomb Raider and an old
“remastered” favorite with the
Crash Bandicoot Tr i l o g y. (A f u l l
article about HDR gaming is
currently in the works for Sound
& Vision.) I saw an appreciable
increase in dynamic range
and color fidelity when playing
games on the VW995ES. And
while I’m not exactly a competi-
tive gamer, I also had no prob-
lems with image lag or response
time even with the projector’s
Low Latency mode turned off.
Sony’s Motion Control
seings are the same as what I
encountered when I reviewed
the VW885ES. I generally
prefer to leave these off. The
lowest seing still delivered
a bit too much “soap opera”
effect, although the black frame
insertion mode wasn’t too bad
for increasing motion resolution
without the same drawbacks.
I find these options to be a
“season to taste” kind of thing.
CONCLUSION
I really enjoyed my time with
Sony’s VPL-VW995ES. But while
I appreciate the new features
and refinements that this new
model brings, and only found a
few issues to complain about,
it does make for a difficult value
proposition. Given this projec-
tor’s light output limitations,
$35,000 is a really high price.
That said, if the brightness that
it does deliver is good enough
for your home theater setup,
you’d be hard-pressed to find a
projector that performs as well as
the VW995ES. It definitely ranks
among the best projectors I’ve
used and easily rates a Top Pick.
The Verdict
The Sony VPL-VW995ES delivers
reference-level images with all
video formats and benefits from a
high-end lens that's optimized
for 4K playback.
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