NO MORE VPL! (Sony VPL HS1)

Member Name: jellybean11

Product:	Sony VPL HS1
Date:	02/11/04 (1721 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: quiet, horizontal AND vertical keystone adjustment

Disadvantages: no gamma correction facility, low output

I purchased this projector over two years ago when it was a state-of-the-art piece of kit; back then it had won an award for being Home Cinema Projector of the year. We have now got a new projector for our personal use at home so it’s goodbye to this piece of kit. We’ve decided to sell it as it is in perfect working order but I thought seeing as though I’ve used it for a long time I may as well write a review about it. Even compared to the newer models this projector is compact and looks modern. It is also very consumer friendly when it comes to the operation of the projector. The projector cost about £2000 to buy new, this is cheaper than the majority of home cinema projectors so unsurprisingly Sony have stripped the features to the minimum; the connectivity of the machine is pretty frugal, for example it has no component input and other technical specification prove that in all essence it’s a rather basic piece of kit with 800 x 600 pixels and 800ANSI Lumens brightness (for the non-techies out there this is quite low although sufficient for a projector).

~~~FEATURES AND SETUP~~~

Although essentially this projector is rather basic it does boast a few features which you might find rather surprising considering the price. One of the features which I find the most interesting and unique is the horizontal AND vertical keystone adjustment. This is a rather clever feature as it allows the unit to be positioned at one side of the room or in the corner of a room with the projection at an angle to the screen without producing the terribly skewed image that occurs in some cases. This is a huge advantage in my opinion, with some projectors that only have horizontal planes the image can still come out horribly skewed but there’s none of that with this model. Horizontal adjustments for side projections are easily made with the dedicated buttons on the control panel, but vertical adjustments are a little trickier and you may need to consult the manual or go rummaging through the menu system.

The fact that it doesn’t have to be placed square-on to the screen is a big advantage in my opinion because it can be tucked away in the corner of a room therefore not taking up space or becoming an obstruction in your room; stick it where you like! The stand also has a ball joint that allows it to be pivoted in practically any direction.

The one feature which I feel the VPL-HS1 lacks is an image inverting facility which would allow the unit to be mounted upside-down on the ceiling which would be a handy space-saving solution and would make it less visible, it would also be less susceptible to damage once it had been installed on the ceiling.

What the VPL lacks in number of features it certainly makes up for in picture quality in my opinion. Sony have obviously prioritised correctly with this piece of kit because naturally with any projector the key is to have a high picture quality. This machine has three LCD panels fitted to improve colour accuracy and it uses high quality optics. If you’ve got a suitably-equipped DVD player the VPL is also able to display a progressive scan image which a lot of the earlier models don’t.

Setting up the unit is very straightforward, as I find with most Sony appliances the instruction manual offers detailed step-by-step instruction on wall mounting etc. so you really shouldn’t experience any difficulty even if you’re not keen on DIY! The keystone correction does a good job of pulling the image into line and there’s no compromise on picture quality. Users will also appreciate the fact that there are no wires coming off the unit to trail across your room. At the top of the projector there is a wedge-shaped outlet through which a grey light (overspill) is projected upwards. Many users won’t even notice this; most projectors have an overspill which is either a blue or grey light.

You have to tweak the image settings slightly to optimise the picture but this is very straightforward and offers first-class results. Despite only having the basic 800 x 600 pixels the VPL manages to avoid any of those on-screen ‘wire-mesh’ effects that you get with some projectors, especially the cheap ones which is impressive from basic LCD panels.

~~~IMAGE PROCESSING~~~

It’s rather difficult to describe an image produced from a projector but I’ll do my best to give you an accurate impression. The colours appear gentle and realistic, while the actual image is soft and smooth. Flesh tones especially are natural and landscapes are produced without any noticeable grain.

However unsurprisingly as this is a basic model, it certainly isn’t the cream of the crop. Picture contrast and sharpness are good but you can achieve better from more advanced projectors, also I’ve found the shadow detail to be rather poor. There isn’t any gamma correction facility which is slightly disappointing because I’ve found that black can appear ‘milky’ at times. The low brightness levels also mean that the unit must operate in complete darkness and the black outer on widescreen images is clearly visible. Although this sounds like I’m disappointed this isn’t the case I’m actually very impressed with the on-screen image and perfect colour-balance but there are a few niggling issues that could be corrected.

Even poor quality broadcast images look good and have a stable image; there are few processing artefacts on high-contrast screens. The picture is, of course, impressive through its size alone. If Sony could make one improvement to this model I would hope they could include a decent gamma correction facility to correct the misty grey veil that appears over black areas sometimes.

As I mentioned previously the projector itself is LCD-based, as opposed to using the increasingly popular DLP technology, so each of the three individual panels is dedicated to a primary colour. There are 480,000 pixels per LCD, and these together give the projector its native image resolution of 800 x 600, although not at the upper end of the scale this is more than sufficient for the video signals that it's designed to support. There are composite and S-video connectors at the rear, and a proprietary connector for the supplied five-metre composite video lead. Sony doesn’t provide one but if you so wish you can purchase a VGA cable to connect the unit up to a computer.

At 700 ANSI Lumens the VPL isn't an especially bright projector (for the majority of projectors 1,000 Lumens and higher is more common), but it provides a maximum image width of over three metres.

~~~DESIGN AND FUNCTIONALITY~~~

The unit has a sleek design, although it has a large chassis, or at least larger than the average, in one respect this is actually an advantage. Having a larger chassis allow more effective airflow through the internal components. One major problem with a lot of data projectors is the noise they make but with this home cinema projector there are two large extractor fans at the front which are designed to run quietly, and although you can hear the projector while it's operating, it's quiet enough to be unobtrusive during viewing. Potential buyers who don't have a sound system will be pleased to hear that the 2 x 2W integrated speakers are very effective at providing audio although they're no substitute for a dedicated Dolby Surround system, if you can afford it.

If you own a Sony digital still camera or a camcorder that captures JPG stills to a Memory Stick, the VPL’s integrated Memory Stick reader lets you project them in a slideshow. This is incredibly easy to do and I’ve taken advantage of this facility on a number of occasions. You can choose to have the images displayed, or simply run through them with a predetermined pause (e.g. 5 seconds) and wipes that smooth the transition from one slide to the next (as with Microsoft Powerpoint on computers).

~~~TECHNICAL DATA~~~

The technical specifications are as follows but if you are using them to compare it to other projectors bear in mind that this one is from 2002, more recent models tend to have higher outputs.

Projection System: 3 LCD Panels, 1 lens projection system
LCD Panel: 1,440,000 pixel, (480,000 pixels x 3)
Projection Lens: 1.2 times zoom lens (manual using buttons on unit)
Lamp: 120 W UHP type (LMP-H120)
Picture size min- 0.8m x 0.6m max- 3.0m x 2.2m (width x height)
Colour System: NTSC 3.58 / PAL / SECAM / NTSC 4.43 / PAL-M / PAL-N system, switched automatically / manually
Resolution: Video: 600 TV Lines, RGB: 800 x 600 pixels
Acceptable Video Signals: 15 kHz component 50/60 Hz system, DTV (480i/480p/1080i/720p)
Acceptable Computer Signals: fH: 19 to 72 kHz, fV: 48 to 92 Hz
Chassis Colour: Blue and Silver
Speaker: 33mm diameter, max 2W (stereo)
Power requirements: AC 100 to 240V, 50/60 Hz
Power consumption: Max. 190W, Standby 5W
Dimensions: 340 (W) x 154 (H) x 300 (D) mm
Weight: 3.9 kg
VIDEO IN:
Composite: Phono type
Y/C IN: Mini DIN 4 pin
AUDIO IN: Phono type x 2
PJ MULTI IN: 32-pin multi connector, to be used with SIC-HS cables or IFU-HS1 (optional)
Memory Stick Slot: x1

~~~CONCLUSION~~~

For what it is the VPL seems expensive however, its design and feature set make it very well suited to its role in the home. It lacks frills there’s no doubt about that but it comes up trumps with an eminently watchable picture. It’s served us well for two years and come recommended, though if you can afford a projector with a higher output it would be worth paying that bit more because the main let-down of this model is the lack of brightness.

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