Sony BRAVIA VPL-VW85 home theatre projector

June 21st, 2010

We stumbled across Sony’s flagship home theatre projector today, the VPL-VW85 and thought we’d let you know about it too. Unfortunately the price tag is a lttle extereme but the projector does sport 1080p full HD, 120,000:1 contrast ratio and Sony’s Motionflow technology to make those images super-smooth. So what is that price tag? Well, the VPL-VW85 will set you back around $8000. Still with us? Read on for a fuller set of specifications for the Sony BRAVIA VPL-VW85 projector.

* High Contrast Ratio – 120,000: 1 with Advanced Iris 3 technology
* Crisp, Smooth Action with Motionflow with Dark Frame Insertion
* 1080p Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080
* Digital Picture Processing – BRAVIA ENGINE 2
* Panel Alignment Function
* High Resolution All Range Crisp Focus (ARC-F) Lens
* Superb Low Fan Noise “20dB”
* 1.6x lens zoom ratio
* 2.50 – 3.40 / 18.5 – 29.6mm lens
* 800 ANSI Lumen
* LMP-H201 200W UHP lamp
* 40” – 300” / 1m-7.6m Screen Size (16:9 diagonal)
* 1.2m -14.1m Throwing Distance
* 1.47 – 2.18 Throw Ratio (16:9 diagonal)
* Inputs HDMI, Component, S-Video, Composite
* 3,000 Hours Lamp Life
* Every 1,500 Hours Filter Cleaning Time
* 470 x 179.2 x 482.4 mm
* 12kg

So it certainly has everything you’d expect for that price tag but what’s it really like? We decided to track down a few reviews for you to find out for yourself

Projector Central give the VPL-VW85 5 out of 5 for performance and ease of use and 4 for features and value, stating ‘It has some digital noise and a less-than-perfect frame interpolation system’ as negatives
The unit is a ‘Top Pick’ at Home Theatre Mag whose only criticism is ‘Color management system could be more effective’
Finally Trusted Reviews weighed in with scores between 8 and 9 out of 10 in various categories and a ‘Recommended’ tag

So while there are some concerns over image quality, the reviewers gave the Sony BRAVIA VPL-VW85 a big thumbs up even with its big price tag. If you actually have one of these at home, please do let us know what you think.

Update: Amazon have the VPL-VW85 projector for only $6347