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Hope this isn't considered spamming but I thought I'd put this here where it might generate more discussion than my original post did.
I spent about an hour "auditioning" the Sony earlier today. I was in a light controlled room and was left to my own devices (the sales guy installed the projector and handed over the remote, left the room and told me to call him when I needed him--not the kind of treatment one usually gets in a store these days).
The projector itself seemed well-built. I ran through a series of DVDs I'd brought along (I have a staple of discs I use to test for different things--colour, black and white, fast movement, lesser quality transfers, 4:3 mode). The projector was hooked up to a Sony Blu-Ray disc player (the first one they released) via HDMI. I did not tweak the image (except to select "Cinema" mode--I did not have my copy of DVE on hand and I did not have time to do major tweaking. I also think that if a display looks relatively good with one of the presets (like "Cinema"), it will look better once I have time to use DVE).
Impressions (all from out of the box settings, with Cinema mode selected, 11 feet from a 92 inch diagonal image--roughly proportional to distance/size I would use in my room, though my setup will be smaller [and, presumably, a bit brighter]):
Good Night and Good Luck looked very good. Unlike some reviewers, I did not notice any colour issues (no pink or green tinting, for example). The movie looked as good as it has on any display I've seen it (and I've looked at SXRD RPTVs, plasmas, LCD flat panel and DLP RPTV and front projectors with this disc).
Serenity also looked very good. Space scenes were black enough for me (I know LCD will never satisfy the "pure black" aficionados, but it was still very good). No hint of motion blur (not that I've ever seen it on an LCD front projector--even the four year old business PJ from my wife's office). Colours looked good. Shadow detail was much better than the business projectors I've had on hand.
Cars looked fantastic. Almost HD-like. Colours were great. No complaints there.
Lawrence of Arabia--not great. Appeared more VHS like than HD like. My release is a two disc edition that came in a case that resembles a hardcover book. It is not the first DVD release (I believe that one was not anamorphic and mine is) but there have been more recent ones. It's always looked good on my TV (but the image on my TV is a 29 inch widescreen 16:9, so flaws would be far harder to detect). It was not unwatchable, by any means, but it was not a showcase disc. I do not know if the player or the PJ had difficulty making it look better, but I was disappointed a bit. The BenQ W500's HQV REON processing might do a better job, but I can't seem to find one to try it out.
Guilty by Suspicion--unfortunately only available in 4:3 pan and scan. I use this film in a class I teach--otherwise I would not have purchased it. The PJ did not show any "bowing" of the image with this film (unlike some RPTVs I've tried with this and other 4:3 films) but, like Lawrence of Arabia, the PQ was not great.
On the subject of SDE--with the screen size and distance I was using, it could be seen on some bright scenes, but only if I looked for it. It was more apparent on the two films with a poorer PQ. It was also a bit present (though less so) on the black and white Good Night and... On Cars I had to stand about 6 feet or fewer from the screen to notice SDE to an unacceptable level. With Serenity, it was about 8-9 feet where SDE became bothersome.
Overall impression--very nice. Lens shift was generous horizontally (which is important to me--vertically it is quite flexible as well but that has less importance in my particular case). I've seen the Panasonic AX100 as well and the Sony is more impressive to me (except in light output, but in my room, that's not really an issue) and the Sony's retail is about 55% of the Panasonic's retail on this side of the border. So the Panny is right out owing to budget.
If only the W500 were readily available for the same kind of viewing I did with the Sony. If the Sony MSRP was the same (adjusting for the exchange rate) as it is in the States, I might have simply purchased the machine today. But the BenQ is 400$ less at MSRP and because of that, I'm still hesitant. The Z5 is even more expensive than the Sony (I've seen it for less, but that was a few months ago and lately, it is not so inexpensive).
I spent about an hour "auditioning" the Sony earlier today. I was in a light controlled room and was left to my own devices (the sales guy installed the projector and handed over the remote, left the room and told me to call him when I needed him--not the kind of treatment one usually gets in a store these days).
The projector itself seemed well-built. I ran through a series of DVDs I'd brought along (I have a staple of discs I use to test for different things--colour, black and white, fast movement, lesser quality transfers, 4:3 mode). The projector was hooked up to a Sony Blu-Ray disc player (the first one they released) via HDMI. I did not tweak the image (except to select "Cinema" mode--I did not have my copy of DVE on hand and I did not have time to do major tweaking. I also think that if a display looks relatively good with one of the presets (like "Cinema"), it will look better once I have time to use DVE).
Impressions (all from out of the box settings, with Cinema mode selected, 11 feet from a 92 inch diagonal image--roughly proportional to distance/size I would use in my room, though my setup will be smaller [and, presumably, a bit brighter]):
Good Night and Good Luck looked very good. Unlike some reviewers, I did not notice any colour issues (no pink or green tinting, for example). The movie looked as good as it has on any display I've seen it (and I've looked at SXRD RPTVs, plasmas, LCD flat panel and DLP RPTV and front projectors with this disc).
Serenity also looked very good. Space scenes were black enough for me (I know LCD will never satisfy the "pure black" aficionados, but it was still very good). No hint of motion blur (not that I've ever seen it on an LCD front projector--even the four year old business PJ from my wife's office). Colours looked good. Shadow detail was much better than the business projectors I've had on hand.
Cars looked fantastic. Almost HD-like. Colours were great. No complaints there.
Lawrence of Arabia--not great. Appeared more VHS like than HD like. My release is a two disc edition that came in a case that resembles a hardcover book. It is not the first DVD release (I believe that one was not anamorphic and mine is) but there have been more recent ones. It's always looked good on my TV (but the image on my TV is a 29 inch widescreen 16:9, so flaws would be far harder to detect). It was not unwatchable, by any means, but it was not a showcase disc. I do not know if the player or the PJ had difficulty making it look better, but I was disappointed a bit. The BenQ W500's HQV REON processing might do a better job, but I can't seem to find one to try it out.
Guilty by Suspicion--unfortunately only available in 4:3 pan and scan. I use this film in a class I teach--otherwise I would not have purchased it. The PJ did not show any "bowing" of the image with this film (unlike some RPTVs I've tried with this and other 4:3 films) but, like Lawrence of Arabia, the PQ was not great.
On the subject of SDE--with the screen size and distance I was using, it could be seen on some bright scenes, but only if I looked for it. It was more apparent on the two films with a poorer PQ. It was also a bit present (though less so) on the black and white Good Night and... On Cars I had to stand about 6 feet or fewer from the screen to notice SDE to an unacceptable level. With Serenity, it was about 8-9 feet where SDE became bothersome.
Overall impression--very nice. Lens shift was generous horizontally (which is important to me--vertically it is quite flexible as well but that has less importance in my particular case). I've seen the Panasonic AX100 as well and the Sony is more impressive to me (except in light output, but in my room, that's not really an issue) and the Sony's retail is about 55% of the Panasonic's retail on this side of the border. So the Panny is right out owing to budget.
If only the W500 were readily available for the same kind of viewing I did with the Sony. If the Sony MSRP was the same (adjusting for the exchange rate) as it is in the States, I might have simply purchased the machine today. But the BenQ is 400$ less at MSRP and because of that, I'm still hesitant. The Z5 is even more expensive than the Sony (I've seen it for less, but that was a few months ago and lately, it is not so inexpensive).
Enjoy, hopefully you get a few good years out of it and then upgrade. 
I think I can squeeze a little more performance by going more in depth into room accousitcs than the basic panels and traps I have now but the fact remains that the perfect sound would require my 13 ' x 18' foot room (which curreently seats 6 people comfortably) to only have 2 chairs in it. :roll: sucks, wish I didn't like watching movies so much or had sofas that would move around and fold into the floor at the push of a button. :B
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