Customer Reviews

Sony VPL-AW15 BRAVIA Home Theater LCD Front Projector Mfg Part #: VPLAW15/U1

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NOTE: THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE SONY VPL-AW10 (NOT 15) BUT IT'S BASICALLY THE SAME MODEL (THIS 15 MODEL HAS SOME EXTRA FEATURES NOT MENTIONED BELOW). IN ANY CASE, ALL THE COMPARISONS BELOW ARE STILL VALID.

I originally purchased the Mitsubishi HC1500 DLP projector, but had some problems with it. Ordered this one from amazon and put them side by side. This isn't a review so much as a comparison between 3 Chip LCD and SINGLE CHIP DLP (which tend to be in the same price range). I actually liked the HC1500 a lot, but ended up keeping tue SONY VLPAW10 for a number of reasons. It's not perfect, and in some areas underperforms the DLP. Here's the comparison.

Single chip DLP projectors create images by having a "chip" filled with thousands of tiny mirrors (1 per pixel on the screen) that can tilt up and down. When they tilt, they send light to the screen, when they don't tilt, the light stays in the projector. This ends up creating wonderfully bright and brilliant images. The only problem with this setup is that there's no color (just the white light is being directed) so the color needs to be introduced by spinning a color wheel in front of the chip. (in this case it's a 7 segment red-green-blue-white-red-green-blue wheel. The problem is that the colors are therefore being created via an optical illusion, which for some people creates a "rainbow" effect where they see color rainbows in the white areas of the image. It's very pronounced when there are credit rolls at the end of movies, or any other times there are high contrast black/white (or light/dark) areas. In a certain percentage of cases, the rainbow effect causes headaches and eyestrain It did so for me. (google "DLP rainbow effect" if you don't believe me. There are such things as 3 chip DLP projectors that don't need the color wheels and don't create this effect, but they aren't even close to being in the sub $1000 price range (they start at SEVERAL thousand dollars)

Three chip LCD screens actually have 3 panels (red green and blue) so they don't need the spinning color wheel, they just project the light through the panels, and the colors line up on the screen if calibrated properly. They are not as bright and brilliant as the DLP images because the light is going through the panels, and not being reflected by mirrors which create more direct light. The LCD projectors also need more space between the pixels than DLP, and this ends up giving you a more visible "screen door"effect where you can actually see the faint black lines of the pixel grid if you sit close enough to the screen (as if you were looking through a door or window with an insect screen on it, hence the term "screen door".

So that's the background, here are the results of my side by side tests (accompanied by the media manager for a major lecture hall at an Ivy League university) who is a specialist in these kinds of things (I myself teach video production, so have some expertise here as well).

The Mitsubishi HC-1500 (1 chip DLP)

Advantages

+ about half the physical size of the SONY.
+ Image is brighter
+ colors are more saturated
+ no need for air filter
+ less screen door effect

Disadvantages

- potential for rainbow effect
- noisy (the spinning wheel makes a high pitched whine which is louder and more annoying than the fan)
- If you have a small room, you may not be able to fill a large projector screen with an image because this projector cannot throw a large image from as short a distance as the sony

The SONY VLPAW-10 (3 chip LCD)

Advantages

+ no rainbow effect
+ quieter
+ can throw larger image from shorter distance

Disadvantages

- Much larger than the mitsubishi
- Bulb not as bright, need darker room
- colors are less saturated
- has an air filter than needs to be changed periodically
- more screen door effect
- HDMI input on the rear has a bezel around it that will make it impossible for some of the cables with thicker ends to fit in. I had to change cables to get this to work


CONCLUSION

I went with the SONY. It's not perfect, but for my needs it beats the Mitsubishi. I know there are a lot of die hard fans of the HC1500 and I'm sorry - but this is a fair assessment of my needs.

Some ways to mitigate the SONY's disadvantages:

Neither tv will perform great in a bright room, so both of these are really best suited for rooms where you can control the light.

In terms of the saturation, if you're watching DVD movies, then I think you'll prefer the LCD since it creates more natural colors. The DLP is better for watching HDTV shows where the colors really pop (like CSI Miami). I use it mostly to watch movies, so don't mind the less saturated and brilliant colors.

In terms of the "screen door" effect, I find this is minimized by defocusing the image just a hair. Yes the image is more soft, but this looks more like a projected image in a movie theater, and this is the effect I'm going for when watching movies on my projector, so it works great. It does not work as well to watch sports or news or other material that has lots of CG text up on the screen.

This was my first projector purchase. PURCHASE PROJECTORS BASED ON CONTRAST, NOT LUMENS! This is the 1st thing projector central will tell you. Few more notes here which may save you some time & money....

See it before you buy::: My local Best Buy had this projector in stock and in the demo room. They had 3 projectors hanging; Sony [this one], Mitsubishi HD1500, and an Optoma. The sales person claimed that the Mitsubishi had the best picture until I asked about the contrast ratio, and then had him pause the show and switch back and forth. The Sony wasn't the brightest, but it did have the best picture. Who knows how they had the settings fixed. Beware of the beginner sales people.

Mounts::: I mounted my Sony to the ceiling using the Vantage Point Universal Projector Mount, part number CGUPM06-S (available for Amazon Prime). It was a piece of cake to get mounted and I had no trouble adjusting the angles. It literally took me around 45 minutes to get this setup, and I'm in no way a carpenter. BE SURE TO HAVE SOMEONE TO HELP MOUNT THE PROJECTOR. It's too risky to try and do everything yourself.

Screens::: After days and days of researching, measuring, and reading, I finally settled on the Elite M100UWH. I originally was seeking one of the grey matte screens, but after speaking with several manufactures, I learned the grey screens are recommended for projetors with low contrast ratio. The reviews state that the screen is difficult to go up and down, but I'll leave my down almost year round.

Cables, etc::: After realizing that I needed to place my PS3, Wii, and Tivo on the other side of the room, I decided to run Component cables rather than HDMI. If you have long distances to travel, HDMI cables would require an in line amplifier, etc., quickly running up the cost. I'm currently running the Wii, PS3, and HD Tivo through the Cables To Go (part number 40324 & available for Amazon Prime)3-Play Component Video Digital Audio Selector. From the switcher I'm running the Cables To Go (part number 27084 & available for Amazon Prime) 25ft Velocity Component Video Cable. I can't detect any signal loss and the pictures are awesome. Keep in mind, this projector is only 720P, so there's no need for the HDMI, unless it's convenient for you.

Warranty:: Do you need the additional in store warranty? The projector comes with a 2 year warranty (you pay for shipping to the repair center in Laredo Texas), and a 90 day bulb warranty. So here's my opinion. If this is your main TV and not just in your game room, the store warranty may be worth the money for the convenience. I had to return my projector to Sony after 2 months for what turned out to be a bad bulb. The cost to me was $30 for shipping and 2.5 weeks without my projecter. If this was my main TV, I would have wanted the in store warranty for the quick convenience. Regarding the bulb, keep in mind that if you purchase with a Visa or Mastercard, both will double the manufactures warranty. In short, what the in store warranties such as Best Buy buy you is convenience.

To summarize, this projector has the best features for the money I have found. I'm not one to spend this amount of money without a lot of thought, and so far, no regrets.

(quick update. Finally purchased sound system, Onkyo HT-SR700. Best priced system with a powered sub I found. So far, have not been disappointed. The receiver is now my component video switcher)

This is my first projector, so my only comparison is to an older Panasonic projector at a friends house, and a Mits HC1500 that I compared at a store. Let me bring up a couple of things. I have the projector in a room with full light control (no windows), and in this application brightness doesn't matter as much as contrast, and this projector has great contrast. Also, this projector doesn't get enough credit for doing a great job at upconverting 480p DVD video. The Sony interpolation algorithms are second to none. Projectors really need to be seen in person before buying, I went into this process thinking I would buy a DLP projector, but after seeing in person, LCD projectors just seem to have a more "solid" image. I think this something related to DLP rainbows. Although I don't consciously see flicker in DLP, I perceive a difference in image stability.

Other nice things to consider about this projector, the lens shift capability, and the wide range of zoom settings gives a lot of flexibility for placement. I didn't really consider how important this would be, but it is. Also, as a difference compared to the Sony AWL 10 model, the AWL 15 has more color adjustments, and a more advanced auto iris feature.

I bought this projector a month back and till now, i must have watched around 15 movies!!!!. The brightness, color, quality, 10K contrast ratio ... everything is wonderful. Worth the money.
A friendly tip. Buy it from one of the retailers and get the service plan. Replace the bulb in the 1500-2000 hr range. The service plan is cheaper than buying a bulb.

I read some of the other reviews on amazon and noticed that some people had some problems with their projector, and had to have it repaired. We bought ours almost a year ago and haven't had any problems. The projector also has around 1300 hours of use, and just today it asked me to replace the filter (it comes with a replacement filter, now I just have to find it). I realize sony doesn't post an official lamp life, but using the lamp on high power it hasn't begun to degrade the pic quality at all yet. I'm starting to think that we shouldn't have bought the warranty, I think it cost around $200 for a few years but I can't remember (but you should probably still buy it to be safe). It does come with a 2 year warranty from sony, but it's just not as convienent.
Now here's the negative part. I could not imagine watching cable with this projector. I don't have cable, because I don't care for it. If I like a show, I rent the season from netflix. It does not operate very well in a very bright room. If you use the lamp on high like I do, you can get away with it during the day with the curtains pulled and the lights on (sunlight is a little too much for it). I just couldn't see someone watching the game with their buddies in the dark, tripping over stuff to grab a beer or a chicken wing.
It does work very well during the day with the lights on, but it really shines at night. I've havn't seen a 720p lcd/plasma that can top this picture when you watch something in high def at night with no lights on. I have a friend with a 1080p plasma and I can just barely see a difference, not to mention my screen is 30 inches bigger than his (and he spent more money).
The reason this projector works so well for me, and not for other people, is because I don't watch TV. I use it for games and movies. I don't have time to watch tv shows because my girlfriend and I live on our own, we both work and go to college full time. The game systems we have are the wii and the xbox 360. The wii doesn't support an hd signal, but if you use a component cable you can sqeeze a little more quality out of it (yea, it's dissapointing). But the 360 looks amazing, and up to this point, most 360 games deliver 720p anyway. And if they support 1080p, the vplaw15 converts it to 720p(this means you can use blue ray too) I love playing fps's like halo or cod4 with this thing.
The last thing I'm going to ramble about is playing standard dvds. I've seen the upconvert dvd players at the store that make playing dvd's look like hd. Well this projector upconverts them to 720p the best it can. I can't beleive how great these "stone age technology" dvds look on this thing, even when blown up to 80 inches!
And for those who are wondering what screen i use, I got the deal when they were giving away the sony dynaclear screen for free with the projector, and it looks perfect, except its supposed to be used on the floor. So we just folded the legs up and put it on our tv stand, while attaching it to the wall. The complaint I have for the screen is that it came with some minor wrinkles that weren't noticable. But over time they became noticeable during very bright, white scenes in movies and games.
One last thing, obviously a good suround sound is definetly recommended. I have powerful system with 2 subwoofers.

I've had the projector for a year and it needed repaired twice already. The 3 blinking red lights would come on...the first repair was to replace the bulb and this was only after 250 hours of use. The second repair I'm still waiting for the return, but I know they had to order parts......the projector displays a beautiful picture, I'm just wary about buying another Sony projector...been stung twice now.

Have been looking at projectors for a long time, but never found one reasonably priced with the features (HD) I was looking for. This is a very quiet projector and reasonably bright. It is not one of the super-bright projectors. It works very well with Sony PS3 Blu Ray HDMI outputs. I also recommend the Dyna Clear Sony screen with this projector. The screen is easy to setup and helps create an amazing image quality. The remote is lighted, which makes it easy to use while watching movies in dark. With a good sound system + Sony screen + this projector, you can create a movie theater experience.

I purchased my VPL-AW15 in November 2007. It has gone through three bulbs in a year......average life of bulb 350 hours. Far short of the 2-3,000 hours expected. This appears to be a known issue ([...]) but Sony denies any such problem. This is a great projector for the money if, and only if, you meet two requirements:

1. You have total lighting control in the room (I do) and;

2. You are lucky enough to get one that doesn't burn up lamps ($349.99) for no reason (I didn't).

Good Luck!

Like the others, I give this projector total props. I'm upgrading from a pretty bottom of the barrel SD Sanyo projector from about 5 years ago so this is ecstasy for me...

"Prof Crazee" really posted an excellent review that sums up the pros and cons nicely. Of all of them, I would say the most noticeable is the "screen door" effect which isn't much of an issue assuming you're watching from a sane distance. Otherwise, I find it to be really quiet, I haven't sensed any signs of overheating at all, the start up and shut down are pretty quick. It provides lots of color, contrast, etc options in a very easy to understand menu interface. The colors and brightness produced is like watching a film in the theaters, and a very clean picture. It seems like a very versatile piece of equipment and well worth the money for what you're getting.

I mounted this bad boy in my ceiling along with an elite screen and am in the process of getting speakers for a surround system. It's an awesome, cerebral, decadent experience having such a system in your own home. It's a cliche, but don't be surprised if friends start coming over more often than they used to. Or friends you never knew you had for that matter...

actually it' s very bright. At 120" screen diagonal it can operate at Low lamp with moderate lights on at night, or some daylight during day. At 200" diagonal screen the same as above.
If too much sun gets in the room, or lights are too bright at night, then all projectors probably necessary to put it at High Lamp setting. For best movie experience, High Lamp setting is recommended.
Contrast is impossible to be good with lights on in the room, or sunny room during the day for any projector, but this particular one still is doing pretty well though will need High Lamp for better viewability.
Picture controls are excellent but that means too many adjustments to be made. There are settings to get max. brightness out of it but need to be tried the various settings and judge what gives max. brightness. I think i do not use the Advanced Iris control. I set this to OFF, cause from experience it seems it gives a lower brightness overall picture if used.