Sony SXRD 1080P Rear Projection

Let me reveal up front that I am not a big fan of rear projection televisions. In order to provide a large screen at an affordable price and in a ergonomically pleasing package these sets make some design compromises that negatively effect the picture quality. In particular, the internal mirrors and optics required to project such a large image over a very short distance and the rectilinear screen that provides enhanced brightness both degrade image sharpness.

I've never seen a RPTV whose image was as sharp as an otherwise equivalent display using a direct view or front projection technology. However, having said that, the new Sony 1080P SXRD RPTVs produce an amazing picture and offer image quality better than any RPTV I've ever seen.

Technology

SXRD is Sony's proprietary name for LCoS. JVC is the only other company to have mastered the difficult process of building LCoS into commercial products, but Sony seems to have done a better job. These SXRD rear projection TVs (Sony also offers a front projection SXRD) are state-of-the-art right now in rear projection digital display technology. They have the highest resolution, best contrast, and most pleasing color of any current alternatives of which I'm aware.

Contrast

Low black levels and the associated high contrast ratios is one of the features that makes the Sony SXRD set so appealing. First, the technology that Sony uses offers intrinsically high contrast. A set I calibrated recently initially measured about 2200:1. This is world-class contrast for a digital RPTV. Second, the SXRD sets employ a technology they call an Advanced Iris. This device opens when scenes have a lot of brightly-lit content and close during darkly-lit scenes. This has a dramatic effect on the available On/Off contrast. With the Advanced Iris engaged I measured 4800:1, the best on/off contrast I have ever measured from any digital display.

The only area of this set's performance in this regard that was not so impressive was ANSI contrast, the ability of the set to render dark and bright images in the same scene. because the light from the bright objects scatters someone and washes out the dark areas, ANSI contrast is never as good as On/Off contrast. Nonetheless, even by this standard the ANSI contrast of the SXRD was weak, about 170:1. By way of comparison DLPs routinely offer over 400:1 and plasmas can offer over 1000:1.

Color Performance

Like the direct-view Sony CRTs I have worked with, the SXRD RPTV was a dream to calibrate. All of the necessary color temperature controls are provided directly in the user menu. After calibration the gray scale tracking was essentially perfect.

As you can see from the charts above and below, the SXRD deviation from the ideal D65 color temperature is minimal throughout the entire range.

The only problem I noticed with the set's color performance was relatively benign. The RGB color points were over saturated, extending beyond those points specified by the NTSC color space.

As you can see from the chart above, green is particularly over saturated. Notice, however, that the points on the color space, though exaggerated, are essentially pure. Red, for example, isn't shifted towards green or blue. It is just a really deep and rich red. Although this is inaccurate color performance, strictly speaking, it nonetheless results in an image that many people will find pleasing.

In addition to the over saturated primaries, the cyan and magenta secondaries are rather significantly shifted towards blue. Yellow is over saturated and slightly shifted towards green.

Inputs

The SXRD set provides both component and HDMI inputs for high-quality signals. However, I noticed that the component input was not capable of resolving the full resolution of a 1080i signal. Therefore, if you plan to watch any HD programming on this set I would recommend that you use the HDMI input.

Conclusion

After calibration, we watched the scene from the Superbit version of The Fifth Element in which LeeLoo escapes from the pod and then stands on the ledge overlooking the busy traffic below. On the SXRD set this scene is breathtaking. The colors are rich and pure and the sharpness is astounding. Watching this scene forced me to reevaluate my views of the lack of sharpness endemic to rear projection technology.

If you are in the market for a good rear projection set and can afford it (the 60" model I calibrated sells in the low-to-mid 4 thousands), you should give this a look. It's only real competition would be one of the better 50" plasma screens, which are smaller with lower resolution and no where near the contrast of the SXRD.