4K For Real
UNTIL RECENTLY, most home 4K projectors used lower-than-4K-resolution imaging chips and employed various types of time-offset pixel shifting to display a 4K image on a screen. Such projectors are affordable and widely available, and they can be remarkably effective. True, full 4K projection, on the other hand, has remained something of a golden goose, priced out of the range of mere mortals.
In 2017, Sony shook up the market when it introduced three under-$10,000 native 4K projectors. The least expensive model, the VPL-VW285ES ($5,000) was hardly an impulse buy, but neither was its price competitive with a new car or a down payment on a house. When we reviewed it in the February/March 2018 issue, the VPLVW285ES was the first relatively affordable true 4K projector.
Sony’s new VPL-VW2985ES ($5,000) represents a further refine ment of the company’s affordable 4K projector offerings. It’s based on Sony’s 4,096 x 2,160-pixel SXRD imaging chips (Sony’s variation on LCOS), one each for red, green, and blue. Consumer 4K sources are 3,840 x 2,160 pixels, but Sony is apparently using a chip architecture that was developed for its professional 4K projectors. The extra 256 horizontal pixels would appear to offer little benefit (or loss) to the buyer on most program material. According to Sony, however, those extra pixels can be put to use by choosing either
