The Sony looked great in my theater room. The big advantage of this projector was its incredible ability to produce low levels of black detail. Even the real-world contrast measurements were impressive for a front projection system. The system was ISF-calibrated prior to the viewing evaluation using Datacolor's ColorFacts 5.5 software. All calibration was done in the light-controlled Reference System 2 on the Stewart Studiotek 130 projection screen.

As may of you now know, I sit pretty close to the picture in my theater room - 1.5x the screen width in fact. At this distance I was still able to pick out pixel edges with the Sony (though this didn't surprise me in the least as, with a few exceptions, it is really too close for this type of screen size and projector.) Moving back just two feet took it over the edge and eliminated any visible screen door effect. I'd recommend a seating distance of no closer than 1.75x the screen width.

This is a close up shot of the pixels from the Sony VPL-HS51A.

This is a close up shot of the pixels from a competing LCD manufacturer which allows a closer seated distance to the screen before encountering the screen door effect (SDE).

DVD: Madagascar
This movie recently came to DVD and, while colorful in its full 3D animation, possessed quite a few difficult scenes with high amounts of black detail that could easily get lost in a lesser projector. The Sony VPL-HS51A easily outperformed my more expensive reference LCD projector in handling the black levels and allowing the darker levels of these scenes to come through, quite literally, with flying colors.

I was also greatly impressed by the vibrancy of the color as well as the detail that showed up throughout the film. Good examples f this would be Alex' mane and the abundance of fur and plant detail that was shown throughout the film. It seemed that every scene contained at least one element that looked like it could be touched and handled from the seating position.

HDTV via Digital Cable: CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami graces several of my display reviews for good reason - the show is crisply shot and great care is taken in the set lighting and detail. They also have actors who don't shy away from close-ups - even with HDTV. This episode, which I recorded to the DVR, had an abundance of darker interior scenes and I have to say it looked great in Reference System 3 . The Sony Cineza has an almost uncanny knack for dipping into shadows and not losing the image to crushing blacks as is common with other LCD-based front projection systems I've evaluated. All LCD systems can dazzle you with images of Monday Night Football, but few to date have been as impressive with respect to handling nighttime scenes and darker interiors common to the weekly network TV dramas.

One other thing I was looking for in viewing HDTV was how well the Sony handled mediocre input sources such as the output from my digital cable box. It seemed to handle both component video and HDMI output from the box without any issues and the 1080i and 720p source material was clean and crisp with no visible artifacts beyond the compression associated with the cable channel.

Misc HDTV via Digital Cable
When you're up late doing LCD projector reviews you have ample opportunity to examine late night fare. I decided to capitalize on my insomnia and grab some screen shots of Leno, Letterman and whatever was on the Discovery HD channel. Discovery HD is to high definition television what Halo was to the Xbox. If you are experiencing high-def TV for the first time, the Discovery Channel typically ropes people in and holds them for hours - it looks that good. The show I chose, however, was some super cheesy show named Austin Stevens: The Snakemaster . If I had my way I would rename the program: "Austin Stevens: The Egomaniacal Drama Queen" . It basically consisted of a series of "make me look like I'm really in danger" shot sequences that are so overproduced as to be comical in light of much better (and more genuine) shows with Jeff Corwin and Steve Irwin (the Crocodile Hunter). Cheesy as it was, it still looked pretty good. Austin was chasing a large frog that had some incredibly rich detail in its skin.

Both The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with David Letterman were excellent as well, though their sets aren't quite as impressive as, say, an African rainforest. With the late night talk shows you can really see facial detail, though they don't tend to do extreme close-ups like CSI: Miami and other shows I watch regularly. All in all, this projector results in a very satisfactory experience and puts out accurate real-world color.

Conclusion

Just as the Panasonic PT-AE900U I recently reviewed set a new standard for interpixel LCD spacing, the Sony Cineza VPL-HS51A sets a new and impressive standard for black level detail in an LCD projector. This will be a bar others will need to match and the result will be better products for consumers and customer installers to integrate into their systems. At its street price there is some stiff competition, but we can definitely recommend the Sony without reservation.

About Sony Electronics
Headquartered in Park Ridge, NJ, Sony Electronics is a leading provider of audio/video and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. Operations include research and development, design, engineering, manufacturing, sales, marketing, distribution and customer service. Sony is the co-developer of CD and DVD technologies, and is noted for such recent developments as Memory Stick® removable media, the MiniDisc digital audio system, Digital 8 Handycam® camcorders and flat-screen FD Trinitron® televisions and computer displays.