Sony VPL-HW45ES Pro Reviews

With all of today’s hullabaloo about 4K and HDR, it’s easy to forget that there’s something special about a theater-like image on a big projection screen—even if it’s plain vanilla, standard dynamic range, and 1080p. One look at the Sony VPL-HW45ES will remind you of that fact.

For $1999, in today's market the Sony VPL-HW45ES is a stand out performer for both dark room home theater and less formal home entertainment and video gaming in low to moderate ambient light. It's bright enough in its video optimized mode for up to a 120" diagonal image with moderate ambient light or up to a 190" image in theater-dark lighting. It delivers vibrant color, dark blacks, and the full range of subtle gradations to give 2D images a three dimensional look; it offers a long list of video processing features to let you adjust the image to taste; it's quiet enough to make fan noise a non-issue; it supports full HD 3D; and its 22 ms lag time is close to the fastest we've seen on any projector. As a state of the art HD 1080p projector for under two thousand bucks, it is easy to recommend.