Customer Reviews
Exceptional 1080p Projector, Exceptional Value 
2008-02-18
As a new owner of a Black Pearl I would like to share my own impressions of the Black Pearl. We previously owned a VPL-VW50 Pearl. Sadly we had a lot of problems, it was a 4 1/2 month nightmare but SONY FINALLY offered to replace it with a VPL-VW60 Black Pearl.
We received our new SONY Black Pearl on Feb 12, 2008 and we have had a wonderful time setting it up and watching HD TV and 1080p upconverted movies via our OPPO 981-hd. I watched The Rocketeer and recordings of the new episodes of LOST in HD and they were spectacular. We have already put over 30 hours on the projector!
Before our VPL-VW50 went belly up we enjoyed viewing it on our 100 inch STEWART SST electriscreen. The Black Pearl is definitely MUCH MUCH sharper than the Pearl ever was. I was ecstatic when I saw how sharp it is compaired to the Pearl. As for convergence, I checked the convergence using the new "Panel Alignment" feature (Kudos' to SONY for including this) and our PJ was perfect right out of the box; boy was that a nice surprise and relief especially after all of the convergence problems we had with our previous Pearl. The colors when tweaked are much more accurate on the Black Pearl and the overall picture seems brighter and better. The blacks are much deeper and the contrast is outstanding.
As for the color of the new Black Pearl itself... the Black Pearl is, like it's name; beautiful and INTIMIDATING; Darth Vader's helmet comes to mind and the new pj remote is also excellent. Nice design, clean, stylish, EASY to use and the pj's newly added enhanced menu features are right at our fingertips.
The ongoing problems we experienced with the Pearl for 4 and a half months was a real headache... groan. But as soon as we turned on the replacement projector and compared it's picture to that of our previous SONY Pearl (VPL-VW50) I knew it was worth all of the trouble we had to go through in order to upgrade to the VPL-VW60. This projector is everything we have been looking for in a projector and much, much more! I do not see us needing to "upgrade" for a VERY long time because there is absolutely no reason or need to... what's the point? One more important point; the Black Pearl is whisper quiet on regular low fan mode, you barely know it is on.
As much as we enjoyed the Pearl, and it was a wonderful projector before it went belly up, I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to replace our defective projector with the VPl-VW60 Black Pearl. It blows it's predecessor away on so many levels, it is worth every penny and it is a keeper.
Anyone looking for a superb high def 1080p projector should put the Black Pearl(VPL-VW60) at the top of their list and... yes it IS worth swapping your VPL-VW50 for.
What a great projector! 2008-01-11
This was quite an upgrade for us. We replaced our Optoma HD70 with this projector. I tried the Optoma HD80 first (please read my review of that waste), but the placement limitations were so bad, I had to return it. We purchased this projector from Tweeter (sorry Amazon) for $3900.00.
After installing it last night, I played around with it a bit and fixed some display settings that were way out of control. For more on this and how to adjust your own, look up this projector on the projectorreviews website. Right out of the box the settings are horribly wrong, but with some slight adjustments, you can have a near perfect picture.
The projector itself has a number of great features including a mechanical lens for zoom, focus and vertical shift. Although I gave this projector 5 stars, there is still one area that needs improvement. Some kind of horizontal keystone would be a good thing, but it is such a small issue that it doesn't impact my evaluation.
There are ample inputs, but maybe 1 more HDMI would be great. It has 2, but this input is the way of the world now, and 3 would be better...but then I'd want 4...you get the idea.
The projector weight is 24.5 pounds. You may read different weights on different websites, but I weighed it myself and it is exactly 24.5 lbs. Just make sure you have a mount that is rated for at least 30 pounds that is installed correctly. This does not need to crash down on anyone's head at this weight.
Back to the performance...The colors are amazing one when calibrated correctly. We watched a New York Rangers game on MSGHD as our first test. The Rangers lost, but the projector scored a hat-trick! Blues were correct, white levels are near perfect, and the contrast ratio, thanks to the dynamic iris is stunning. Afterward, we played around with some Blu-Ray and HD-DVD at 1080p. Spiderman, Pirates 3, and Happy feet looked perfect. I can't stress enough that you need to recalibrate this projector to get a good picture. Sony should do a better job on giving you an accurate picture out of the box, but they just don't.
Lastly, the projector is almost perfectly silent. I could hear the PS3 and DirecTV HR20 fan much louder than the projector. Great job on this Sony!!
In closing, I would recommend this projector to anyone looking for a top-of-the-line-$5000-and-less unit. Shop it around though and get a good deal for yourself. Don't pay $5000 because you just don't have to. Enjoy!
First front projector, very pleased 2008-01-10
I replaced my 57" rear projection TV with this projector, and a 135" 16x9 screen with 0.8 gain. The image quality is amazing, movies are incredible on this projector. As a data projector, the image resolution doesn't go as high using the VGA port, but component can reach 1080i and HDMI can reach full 1080p at 60Hz. Light control is important, but not as important with other projectors I've played with. We're able to watch football games with the lights on, with an 18' throw.
