[Zag]

Apparently it has been reported over at AVS that a cut-price VPL-VW40 has been added to Sony dealers price lists.

It is essentially a cut-price VW60 without the ability to do vertical stretch for CIH set-ups.

I can see a potential market for a reduced price VW60, but that doesn't mean the projector actually exists.

What do you all think.. Fact or Fiction??

[linnite]

No idea, but it's about time someone brought LCOS technology down to a genuinely lower price point.

[Zag]

Originally Posted by linnite

No idea, but it's about time someone brought LCOS technology down to a genuinely lower price point.

Couldn't agree with you more on that. I may choose to miss out on this current generation of 1080 LCD machines and wait until a LCOS machine comes down to the 2K price point. A price I'm much more willing to pay than £3K+.

The projector I'm most keen on is the VW60 which I think offers the best compromise between sharpness, colour accuracy, contrast, flexibility & low running noise. But out of principle I'm not going to purchase one due to its over inflated UK price. Perhaps the VW40 if it exists can come in at a better price, but the 1st manufacturer be it Sony or JVC that can bring a sub 2K LCOS PJ under the 2K mark in the UK will be onto a winner.

I suspect though that JVC will beat Sony to that one now with a cut-price HD-1.

[dstoe]

If it is listed on the american Sony Price List for Jan 08, it is definitely fact. This was mentioned on AVS.

And thinking about it, the gap between Sony's 720p LCDs and their VW60 is quite big. And I could understand Sony, if they wanted to attack the 1080p LCD manufacturers.

Looking at Optoma or Mitsubishi, both brought out low cost versions of existing projectors. Why shouldn't Sony do the same?

But I think they will cut more features, then just the 2.35 scaling. Probably lower contrast panels as well. And I expect the price to be more in the range of 2400£.

[Zag]

Originally Posted by dstoe

Probably lower contrast panels as well. And I expect the price to be more in the range of 2400£.

Sony need a decent projector where the action is. Currently that price point is around the 2K mark.

When for most people the advantages of the VW60 over the likes of the TW2000, Pt-AE2000 e.t.c. will be minimal. IMO Sony's Engineers have made a great product with the VW60 but marketing have up the pricing.

If you're spending more that 2.5K most people will settle on the HD-1. The VW60 now at over 3K is in a place on its own.

I think the evidence of that is apparent for all to see...

How many Sony VPL-VW60 owner reviews & tweak threads are there in this forum???

Makes you think though, has anyone even bought one of these in the UK yet???

Looks like the VW60 is turning into a great big flop, solely due to its uncompetitive pricing.

[yvv]

Originally Posted by Zag

If you're spending more that 2.5K most people will settle on the HD-1. The VW60 now at over 3K is in a place on its own.

I think the evidence of that is apparent for all to see...

How many Sony VPL-VW60 owner reviews & tweak threads are there in this forum???

Makes you think though, has anyone even bought one of these in the UK yet???

Looks like the VW60 is turning into a great big flop, solely due to its uncompetitive pricing.

Couldn't agree more. That's why it makes sense buy the VW60 in Hong Kong for half of the UK price though I'm more inclined to get Mitsubishi HC6000 from the same source because the main difference is in better black level but the black level of the VW60 is not even close to my 7-years old Sony G70 CRT ( a guy in AVS Forum who owns the G70 has just compared it with the VW60) so I guess I would be dissapointed anyway. The HC6000 is number one on my list in terms of value and IMO this is very important in a situation when every year brings out a new generation of projectors with significantly better performance.

[linnite]

Originally Posted by Zag

Sony need a decent projector where the action is. Currently that price point is around the 2K mark.

When for most people the advantages of the VW60 over the likes of the TW2000, Pt-AE2000 e.t.c. will be minimal. IMO Sony's Engineers have made a great product with the VW60 but marketing have up the pricing.

If you're spending more that 2.5K most people will settle on the HD-1. The VW60 now at over 3K is in a place on its own.

I think the evidence of that is apparent for all to see...

How many Sony VPL-VW60 owner reviews & tweak threads are there in this forum???

Makes you think though, has anyone even bought one of these in the UK yet???

Looks like the VW60 is turning into a great big flop, solely due to its uncompetitive pricing.

Agree totally, again.

In some ways it's surprising I am so price sensitive because a) of how much I've spent on the audio side and b) like many people all I'd have to do is max out a credit card and I could have one of the dearer ones. But price sensitive I am, maybe I'm trying to keep the wife onside or maybe because it doesn't look a good time in the economy etc. to go further into debt, but somehow I've settled that I'm going to spend under 2K. If the VW40 comes in at £2400 street price it will be another miss because I would either stretch another £400 and get an HD1, or, as is the case really, I will get one of the sub 2K LCD's and be blown away by the improvement over my horribly out of date Z3 anyway.

Now if the official price of the VW40 is £2400 and it streets for £2K....now you are talking.

[dstoe]

I wasn't talking street price, when I mentioned 2400£.

[linnite]

Originally Posted by dstoe

I wasn't talking street price, when I mentioned 2400£.

Good, then I will watch to see if this materialises, with interest.

[Shockabuku]

Sounds like an interesting development, although I'm a bit dismayed at how the vertical stretch feature is being used by manufacturers (first JVC, now Sony) as a differentiation feature to justify over-inflated pricing on their mid to high end products. I guess it's bound to happen, as with the cost of CIH setups being so pricey anyway, we're seen as an easy target with big pockets (mine aren't! ). Anyway, I'm sure most people don't give a monkey's about that, and it's generally really good news that Sony look to be getting serious in the low-mid market at last.

[dun_buyin]

Originally Posted by dstoe

If it is listed on the american Sony Price List for Jan 08, it is definitely fact. This was mentioned on AVS.

And thinking about it, the gap between Sony's 720p LCDs and their VW60 is quite big. And I could understand Sony, if they wanted to attack the 1080p LCD manufacturers.

Looking at Optoma or Mitsubishi, both brought out low cost versions of existing projectors. Why shouldn't Sony do the same?

But I think they will cut more features, then just the 2.35 scaling. Probably lower contrast panels as well. And I expect the price to be more in the range of 2400£.

I thought that the VW50 was still a current model at £2700. If that is the case then unless the VW40 is a replacement for it, surely it should be closer to £2k but even that is what an imported VW60 could be had for, so why don't Sony just realign their pricing in the UK rather than add another model?

[dstoe]

I have no information concerning the pricing. The 2400£ are an expectation.

Although I was told the VW40 is supposed to be somewhere in between VW50 and VW60 featurewise. Whatever that means for 2008 pricing.

[Zag]

Looks like official comfimation on the VW40 now. I just googled VPL-VW40 and came up with this. Very few details on the spec, though.

http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/produc...37&catId=44220

Could this be the first sub £2K LCOS machine in the UK???

[Flip_X]

Originally Posted by Zag

Looks like official comfimation on the VW40 now. I just googled VPL-VW40 and came up with this. Very few details on the spec, though.

http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/produc...37&catId=44220

Could this be the first sub £2K LCOS machine in the UK???

Thanks for the link.

The spec now appears quite complete on that webpage, have they updated it since you last looked? There's even an MSRP of $3495 which suggests a UK price of around £2.2k based on averaging the US price difference with the VW50 and VW60.

[robfitzp]

Specs look the same as the VW50 as far as I can tell. Wonder if it has the 0.1 pixel adjustment that the VW60 has?

[Kuni D]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/27/s...nuary-release/

$2999.


Very tempting to import one at full price let alone cut down prices in the US ($2500-2600??)

[sahara_desert]

Nice specs on the new sony...
Maybe it's time for a ski-holiday up in them snowy swiss alps soon,looking rather nice this one!


~1400£
Are we seeing a new trend from Sony Europe?
one could definetly hope they have set up a new pricing politic's on the agenda.
wonder if it has support for panamorph 1:2.35?



http://www.ehawk.ch/product_info.php...-VPL-VW40.html

[sdb123]

The specs on that link indicate that it doesn't handle 1080p/24.

[Zag]

Originally Posted by sdb123

The specs on that link indicate that it doesn't handle 1080p/24.

No 1080P24 that would explain the potential price reduction then.

Probably will also come with a built in misconvergence feature.

Sorry couldn't resist.

[axel]

Another link to the PJ fro the USA website. It's a bit easier to compare the different models in the range.


http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...&storeId=10151


Not worked out what 1080/24 input capable means as on the specs page there is no mention of it. Any ideas people?

As mentioned before the contrast ratio is reduced by 50% plus.

Still this pj should be sub 2K from the Japan exporters.....

[sdb123]

Originally Posted by axel

Not worked out what 1080/24 input capable means as on the specs page there is no mention of it. Any ideas people?

It may mean that the projector can accept a 1080p/24 signal however will convert and display it as 1080/50 or 1080/60.

[Zag]

According to Art's Blogg, he has a VW40 imminent.

Looking forward to hearing how the VW40 fares against the likes of the PT-AE2000 & its big brother.

So far the VW40, sounds like a VW50 with a maker over rather than a cut price VW60 which is a shame.

" Yes, it’s that time of the year. I only have two more 1080p projectors on my short list, to review. One is the new Sony VW40, and the other, one of the SIM2 projectors - an over $10,000 model.


Sony just advised that the VPL-VW40 should arrive next Monday (just in the nick of time, to be reviewed, and make it into the Report, and SIM2, who had hoped to have a projector out to me already, can’t give me a firm date. "