Sony VPL-HW40ES Reviewer's Recommended Best Settings

Steve Withers

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Disclaimer: The settings below are supplied for information purposes only. We make no guarantee that using the adjustments below will improve your TV's picture, they may even make it look worse. Every TV, even from the same manufacturer and model number will vary, as will the environment the TV is used in. For further information on how to set up your TV, please follow the steps in our Picture Perfect campaign.

To find a professional calibrator near you, see our Custom Installer and Calibrator Directory.

You can read the review here: Sony VPL-HW40ES

Calib. Preset: Reference

Reality Creation: Personal Preference

Cinema Black Pro: Lamp Control Low

Motionflow: Film Projection Off, Motion Enhancer Off

Contrast: 80

Brightness: 50

Colour: 50

Hue: 50

Colour Temp: Custom5 (Gain Red 19, Green -20, Blue -9; Bias Red 0, Green 0, Blue 0)

Sharpness: Min

Expert Setting

NR: Off

MPEG NR: Off

Film Mode: Auto 2

Contrast Enhancer: Off

Gamma Correction: Off

x.v.Colour: Off

Colour Space: BT.709

RCP: On (Red C 10, H 0, B 0; Yellow C 6, H 0, B 18; Green C 16, H 6, B 0; Cyan C 20, H 10, B 4; Blue C 10, H 0, B 0; Magenta C 9, H 3, B 6)
 
The review hasn't gone up yet, I'll put the link in when it has. I just put this up first so I can link to it in the review.
 
lot of interest in this Projector, will it be better than 7200,how close to the 55es i'm in the market :)
 
just tried these settings, looks great this is in the day too. cant wait to look later.
 
Thanks for the review and settings. A couple of questions:

1. I find lamp "Low" to be a little dim. I have set it to "High" but do you recommend I change any other settings because of the change to the lamp setting to High?

2. Is there a way to save these settings so that I can revert to them after further changing the settings?

Thanks again.
 
Last edited:
2. Is there a way to save these settings so that I can revert to them after further changing the settings?

I have figured this one out. I have applied the changes to the "USER" calibration setting.

I would still appreciate advice on recommended settings for the "High" lamp mode.
 
If you use the higher lamp mode you'll need to dial off the contrast a bit, try 75. The rest you can leave the same although the colour temp and RCP settings wouldn't be applicable.
 
If you use the higher lamp mode you'll need to dial off the contrast a bit, try 75.

Thanks, I will try that.

The rest you can leave the same although the colour temp and RCP settings wouldn't be applicable.

Do you mean to say the projector will ignore the colour temp and RCP settings when lamp is on High or that they won't affect the picture when lamp is on High?

Thanks.
 
What I mean is that the settings I posted are for the lamp in low mode, the characteristics would be very different in high mode, so they probably won't apply. Still there's no harm in trying and see how it looks.
 
If you use the higher lamp mode you'll need to dial off the contrast a bit, try 75. The rest you can leave the same although the colour temp and RCP settings wouldn't be applicable.

I'm not sure why you would do this for high lamp; the clipping point of white won't change due to the lamp output (though may be harder to see if it's really dim I suppose, but you'd need a new lamp if it were that dim). Lowering the contrast would just throw away on/off contrast for no real gain, apart from reducing light output.

I know why you post the reviewers settings for displays, but it seems to lead to owners slavishly copying the settings regardless...
 
I'm not sure why you would do this for high lamp; the clipping point of white won't change due to the lamp output (though may be harder to see if it's really dim I suppose, but you'd need a new lamp if it were that dim).

What would be an inexpensive way to make sure my lamp is alright. I have an iPhone and an Android phone as well. Should I see 1700 lumens (from spec) if I set the phone against the lens opening?

I know why you post the reviewers settings for displays, but it seems to lead to owners slavishly copying the settings regardless...

If the settings are for a dark room, they should work the same in every dark room right?, granted there will be some minute variation because of manufacturing tolerances both in the projector and the eyes looking at it :)
 
If the settings are for a dark room, they should work the same in every dark room right?, granted there will be some minute variation because of manufacturing tolerances both in the projector and the eyes looking at it :)

Err, no...

Having calibrated my various projectors over the years I can assure you that not only are the differences between examples quite large, there are even variations between using high lamp and low lamp, let alone how the lamp changes (usually losing red output) as it ages. I've seen errors of more than 3dE between the high and low lamp settings. It is generally considered that we should aim for a dE of less than 3 to consider the variation un-noticeable to the naked eye. Some calibrators suggest that 1dE might be closer to the truth.

There was a case I read of a while ago where a company calibrated 25 identical projectors and not one used the same settings. As a futher example,, my own projector (JVC X500) has a change to the whitebalance as the aperture is opened up, so I have to set different RGB gains for when I want a brighter output (like when I zoom for 2.35:1) compared to the lower output. This in turn alters the calibration settings I need to correct the colours.

This is why I think that we shouldn't publish the detailed settings as it only encourages owners to set there projector the same, then thinking that they've calibrated it...they haven't.

By all means use the basic settings as guide (such as calibration preset and turning off all the excess (and largely pointless) settings such as contrast enhancer,etc). However once done I believe that you are more likely to get better results in your own room, with your individual projector by using a (free) test disc like AVS HD709 and just set the basics correctly such as contrast and brightness.
 
I am a first time projector owener and bought the Sony 40ES with a 106' Cyber tab screen. I must say it was relatively straightforward to fit and the performance is remarkable.

However I applied your settings yesterday and fired up "I am Legend" and noticed that the dark screens were "very dark", so I increased the brightness by 5. The colour is fab thou.

It still not quite bright enough IMO and considered putting the Lamp into High mode. My question: Would that help the dark scenes any?
 
Disclaimer: The settings below are supplied for information purposes only. We make no guarantee that using the adjustments below will improve your TV's picture, they may even make it look worse. Every TV, even from the same manufacturer and model number will vary, as will the environment the TV is used in. For further information on how to set up your TV, please follow the steps in our Picture Perfect campaign.

To find a professional calibrator near you, see our Custom Installer and Calibrator Directory.

You can read the review here: Sony VPL-HW40ES

Calib. Preset: Reference

Reality Creation: Personal Preference

Cinema Black Pro: Lamp Control Low

Motionflow: Film Projection Off, Motion Enhancer Off

Contrast: 80

Brightness: 50

Colour: 50

Hue: 50

Colour Temp: Custom5 (Gain Red 19, Green -20, Blue -9; Bias Red 0, Green 0, Blue 0)

Sharpness: Min

Expert Setting

NR: Off

MPEG NR: Off

Film Mode: Auto 2

Contrast Enhancer: Off

Gamma Correction: Off

x.v.Colour: Off

Colour Space: BT.709

RCP: On (Red C 10, H 0, B 0; Yellow C 6, H 0, B 18; Green C 16, H 6, B 0; Cyan C 20, H 10, B 4; Blue C 10, H 0, B 0; Magenta C 9, H 3, B 6)


Thank you for these settings.. I tried them last night on my Sony HW40 ES and made a big imoact on the picture quality.. Thank you.. Would you say these are still the current best settings for this projector? Many thanks
 

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