Sony G90 manual Performance, Summary

Page 74

ter or a motion-adaptive 3-D comb filter when using the

composite input.

Performance

My overwhelming first impression of the Sony G90 was its

razor-sharp image clarity. The 9-inch CRT technology reveals

the resolution limits of projectors with smaller CRTs. I sup-

pose it was even more impressive that the first things I looked

at were HDTV pictures. But the differences in detail between

the Sony G90 and the excellent but smaller CRTs of the Runco

IDP-980 Ultra, were also noticeable on DVD. Edges were a tad

sharper and areas of fine structure appeared to have addi-

tional depth and contrast.

The G90 has an outstanding ability to differentiate subtle

levels of dark gray just above black. Plus there is virtually no

shift in black level with changes in average picture level

(APL). I confirmed this using the various PLUGE test patterns

provided by the Video Essentials DVD in title 17, chapters 2,

3, 5, and 7. The Video Montage sequence from this same DVD

showed how effectively the G90 held black levels constant to

increase contrast-ratio and reveal shadow details.

I was able to adjust the grayscale color temperature to

exceptional accuracy, 6500K +300/-50K at 7.75 ft-L measured

at the plane of my 1.3 gain screen, which equates to about 10

ft-L for on-axis viewing. The G90 provides a gamma adjust-

ment for individual CRTs that is found on few other projec-

tors. It enables better tracking of the three CRTs and a flatter

grayscale response. I believe I could have improved the

grayscale even further had I had more time. Without even re-

calibrating, I cranked up the light output at the screen plane

to over 14 ft-L and the color temperature only dropped to

6100K. So the projector is capable of much higher light output

than I used for comparison tests.

Despite the excellent grayscale results, I was less

pleased with the color accuracy. The primary reason (pun

intended) was the chromaticity of the green phosphor. It is

somewhat more yellow than the SMPTE C standard green.

(See measurements.) This eliminated the deepest green hues

from the color gamut, slightly desaturated the blue-greens

(cyan), and shifted the purple hues (magenta) toward blue.

The yellower-green can be seen in landscapes and fields

where greener pastures are expected. Skin-tones appeared

slightly pale or colder than normal. If the color temperature

is calibrated slightly more red than normal, the skin-tones

will be corrected and magenta much improved. I found that

a more pleasing picture.

The green phosphor may have been a deliberate choice to

maximize the light output of the projector. The G90 is rated at

1300 peak lumens and 350 ANSI lumens, impressive specs for

a CRT projector. In my testing, the G90 luminance dropped

only 2 percent when going from a small white window to a full

screen of peak white. That is amazing performance and

reflects its superior full-white rating of 500 lumens. The pic-

ture simply won’t dim on the brightest scenes. The white field

uniformity was also exceptional with very little variance in

brightness or color over the screen.

Fan noise on the G90 wasn’t nearly as loud as might be

expected from a projector drawing 1050 watts. I measured 51

dB “C” weighted, at three feet from the unit. The fan noise is

not high-pitched, but has a rushing-air sound that is often

masked by the music and dialog in a movie. It may be accept-

able in a ceiling-mount application without additional attenu-

ation, but I wasn’t able to experience that.

The Sony G90 includes a built-in video

upconverter that converts NTSC formats from

480i (active lines) to 960i interlaced video. Sony

calls its process Digital Reality Creation, or DRC.

It uses pattern matching in look-up tables to do

the conversion. Conventional line doublers or quadruplers

use entirely different processes to create 480p and 960p pro-

gressive video. I used the DRC to watch live basketball games

and DVD movies. Video-camera sources, like the basketball

game, will create some artifacts on any type of upconverter. I

found the artifacts on Sony’s unique DRC system to look more

artificial, dare I say digital, than other techniques. Artifacts

sometimes have a pixellated appearance. It comes down to

matter of preference, but I’m more accustomed and comfort-

able with the twitter artifacts of conventional line-doublers

and quadruplers. On movies the DRC did a better job but

couldn’t match the complete absence of deinterlacing arti-

facts from upconverters that use inverse-telecine processing.

But the DRC feature is included standard with the G90 and a

high-quality quadrupler will approach $20,000.

I used PBS broadcasts to evaluate HDTV on the G90. This

was where it really excelled. Projectors without 9-inch CRTs

simply don’t have enough resolution to fully display the hori-

zontal and static vertical resolution of 1080i signals. The G90

has what it takes. HDTV on 7- and 8-inch CRT projectors like

the Runco DTV-930 can look wonderful, but on the G90 the

picture achieves an astonishing clarity. PBS has many air-

borne sequences flying across agricultural and urban land-

scapes that are so clear that you will feel like you are actual-

ly skimming the tree tops and peering into office building win-

dows. A ride in a raft down the mighty Colorado river may

convince you that it might be better to watch on the G90 than

to actual participate. After sitting glued to my chair watching

this HDTV demo material several times for more than hour, I

can sing praises about the HDTV format and the incredible

resolution and 3-dimensionality of the G90 picture. It rivals

the best film presentations that I have seen at a well-main-

tained cinema. Sadly, few people will actually get to enjoy this

experience.

Summary

The Sony VPH-G90U will produce stunning picture resolution,

surpassing the definition, contrast, and image depth of 8” or

smaller CRT projectors. It is one of the very few CRT projec-

tors, or display devices of any kind, capable of producing

HDTV’s available resolution. Audition it when you are select-

ing from among the ultimate home-theater projectors.

M a n u f a c t u r e r I n f o r m a t i o n

SONY VPH-G90U MULTISCAN PROJECTOR

Sony Electronics Inc

1 Sony Drive

Park Ridge, New Jersey 07656

Phone: (201) 930-1000

www.sony.com

Source: Manufacturer Loan

S/N: 2000039

Price: $35,000

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Page 73 Page 75
Contents Sony G90 Size Does Matter Experience before he finds a little of It Ingly just beyond reachThan ever we needed in strange, dark caves Sound and vision at the same time every timeKubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut HP Bergman’s The Seventh Seal DVDFollies & Frolics Barco Vision WatchII Janet’s Index Editors will respond next issueCan All That Counts Be Counted? a Forum Begins EditorIf The Perfect Vision is to push Problem with DVD Digital ArtifactsTargeting 14-Year-Old Boys? Azine Widescreen Review perhaps? Down Primrose Path Toward Perfect Vision Forever?At all. So it doesn’t take Hdtv or John Eargle Lossy Data Compression & DVD Sound What Not To See on DVDDigital Cinema The Good Bad of It TV Is TVI L L E R Series such as Star Trek The Next Generation . EachE G Movie TriviaDVDs Gaining Momentum S I C & M U L T I M E D I a E G S a N D O WM M a R T I N Panasonic DVD-L50D PalmTheaterViaTV VC 105 Videophone R R Y R a W L I N S O N EncounteredInfocomm Report Significant New Products and TrendsWorld of displays Light projected on the screen. These considerations have To recreate the theater experience in the homeOgy near its limit and its days are numbered. The display Tunately, there are trade-offs for the small size of ultraAn Ideal Cinema? Moviemaking crew comes with its special privi Real movie where there was none before, or at leastOmetimes I think that every position on a Leges, its perks, as it were. If you’re the script superAssistant directors, service people, One way or another when it comes to working withIty between when they are and when FootageLikely to get you Certainly a serviceable way to editMovies Directors seem to trust me to use my Into any troubleIt’s a funny thing about matching in editing. Most lay Allowing for camera setups, lighting, and rigTakes and setups meaning the master Enjoy prelaps to pull the narrativeSion? In Understanding Media, McCluhan R L E Y Lexicon MC-1 ControllerSonic Flavors To Slake Every Thirst Listening to Movies Logic 7 Digital Signal Processing for Movies and MusicLexicon’s Music Surround Modes Listening To Music Surround Conclusion Ing the Denon Anechoic Orchestral Music Recording CDControllers DSP and the Future-Proof Controller Two-Channel Bypass ModeSurround Decoding and Digital Signal Processing DSP THX-Certified Controllers Bass ManagementRadical new path to High-Resolution Digital Audio…the controller represents Future…After DSP Digital to Analog Conversion InterFacing the UserMeet My Enemy Revel Ultima Speakers From 2 to 7.1 ChannelsEpisode One The Ancient Enemy M M I I L L E RDeploying the Troops RPG Room Optimizer Software 59 byYou wanted to cross over your subwoofer at 40 Hz Revel Ultima Salon Noble WarriorStart and go get a beer, or two Tion coefficient for the surfaces that is comparable toEssary to achieve the Revel design team’s led by Kevin Our noble warrior against the ancient enemyLikewise for the 15-inch woofer in the Sub-15 Research effort to quantify in-room speaker behaviorNal processing in controllers hadn’t made subwoofer Direct radiator to bloated. The Salon’s soundstage comBy Keith Johnson for Reference Recordings Speaker? Removing the bottom octave from the Salon’sFormance. Orchestral music, for example, is performed Woofer, when it is well integrated with your main speakersCians often use emphasis in the intensity Episode Two a War On Two Fronts Cy, phase, and time. It then develops adaptive filters thatBattle Summary Stand-off Get that the fight for the lowlands was far from overLINN-AV5103 Aktiv Multi-Channel System Search of the Mythical BeastCompany of the Beast Quest BeginsWorking the Environment Remote InterfaceSumming Up NAD T770 Audio-Video ReceiverJust the Basics, Done Well I L G a D E RDas Boot, The Director’s Cut Wolfgang Peterson, director Gaines’ Stormy Monday I’ve Got the T-Bone WalkerRPG Diffuser Systems Inc., Room Optimizer Steering in DD mode is precise and smoothManufacturer’s Corner Designs go, the NAD T770 is all steakI D I W a L E S O N Want My DVDMajor Labels’ Plans for Classical Music on DVD Tan Opera Guide to Opera on Video and executive direc From the two main mikes and brought it to the rear ones Audience, he says. We fed that information to the rearTion from the main mikes as well as the spot mikes Have been considered typical indeed, good for aFall was so high. This was an elaborate joint See review, this issueQuering technology issues, Moorhead says. Most of our Computer and TV combinedStars. God, was I skeptical Made for DVDOriginal, so they’re not going to fake it for DVD To Turandot’s collection the Chinese nation, ruled by an Dramatic confrontation, in the second scene of Act TwoMust answer three riddles. If his answers are correct, she Ple either turning cynical, or lusting for more bloodTucks into a tiny corner of the staging. Hordes of Chinese Turandot. And why would there be? Yes, Puccini conscienPreoccupation like that made more sense, but Moon onstage we see a corps of Chinese dancers, wearingClassical DVD Sampler DVD-nessFull of pomp and circumstance, but much less lifelike Ment of that, and when I listened, I found I’d chooseWith the sound either way, or with the sound of the Scala PerformancesLike institutional persona, Herr Music Director of All Role mostly as a force of nature, powerful but blankStart of each one, there’s Karajan on screen, his face That’s simply ravishing This performance is broadJargon Roger Reynolds Watershed Mode 70, DVDSurrounded Experiment in a New MediumYes, theorists can find all sorts of relationships among Are so new that we all need orientationThough, is that Reynolds is way too impressed with Areas of music rhythm, loudness, and tone color, forBut in rhythms he himself creates. In practice, these, to Musical scoreMaybe, succeeded by metallic effects That, while Otto is allegedly creating syntax by movingMents of a Clockwork Orange What Ever Happened to Baby Pop With a TwistB G E N D R O N Performance we see on DVD begins with a filmSon’s Dead to the World. Nope Perfect timing and careful choreographyBelow-average vocal performance Horizon, probably to his death. It is a scene that demandsInsignificance of the media and with a DVD, with its digitally clear resolutionTabloid, because of its sensational pur Ly slurs the tune’s climactic line,WhatDent films Gods and Monsters, Cookie’s Fortune that Godzilla, Armageddon, Instrument is better thanWith 1991’s In on the Kill D R E W Q U I N T Close EncounterVoices of Light/The Passion of Joan of Arc Special presentation of Voices of Light/The Passion of Joan Each other. Seen together, they seemed inseparable yet Obvious. The movie is about as complete as it can be.Other instances, were not merely happy coincidences, nor By much of the sound reinforcement heard in BroadwayPhysics of Color An Introduction to Digital VideoPart 2 Video Color Concepts Human Color PerceptionLuminance ColorblindnessColor Concepts for Video Additive Color Hue and SaturationCIE Chromaticity Diagram Display Color Accuracy RGB Primaries The Color TriangleColor Measurement Color Bars White Reference Color TemperatureGrayscale Color Temperature Are used in some circumstances Other color signals will alsoColor errors. Instrument known as a color analyzer or a spectroAvia Guide to Home Theater pro AdjustmentsColor and Hue E G R O G E R S Sony VPH-G90U Multiscan ProjectorPhysical Scan Rates Installation and Set-upConnections Operating FunctionsPerformance SummaryDescription SpecificationsRunco DTV-930 Multiscan Projector Inputs/Outputs Convergence Labs Test Report Greg Rogers Formats can be selected directly from the remoteRange Horizontal and vertical scan frequencies and other sourceBe noticed Combination is about the reasonable limit to achieve anLine Doubling = Deinterlacing Remote ControlIEV Turboscan 1500 Line Doubler Ics-grade front projector Video outputs. As a progressive video reference, I used aCreates progressive video without deinterlacing artifacts 3Dfusion do each in different ways. The TurboscanL L C R U C E Pioneer Elite DVL-91 Combination CD/LD/DVD PlayerLook and Feel Up menus allow you to configure such things as onscreen lan Meaning clearLy, the remote of the DVL-91, like that DVD PerformanceLD Performance Wrong one in the darkDvdo iScan Plus Line Doubler Celebrate Film Classic Comedy’s Second Coming Roberto Benigni L M & M O V I E SThough a number of films in which Benigni Quently escape was Benigni’s first American and EnglishRoberto on the Internet Sound Cute cameo which perhaps hints at a sequelAspect ratio and running time incorrectly Original Pink Panther film go figure. Sad to sayNo thanks to Warner’s folks Small wonder Special Editions Kubrick and The Space MonstersFirst wave of anger and incredulity. The DVD set was Set consists of Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, 2001 aBoth Clockwork and Full Metal Jacket exhibited pinkish Special Editions Few Weird Thoughts What Dreams May ComeWorth a Look Relatively Recent Arrivals Navigator a Medieval Odyssey, the other is Map Human HeartTo say that the film is developing a cult following some How beautiful she was when she was married to RogerMovie would have had the solid foundation it needed Smooth as could be and given the importanceBiopics Three British Royals Love.1 AsOtranto Man in the Iron Mask 1939. But it is his Old Dark House 1932, The Invisible ManHP Comments Mon with The Shining than with any other Kubrick opus Ic in this context in cloud cuckooland, with theirYou have an idea of what’s really going on in the film Food-storage roomFrom Art to Cult N a T H a N V a L I NNot content to present us with an allegory of the eternal Only later goes on to give them human dimensions. EvenSuch blatant symbolism can sustain an entire movie Face the questions that vexed and hauntedIssues 111 Letters to the Editor Back Issues Website Change of AddressQuestions About Your Subscription Editorial SubmissionsA S S I F I E D a D O R D E R F O R M Name Company Address CITY, State , ZIPVision Watch
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