Sony VPL-HW50ES review

Fast motion looks just as good, whether you’re watching 24p Blu-rays or playing 60 frames-per-second games. We couldn’t spot any signs of ghosting, even during the most intense action sequences, and the film grain was always preserved even when we changed the motion enhancement features. We could spot a few small halo-type artefacts around the edges of some objects, but they were only visible up close and you certainly wouldn’t spot them on a 70in or bigger screen from six feet away.

Previous Sony projectors suffered from crosstalk when playing 3D content, but thankfully the HW50ES shows no sign of any similar issues. 3D films looked fantastic, with no visible ghosting, no flicker from the active 3D glasses and very bright colours. We preferred the Cinema 2 image pre-set for watching 3D video, as pictures looked a little brighter and colours were more vibrant, cancelling out the dimming effects of the 3D glasses.

There’s an external emitter input for the active shutter glasses, in case you manage to block the internal one during installation, but we had no problems in an average-sized living room. There isn’t an external emitter included in the box, so if you need one it will cost you £27 (141025701 from www.houseoffraser.co.uk) on top of the projector itself, plus £28 (TDGBR250B from www.amazon.co.uk) each per extra pair of glasses.

You get one pair of glasses, and additional sets cost £28 each

Sony has decided not to add speakers to the HW50ES – as the projector is designed for high-end home cinema systems, it’s unlikely they would have seen much use anyway. This means sound quality will depend on your existing speaker system, and the boost in picture quality you get from switching to a projector could be undone unless you have a set of speakers to match.

The HW50ES is certainly quiet, rarely becoming louder than a mild whisper when watching films. It also stayed relatively cool, even after several hours, but we would still recommend sitting a few feet away from it for the most comfortable viewing experience.

Excellent image quality makes the HW50ES perfect for films

The HW50ES certainly didn’t disappoint, producing some superb images when playing our test footage. It would have been nice to see mechanical lens adjustment, but otherwise it was incredibly user-friendly and it looks great too. Its size and price might put off anyone looking to have the occasional movie night at home, but it’s a fantastic system for a full-time setup.