VPLHW65ES

I have a Sony vpl-hw65es. I upgraded to the Xgimi 20 horizon pro. And yes it was beautiful in picture burn the throw was my limit when I needed 13’ I had to move it to 10’. Now that wasn’t as big a deal as the rainbows….rainbows everywhere. Just going back to my Sony was stress relieving. I’m not joking. I thought I could get used to it and couldn’t. I kept my Sony for now in my light controlled theater. I bought a TCL QM8K at 98” for our family room which is really bright and had it mounted. Probably the best investment for us. My family loves it. Looks great. Games play at 4K@120Hz. If you are ok going smaller a TV these days at around 100” is hard to beat and the picture feels much better to me. And I can have the lights on in my room!!!

So, I play ps5 on a Sony sxrd 1080p projector on a 100” screen. I’m moving off a projector. I’ll tell you why. At the time 100” anything tv wise was stupid expensive. But now you can get a 4K screen for $1.5K or 2.5K. You will get better gaming out of that. My projector has game mode etc. But a TV with vrr, hdr etc will look and play better and you can play with the lights on! So I was going to upgrade to 4K with a Valerion, benq x3100i etc. but as I priced that vs a huge back lit screen at 100” and less in size for me it will be a better deal. Now if you want over 100” PJ is the way to go. But mind you, now you need to add screen cost to that and depending on the lighting in your room that screen could be pretty expensive. I know we are all PJ people here. But there are other options. I’m waiting it out to Black Friday and see if I can get a 100” mini led screen for a good price. Hopefully 240Hz at 1080p and 120Hz at 4K with all the bells and whistles.

So I got the max. 10’ distance to the screen is 100”’ish. So yes it does lens shift and optical zoom but if you are more than 10’ you will have a bigger image. Projector central has a calculator. I see rainbows and will be returning it soon. I’ll keep my Sony 1080p for now. Less resolution but way more zoom and I need it like 13 feet back.

Save a little bit more Look for a used Sony hw 20,30,55,40,45,65 I got a hw40 for 200eur! You can’t beat the performance with anything in this price range!

I’m a big fan of Sony SXRD 1080p projectors like the VPL-HW45ES or HW65ES. Paired with a quality screen with a bit of a gray hue, these are outstanding performers. You can find them used in the $500 range. A new lamp assembly is under $200. I’ve had great luck with used purchases of both models.

My first projector was a Sony SXRD 1080P in 2007: $10,000 USD. Bulb replacements cost $900-1000. When it finally gave up the ghost in 2017, I purchased another Sony SXRD 1080P: $1800 USD with \~$100 bulb replacements. The picture is better. Cost for projectors has definitely gotten cheaper for more, but TVs are a true mass market item. As other posters have indicated, the market for projectors is tiny compared to the market for TVs. Companies will create products and compete if they can sell millions, but not as much if they are looking at tens of thousands.

I have bought multiple projectors off shopgoodwill.com to get me started, a 1080p Sony projector is in our gazebo, in the basement I have two 1080p Epson projectors and one Christie that I didn’t pay over $40 each for. You can get decent deals when auction times end at off hours. I even got a perfectly working (remoteless) Denon X2600h for about $230 shipped from there. Check it out!