Not a projector for just anyone, nor just any home theater on a rainy Sunday afternoon, the SRX-R220 (and its smaller siblings, the R210, S110, R110, S105, & R105) is truly a top-end digital commercial movie theater projector, in competition only with a few other top-end projection products offered by Barco, Christie and NEC. Its real appeal can immediately be seen when using a screen over 10 feet wide up to 85 feet (given a minimum required light level of 14.5 foot-Lamberts - DCI movie theater specifications). This projector's immediate transparency, compared to any other commercially available home or professional front projector (regardless of price). sets it apart from the rest by leaps and bounds. The three SXRD 4096 x 2160P imaging panels, along with a truly serious Fujinon Cinema lens (of various throw distances), can display both a range of beyond photo realistic colors and super-fine details (even with today's highly compressed HD cable and satellite feeds) that were only previously seen by a select few viewing their films at the processing laboratories, such as Technicolor or Deluxe, and under ideal conditions. This laboratory-grade image quality gives you as the audience a level of fidelity and accuracy that makes everything look exceptionally realistic, pretty much with any digital source imaginable. This was simply impossible prior to this product's availability. A huge leap forward, if only affordable by the very rich enthusiasts and/or certain movie moguls, post-production houses and adventurous aspiring commercial cinemas. The SRX-S220's capabilities immediately allow any viewer to see just about everything there is about picture quality, and also makes available immediate side-by-side comparisons of 2K (and lower) resolutions, up to four at a time. This means you can watch four 2K or HD sources (like a baseball game, hockey, football and NASCAR) simultaneously. With this projector, you can become your own multiplex or sports arena, given enough different high-quality sources. While this may seem like just a novelty or pure over-indulgence, being able to experience several different programs at full (and true) HD resolution simultaneously can become very addicting, and amazingly satisfying. You can even surf the Web, play video games like PS3, Xbox 360, and the Wii, and yes, PC games like EverQuest and Call of Duty as well. Home movies and still photography take on an almost completely lifelike quality when seen via this 4K Lamborghini of front projectors. Once experienced in a properly calibrated environment, it is difficult to go back to even the very best Academy screenings (for the Oscar people) or IMAX presentations. It's that much better than anything you may have seen, even on the lots of the big studios on the left coast.

For a commercial movie theater, tickets must sell to fill seats, and just as in the 1950s, TV is keeping people at home with better and better image quality for less and less money. To compete, digital cinemas in the twenty-first century must be ahead of home theater quality, just as in the '50s. Given that current HDTVs are less than 2K resolution (1920 x 1080P), regardless of format (broadcast, disc and downloads), and that 2K movies are now becoming the commercial digital projection standard on nearly 6,000 screens in the world, you might ask, "Why spend the extra money apparently on just 4k resolution in comparison to 2k or 1080P, given those sources limitations?" In side-by-side tests, the 4k Sony projected images (even with an HDTV source), that consistently produce a much more transparent, palpable and immediate image, devoid of the pixilation, screen door or contour effects that are endemic to DLP and LCD technologies. When you companion such seamless resolution with extended color fidelity (36 bits worth), add in automated color space adjustments for the various different sources (XYZ, Rec. 709 & 601, inclusive) and offer enormous adjustable light output (in 10-percent steps across two different bulbs), it becomes clear even on smaller screens (like my 18 x 10.125 foot Stewart Snowmatte) that you immediately come face to face with the closest facsimile of film, television, photography, etc. yet projected.

Read The High Points, Low Points and Conclusion on Page 2