Sony BRAVIA 8 & 9 4K HDR Laser Projectors With XR Processor

Sony rolled up to the 2024 CEDIA Expo with two new, high-end, native 4K laser projectors, the BRAVIA Projector 8 ($16K) and BRAVIA Projector 9 ($32K). The BRAVIA Projector 9, which also goes by the catchy name of VPL-XW8100ES, replaces Sony's existing VPL-XW7000ES projector. The BRAVIA Projector 8 (a.k.a. VPL-XW6100ES) and BRAVIA Projector 9 are the first projectors to include the XR Processing technology found in the company’s 2024 BRAVIA TVs. This cutting-edge video processing reportedly enables “powerful picture features made for the movie buffs, sports fans, and avid gamers.” Although these projectors boast professional-level features and performance, they are residential products designed to be installed in home theater and media rooms. 

These new projectors are part of Sony’s comprehensive new BRAVIA-branded lineup of TVs, soundbars, and other home audio products (including the impressive Sony BRAVIA Theater Quad wireless home theater system). Sony hopes to simplify the shopping process by consolidating many of its latest and greatest products under the BRAVIA name, which carries with it a promise to “enhance the authenticity of cinematic content, delivering impressive picture and sound at home as the filmmakers intended,” according to the company. The naming convention certainly helps make model numbers easy to remember; Sony’s two 2024 TVs are also called the BRAVIA 8 (using an OLED panel from LG Display) and BRAVIA 9 (a mini-LED TV using Sony’s own innovative backlighting technology).

Sony BRAVIA Projector 8 and Projector 9: Picture Quality

The BRAVIA Projector 8 and BRAVIA Projector 9 4K HDR laser projectors are the first home theater projectors to utilize Sony’s XR Processor for Projector. This advanced video processor reportedly “examines thousands of elements simultaneously, integrating them to deliver images with unmatched depth and clarity.” The XR Processor for Projector encompasses a suite of technologies, including XR Dynamic Tone Mapping, XR Deep Black, XR Triluminos Pro, and XR Clear Image.

According to Sony, XR Dynamic Tone Mapping “optimizes brightness frame-by-frame,” using the responsive laser light source to deliver optimal tone-mapping and showcase images with “rich gradation, high brightness, and authentic colors.” This advanced HDR tone-mapping and SDR upscaling functionality is “informed by (Sony’s) production expertise,” with the result being vibrant and lifelike visuals with smooth gradations, according to the company.

XR Deep Black is designed to control the system’s powerful laser dimming in dark scenes, reportedly resulting in deeper blacks while maintaining tone and color expression. XR Deep Black technology analyzes and enhances dark scenes by “leveraging the ultimate blacks and powerful adaptive laser light source brightness control” available in both the BRAVIA Projector 8 and BRAVIA Projector 9. Sony says that competing solutions sacrifice color expression or specular highlights in the name of achieving deep blacks. With XR Deep Black, these elements are reportedly better maintained, resulting in more realistic and immersive scenes.

XR Triluminos Pro is another technology adapted from Sony’s acclaimed BRAVIA TVs. According to Sony, XR Triluminos Pro “deeply scans color composition at the pixel level, remapping saturation and brightness from a palette of over a billion colors.” Incorporating technologies to deliver high brightness, XR Triluminos Pro is said to expand color volume and sharpen details in order to deliver “breathtaking, true-to-life images that push the boundaries of projection technology.” The final picture is refined and redefined by XR Clear Image technology, which upscales all imagery to 4K resolution using a vast database to “recreate lost texture and detail, all while minimizing noise,” according to Sony. XR Clear Image technology enhances textures and reduces noise for “perfect clarity,” even from less-than-perfect sources.

The XR Processor for Projector also performs advanced depth mapping to create “a sense of depth and realism that makes each frame more immersive.” With depth mapping, the XR Processor identifies and enhances focal points, automatically sharpening these key areas for “clear, engaging images.” The XR Processor in the BRAVIA Projector 9 also uses a feature called Live Color Enhancer to provide “more vivid and vibrant images” without compromising on saturation for elements like skin colors, which can be especially difficult to recreate naturally. While other projectors can suffer from washed-out images (especially in ambient light), Sony says that the advanced algorithms used by Live Color Enhancer re-balance colors perfectly, enabling the BRAVIA Projector 9 to “deliver the full vibrance of a sunset or the brilliance of neon lights.” Because tones are selectively enhanced, the ability to bring such scenes to life with striking realism does not come at the expense of natural skin colors, organic tones, and deep blacks, according to the company.

A wide color gamut is nothing without the precise control to deliver it across luminance levels. Our wide color volume reproduces 95% of the cinema benchmark DCI-P3. As brightness increases, the color volume expands, preserving vivid hues without washing out, even at peak brightness.

—Sony

Sony BRAVIA Projector 8 and Projector 9: Laser Light, Designed for the Home  

Both new projectors are equipped with Sony’s unique Laser light source, promising enhanced brightness in a relatively compact and lightweight design. The BRAVIA Projector 9 delivers up to 3,400 lumens, while the BRAVIA Projector 8 offers up to 2,700 lumens. While gaming chops are not a requirement in the professional projectors used in commercial cinemas, any high-end projector designed for home use must accommodate the needs of gamers — especially when it comes from the manufacturer responsible for the best-selling high-performance gaming console, the PlayStation 5. The BRAVIA Projector 8 and Projector 9 both offer 4K/120fps with an impressively-low 12ms input lag, plus ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) via two HDMI 2.1 inputs. Together, these features provide “the necessary smooth and clear movement for responsive and immersive gameplay,” according to Sony.

We are thrilled to bring these two new BRAVIA Projectors to the market, as these new offerings showcase the depth of Sony’s experience of more than 50 years of bringing cinema home to our customers. With the technology of our Sony BRAVIA XR Processor now powering our projectors, these enhanced new products demonstrate our continued mission to ensure customers can enjoy the excitement and immersion of a professional-grade cinematic viewing experience from their very own home.

— Christopher Mullins, Home Cinema Product Manager for Professional Displays and Solutions, Sony Electronics

Environmentally Friendly Projectors?

As you can read in my colleague Wayde Robson’s article EU Regulation to KILL Lamp Projectors for Mercury Hazards, many governments (including in my home state of California) are cracking down on consumer electronics for their energy consumption and for their use of hazardous substances, like mercury. Both the BRAVIA Projector 8 and Projector 9 are built with a mercury-free laser light source, and both deliver improved power efficiency thanks to the XR Deep Black feature, which optimally controls laser output, frame by frame, in order to reduce energy consumption without compromising performance. Sony says that the company is committed to “providing more sustainably-operating solutions to the market.”

Given that the BRAVIA Projector 8 and BRAVIA Projector 9 were launched at CEDIA, it’s no surprise that Sony is stressing the projectors’ custom installer–friendly features, such as compatibility with home automation systems like Control4, Crestron, Savant, and AMX. The projectors are also compatible with remote maintenance services OvrC and Domotz. Custom installers can also dial in picture geometry using the corner keystone correction and lens-shift functions, allowing the projectors to be installed in rooms with challenging conditions, such as higher ceilings and limited depth.

Gene's Thoughts on the New Sony Projector 8 & 9 vs Last Gen Models

I spent the past year using the Sony VPL-XW6000ES projector in an AH Smarthome RBH Sound/Storm Audio 9.5.6 theater system. This projector was a significant upgrade in video performance, particularly in black level, color depth, and sharpness compared to my older and much less expensive Epson 6050UB. The Sony provides considerably more light output than the Epson, which was critical in my theater room since the projector is positioned 23 feet from a 150" 16:9 Severtson AT screen. Despite the Epson being rated at a slightly higher lumen output than the Sony (2600 for the Epson vs. 2500 for the Sony), I was pleasantly surprised by how much brighter the Sony was in my setup especially for HDR content. It made me realize that Sony is more conservative in rating lumen output than some competitors, much like how BMW often under-reports horsepower compared to many Japanese car brands.

The inky black levels  and color vibrancy allowed for an almost holographic effect, especially when watching high-quality music videos from artists like Ariana Grande or composers like Hans Zimmer. HDR on the Sony 6000ES looks absolutely stunning with native 4K content on Kaleidescape, with movies like Dune and Top Gun Maverick offering a fully immersive experience in both sight and sound. I also appreciated that the noise level was about 3 dB lower than my Epson, making it even harder to hear the projector from the front row of my theater room.

One area where I felt there could be improvement with the Sony 6000ES projector is in dynamic tone mapping, an area where the similarly priced JVC DLA-NZ8 holds an advantage. However, if the improvements discussed in this article apply to Sony's new Projector 8 and 9 models, it appears that Sony has addressed this, making them true competitors to the latest JVC projectors in every regard. In fact, Sony may have the edge in processing for streaming, sports, low-bit-rate content, low-resolution content, and motion handling. Sony projectors also tend to come better calibrated out of the box than JVC, which can be a bit more finicky to optimize for picture quality. With that said, I plan to swap out my 6000ES projector for the new Projector 8 to see just how much better the picture can be—hopefully without needing to add a third-party video processor like Lumagen or MadVR.

Both the BRAVIA Projector 8 and BRAVIA Projector 9 are available to order now from authorized Sony projector dealers like our friends at Audio Advice.

More information: Sony

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