Sony

Sony was one of the pioneers of flat screen front projection TV’s. Sony made a series of wooden box KP-XXXX in the early to mid 1980’s that were designed to be projected onto a 6’ curved screen, and later these could also be used on a  flat screen. Video only projectors, and most had a speaker and TV tuner built in. Very reliable sets, but I have not seen one in years.

Sony came out with their first flat screen CRT video projector in about 1983-1984 called the VPH-722. Later this model became the VPH-1020 and 2020, with little differences between each of these. 7” Sony Es focus tubes, analog convergence, 500 lumens or so. Convection cooled, very reliable, and occasionally I still sell these sets.

Between 1986 and 1996 Sony came out with a number of their 10XX series, including the VPH-1020, 2020, 1030, 1031, 1040, 1041, 1042, 1044, 1000, and 1001. With the exception of the 1030 and 1031, these were all video grade sets, had analog convergence and had slight variations between the models. Some had S-video inputs, some had slightly brighter tubes, etc. etc. All very reliable sets, small footprint, and most had 2 or 3 small cooling fans in them. 600 to 750 lumens. In general, the higher the model number, the newer it was, but that changed with the introduction of the 1000 and 1001 in about 1995. I have no idea why Sony changed their numbering sequence...All of the above sets used Sony 7” ES focus tubes.

The Sony 1030 and 1031 scanned to 26 Khz and 36 Khz respectively. Other than that, the overall picture was very similar to the rest of the 10XX series.

Sony 1031

In 1990, Sony introduced a higher end model, the 1270. It came out in 5 different versions from 1990 to 1997, the 1270, 1271, 272, 1251 and 1252. All had slight variations of the same basic chassis, and all used Sony 8” ES focusing tubes. The 1270 had 650 lumens and 75 Khz scanning rate,  the 1251 had 56 Khz scanning rate and 750 lumens, the 1252 had 61,5 Khz scanning rate and 750 lumens.

Each of these sets had 9 zones of fine convergence adjustments within the digital convergence settings. 

The 1252 and 1272 had 65 and 92 Khz scanning rate respectively, and had 21 points of fine tuning, making these sets a bit more desirable for high definition installations. For all intents and purposes though, the entire 12XX line had identical pictures up to line tripling.

The Sony 1292 was introduced in 1995 as Sony’s flagship model. 110 Khz scan rate, 1200 lumens, 21 point digital convergence, and 9” EM focus tubes. the basic image was very similar to the 12XX series, but the larger tubes and EM focus made for a razor sharp picture. Very large and heavy beasts.

Sony 1252

The entire Sony 12XX line of projectors is known to be quite noisy due to the fans used to cool the projector. The 1292 is even noisier than the other models due to a total of 14 fans. A  hush box is recommended for these Sony's if the noise bothers you.

In about 1997, Sony changed their projector line-up, and introduced the Sony D50, D70, G70 and G90 models, The D series was 7” ES focusing, the G70 was 8” EM focusing and the G90 was 9” EM focusing. All were significantly quieter than the 12XX series, had expanded digital convergence set ups, and gave an excellent picture. The G70 and G90 have LC tubes.

All of the later Sony models have component inputs along with video, S-video and RGB, and had options available for internal line doublers. There are far fewer modules and parts available for the later Sony sets on the used market than the earlier 12XX series sets.

Sony strengths and weaknesses

Sony D50

The entire Sony line-up of projectors is known for their reliability, and failures during normal use are far and few between. The 10XX series was not really designed as a modular set, and thus the in field troubleshooting and repair is difficult. Almost all of these sets have to be sent to a service tech when a failure occurs. Power supply and convergence board problems are the most common source of failure.

Failures of fans have been seen, bad solder joints occur, and the odd component failure does happen, but in general Sony parts from Sony are less expensive than the equivalent from Barco. Again, there are many surplus Sony projectors on the market, and good used parts are easy to find.

The Sony manuals are extremely well written and setup is almost as easy as the Barcos.

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