THE FRONT LINE: SEPTEMBER 18, 2007
CEDIA EXPO 2007
CEDIA 2007 would probably sound like a pretty dull show if you heard that the big news was a bunch of upgrades to projectors, flat panels, and HD format disc drives. But that’s just what it was and it was anything but dull. That’s particularly true because many of the next generation revisions built on already critically acclaimed displays.
LCOS PROJECTOR UPGRADES
JVC and Sony have both done very well with their respective LCoS-based, 1080p home theater projectors and both introduced new versions that go even higher-end. JVC launched the new sub-$8,000 DLA-HD100 (also to be sold at the DLA-RS2 by JVC Professional) that builds on the image quality of highly touted JVC DLA-HD1 (a.k.a. DLA-RS1).
Figure 1. JVC’s new DLA-HD100 is claimed to have 30,000:1 contrast.
A modified light engine doubles contrast from 15,000:1 to 30,000:1 without the dynamic iris many companies use to achieve numbers such high ratios. The HD100 will also be one of several new CEDIA projectors to jump on last year’s anamorphic lens bandwagon. JVC also announced ClearMotion Drive II, the company’s second-generation 120Hz technology for LCD panels that, in a side-by-side demo against three competitors, showed dramatically less latency and greater clarity in higher motion content.
Sony’s SXRD version of LCoS is the engine that drives last year's big Sony news, the VPL-VW50 and the two-year-old VLP-VW100, and now the VPL-VW200 (roughly $15,000), too. With a new Carl Zeiss Vario-Tesar lens, a Xenon lamp, and an anamorphic lens option, Sony claims that the VW200 will achieve dynamic contrast ratios of as much as 35,000:1, as well as more accurate and richer colors. A second, more affordable SXRD-based model, the VPL-VW60 replaces the current VW50.
3LCD PROJECTOR UPGRADES
3LCD technology made some serious noise, in terms of both image quality and remarkable sub-$4,000 street prices on 1080p models. Panasonic’s new PT-AE2000 ($5,999 MSRP, but $3,999 MAP) improves on the brightness and contrast of the already-impressive AE1000 to 1500 lumens and a 16,000:1 contrast thanks to an improved dynamic iris. Improved panels make any screen door effect almost invisible.
Similarly, Mitsubishi’s new HC6000 will improve on the dynamic iris speed of the current HC5000 (which could see close-out prices in the low $3,000 range), thus achieving dynamic contrast up to 13,000:1. And Epson’s new native-1080p, PowerLite Pro Cinema 1080 UB incorporates manual lens shift for easy installation and a new UltraBlack technology that Epson claims will get contrast as high as 50,000:1, while at the same time improving video processing (12-bit) and brightness (1600 lumens). And it, too, will have an anamorphic lens option.
Figure 2. Epson’s Ensemble 1080p projection system incorporates the surround
speakers into a front screen and the projector’s ceiling mount.
Epson was showing a unique installation bundle, the Ensemble HD, that has Atlantic Technology center, left, and right speakers built directly in the housing of the companion pulldown projection screen. The projector itself sits in a shelf that incorporates the built-in rear left and right speakers.
Also LCD-based, the PLV-Z2000 is Sanyo first native 1080p projector (thus not one of the many CEDIA “upgrades”), but it will come out with a bang at $2,995,95. And it will be the least expensive 1080p projector with horizontal and vertical (manual) lens shift.
DLP PROJECTOR UPGRADES
Texas Instruments launched DarkChip4, although anyone with a critical eye walking by the TI should have been horrified by TI’s presentation of it. Never the masters of subtlety, TI had a DarkChip4 RPTV and a single-chip front projector on display both set on “Dynamic” mode. That made the looping clips of college football games look like they were being played on florescent green fields with the players wearing day-glow red, yellow, and maroon jerseys.
For a much better take on DarkChip4, the Sim2 booth was showing a more properly configured new single-chip DLP model, the HT3000 HOST ($19,995, October 2007). It uses DarkChip4 and BilliantColor technology with a six-segment (RGBCMY) color wheel, as well as a new unique Sim2 technology, Unishape, which modulates lamp brightness on a frame basis to accentuate the color range dark and bright screens. Sim2’s new 3-chip C3X 1080 ($29,999, November) has 10-bit processing and very rich image quality and set-up control.
Figure 3. The Italian-made C3X 1080p from Sim2 will
launch at $30,000 in red, gold, black, and Sim2 "Gunmetal."
Figure 4. The blue laser wars continue unabated with
new players from Toshiba, LG, Samsung, and Sharp.
OTHER UPGRADES
Next generation HD DVD (for as little as $299) from Toshiba and Blu-ray players from several companies including Sharp were also on display at CEDIA, all boasting native film 24 fps modes and HDMI 1.3 interfaces. The most noteworthy, given the unceasing format war, was LG’s second generation SuperBlu player that fully supports HD DVD and all HD DVD interactivity.
Among the many next generation flat panels, the most intriguing, at least technologically, was Samsung’s LN-T4681F that uses banks of LEDs instead of florescent backlights. That’s not new, but at CEDIA Samsung was showing a new SmartLighting technology that modulates LED brightness to accentuate contrast.
However, instead of modulated brightness across the entire screen, SmartLighting modulates the individual LED banks in different sectors of the screen within a given frame. That sounds a lot like what Brightside Technologies was doing a few years ago, but Samsung’s 40-, 46-, 52-, and 57-inch LCDs ($2,999–7,999) carry prices premiums of between 15–20% rather than 15–20 times the price of a standard LCD pane.
For gamers, there was also a surprising amount of 3D glasses around the show floor, showing of stereoscopic capabilities, primarily for gaming. And no fewer that three companies were highlighting LCD product designs with thinner bezels, the idea being that a bigger, more expensive panel would fit in old CRT-oriented TV cabinets. Sharp and LG also showed next-generation LCD that are about half as deep as current models.
