Thomas J. Norton over at ultimate AV almost gushes over Fujitsu’s LPF-D711W LCD video projector. Actually, it’s a two-piece system - the projector and the processor, which includes an HDMI input. The projector uses 3 LCD panels, one for each of the primary colours. The kicker is that each of the panels has a resolution of 1920 by 1080. It’s great to see more and more 1080p devices coming out. The set goes for about 25 grand, but Mr. Norton loves it anyway:

More important, I found the Fujitsu a sheer pleasure to watch. I can’t count the number of times I sat down to perform a few tests and, four hours, numerous clips, and perhaps a movie or two later, finally dragged myself away, with a grin on my face and the intended tests yet to be run. I never thought I’d find an LCD projector to be serious competition for the best video displays I’ve ever experienced, but the Fujitsu is that, and more.

Link: ultimate AV - Fujitsu LPF-D711W LCD Video Projector and LPF-QSD1W AV Selector

At the Society for Information Display (SID) 2005 show this week, Samsung will be strutting its stuff.

They’ll be showing off an 82″ (no typo) LCD display, with a response time of 8ms or less. (Great for moving video, one of LCD’s traditional weaknesses.) They’ll also be showing off a 46″ LCD panel using LEDs to backlight the display. As mentioned in another article, they’ll also be showing off their 40″ HDTV OLED display.

Link: ultimate AV - LCD & LED @ SID

[Update 07jun05: more from ultimate AV]

LCOS is a famously hard technology to get right. Intel announced that they were getting into LCOS but then shelved the project. Toshiba tried a couple LCOS sets that were actually released to market, but gave up on them too. Sony is making a successful LCOS run with their SXRD technology, which is basically their version of LCOS. And JVC is doing the same with D-ILA, another LCOS product.

Now Hitachi is getting into the act with some 1080p LCOS sets. Read the rest of this entry »

Hitachi has announced its newest plasma models, including one with IEEE 1394 support.

Hitachi America today debuts its 2005 line of HDTVs. The newest offerings include the HDX62, HDT52, and Ultra HDS52 series of plasma displays. The UltraVision HDS52 Plasma HDTV Series features the VirtualHD 1080p II digital video processor, which, Hi-tachi promises, will deliver a sharp, smooth and seamless image, and Learning AV NET IV interface, which uses on-screen software keys to control up to four external components (like DVD players and VCRs) with one interface.

Link: Yahoo! News - Hitachi Debuts New Plasma HDTVs

Projector Central has a review of the Optoma H79 DLP projector. It has a 1280×720 DMD with a 5x eight-segment colour wheel. It includes a DVI-I port but no HDMI.

Supposedly this projector has excellent black levels:

Contrast on the H79 was nothing short of astounding – black level is the best we’ve seen short of a CRT projector. Shadow details are open and well-defined, and there is no crushing of the grayscale on either end of the spectrum.

No mention is made of how bad the rainbow effect might be.

Link: Projector Central - Optoma H79 Home Theater Projector

As demand slows, RPTV prices are falling. 50″ RPTVs are now available for under $2000US, and 60″ models are now available for less than $3000US. In the fourth quarter of 2004 Sony had the largest RPTV marketshare at 32.6%, followed by Samsung.

Link: DigiTimes - Demand slows for RPTVs, dragging down prices

RPTV’s prices aren’t the only ones falling. Plasma and LCD prices are coming down too.

Manufacturers of large sets over 40 inches using either liquid crystal (LCD) and plasma (PDP) technology are spending aggressively on technology to make cheaper sets and draw consumers away from boxy, smaller cathode-ray TVs.

Consumer tech giants such as Sony and LG Electronics are sacrificing profit for market share, analysts say.

A 42″ HDTV Plasma typically sells for around $4000, while a similar LCD display will sell for $5000.

Link: Reuters - Bigger, thinner, cheaper; TV price war heats up

Universal Display has announced the development of the world’s first high resolution (200dpi) transparent OLED display.

The development of this high-resolution transparent OLED display is a step toward putting thin, low power, full-motion video displays that provide transparency when turned off into a variety of applications where preserving partial visibility or bi-directionality is important. These include architectural vision glass, entertainment, medical and industrial products, helmet shields for military, Homeland Security, fire and rescue applications, and other applications as yet unimagined.

Link: Audioholics - Universal Display First to Achieve 200 dpi Transparent OLED

Two of the most popular television technologies are, of course, DLP and LCD. Each has their own pluses and minuses, and they aren’t necessarily the same. One of DLP’s problems is the rainbow effect that’s caused by the spinning colour wheel. And one of LCD’s problems is the vertical banding effect. Vertical banding, though, doesn’t happen with every LCD display.

Projector Central discusses the issue.

Link: Projector Central - LCD vertical banding or DLP rainbows?

There are many companies behind the Blu-ray effort, and this has paid off in the form of quick advances in manufacturing processes.

“There are a lot of companies trying to stake out a position in various aspects of BD-ROM manufacturing,” said Kazuhiro Tsuga, executive officer of Matsushita Electric. “As a result, we are seeing multitudes of improvements in processes and technology, as well as the effects of economies of scale that make replication extremely cost effective.”

An interesting fact of note is that Fox is keeping a close eye on Blu-ray. Fox hasn’t officially announced support for either Blu-ray (even though it’s a member of the Blu-ray Disc Association) or HD-DVD, so its decision is an important one.

“Fox is pleased to see the increasing number of technology companies and materials vendors committing to Blu-ray implementation, which is reducing costs to promising levels through technological breakthroughs and innovation,” said Danny Kaye, SVP Technology and Research Strategy at Twentieth Century Fox. “We look forward to continued technological progress along with developments in content protection.”

Link: Yahoo! Finance - Blu-ray Disc Ready for Cost Effective Manufacturing
Link: The Inquirer - Blu-ray disks ready for mass production

engadget is reporting that when talking about how the broadcast flag will make devices like TVs, DVRs, and other recording devices not work together, “Rick Lane, vice president of government affairs at News Corp, gets up and declares flat out that ‘compatibility is not a goal,’ and then goes on to talk about how lots of different consumer electronics aren’t interoperable. ”

Harumph. Yup, they don’t care. Rather short-sighted, but then that’s nothing new.

Link: engadget - TV execs don’t care whether or not the Broadcast Flag makes watching TV more frustrating

Marantz is shipping its flagship SR9600 A/V receiver with two IEEE 1394 ports and HDMI switching. With DVD players, upcoming gaming consoles, and STBs all sporting HDMI connectors, being able to switch these signals is becoming more and more important.

Frankly, I think all receivers that aren’t targetting the low end of the market needs these connectors. Manufacturers are seriously behind the curve on this one.

Link: HomeToys - Marantz to Ship its Flagship SR9600 A/V Receiver

Microsoft is making available some HD videos of their Xbox 360 games.

Some of the trailers include clips of Call of Duty 2, Final Fantasy XI, Test Drive Unlimited, and The Darkness. If you can pump these HD videos into your HDTV, all the better! You’ll need at least 384MB of RAM with a 2.4GHz processor.

Link: Microsoft - Xbox High-Definition Videos

As well, Hit Start announced that they will produce 100 HD videos of the E3 2005 show. This series of videos will be available at FileShack and will be called “E3 in HD” (original, no?).

Link: Games Domain - E3 Goes High Def

Bios Magazine has a quick overview of the JVC DLA-HX2E. This is a D-ILA (aka LCOS) projector with a resolution of 1400×788. It has a contrast ratio of 1500:1 and brightness of 500 ANSI Lumens. It uses three D-ILA chips, so no colour-wheel is required. LCOS projectors are known for their cinema-like smoothness, and supposedly this one is no different.

Link: Bios Magazine - JVC Brings Hollywood Home With New Projector

ultimate AV’s coverage of the Samsung SP-H700AE DLP projector, on the other hand, is not just a quick overview. ultimate AV has always known how to do reviews right, and they don’t skimp out here. Joe Kane helped Samsung design this projector, so you know it’s gotta be good. The projector has a manual focus and zoom and a lens shift feature, albeit just a vertical one. Note that the Genesis processor in this projector deinterlaces 1080i to 1080p before scaling down to 720p.

Has the era of single-chip, HD2+ DLP projectors that cost over $10,000 receded into history? Not quite yet; the Samsung SP-H700AE may be one of the last of the breed, but it’s also one of the best. Perhaps even more important, it’s a model of how all video displays should be designed in terms of calibration and color accuracy. Manufacturers take note!

Link: ultimate AV - Samsung SP-H700AE DLP Projector

3LCD projectors are just LCD projectors that use 3 LCD panels. This is how these projectors avoid the use of a colour wheel, one of the biggest problems with DLP projectors, which aren’t so easily adaptable to a 3 panel system. But one of the main complaints against LCD technology has always been the bad black levels. (This has been a criticism of DLP too, but not to the same degree.) Black levels are very important, because if you can’t reproduce true black, then how will you show a range of levels from white down to black if you never get there? Shadow detail is lost and the picture won’t look like the original source material. Night-time and dark scenes are especially compromised by poor black levels. Recently dynamic irises have helped the problem, but Epson may have an even better solution. Read the rest of this entry »

We all heard last week how things aren’t going so well in negotiations to form a single unified HD disc format. The talks had broken down, and Matsushita said they were dead. But efforts are still proceeding at several levels. Read the rest of this entry »