LCD/DLP Projectors
Dear Gary: I’ve been following the HDTV debacle (may I label it that?) for over ten years, and especially through your essential magazine these past several. Now it’s here, sort of, and I’m painfully reading Joe Kane’s trials and tribulations as consumer electronics manufacturers deliver arguably half-baked “DTV-ready” products to market. One class of potentially DTV-capable video equipment that gets relatively little attention in Widescreen Review are the LCD/DLP projectors. I conjecture that they are largely ignored for good reasons, but I want to make sure I understand why. I have seen a smattering of current LCD/ DLP units at various Hi-Fi stores, and while I can’t depend on the salespeople to have anything useful to contribute, some of the displays have certainly LOOKED promising. $6,000 to $12,000 buys an extremely compact, lightweight 1024x768 LCD or DLP projector these days. Progressive DVD vendor RKR VIDEO claims to have seen “good results” pairing their devices with LCD/DLP projectors. Of course they would say that. A 1024x768 projector should be able to render 720p (although the horizontal resolution might be compromised), thus meeting a basic Joe Kane criterion. However, there are many other issues regarding these devices that are difficult to get meaningful perspective on, such as color performance, dynamic range, etc. I’m an example of a class of Widescreen Review readers that isn’t in a position to spring for a $15-40,000 CRT projector rig, but might be able to consider one of these LCD/DLP devices. So, here’s hoping I could persuade Widescreen Review to comment in a little detail about the LCD/DLP situation.
Martin Doudoroff, New York City
Video Technical Editorial Director Joe Kane Comments:
I certainly haven’t seen all of the LCD/DLP combinations available. The ones in the $30K to $90K price range have looked promising. Runco has a single chip DLP of which I’ve heard some good reports, but I have not had a chance to look at it in detail. Shy of a $15K CRT projector, I’ve only seen one good DTV display device; that’s the Princeton AF3.0HD direct view monitor. I haven’t seen anything good under its $4.1K price tag. Editor Gary Reber Comments: The Sony, which is a featured review in next Issue 39, looks to be at the head of a new class of LCD projectors that deliver good pictures.
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