Projectors are awesome. Ultrahuge screen, reasonably low price. We've reviewed a few here recently that were fantastic. There are three different technologies projectors use to create an image: DLP, LCD, and LCoS (as shown in the image above).
What's the best? Let's compare.… Read more
Rear-projection TV is dead, and there's little reason to think the technology will pull a Lazarus anytime soon.
On Monday Mitsubishi confirmed it has already ceased production of its last RPTVs, and told Twice.com that inventory is almost gone.
"The decision to exit the category was based on lack of profitability in the big-screen TV business," according to Max Wasinger, executive VP at Mitsubishi Electric Video Sales America. "MEVSA will honor all product warranties. Consumer relations will continue to support consumers and dealers' product service related needs." He added that there are no plans … Read more
The other day I wrote an article titled "When should I upgrade my HDTV?" The general thought was that TV performance, while not exactly hitting a plateau, had slowed enough that TVs even a few years old perform pretty close to the new models.
In the world of front projection, though, it's an entirely different story. The level of performance you can get for very little money is incredible. What were once considered "budget level" projectors now easily outperform $10,000+ models from just a few years ago.
Time to upgrade? Perhaps.… Read more
Despite reviewing TVs for a living, I don't actually own a TV. The last TV I bought was a 27-inch CRT, in the summer of 2000.
Instead, I do all my TV and movie watching on a 102-inch screen. It's epic. And a projector doesn't have to cost a lot of money, nor is it difficult to set up.
The pros and cons of projection (and why you really, really want it), after the jump.… Read more
When Sony's SXRD technology came out in 2005, first in expensive front projectors and then in rear-projection models starting with the ridiculously overpriced Qualia 006, we liked it a lot. That basic evaluation hasn't changed much over the years, but the realities of the market have, forcing Sony to axe its rear-projection SXRD line--along with all of its other RPTVs--and make the excellent KDS-A3000 series the last of the breed. But SXRD still has a place among front-projectors, and that's a good thing.
At $3500 list, the company's VPL-HW10 represents a new low price point for SXRD projectors, but this PJ hits plenty of performance high notes. It evinced the same deep blacks we've come to expect from the technology, and it even improved on the color accuracy of last year's excellent--and more expensive--VPL-VW60.
What's not to like? Well, if you have a huge screen, don't expect the little HW10 to get bright enough, but we're talking larger than 92 inches wide. Even with that caveat, and some minor performance gripes, the "bargain SXRD" is easily the best projector in its price class we've tested so far.
Around the holiday season we get a lot of e-mails from readers agonizing over what TV to buy. With the economy the way it is, consumers aren't completely shying away from buying new TVs, but they're on tight budgets and appear to be predominantly interested in screen sizes 52 inches or smaller. The big problem with going bigger is that you jump into a whole new price class when you start looking at the Panasonic 58-inch plasma--and it gets worse when you check out Pioneer's 60-incher.
The exception to all this is DLP-based rear-projection HDTVs, where Samsung … Read more
Around the holiday season we get a lot of e-mails from readers agonizing over what TV to buy. With the economy the way it is, consumers aren't completely shying away from buying new TVs, but they're on tight budgets and appear to be predominantly interested screen sizes 52 inches or smaller. The big problem with going bigger is that you jump into a whole new price class when you start looking at the Panasonic 58-inch plasma--and it gets worse when you check out Pioneer's 60-incher. The exception to all this is DLP-based rear-projection HDTVs, where Samsung … Read more
Sony has stopped producing SXRD-based rear-projection HDTVs, but its lineup of front projectors using the company's proprietary projection technology has just been expanded.
The more-expensive of the two SXRD models introduced today at CEDIA is the newest member of the so-called "Pearl" models, technically called the VPL-VW70 (November, $8,000 street). It improves upon the current Pearl, the VPL-VW60 we reviewed earlier this year with a higher contrast ratio (60,000:1 vs. 35,000:1), and since the two projectors' lumens ratings remain the same at 1,000, we guess that the improved contrast ratio indicates … Read more
Will rear-projection TV sales plunge to near zero within the next 48 months? That's what a new study from IDC Group claims. With ever larger plasma and (especially) LCD flat-panel HDTVs becoming ever more affordable, IDC sees sales of RPTV sets--those utilizing DLP and LCoS microdisplays--dropping to under 30,000 units by 2011. That's a dramatic drop from the peak of 3.51 million sold in 2004 (according to the CEA).
None of this is shocking news, of course--the trend toward flat panels has been increasingly irreversible as large plasmas and LCD screens continue to break key price-point … Read more
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