Your next projector (or first projector?) may very well not have a lamp in it. Texas Instruments recently showed off some prototype devices using what it’s calling “PhlatLight” LED lighting. Cool, it’s like the “F” in FlatLight is actually “Ph” instead. That’s both radical and extreme at the same time. Anyhoo, TI claims that this new technology will eliminate the need to replace projector bulbs and filters, so that oughta save everyone a nice chunk o’ change. Units containing the new awesomely-named PhlatLight technology will be shipping “in late 2008,” according to the company. Texas Instruments also announced “the world’s first DLP 3-D front projector product,” which has a 120Hz refresh rate and 1,400 x 1,050 resolution. It’ll be used “for the demanding scientific visualisation, simulation and entertainment environments.” Finally, those Pico-Projectors we’ve all been waiting for will finally be made into actual products. They’ll start to show up in Europe and Asia later this year, with the rest of the world to get them early next year. → Read More
When Devin and Matt were in town for the CrunchNetwork party we decided to go and see Iron Man on opening day. When I was picking the venue on Fandango I decided to opt for the DLP projection room and I’m glad I did. I couldn’t really put my finger on it, but it just looked better. It was brighter and crisper. DLP makes good stuff. Today, TI announced that the DLP group has implemented the world’s first WUXGA DLP chip into the F10 and F30 projectors. The new chip boasts a native resolution of 1,920×1,200 in a 16:10 aspect ratio. Hot diggity, TI. → Read More
Remember the Laser TV from Mitsubishi that was unveiled at CES? Well, Mitsu finally dated and named the new fangled TV this morning. The LaserVue will launch Q3, but still no word on pricing. Along with news of the LaserVue, Mitsu announced a slew of new 1080p DLP HDTVs ranging in size from 60- to 73-inches dubbed Diamond. The Diamond series features 120Hz, something called Dark Detailer for high contrast images and Blue Light Accent. These DLP sets will be available this month. → Read More
Isn’t OMSI cool looking? IMAX theaters are set to rid themselves of 70mm film and replace it with TI’s fancy DLP Cinema digital movie files for 2D and 3D movies. So I guess those cool viewing bays with the film going around are now obsolete, which is kind of sad because that was neat to look at while waiting on line. At least it was at the OMSI in Portland. But the DLP cinema projectors will surely do a bang up job. IMAX Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs Richard L. Gelfond and Bradley J. Wechsler went ahead and said, “We’ve evaluated competing cinema projection technology and found DLP Cinema to be the ideal match for IMAX.” → Read More
[photopress:ti_pico_dlp.jpg,full,center] Remember those microprojector chips TI was working on? The ones that could potentially implant tiny DLP picoprojectors into mobile phones? They’ve entered production and should “hit the street”, as we bloggers say, sometime in the middle of this year. That means they might — just might — make it into production models in time for the Xmas season. You know you want to project video from your iPhone. I know I do. Texas Instruments’ Pico chipsets go into production – projection coming to mobile phones in 2008? [Tech Digest] → Read More
We have received word of a new display technology to be demonstrated at CES. It’s called DualView, and it apparently “it allows two opponents to view their action in full screen rather than a split playing screen.” Well, if you are playing online that is not usually a problem, but same-TV deathmatch has had this problem for years in games like Goldeneye and Mario Kart, not to mention that game with that Monsieur Chief guy in it. What do you guys think it is? Two players both get to use the whole screen. I’m going to guess it’s some kind of refractive layer that splits the image’s projection, so each player gets the whole screen, but only every other pixel or whatever. In any case, it might be awesome, and we’ll give you the whole story in a couple days. → Read More
Looking for an ultra high-end 1080p home cinema projector that you won’t want to hide in a cabinet? Well, Sim2 seems to own this category and the latest edition is now shipping and it looks great. I had the opportunity to check them out and see David Lynch in full HD from his home in California (I think). He loves the Sim2 and picked them out of a handful of other high-end projectors. The C3X 1080 is the smallest and most powerful full HD 3 chip projector available today. It certainly owes a lot to TI’s DLP DarkChip 4 that enables it to output such great video. → Read More
I’m sure you’ve seen the DLP commercials floating around and you may have wondered what the fuss was about, right? It’s quite simple, really. DLP technology is wicked fast thanks to all the crazy mirrors that are involved. It has an eight-microsecond response time and a refresh rate up to 300hz and tends to be 1,000 times faster than most other HDTVs. Still not sure what’s going on? Just watch Mr. 720 do his thing. → Read More
Just dropped $500 on that fancy Blu-ray player and want to get the most out of it? Try out the InFocus Play Big IN82 projector and see if it holds up to your high standards. This $5500 bad boy uses a single DarkChip3 processor to achieve native 1080p playback with Blu-ray and HD DVD. Throw in HDMI 1.3 and you have yourself one hell of a home theater. What makes the IN82 shine though is the dynamic adjustments that can be made to the iris. A variable contrast ratio runs from 4000:1 all the way to 12,000:1, allowing for perfect picture quality and precise calibration of colors. A 1500-lumen bulb is included and DVI and VGA inputs are available for late night Quake Wars matches. Looks like InFocus is one of the big boys now. InFocus rolls its first 1080p DLP home projector [Electronista] → Read More
This year’s CES featured a super-secret demo (read: no media) of a tech that just might save DLP: 3D. According to our source, the 2007 Samsung Slim DLP HDTVs will be capable of handing “future 3D games, movies, and other programming via compatible glasses and hardware.” That’s fine, but not if it’s no better than playing Rad Racer on the NES with those awful 3D glasses. Luckily, our demo-attending source tells us the tech is “mind-blowing” and “literally one of the coolest things” he has ever seen. → Read More
