Sony G90 manual To recreate the theater experience in the home

to recreate the theater experience in the home.

The dominant display technology today for home-theater

screens larger than 40” diagonal is CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)

projection. It is used in almost every rear-projection TV and

most HDTVs just recently introduced. But it is an old technol-

ogy near its limit and its days are numbered. The display

industry, driven by the desire of business professionals to

make presentations in fully lit rooms, has been hard at work

replacing CRT projection with brighter and friendlier alterna-

tives. These alternatives are Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) pro-

jection and Digital Light Processing (DLP), the latter invented

by Texas Instruments. Both of these technologies use discrete

pixels to form images and both use a lamp as the source of the

light projected on the screen. These considerations have

made it possible to design small, portable projectors with

much higher light output than a CRT projector – just the thing

for the mobile presenter. Most of the projectors at Infocomm

were of this type. One of the standouts in light output per unit

weight was the U2-1080 from PLUS Corp. Based on DLP tech-

nology, this small, ultra-portable projector weighs less than 6

Project ors in a given cat ego- ry were fed ident ical signals for display on ident ical side-

pounds yet puts out 800 ANSI lumens of light - three to five

times as much as a CRT projector can provide. (I will explain

the meaning of “ANSI” below.) The native resolution of the

image is also relatively high – 1024 x 768 (XGA format). Unfor-

tunately, there are trade-offs for the small size of ultra-

portable projectors. Input connection options and features

are usually more limited than with larger models. Also, in

some cases performance may have been compromised to

minimize the projector’s size and weight.

Although light-output ratings for small LCD and DLP pro-

jectors are usually much higher than for CRT projectors, they

do not always appear as bright as you might think from the

numbers. When displaying video images, which typically have

a much lower average picture level (APL) than graphics

images, a CRT projector can put more of its energy into high-

lights of the image – an ability indicated by its “peak lumen”

rating. This makes the image appear brighter than you would

expect from the projector’s ANSI lumen number, which rep-

resents the brightness achievable with a full-white image.

Nevertheless, an LCD or DLP projector rated at 1000 ANSI

lumens – a number that is now quite common – looks brighter

on video images than a typical 9” CRT projector.

One area where CRT projectors still have the edge is

black level. Despite years of steady improvement, neither

LCD nor DLP has yet managed to achieve, on small screens,

the deep blacks achievable with CRT. That is reason enough

for some to choose a CRT projector for their home theater. A

promising new choice introduced at the show was the HD

2000 from Chromalux. Like DWIN’s HDP-500, this 7” CRT pro-

jector has no fans – the projector’s metal chassis serves as a

heat-sink. Designed by Arthur R. Tucker – one of the pioneers

of the projection industry – it includes a built-in line doubler.

Chromalux claims peak and ANSI light outputs of 1100 and

800 lumens, respectively. Since the projector was not shown

operating, I could not confirm these numbers. Eight hundred

ANSI lumens would be an astounding output from any CRT

projector, much less one using 7” tubes. In a bid to improve

domestic harmony, the projector’s plastic cover is available in

custom colors to match any décor.

Despite late arrivals like the HD 2000, it is clear that the

total replacement of CRT-projection by LCD and DLP, even

for home theater, is close at hand. The quality of images from

LCD and DLP projectors at the show this year was dramati-

cally better than last year. Colors were more saturated, whites

were more accurate, blacks were deeper (although not yet

quite good enough), and overall uniformity was improved.

The final nail in the projection-CRT coffin may be this: Texas

Instruments showed a prototype of a rear-projection HDTV

Notable New Display Products at INFOCOMM ‘99

Manufacturer	Model No.	Price	Technology	Light Output	Pixel Format
				(ANSI lumens)	(H x V)
Barco	BarcoReality	$20,995	LCD projection	2,000	1280 x 1024
	6300DLC	(w/o lens)
Chromalux	HD 2000	N/A	7” CRT projection	800	Not applicable
Davis	DL X10	N/A	DLP projection	1000	1024 x 768
Epson	PowerLite 9000i	N/A	LCD projection	1,600	1280 x 1024
JVC Professional	DLA-G15	$20,000 est.	LCD projection	1,500	1365 x 1024
NEC	PlasmaSync	$22,995	Plasma,	N/A	1365 x 768
	5000W		16.9, 50” diagonal
PLUS Corp.	U2-1080	N/A	DLP projection	800	1024 x 768
Princeton	AF3.0HD	$4,100	CRT, 30” diagonal	N/A	Not applicable
Revox	E-542	$17,000 est.	Plasma,	N/A	848 x 480
			16.9, 42” diagonal
Sanyo	PLC-EF10N	$23,995	LCD projection	2,300	1280 x 1024

Toshiba TLP-770 $9,995 LCD projection 1,800 1024 x 768