In my visit to CEDIA I had the opportunity to meet with Joseph Chen of Cinetron who proved to be very hospitable and eager to show off his HD-900.

A Firehawk screen, I believe 96" diagonal, was used. The projector was tilted and eWARP-3 Realta electronic keystoning was used to counter resultant keystone. Mr. Chen told me that the effect of this processing could be seen on single pixel line test patterns but had little visual impact on video material. I wish I had asked him to demonstrate the pj without this processing to see if I could detect any pq degradation. The source was HD DVD input via HDMI. Iris setting was 50% and we also tried 35%. It was very interesting to see the value of the iris (fixed) on contrast performance first hand.

Mr. Chen repeatedly confirmed the MSRP of $6000.

I was particularly impressed with shadow detail with the Cinetron. The CR of some 6000:1 native, increased probably to around 8000:1 (purely a guess) given the iris setting of 50% aperature, was clear to me given my experience with my H79, that has a CR of about 2700:1. It was this characteristic I most wanted to try to capture, hence the many scenes from U571. I threw in a screenshot from Phantom of the Opera to make sure the white field was uniform and a couple of shots of underwater scenes from a HD source Mr. Chen was using. Speaking of white field uniformity, I discussed the color uniformity problem with the Pearl on display and he noted that with LCoS and SXRD this problem involves QC and / or overheating.

Picture quality from standard def The Fifth Element Superbit looked very good, showing the result of using higher bit rates as well as the Realta HQV chip processing.

The downsides of this pj, of which Mr. Chen is quite aware, include the lack of lens shift and the lack of 24Hz (and multiple) panel driveability. The current chip driving the eLCoS panels is fixed at 60Hz. I am sure he would like to rectify these issues ASAP but a time frame for this is unclear. He indicated he would look into increasing the number of iris steps to ten or so from the current five. Production of this pj was said to be soon. Mr. Chen estimated around of the end of October.

Take the following screenshots with all the usual caveats. Mr. Chen was kind enough to stop the HD DVD playback for these shots, but as we know those freezes don't always result in the sharpest picture. My Canon Powershot A620 7.1MP camera was placed immediately next to the pj lens on the table, but some shake might be seen on some shots. Of course, they're compressed for jpeg. I'll go further and warn that I have edited them to match my two and three day-old memory of the shadow detail I saw in the projected images, generally by adding a bit of brightness to compensate for the camera crushing blacks. On my computer and monitor, they begin to give an idea of the shadow detail and CR that impressed me. In person there was a greater sense of detail and naturalness. Next time I'll use a fixed ISO to reduce some noice surely introduced from using the auto setting with the darker scenes.

The first picture is of the Cinetron HD-900 with Joseph Chen of Cinetron and Ray (sorry for not noting his last name) of Silicon Optix.

http://home.earthlink.net/~danrapp/CinetronHD900/Cinetron.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~danrapp/CinetronHD900/Cinetron1.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~danrapp/CinetronHD900/Cinetron2.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~danrapp/CinetronHD900/Cinetron3.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~danrapp/CinetronHD900/Cinetron4.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~danrapp/CinetronHD900/Cinetron5.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~danrapp/CinetronHD900/Cinetron6.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~danrapp/CinetronHD900/Cinetron7.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~danrapp/CinetronHD900/CinetronPhantom.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~danrapp/CinetronHD900/Cinetron8.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~danrapp/CinetronHD900/Cinetron9.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~danrapp/CinetronHD900/High Res Underwater.jpg (larger file)
http://home.earthlink.net/~danrapp/CinetronHD900/High Res U-571.jpg (larger file)

Dan

Those screenshots look really nice.

Thanks for posting them.

Best Regards,
Doug

Awesome stuff.

The downsides of this pj, of which Mr. Chen is quite aware, include the lack of lens shift and the lack of 24Hz (and multiple) panel driveability. The current chip driving the eLCoS panels is fixed at 60Hz. I am sure he would like to rectify these issues ASAP but a time frame for this is unclear.



Heard the same thing already in June(!!)...

Heard the same thing already in June(!!)...

Hi Ekkehart:

Understand your expectations on the projector. I believe most of the LCoS panel manufactures (except JVC and Sony) are working under very limited resource condition. We have to have them do the first thing first. Right? :o

What is the limiting factor for PJ of this tech concerning lumen output above 1400?


Ben

What is the limiting factor for PJ of this tech concerning lumen output above 1400?


Ben

Hi Ben:

I'll say it'll take a bigger lamp and/or less trim on the light.

Mr. Chen told me that the effect of this processing could be seen on single pixel line test patterns but had little visual impact on video material.

I would disagree with Mr Chen about the visibility of Keystone processing in real video material. I have read some reports that the Cinetron looked a little soft, and the use of keystone processing in his demo may very well explain that.

Unfortunately, I see keystoning being used often by pro-installers in the field. I always recommend that it be avoided because I can see its delterious effect on fine detail in actual video. IMO, it is better to throw a mildly trapezoidal picture onto velvet screen masking, where it is masked, rather than engage keystone correction processing.

You will see alot of pros on the forum giving the same advice about avoiding keystone correction.

Glenn

I was surprized electronic correction of keystoning was used at the Cinetron exhibit because there wasn't any clear effect from it but I didn't do any A-B viewing with the eWARP3 turned off.

Although from Silicon Optix's standpoint the Cinetron exhibit was again showing off the eWARP3's ability, it's tantalizing to think how much better the picture might have looked with it turned off. I thought the pj was sharper than the Pearl as it was.

Dan

The downsides of this pj, of which Mr. Chen is quite aware, include the lack of lens shift and the lack of 24Hz (and multiple) panel driveability. The current chip driving the eLCoS panels is fixed at 60Hz.

Something I would like to clarify is that the eLCOS panels and drivers are not fixed to 60 Hz per se. Most current systems take ~60 fps input and double to ~120 fps for display. However, the driver hardware can accept a range of inputs, and the multiplier can also be changed.

That said, for this particular projector, we aim to work with Cinetron towards a solution that best fits the interface between their system and our drivers.

Cheers!

Is this this pj being produced? This is the first we've heard of it for months.

What attributes of this projector make it worth considering, especially since it won't be out until Oct? CR is already out of date and its msrp is $6K. I assume its not lots of lumens since he was showing it on a 96" Firehawk. ??

I hope they have taken the added time to really wow the HT crowd. Maybe a Brightside implementation.:)

Is this this pj being produced? This is the first we've heard of it for months.

Short answer is yes.