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First off, I'd like to say "thanks" to all of those forum members who got to attend Cedia this year and got to meet with all of the other members. It is a real treat to faces and voices with names. I'm sure there is going to be a lot of differing opinions on what people have seen. No one got to thoroughly test any of the products that were demonstrated so these observations are all preliminary. Not to mention many of them were only prototypes so they were not up to perfection yet. I intend to do a more in depth evaluation of many of these products once they are released. I will do this report in a list fasion to make to easier to read.
Seleco HT300:
I was very impressed with this prototype projector. It had outstanding colors and like the HT200DM, superb black levels. They actually did the comparison next to a Seleco CRT with the same source material, and it was really tough to tell the difference. The only problem, which had nothing to do with the projector, was that we only were shown HDTV through this unit. As many of us know, the main virtue of this projector is that it has the Faroudja processing built inside. I would have liked to see a DVD playing to compare. I do think from what I saw that when the actual production model comes out, this is going to be a hot little seller. We have already ordered one of these even though they aren't slated for release until November. We want to have the first one!! Alan and I will do more thorough testing then.
Dwin Transvision II:
Another winner. This unit is going to be packaged with several consumer choices. You will be able to choose from 2 bulbs, depending on the power you need for your situation. They will have a 150 watt and a 270 watt models. The approximate outputs will be 1000 lumens and 1500 lumens, respectively. This will also come packaged again with the Transcanner scaler so there is no need for any outboard processing. The prototype was housed in a Transvision I case but they told me that was just for the show and the actual model would have a sleeker looking case to it. I did get to see both HDTV and progressive DVD playback with this unit, both were very good. I also forgot to mention that you will have a choice of lenses as well, depending on your throw distance needs.
Sharp Z9000:
I was pretty impressed with this unit. I must say that I was a little suprised too. Seleco and Dwin have made a name for themselves with their high quality products, but Sharp seemed to have dissappeared for a while. Well their back and better than ever. Again, I was only able to see HDTV on this unit, but like the Dwin and Seleco, it had very impressive colors and blacks. I noticed that the projector came in what I consider an overly large case. The Seleco and Dwin are very sleek and relatively small, but the Sharp was about the size of a D-ila. The one drawback to this unit is going to be that you will still need an outboard scaler for non-HDTV sources. Both the Dwin and Seleco come with them. This will make the lower retail price sort of obsolete since you will need to spend extra money on a scaler.
For those who aren't familiar with the above units, they all are single chip DLP units using the new HD1 TI DMD chip. It is a 1280x720 chipset. They all also have the RGBRGB color wheel which will not only yield much better colors and black levels, but greatly reduces the infamous rainbow effect.
Plus Piano:
This looks almost like a toy. It is very small and will not accept HDTV. The main virtue of this unit is that it is inexpensive. For those who are looking for a small DVD playback projector, this might be the unit for you. For those who are really into home theater, I doubt you'd even give it a second look.
Vutec's new Black Screen:
By far the most impressive display piece at the show. This thing is amazing. They had a LCD projector showing on this screen in the full light section of the show, out in the open, and it was brighter than any other setup in the show (note that the screen was only about 40" diagonal). The key thing is that the blacks were black. Not gray, not almost black, they were pitch black. Currently the largest they can make the screen is 60" diagonal due to the new technology, and at that size the price is about $5k, but they expect that prices will be way down by the same time next year and sizes will be much larger. It really isn't ready for most situations now, but it does show where things are headed. Can't wait!! http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif They do have another problem which they are aware of. There is a noticeable seem where the sections are put together. They assured me that they were working on the problem.
Vutec's Graydove:
Another product from Vutec. This is a gray material now available from Vutec. It has a gain of .85. Similar to Stewarts and Dalite gray screens, it is designed for digital projectors. I have to say it is a very good material and will be a real contender to the other 2 companies. A little competition never hurt anyone! http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif
Sony WPH-11HT:
I have got to say that I was not impressed. I will also say that in general I am not partial to LCD projectors, so don't get mad at me for saying this. It was a very washed out picture and had relatively poor black levels. What I will say is that I haven't set my opinion in stone. You never know who set these projectors up or what was done to setup them up, so it is possible that when we do our own thorough testing my opinion may change. When we first saw the 10HT, I thought it was awful. But when we got into the service menu and did some color adjustments and other setup, we got the thing to sing! I hope that we can get the same results with the 11HT. Keep this in mind should you decided it is the projector for you. You may have to do some in depth setup to be satisfied.
Kenwood Sovereign DVD player:
This unit has got some very nice features. Like the Escient system (only way cheaper) you can get a box that will allow you to download DVD covers and information for the 400 discs in the unit. I'll also mention that this unit can have MP3 and CD's put in as well and the DVD knows where they all are. Very cool. The main virtue is that it has the Faroudja chipset in it. I only got to see the Faroudja in action on a HDTV TV set (not even RPTV) so I don't know exactly how well it performed. It did look very good when compared to other DVD players though, so that is promising.
I'm sure that I'm missing something but I'll sign off for now. If I remember anything else I'll edit this post with a followup. Again, keep in mind that thorough testing was not possible and many of these items were just prototypes, so these views may change. Thanks for reading.
------------------
Jason Turk
AV Science, Inc.
http://www.avscience.com
716-454-1460 ext.204
[email protected]
Seleco HT300:
I was very impressed with this prototype projector. It had outstanding colors and like the HT200DM, superb black levels. They actually did the comparison next to a Seleco CRT with the same source material, and it was really tough to tell the difference. The only problem, which had nothing to do with the projector, was that we only were shown HDTV through this unit. As many of us know, the main virtue of this projector is that it has the Faroudja processing built inside. I would have liked to see a DVD playing to compare. I do think from what I saw that when the actual production model comes out, this is going to be a hot little seller. We have already ordered one of these even though they aren't slated for release until November. We want to have the first one!! Alan and I will do more thorough testing then.
Dwin Transvision II:
Another winner. This unit is going to be packaged with several consumer choices. You will be able to choose from 2 bulbs, depending on the power you need for your situation. They will have a 150 watt and a 270 watt models. The approximate outputs will be 1000 lumens and 1500 lumens, respectively. This will also come packaged again with the Transcanner scaler so there is no need for any outboard processing. The prototype was housed in a Transvision I case but they told me that was just for the show and the actual model would have a sleeker looking case to it. I did get to see both HDTV and progressive DVD playback with this unit, both were very good. I also forgot to mention that you will have a choice of lenses as well, depending on your throw distance needs.
Sharp Z9000:
I was pretty impressed with this unit. I must say that I was a little suprised too. Seleco and Dwin have made a name for themselves with their high quality products, but Sharp seemed to have dissappeared for a while. Well their back and better than ever. Again, I was only able to see HDTV on this unit, but like the Dwin and Seleco, it had very impressive colors and blacks. I noticed that the projector came in what I consider an overly large case. The Seleco and Dwin are very sleek and relatively small, but the Sharp was about the size of a D-ila. The one drawback to this unit is going to be that you will still need an outboard scaler for non-HDTV sources. Both the Dwin and Seleco come with them. This will make the lower retail price sort of obsolete since you will need to spend extra money on a scaler.
For those who aren't familiar with the above units, they all are single chip DLP units using the new HD1 TI DMD chip. It is a 1280x720 chipset. They all also have the RGBRGB color wheel which will not only yield much better colors and black levels, but greatly reduces the infamous rainbow effect.
Plus Piano:
This looks almost like a toy. It is very small and will not accept HDTV. The main virtue of this unit is that it is inexpensive. For those who are looking for a small DVD playback projector, this might be the unit for you. For those who are really into home theater, I doubt you'd even give it a second look.
Vutec's new Black Screen:
By far the most impressive display piece at the show. This thing is amazing. They had a LCD projector showing on this screen in the full light section of the show, out in the open, and it was brighter than any other setup in the show (note that the screen was only about 40" diagonal). The key thing is that the blacks were black. Not gray, not almost black, they were pitch black. Currently the largest they can make the screen is 60" diagonal due to the new technology, and at that size the price is about $5k, but they expect that prices will be way down by the same time next year and sizes will be much larger. It really isn't ready for most situations now, but it does show where things are headed. Can't wait!! http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif They do have another problem which they are aware of. There is a noticeable seem where the sections are put together. They assured me that they were working on the problem.
Vutec's Graydove:
Another product from Vutec. This is a gray material now available from Vutec. It has a gain of .85. Similar to Stewarts and Dalite gray screens, it is designed for digital projectors. I have to say it is a very good material and will be a real contender to the other 2 companies. A little competition never hurt anyone! http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif
Sony WPH-11HT:
I have got to say that I was not impressed. I will also say that in general I am not partial to LCD projectors, so don't get mad at me for saying this. It was a very washed out picture and had relatively poor black levels. What I will say is that I haven't set my opinion in stone. You never know who set these projectors up or what was done to setup them up, so it is possible that when we do our own thorough testing my opinion may change. When we first saw the 10HT, I thought it was awful. But when we got into the service menu and did some color adjustments and other setup, we got the thing to sing! I hope that we can get the same results with the 11HT. Keep this in mind should you decided it is the projector for you. You may have to do some in depth setup to be satisfied.
Kenwood Sovereign DVD player:
This unit has got some very nice features. Like the Escient system (only way cheaper) you can get a box that will allow you to download DVD covers and information for the 400 discs in the unit. I'll also mention that this unit can have MP3 and CD's put in as well and the DVD knows where they all are. Very cool. The main virtue is that it has the Faroudja chipset in it. I only got to see the Faroudja in action on a HDTV TV set (not even RPTV) so I don't know exactly how well it performed. It did look very good when compared to other DVD players though, so that is promising.
I'm sure that I'm missing something but I'll sign off for now. If I remember anything else I'll edit this post with a followup. Again, keep in mind that thorough testing was not possible and many of these items were just prototypes, so these views may change. Thanks for reading.
------------------
Jason Turk
AV Science, Inc.
http://www.avscience.com
716-454-1460 ext.204
[email protected]
