[Christopher Calder]

 http://www.projectorcentral.com/proj...m?part_id=1858


For $30,000. this SXGA 3-chip machine looks interesting for the very well-to-do. It only has a 1000:1 contrast ratio, which is strange for such an expensive machine at this point in history. But it was not long ago that many shelled out $30,000. for a CRT projector with only 500 lumens, and I guess Runco still sells them. If Panasonic could get the price down to 15k with a 2,000:1 contrast ratio they could sell many more of them and I would be more impressed. No doubt they will in a year or two.


Christopher

 

[Alan Gouger]

Not a good deal at all. No digital input. Only a 300 watt bulb.

This unit will not have a good blacks.


For 30K you can do much better in a 3 chip.

For the money your better off buying 2 Runcos with lens shift and doing a double stack.

 

[Christopher Calder]

Quote:

Originally posted by Alan Gouger Only a 300 watt bulb.

--------------

It uses two 300 watt bulbs, not just one, and puts out 6,000 lumens. I agree it is not a good deal for home theater. Why can't they come out with a 3 chip 9:16 DLP unit?


Here is the blurb:
http://www.projectorcentral.com/news_story_464.htm



Christopher

 

[xris2o0o]

alan can you explain a little how a double stack works? Ive seen some setups like that in magazines but never got how they work together.. You mentioned runco.. Would you be lookin at gettin a projector with certain features for a stack to work?

 

[Alan Gouger]

xris


I have never tried a double DLP stack but here is a thread that has some details.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=194386

 

[Christopher Howard]

 http://www.digitalprojection.com/home.htm
Quote:

It uses two 300 watt bulbs, not just one, and puts out 6,000 lumens. I agree it is not a good deal for home theater. Why can't they come out with a 3 chip 9:16 DLP unit?

Not exactly HD1 or 2 but same results from 1280 x 1024 chip.

 

[Ohlson]

I believe these Panasonic 3-chippers can be edge blended with 10 by 10 projectrors. That would be a tad expensive, about 3 million dollars.


see this site for info on the Panasonic offering

http://www.digitalcinemamag.com

 

[Jim Scarbrough]

Actually, the ideal solution for HT would be a 2-chip DLP. TI used to have an interesting white paper on their website (since replaced by a Flash animation marketing thingy). It said that, due to the red spectrum needing twice the light to create the same color saturation (oversimplified by me), one wheel/chip would be used for red, the second would evenly split blue & green. Anyone that has noticed that reds are usually very tough to get right on a DLP will appreciate this. Of course the 2-chip DLP will have better color sat than a single chip and less than a 3-chip.


Cost is the reason you don't see any 2-chip or 3-chip DLP light engines in the "affordable" end of the market. (That and the fact that no one actually makes a 2-chip light engine that I know of.) A single-chip DLP light engine has traditionally been much more expensive than a similar 3-LCD light engine. Of course, with DLP technology maturing, costs have been dropping, so who knows what we might see in the next couple of years...