Quote:
Originally Posted by Krawdad /forum/post/0
I think if you re-read the comments on lens shift you see it is a time to market equasion as well. Not just cost. I am sure that lens shift would only add a small additional cost but because this PJ is using an existing light engine without lens shift. adding that feature to this engine would push the release date to an unacceptably late timeframe. So you can either have the PJ sooner without lens shift in 2006 or get it in 2007 with lens shift.
I think that Optima wanted to release their 1080 projector sooner rather than later to get on the front of the early adopor wave. and to establish a presence in the 1080 market space. That way they don't lose out on early 1080 sales completly.
Yes, this is the most probable background of the HD81. I guess that they came to a decision, to do something against the danger of Ruby dominating the early 1080 market, only some time after the Ruby introduction.
Then they had no chance to design a specific HT projector. They took a business PJ already in a progressed design phase, i.e. the EP910, which had a comparably large DMD, and threw in the 1080 stuff.
From this business PJ we got the strange offset. As you said, it was not cost but time-to-market. The same is true for the external processor. It's quite inefficient with regard to cost, but the fastest option for getting something out.
IMHO this all means that the HD81 in its presently announced form will be very shortlived. Apart from its PQ it is not a good HT PJ, and its manufacturing cost are not optimized. Completely unaccaptable for a company like Optoma.
So they will replace it quite soon, I guess before the end of the year.
But an early adaptor like me still may have enough reason to buy one, simply due to the lack af alternatives. So I will do so in early summer, if then there is still no bright and cheap alternative. Cheap it must be, because everything out of this crop of 1st gen 1080 PJs will be shortlived, because they all are a done on a hasty defensive against the Ruby.