Joined
·
427 Posts
Was up at the Sundance Film Festival today. At the digital center, several vendors were present including LG, Microsoft (pushing HD WMV), Panaflex, and notably, Sony. They were showing all of their professional cameras and so on. One of their reps told my daughter and I that there was a "demo" taking place in a few minutes for a high end home theater projector. Had to see that!
They had set up a fairly small theater with about 10 plush Berklines, the rear row of which were on a riser, no less. Total light control and very good sound, although it was only 3.1. They were using a Stewart StudioTek 130 screen.
The Qualia 004 was the beast they were showing. It projects in true HD (1920 x 1080). It was a good sized PJ, weighing in at 88 lbs. Roughly 18" square and about 8" tall. Very sleek, sophisticated case out of aluminum with an exposed heatsink surrounding the bulb and a curved ribbed aluminum heatsink that ran the full width on the back edge.
I am sure that this is not the first mention of this PJ, but the rep said it runs on SXRD panels illuminated by pure xenon light. It made hardly any noise.
They ran three distinctly different demo clips, short films actually. Each was under 4 minutes. Sony had given directors HD creation hardware - cameras, editing euipment in exchange for these short films. An animated film with stunning colors, an austerely shot almost sepia toned film from Australia, and a indoor piece that looked normal.
The images were flawless. The colors were extremely rich. The animated short looked 3D. The Australian short was so crisp, it almost hurt your eyes! The third short was in the mix to show more natural colors. It didn't disappoint. No SDE was visible.
They told us the PJ was going to be on the market in about 30 days. MSRP was going to "about" 30K, including one extra bulb and your choice of short, medium, or long throw Carl Zeiss lenses. He quoted 2,000 hours of bulb life. Wonder how much a pure Xenon bulb will run?
Distribution is going to be limited. A few specialty retailers, a small network of custom installers. This isn't going to be a mass item, obviously. I asked if the SXRD technology was going to trickle down to PJ's that were more affordable, and the response was vague, but with hints that there probably would be something down the road.
It was very interesting.
They had set up a fairly small theater with about 10 plush Berklines, the rear row of which were on a riser, no less. Total light control and very good sound, although it was only 3.1. They were using a Stewart StudioTek 130 screen.
The Qualia 004 was the beast they were showing. It projects in true HD (1920 x 1080). It was a good sized PJ, weighing in at 88 lbs. Roughly 18" square and about 8" tall. Very sleek, sophisticated case out of aluminum with an exposed heatsink surrounding the bulb and a curved ribbed aluminum heatsink that ran the full width on the back edge.
I am sure that this is not the first mention of this PJ, but the rep said it runs on SXRD panels illuminated by pure xenon light. It made hardly any noise.
They ran three distinctly different demo clips, short films actually. Each was under 4 minutes. Sony had given directors HD creation hardware - cameras, editing euipment in exchange for these short films. An animated film with stunning colors, an austerely shot almost sepia toned film from Australia, and a indoor piece that looked normal.
The images were flawless. The colors were extremely rich. The animated short looked 3D. The Australian short was so crisp, it almost hurt your eyes! The third short was in the mix to show more natural colors. It didn't disappoint. No SDE was visible.
They told us the PJ was going to be on the market in about 30 days. MSRP was going to "about" 30K, including one extra bulb and your choice of short, medium, or long throw Carl Zeiss lenses. He quoted 2,000 hours of bulb life. Wonder how much a pure Xenon bulb will run?
Distribution is going to be limited. A few specialty retailers, a small network of custom installers. This isn't going to be a mass item, obviously. I asked if the SXRD technology was going to trickle down to PJ's that were more affordable, and the response was vague, but with hints that there probably would be something down the road.
It was very interesting.