[bryan_chow]

I was in Tokyo over the weekend and made another trip to the Sony Centre in Ginza (the last time I was given a demo of the Qualia CRT TV). This time I got a demo of the new SXRD projector.


The projector was set up in a nice little theatre. The projector is on the ceiling, about three feet above my head when I'm seated, probably about 15 feet from the screen. The screen is 140" diagonal. I didn't get to see if it was gray since the room is quite dark even before the demo commenced. The theatre uses Sony speakers, and the source is a Sony Blu-Ray DVD player showing demo high-def material.


First, the negatives. Black is acceptable but not great. It's still dark gray.


I also noticed some slight blurring during motion.


The good - the projector, which is rated at 2000 lumens, was really bright on the 140" screen.


Colors were fantastic and looked completely natural. According to Sony the fill-rate is 92% versus around 50% for regular LCD projectors. At my seating distance the screen door was non-existant of course. I had to get within 3 or 4 feet (remember, 140" screen) to see it.


The resolution was simply unbelievable - I've never seen any projected image that was so big and sharp (it was running 1920x1080P). The demo was all specially shot (and boring) high-def video, plus a high-def trailer of Bad Boys II. Stunning.


Also, even though the projector was only 3-feet above my head it was very quiet. Once the video started I completely forgot about it.


The Qualia projector (which physically looks amazing as well, although it is almost as large as a small CRT projector) sells for Y$2.4million, or US$20,500. An excellent deal if you ask me. The 140" (fixed) screen is Y$600,000 or around US$5,000.

 

[MRJAZZZ]

THANKS, for review. Were you able to determine if you were watching a proto type, or an actual production unit? Also is this model now available for export to US ?. Finally, any possibility of a return visit, with some of your own DVD'S ?

 

[bryan_chow]

As far as I could tell the projector was an actual unit.


I also really wished that I had a DVD to test but unfortunately I didn't get the chance. I'd really like to see how actual DVDs look with that projector and screen size, and how well does the internal scaler work.


I don't know whether Sony plans to sell the Qualia line in the US. In Japan the Qualia products are supposed to be made to order. I don't see anything preventing someone from importing it to the US though, since the US also uses NTSC and is 110V (120V for Japan, but close enough).


Bryan

 

[rogo]

They have announced that the SXRD in the U.S. will indeed be the Qualia 004. And I believe if you go buy it yourself in Japan, there is some clever import thing you can do to limit / eliminate the tax / duty by categorizing as some computer-related thing.


U.S. price -- as I understood it (others heard differently) -- will be around $25K with lens.


Mark

 

[Ktak]

Actually, Japan uses 100 volts AC, so unless the Qualia is designed to be multi-voltage like a lot of other digital projectors these days, a step-down tranformer would be needed. Most Japanese electrical equipment is designed to run on 50 or 60 cycles, so that shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Robert Holloway]

What is the fill rate on DLP and DILA if SXRD is 92% and LCD 50%?

Rob

 

[Art Sonneborn]

Bryan,

What kind of Demo material did you see on the SXRD ? At CEDIA the demo was all HD very contrasty and bright material and the demo was very very short. I personally had no opportunity to evaluate black level at that demo.


The fill factor for SXRD is quoted the same as LCOS. DLP, I believe, is a little lower ( something like 88%).


Art

 

[David600]

grey?

fill rate is imho around 92% for DILA/LCOS/SRXD and 88% on DLP.

New HD2+ DLP could be above 90% though

 

[bryan_chow]

Hi Art,


The videos I recall were HD clips of a woman in a red dress, a bottle of wine (Latour), clips of Switzerland, the Matterhorn, etc. Also a trailer for Bad Boys II.


Before the demo, and in between, the projector sometimes showed the word "Qualia" against a black background and that was a good indicator of black level since the room was dark.


I wanted to see what the projector's menus looked like but didn't bother to ask due to the language barrier (the person running the demo spoke a little English).


If I remember correctly the fill-rate stated was 92%.


Bryan

 

[Alan Gouger]

Robert

Looking at your avatar your getting younger and younger.

The rest of us old farts will be lucky to live to see 2k source material in our lifetime you will just be reaching puberty when holographic 3d movies become a reality. Im jealous, whats your secret?

 

[rogo]

Ktak, I bet there is one -- and only one -- Qualia for the U.S. and Japan that supports multiple voltages.


But this is pure speculation.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Thanks for the review!

 

[AnthonyP]

does anyone else find the 50% weird for LCD. I know they have the biggest gap between pixels, but 50% sounds way too high. That means that would mean you only see half a picture

 

[AlMark]

Yeah, I remember the numbers being discussed on this forum (before it was split up) was around 80% for LCD.


Al

 

[Andrikos]

I've been reading 40-60% fill factor for LCD.

And of course you wouldn't "miss" half of the picture like that. They use a lot of trick to "seam" the pixels together. MLA's, defocussing are a couple of tricks that they use.

Still too far away from DLP and LCoS

 

[bryan_chow]

50% isn't as bad as it sounds. For example, this is 56%:


***_***_

***_***_

***_***_

________

***_***_

***_***_

***_***_


ie. the gap is 25% of a pixel width.

 

[rogo]

I don't believe any LCD is much above 60%. It's amazing, but true.

 

[David777]

I've read the fill ratio on LCD is in the range of 15-50%. When you see one though it looks to be a lot higher.

 

[Brandon B]

Damn. I bought 50% too much screen!


BB

 

[rogo]

OK, it's not 15%. A 40-60% range is accurate.