Sony G90 Brochure page 16

to recreate the theater experience in the home.
The dominant display technology today for home-theater
screens larger than 40" diagonal is CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)
projection. It is used in almost every rear-projection TV and
most HDTVs just recently introduced. But it is an old technol-
ogy near its limit and its days are numbered. The display
industry, driven by the desire of business professionals to
make presentations in fully lit rooms, has been hard at work
replacing CRT projection with brighter and friendlier alterna-
tives. These alternatives are Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) pro-
jection and Digital Light Processing (DLP), the latter invented
by Texas Instruments. Both of these technologies use discrete
pixels to form images and both use a lamp as the source of the
light projected on the screen. These considerations have
made it possible to design small, portable projectors with
much higher light output than a CRT projector – just the thing
for the mobile presenter. Most of the projectors at Infocomm
were of this type. One of the standouts in light output per unit
weight was the U2-1080 from PLUS Corp. Based on DLP tech-
nology, this small, ultra-portable projector weighs less than 6
Project ors in a given cat ego-
ry were f ed ident ical signals
f or display on ident ical side-
pounds yet puts out 800 ANSI lumens of light - three to five
times as much as a CRT projector can provide. (I will explain
the meaning of "ANSI" below.) The native resolution of the
image is also relatively high – 1024 x 768 (XGA format). Unfor-
tunately, there are trade-offs for the small size of ultra-
portable projectors. Input connection options and features
are usually more limited than with larger models. Also, in
some cases performance may have been compromised to
minimize the projector's size and weight.
Although light-output ratings for small LCD and DLP pro-
Notable New Display Products at INFOCOMM '99
Manufacturer Model No.
Barco BarcoReality
6300DLC
Chromalux HD 2000
Davis DL X10
Epson PowerLite 9000i
JVC Professional DLA-G15
NEC PlasmaSync
5000W
PLUS Corp. U2-1080
Princeton AF3.0HD
Revox E-542
Sanyo PLC-EF10N
Toshiba TLP-770
jectors are usually much higher than for CRT projectors, they
do not always appear as bright as you might think from the
numbers. When displaying video images, which typically have
a much lower average picture level (APL) than graphics
images, a CRT projector can put more of its energy into high-
lights of the image – an ability indicated by its "peak lumen"
rating. This makes the image appear brighter than you would
expect from the projector's ANSI lumen number, which rep-
resents the brightness achievable with a full-white image.
Nevertheless, an LCD or DLP projector rated at 1000 ANSI
lumens – a number that is now quite common – looks brighter
on video images than a typical 9" CRT projector.
One area where CRT projectors still have the edge is
black level. Despite years of steady improvement, neither
LCD nor DLP has yet managed to achieve, on small screens,
the deep blacks achievable with CRT. That is reason enough
for some to choose a CRT projector for their home theater. A
promising new choice introduced at the show was the HD
2000 from Chromalux. Like DWIN's HDP-500, this 7" CRT pro-
jector has no fans – the projector's metal chassis serves as a
heat-sink. Designed by Arthur R. Tucker – one of the pioneers
of the projection industry – it includes a built-in line doubler.
Chromalux claims peak and ANSI light outputs of 1100 and
800 lumens, respectively. Since the projector was not shown
operating, I could not confirm these numbers. Eight hundred
ANSI lumens would be an astounding output from any CRT
projector, much less one using 7" tubes. In a bid to improve
domestic harmony, the projector's plastic cover is available in
custom colors to match any décor.
Despite late arrivals like the HD 2000, it is clear that the
total replacement of CRT-projection by LCD and DLP, even
for home theater, is close at hand. The quality of images from
LCD and DLP projectors at the show this year was dramati-
cally better than last year. Colors were more saturated, whites
were more accurate, blacks were deeper (although not yet
quite good enough), and overall uniformity was improved.
The final nail in the projection-CRT coffin may be this: Texas
Instruments showed a prototype of a rear-projection HDTV
Price Technology
$20,995 LCD projection
(w/o lens)
N/A 7" CRT projection
N/A DLP projection
N/A LCD projection
$20,000 est. LCD projection
$22,995 Plasma,
16.9, 50" diagonal
N/A DLP projection
$4,100 CRT, 30" diagonal
$17 ,000 est. Plasma,
16.9, 42" diagonal
$23,995 LCD projection
$9,995 LCD projection
Light Output Pixel Format
(ANSI lumens) (H x V)
2,000 1280 x 1024
800 Not applicable
1000 1024 x 768
1,600 1280 x 1024
1,500 1365 x 1024
N/A 1365 x 768
800 1024 x 768
N/A Not applicable
N/A 848 x 480
2,300 1280 x 1024
1,800 1024 x 768