Affordable 1080p-native projectors out soon

[Dean McManis]

With Mitsubishi's announcement of their $3700, 52", DLP, 1080p-native rear projection TV, it's clear that mid/low-priced, 1080p is coming for sure:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2005-06-29-hdtv-usat_x.htm

I have been waiting for years now for 1080p-native front projectors to come out (for under $5,000), but the improving quality/price ratio pushed me to upgrade early.

With sub-$4K 1080p-native RPTV displays coming out now, it is clearly inevitable to expect to see sub-$5K, 1080p-native DLP front projectors become available within a year. And I suspect that we will see native 1080p models using LCD and LCOS display technology within that timeframe and price range as well.

But as always it's the media that will drive this transition to 1080p displays, and the pressure will be up for the electronic giants to get the kinks worked out in their creation/agreement for a single HD-DVD standard format very soon.

Broadcast 1080i is definitely out there driving higher resolution displays, but 1080i/p DVDs are what will make the market for these displays explode worldwide.

[ekkoville]

Dean, what is the latest on HD DVD. How many, if any are out there?

[Shane Martin]

With sub-$4K 1080p-native RPTV displays coming out now, it is clearly inevitable to expect to see sub-$5K, 1080p-native DLP front projectors become available within a year. And I suspect that we will see native 1080p models using LCD and LCOS display technology within that timeframe and price range as well.

I'll bet no. That's a 75% price reduction in 1 years time. It's a pipe dream at best. Trust me I want you to be correct but it ain't happening.

[JonMarsh]

At the retailer's unveiling event, Mitsubishi and the store plan to display DVDs on a current similar-size HDTV side-by-side with the new set. Studios such as DreamWorks, Fox and Miramax (Disney) have supplied 1080 progressive footage of films (Madagascar, Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Kill Bill) for the event, too.

Oh, this sounds like a realistic marketing comparison- use 1080P HD material on the new set, and compare that to scaled DVD on a "standard" 1080i HD set? /Sarcasm OFF

I believe these are using the new TI "wobulated" HD display, which while addressable as a 1080P device, actually behaves more like an interlaced device in both horizontal and vertical paths.

Considering that the new HD disk formats which store data inherently as 1080P, then decode into interlaced fields for 1080i output, a simple field integration process should result in 1080p again without the issues we have with DVD. Whether this type of digital set will have any specific advantage compared with a 1080i digital set is open to question- all the digital 1080 devices (like Sony's SXRD) have to do field re-integration anyway. What they'll be comparing against right now in the sub $4K price range is sets with lower resolution, like 1280X720P, and in this case the new ones MAY have a pronounced resolution advantage. Let's hope color fidelity, contrast, and temporal dithering are within the preformance parameters of current 720P sets.

Still, I expect if it has a good scaler chip set (a big if) it could look very good- unfortunately, many of the existing chipsets sill aren't that hot when it comes to video soruced or incorrectly flagged material. Hooefully they'll have something from Faroudja, or the option of taking 1080i DVI/HDMI from a player that does.

~Jon

[Dean McManis]

Dean, what is the latest on HD DVD. How many, if any are out there?

I haven't heard of any HD-DVD product sales or formal model announcements yet. But I would not be surprised if HD-DVD players were realeased this year for sale.

I know that it's far fetched to expect sub-$5K 1080p native front projectors so quickly, especially with the 720p native units being priced between $7K and $12K for so long. But I suspect that we will shortly see 1080p LCD and LCOS front projectors as well. And that will drive the prices down very quickly.

I do think that it's very important that Mitsubishi has come out with a 1080p rear projection TV for $3700. The $10K+ 720p front projectors were preceeded by the initial $15K 720p rear projection TVs 6 months before.

And I suspect that if the manufacturers were planning on hiking the price of new 1080p FPTVs well over $10K initially, that the first 1080p RPTVs would be also priced over $10K.