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One of the things that bugged me the most about digital projectors was the bulb use, and cost. Of course the improvements in projector bulb life and cost are much better than with my first JVC G1000. Whose bulb cost $1200 to replace and lasted 1000 hours. 8O
Outside of lasers, the most interesting alternative has been LED lighting in projectors. But the limitation has always been light output.
We saw the early LED projector use in tiny Pico-projectors, which took advantage of the LED light source's low-heat, low noise, low power consumption, together with shock resistance and low maintenance (30,000 hour life).
But the light output was very limited (25-150 lumens) and so was the resolution (800 x 600) in most early LED projectors.
The brightness and resolution has been improving over the past few years, and about a year ago Vivitek announced their H9080 which promised 800 lumens and 1080p resolution to go with the 20,000 LED lifespan.
The downside was the $14K pricetag, and the fact that the black levels were good but not as good as the latest crop of DLP/LCD/LCOS 1080p projectors.
At a similar price, Digital projection is coming out with their M-Vision Cine LED 1080p projector that boasts 60,000 life, which will definitely find it's way into venues that have their projectors running 24/7.
And on the other end of the spectrum I'm of course seeing low cost 720p LED projectors coming out of China, but those are aimed more at traveling gaming enthusiasts (which I can relate to) more than home theater use.
So on my next-projector-wish-list I'm adding LED lighting to my 1080p, 50,000:1 contrast, 3D ready, sub-$1000 projector. :T
Outside of lasers, the most interesting alternative has been LED lighting in projectors. But the limitation has always been light output.
We saw the early LED projector use in tiny Pico-projectors, which took advantage of the LED light source's low-heat, low noise, low power consumption, together with shock resistance and low maintenance (30,000 hour life).
But the light output was very limited (25-150 lumens) and so was the resolution (800 x 600) in most early LED projectors.
The brightness and resolution has been improving over the past few years, and about a year ago Vivitek announced their H9080 which promised 800 lumens and 1080p resolution to go with the 20,000 LED lifespan.
The downside was the $14K pricetag, and the fact that the black levels were good but not as good as the latest crop of DLP/LCD/LCOS 1080p projectors.
At a similar price, Digital projection is coming out with their M-Vision Cine LED 1080p projector that boasts 60,000 life, which will definitely find it's way into venues that have their projectors running 24/7.
And on the other end of the spectrum I'm of course seeing low cost 720p LED projectors coming out of China, but those are aimed more at traveling gaming enthusiasts (which I can relate to) more than home theater use.
So on my next-projector-wish-list I'm adding LED lighting to my 1080p, 50,000:1 contrast, 3D ready, sub-$1000 projector. :T
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