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Not at CES, but in India, where it first launched the lamp based W11000 TI XPR Technology 4K projector at 399,000 Indian Rupies. The X12000 the most interesting one from a new technology point of view as it will be using the Philips Lighting High Lumens Density LED light source will be prices higher at 500,000 Rupies, that is just under 7K $ or Euro.
The W11000 started shipping last month, December 2016 and X12000 is scheduled for availablity in the first quarter of this year, at least in India. BenQ Europe also said last month it will launch the X12000, without mentioning when it actually will start shipping. A similar announcement was made a month earlier for the W11000 lamp based XPR 4K projector.
Optoma only launched a lamp based XPR projector for $2799 and a laser-phosphor Utra short Throw projector for $20K at CES. No more mention of the HLD version that was highly promoted last year. By both Optoma and Philips. Optoma was supposed to be the launch customer for both TI XPR and Philips HLD. It still is for the TI consumer 4K solution with pixel shifting, but the HLD disappeared off the radar.
BenQ might have shown it at CES, but it did not promote it there, so if it did no-one has picked up on these two XPR 4K projectors, all what was seen were the 240hz gaming monitors.
BenQ first showed the W11000 at ISE in Amsterdam last year, a very early and poorly performing prototype. But now it is ready for a formal launch.
The digital home cinema projector X12000, is "a 4K UHD projector that balances the wide-gamut high-brightness output of Philips ColorSpark HLD LEDs with world-exclusive CinematicColor Technology to accurately produce the DCI-P3 color space", says BenQ. However the Philips HLD source is in itself not wide gamut, just shy of Rec.709 gamut, as is standard for HD video, not 4K sources. All depends on filtering, so reaching the wider P3 gamut is up to this CinematicColor Technology.
Defined by the digital film industry, the DCI-P3 color gamut encompasses a significantly larger portion of the visible color spectrum, proving far more colors than Rec. 709 and sRGB. With 8.3 million distinct pixels to fully meet Consumer Technology Association's (CTA) 4K UHD specification, X12000 delivers the authentic experience of attending a commercial digital cinema.
“The meeting of two pinnacles of visual technology, X12000’s pioneering CinematicColor Technology harnesses the high output of ColorSpark HLD LED Technology to bring DCI-P3 color quality into the home cinema,” said Conway Lee, President of BenQ Corporation. “DCI-P3 is the color standard of DLP digital cinema, derived from the same technology in use at all IMAX auditoriums worldwide”.
The filtering employed to increase the color gamut shows in the quoted brightness spec. 'only' 2200 lumens, where some of the competing designs were looking at 3000 lumens, Philips prototype/demonstrator was doing 2500 lumens, and the only commercially available HLD projectors the Hitachi W3500/X3500 WUXGA/WXGA higher education projectors, are specced at 3500 lumens. But the design target for Philips on this first generation HLD is 2500 peak white and roughly half in colour brightness. Doubling that in the second generation adding at least a conversion/light combining rod for red, on top of the multiple blue led to single green light output rod.
"Revolutionary Philips ColorSpark HLD LED technology provides a wide color gamut with up to three times screen brightness by combining green light four times as bright as conventional green LEDs from its High Lumen Density phosphor module with high-brightness red and blue LEDs, generating 2,200 lumens of brightness for use in well-lit rooms. X12000’s industry-exclusive CinematicColor Technology hones this wider color gamut and higher brightness to produce the expansive DCI-P3 color gamut, equaling the high standards of commercial digital cinema", according to BenQ in a statement.
The X12000 also offers H/V lens shift and 1.5X big zoom to fit perfectly into home cinemas of any size.
The W11000 is engineered to offer Rec.709 gamut:
"W11000 underwent over 18 months of rigorous development and 200 THX laboratory tests covering over 500 data points to ensure strict Rec. 709 color accuracy, precise gamma, ideal color temperature, enhanced uniformity, and super high native contrast ratio requirements for THX certification, guaranteeing accurate delivery of authentic cinematic content as filmmakers originally intended. Featuring high 400:1 native ANSI contrast ratio, W11000’s Active Iris and Dynamic Black technology, SmartEco, and proprietary black paint sealed light engine produces an astounding 50,000:1 dynamic contrast performance for fine detail rendition in the darkest and brightest scenes without washout to preserve every subtlety of the original content".
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