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Will add pictures and associated impressions later. To summarize we may debate wether the competion was shown at its weakest, or the best of its abilities, but as shown the TI prototype projector held its own. By definition no misconfergence (we could introduce chromatic issues due to single imager and three colors/frequencies if we want to nitpick;-)), and less aliasing artifacts than the pixel shifting projectors by Epson and JVC, as shown in an Amsterdam conference room. Though I was only allowed to take pictures of the TI image,not thise produced by the competing Epson, JVC and Sony projectors.
“We want to make 4K affordable in the marketplace. All displays move or have moved towards 4K, we want to move projection to 4K. Affordability is key to move UHD forward”. Roger Carver Technology Analyst for DLP Technology Developments and Products at Texas instruments put forward TI’s position in launching ‘XPR Technology’, its pixel shifting imager technology to bring UHD TV to projection for the masses.
At the ISE trade show in Amsterdam last month TI brought a private demo it had previously shown at CEDIA and CES to Europe. Pitting its UHD offer against those of Epson, JVC and Sony, that are on to their first, third and second generation of consumer grade 4K projectors, respectively.
Texas instruments DLP technology has for a number of years been absent in the medium and medium high-end home theater market leaving the segment to LCoS and LCD projectors, focusing on portable projectors on the low end and large commercial projectors on the high-end.
TI’s DLP projection technology has had a small presence in 4K Home Theater at the absolute high-end through (modified) DCI projectors that cost at least 60,000 Dollar/Euro.
Now it is making a new entry into home theater, with a small 4.15 milion pixel 0.67”diagonal Digital Micromirror Device plus a pixel shifting mirror and associated pixel processing algorithms, under the ‘XPR Technology’ moniker.
According to Carver three things are needed to move projection forward into the UHD TV era. First 8.3 million pixels on the screen, secondly higher ANSI contrast, TI’s design offers 500:1, and perfect pixel alignment, pointing to the limitations of the competing LCoS and LCD 3 chip offerings.
Addressing the limitations of the Epson and JVC solutions, Carver proclaims: “An 1080P panel has only two million pixels, times two that is four million pixels on screen, that is by definition not 4K, our 4.15 million pixels times two makes for 8.3 million pixels on screen in accordance with the UHD specification”.
Sony does use panels with a native 4K resolution in its projectors, this brings up the issue of perfect pixel alignment, with one single DLP chip there, by definition, is no misalignment. As Carver points out “Sony offers four times the pixels on the same size chip as its 1080P model, this makes pixel alignment four times as complicated”.
Intra Image contrast, usually referred to as ANSI contrast, is around 300-350:1 for LCoS/LCoQ, the best larger DMD HD projectors can offer close to 1000:1 as intra image contrast ratio, but this new small 0.67” DMD design offers only 500:1, better than the competition, and comparable to mainstream HD DLP projectors, but not as high as the best 1080P high-end DLP projectors of the past.
The traditional weakness of DLP projectors is their limited on-off contrast, especially native on-off contrast. Carver disagrees to some degree, making qualifications as to system contrast, depending on projector design not just DLP chip design.
“Most projectors based on our 1080P chips offer in the 3000 to 4000 to 1 range, this chip is comparable in on-off contrast” Pressed a second time on the issue, when asked if the increased tilt angle of the mirrors on the DLP chip, 17 degrees versus 12 degrees in older DMD generations, has a positive effect on the contrast ratio offered Carver said, “2000-3000:1”. The Optoma pre-production model this projector manufacturer demonstrated at ISE, reportedly offered 2000:1 on-off contrast. Carver agreed “This does require an iris or modulation of the lightsource”.
“The tilt angle helps with contrast, but the pixel shifting works with all DMD”, as shown by Panasonic’s ‘Quad Pixel Drive’ technology as implemented in the 10K lumens Laser-Phosphor projector PT-RQ13K, using three 0.9” WQXGA DMDs. This pixel shifting technology uses four positions that by design overlap, so the proclaimed 4K+ or even 5K resolution has to be qualified by this.
“XPR Technology offers two pixels on screen with one mirror” implying there is no spatial overlap between the pixels, hence the TI claim it offers “8.3 million pixels on screen”. Barco launched the F90 projector at ISE, a new 13K lumens Laser-Phosphor 4K using a single WQXGA 0.9” DMD, with its own pixel shifting implementation that works in a similar way as the TI implementation. However though it works in principle with all DLP chips; “we own XPR Technology, we only focus on developing this consumer technology, this Barco’s own technology, but of course we work and confer with all our customers”, Roger Carver emphasizes TI consumer focus in this new UHD venture.
Carver sees two further differences between the TI 4K solution and those of its primary competitors, that run the risk of temporal overlap, due to switching speeds in the milliseconds, versus DLP’s microseconds. “With 8 milliseconds to show a pixel with 4 to 5 milliseconds there is at least the risk of overlap”.
Ti feels it has better pixel processing algorithms, exemplified for instance by a number of aliasing artifacts.
Line interference pattern in small area’s, but no details visible in Sony image
Also in the Optoma HLD 4K projector, the Barco F90, but not in the lamp based version, that lacked dfine detail, and the BenQ W1200 HLD engineering sample that showed a number of image problems, therefor lacking detail, such as low contrast, low framerate and chromatic aberration.
Affordability is still relative, as a new product category, it commands a premium, with initial pricing indications by launch customer Optoma of $10,000, and the lowest pricing suggested by Optoma representatives at ISE of €7,000, but an in my opinion unwarranted premium price as high as €13,000 for the lamp based version. The 7,000 price tag would be the same as the list price of competing Epson LS10000 LASER-Phosphor ‘4K Enchanced’ projector , comparable to the mid-range UHD JVC projector and the Entry level native 4K LCoS imagers based Sony VW320.
But as Carver sets-out the plan: “we sell a lot of 1080P projectors around major HDTV sporting events, where people want to watch them together on a large screen in the best quality possible, these events are now in HD, but will be broadcast in UHD, so we expect people will start to pick up 4K projectors instead”, with volume comes affordability.
“We want to make 4K affordable in the marketplace. All displays move or have moved towards 4K, we want to move projection to 4K. Affordability is key to move UHD forward”. Roger Carver Technology Analyst for DLP Technology Developments and Products at Texas instruments put forward TI’s position in launching ‘XPR Technology’, its pixel shifting imager technology to bring UHD TV to projection for the masses.
At the ISE trade show in Amsterdam last month TI brought a private demo it had previously shown at CEDIA and CES to Europe. Pitting its UHD offer against those of Epson, JVC and Sony, that are on to their first, third and second generation of consumer grade 4K projectors, respectively.
Texas instruments DLP technology has for a number of years been absent in the medium and medium high-end home theater market leaving the segment to LCoS and LCD projectors, focusing on portable projectors on the low end and large commercial projectors on the high-end.
TI’s DLP projection technology has had a small presence in 4K Home Theater at the absolute high-end through (modified) DCI projectors that cost at least 60,000 Dollar/Euro.
Now it is making a new entry into home theater, with a small 4.15 milion pixel 0.67”diagonal Digital Micromirror Device plus a pixel shifting mirror and associated pixel processing algorithms, under the ‘XPR Technology’ moniker.
According to Carver three things are needed to move projection forward into the UHD TV era. First 8.3 million pixels on the screen, secondly higher ANSI contrast, TI’s design offers 500:1, and perfect pixel alignment, pointing to the limitations of the competing LCoS and LCD 3 chip offerings.
Addressing the limitations of the Epson and JVC solutions, Carver proclaims: “An 1080P panel has only two million pixels, times two that is four million pixels on screen, that is by definition not 4K, our 4.15 million pixels times two makes for 8.3 million pixels on screen in accordance with the UHD specification”.
Sony does use panels with a native 4K resolution in its projectors, this brings up the issue of perfect pixel alignment, with one single DLP chip there, by definition, is no misalignment. As Carver points out “Sony offers four times the pixels on the same size chip as its 1080P model, this makes pixel alignment four times as complicated”.
Intra Image contrast, usually referred to as ANSI contrast, is around 300-350:1 for LCoS/LCoQ, the best larger DMD HD projectors can offer close to 1000:1 as intra image contrast ratio, but this new small 0.67” DMD design offers only 500:1, better than the competition, and comparable to mainstream HD DLP projectors, but not as high as the best 1080P high-end DLP projectors of the past.
The traditional weakness of DLP projectors is their limited on-off contrast, especially native on-off contrast. Carver disagrees to some degree, making qualifications as to system contrast, depending on projector design not just DLP chip design.
“Most projectors based on our 1080P chips offer in the 3000 to 4000 to 1 range, this chip is comparable in on-off contrast” Pressed a second time on the issue, when asked if the increased tilt angle of the mirrors on the DLP chip, 17 degrees versus 12 degrees in older DMD generations, has a positive effect on the contrast ratio offered Carver said, “2000-3000:1”. The Optoma pre-production model this projector manufacturer demonstrated at ISE, reportedly offered 2000:1 on-off contrast. Carver agreed “This does require an iris or modulation of the lightsource”.
“The tilt angle helps with contrast, but the pixel shifting works with all DMD”, as shown by Panasonic’s ‘Quad Pixel Drive’ technology as implemented in the 10K lumens Laser-Phosphor projector PT-RQ13K, using three 0.9” WQXGA DMDs. This pixel shifting technology uses four positions that by design overlap, so the proclaimed 4K+ or even 5K resolution has to be qualified by this.
“XPR Technology offers two pixels on screen with one mirror” implying there is no spatial overlap between the pixels, hence the TI claim it offers “8.3 million pixels on screen”. Barco launched the F90 projector at ISE, a new 13K lumens Laser-Phosphor 4K using a single WQXGA 0.9” DMD, with its own pixel shifting implementation that works in a similar way as the TI implementation. However though it works in principle with all DLP chips; “we own XPR Technology, we only focus on developing this consumer technology, this Barco’s own technology, but of course we work and confer with all our customers”, Roger Carver emphasizes TI consumer focus in this new UHD venture.
Carver sees two further differences between the TI 4K solution and those of its primary competitors, that run the risk of temporal overlap, due to switching speeds in the milliseconds, versus DLP’s microseconds. “With 8 milliseconds to show a pixel with 4 to 5 milliseconds there is at least the risk of overlap”.
Ti feels it has better pixel processing algorithms, exemplified for instance by a number of aliasing artifacts.
Line interference pattern in small area’s, but no details visible in Sony image
Also in the Optoma HLD 4K projector, the Barco F90, but not in the lamp based version, that lacked dfine detail, and the BenQ W1200 HLD engineering sample that showed a number of image problems, therefor lacking detail, such as low contrast, low framerate and chromatic aberration.
Affordability is still relative, as a new product category, it commands a premium, with initial pricing indications by launch customer Optoma of $10,000, and the lowest pricing suggested by Optoma representatives at ISE of €7,000, but an in my opinion unwarranted premium price as high as €13,000 for the lamp based version. The 7,000 price tag would be the same as the list price of competing Epson LS10000 LASER-Phosphor ‘4K Enchanced’ projector , comparable to the mid-range UHD JVC projector and the Entry level native 4K LCoS imagers based Sony VW320.
But as Carver sets-out the plan: “we sell a lot of 1080P projectors around major HDTV sporting events, where people want to watch them together on a large screen in the best quality possible, these events are now in HD, but will be broadcast in UHD, so we expect people will start to pick up 4K projectors instead”, with volume comes affordability.