[opendtv] News: Slim and Light, a Bright New Rival to Plasma
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 06:57:45 -0400
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/10/technology/circuits/10basi.html?th
June 10, 2004
BASICS
Slim and Light, a Bright New Rival to Plasma
By WILSON ROTHMAN
OR Glen Mauriello, Phase 1 is complete: his wife, Patty, has given
him the green light to build a home theater in the basement of their
home in Tewksbury Township, N.J. "I married a saint," said Mr.
Mauriello, a vice president of a Manhattan-based financial services
company. Now comes Phase 2: choosing the right TV.
When he set out on his search four months ago, Mr. Mauriello thought
of TV's in four established categories: classic direct-view sets
using cathode ray tubes (C.R.T.'s), liquid-crystal-display (L.C.D.)
flat-panel sets, the larger plasma flat panels and the biggest and
clunkiest of them all, C.R.T. rear-projection sets.
But when he visited an electronics store, he discovered a new class
of pricier rear-projection TV's called microdisplays, which are
slimmer, are lighter in weight and have a brighter picture than their
predecessors. They usually cost half as much as similar-size plasmas.
"No matter what television technology you choose, there are
compromises," said Lance Braithwaite, engineering consultant for
Samsung Electronics' American Quality Assurance Labs. "For the
moment, microdisplay is the best compromise."
Since the early 1980's, most big-screen televisions have been
rear-projection C.R.T. models. Rather than shooting an image straight
at the screen from a single tube, rear-projection models use three
smaller tubes that send red, green and blue images through a series
of lenses and mirrors, projecting them together onto the screen to
create a picture.
The trouble is, even smaller tubes weigh quite a bit and take up
space in the television cabinet. Rear-projection sets are not as
bright as plasma models or direct-view single-tube sets; those using
bigger C.R.T.'s deliver brighter pictures, but greater size means
additional weight.
New Technologies
Microdisplay rear-projection TV's get their name from the three
chip-based technologies that they variously use to create a picture.
L.C.D. In L.C.D.-based rear projection, red, green and blue lights
shine through three tiny L.C.D. screens (replacing the three tubes in
traditional rear-projection sets). The images travel a path of lenses
and mirrors to appear converged on the screen.
D.L.P. Other sets use Texas Instruments' digital light processing
chip, which is covered with thousands of tiny mirrors, each tilting
individually to create gray shades from light to dark. Most D.L.P.
sets use only one chip to create the image, which is given color by
red, green and blue lights spun on a color wheel that reflect off the
chip in sequence 120 times per second, so fast that they appear
converged. That image passes through lenses and mirrors onto the
screen.
LCOS The newest method, liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS), combines
characteristics of the other two. Three chips with red, green and
blue light can be used to create the picture, or, as with D.L.P., a
single chip with red, green and blue light rapidly scans across its
surface. In both cases, light is reflected off each chip.
At the moment, major manufacturers are divided across the three
formats. L.C.D. is championed by Sony, Hitachi and Panasonic, which
is also introducing a D.L.P. line. Squarely in the D.L.P. camp are
Samsung and RCA. Mitsubishi and Toshiba, having introduced
three-chip LCoS televisions, are now refocusing their product lines
around D.L.P. JVC will introduce several three-chip LCoS models in
the next few months. Philips is the only manufacturer selling a
one-chip LCoS set in the United States.
Microdisplay rear projection will soon overtake its more affordable
C.R.T.-based counterpart, according to Riddhi Patel, senior analyst
at iSuppli, a market research firm. At the start of this year,
microdisplays represented only 8 percent of the rear-projection
television market worldwide, itself just a sliver of the overall TV
business. But by year's end, nearly a quarter of all rear-projection
sets will be microdisplay.
Size and Weight
Without needing tubes to generate an image, microdisplays are up to
two-thirds lighter and a third less tall than C.R.T. rear projection
sets. The new optics take up less space too, so cabinets are
shallower, by 10 inches or more.
They also weigh less. While a 65-inch C.R.T. rear-projection set can
tip the scales at more than 350 pounds, a 60-inch microdisplay weighs
less than 150 pounds. Even the ballyhooed plasma can't match a
microdisplay pound for pound: while one of Sony's 42-inch plasma sets
weighs 78 pounds, its 42-inch L.C.D. rear-projection weighs just 64
pounds.
"Suddenly projection TV isn't just a suburban product," said Ed
Wolff, vice president of Panasonic's display group. "If you live in a
three-story walkup, you can now carry a 47-inch TV up the stairs."
Microdisplays are even closing in on plasma's slender form. In
January, RCA and its partner InFocus introduced a super-thin
wall-mountable D.L.P., a set less than seven inches deep. This fall
Hitachi will start selling an L.C.D. rear-projection set that is
deeper than plasma but has the same head-on appearance: screen,
speakers and not a whole lot else.
Picture Quality
Size, shape and weight play increasingly important roles in choosing
a TV, but picture quality is still pre-eminent. All three
technologies have rapidly evolved from somewhat glitchy novelties
into contenders embraced by videophiles.
Not long ago, L.C.D. rear-projection sets were plagued by low
contrast ratios: the pictures were always bright, but as a result,
black tended to appear lighter, more of a deep blue. Today improved
chips and screen materials have darkened the dark parts of L.C.D.
pictures.
D.L.P. sets have always had better black levels than competing L.C.D.
products. But because single-chip D.L.P.'s use the spinning color
wheel, viewers who jerk their heads or move their eyes very fast may
see the "rainbow effect," that is, the three colors out of alignment.
With better, faster color wheels, the rainbow effect is diminishing.
One-chip LCoS TV's also face this problem, though three-chip LCoS
TV's do not.
The greatest obstacle for LCoS TV's has been manufacturing. Toshiba
abandoned its LCoS set despite critical acclaim because the company
could not find an affordable way to build it. Philips recently
stepped up LCoS production, however, and Intel announced its entry
into the LCoS business, so it is likely to become a larger force soon.
Gary Merson, who publishes The HDTV Insider Newsletter and reviews
television sets for several magazines, said that the latest
microdisplays from most major brands put up a good fight against
plasma and C.R.T.-based sets of a similar size.
"What motivates people are brightness and uniform sharpness," Mr.
Merson said. "With C.R.T.'s, the picture is sharper in the center
than in the corners. Like flat-panel L.C.D.'s and plasma TV's,
microdisplays are sharp from edge to edge."
Mr. Merson says that microdisplay rear-projection sets can even be as
bright as plasma, but only at certain angles.
Though some purists feel the best viewing experience still comes
from a well-maintained C.R.T. rear-projection set, the need for
maintenance puts C.R.T. at a disadvantage. The three separate tubes
of C.R.T.-based sets can shift out of alignment, leading to a fuzzy
image. "Microdisplay sets, out of the box, are perfectly converged,"
Mr. Merson said.
After researching several microdisplay makers in his hunt for the
perfect television, Mr. Mauriello has decided to wait for Samsung's
newest 61-inch D.L.P. Meanwhile, he is getting his basement ready.
"I'm setting up the room with two big Montauk sofas on different
levels to form stadium seating," he said. "I'm looking forward to
crawling into them with my four kids and watching 'Finding Nemo' -
then putting them to bed and watching 'Star Wars.' "
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