CEDIA 2007 - Day 1: Us vs. Monster Cable, Sony's New Projectors and Toshiba on HD-DVD
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Manveer Wasson on September 5, 2007 11:45 PM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Sony's New 1080p Projectors
The problem with CEDIA is that the show is targeted mainly to integrators, resellers, and custom installers, in other words: people looking to sell you this stuff. Every press conference and presentation ends up talking about protecting your profits, fighting commoditization and selling better - in other words, it's not very consumer friendly. It's sharp contrast to what we're used to talking about in the PC market where it's all about bang for your buck and the manufacturers mostly get that. Needless to say, Sony is committed to fighting commoditization with its products thus keeping prices high, um, yay? :)
As expected, Sony introduced two new projectors at CEDIA: the VPL-VW60 and the VPL-VW200. The VW60 was announced a couple of weeks ago as the long awaited successor to the VW50 (aka Pearl), Sony's first affordable 1080p SXRD (Sony's LCoS) front projector.
VPL-VW60
The VW60 features 3 1080p SXRD panels with a 35,000:1 dynamic contrast (using dynamic iris, unlike JVC's HD100/RS1). Sony mentioned that the VW60 used an updated video processor but it wasn't clear whether or not the UHP lamp was any different than the VW50's. Panel alignment is now supported to address issues where the three SXRD panels are misaligned, a feature lacking from the VW50. Sony mentioned that the panel alignment feature was specifically developed for installers, which could mean that it's only accessible through a service menu.
Adjustable lens shift and a special "theater mode" calibration are both VW60 features, and the projector has 2 x HDMI ports as well as a RS232 port for automation. The video processor will stretch the picture vertically to support 2.35:1 aspect ratio setups with an optional motorized anamorphic lens. Sony didn't mention what company would be producing the lens itself.
The VW60 retails for $4999, but street price should be lower, and it is currently shipping.
VPL-VW200
The VW200 is a higher end projector using a 400W Xenon bulb (better color gamut, not necessarily better brightness though) and a custom Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens. The VW200 also brings Sony's 120Hz Motionflow technology to the projector, supporting both frame interpolation (like JVC) or black frame insertion to achieve 120Hz.
Panel alignment and 2.35:1 scaling support are both standard (with an optional anamorphic lens) just like the VW60, but the 200 does add an ethernet port possibly for automation or firmware updates.
The VW200 will begin shipping in October at under $15,000.
Compared to JVC's recently announced HD100/RS2, it looks like the two companies will have fairly complementary offerings on the market. We'll have to wait until November before finding out how the WV60 stacks up to JVC's latest and greatest though.
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Adul - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
I feel sad for those that buy into the monster cable marketing. I been getting my cables from monoprice lately. Nice well made cables for cheap. Wish I told that to my neighbor before he drop money on it. Oh well next time :)MGSsancho - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
yeah i got a 50' dvi -> hdmi cable from mono price. works great. its just massive. makes my man hood feel bad at times. Monster does have a point. the original spec for hdmi was a <5gbs link. then the spec was increased to 120hz, 24b color, then 1440P resolution. all in all the bandwidth requirement was increased to >12gps. Then they got spart. the increased the spec, but never upgraded the spec on the cable. So, current hdmi cables are fine for current stuff like PCs, HD stuff and game consoles. anything higher that that (1440P) I will worry about it when i can buy a $2000 1440P TV, receiver, player, and content.About the STR-5300ES, how is that any better than the Onkyo 805 fpr $1000 (has all the same features except bravia link) and if you want the Silicon Optics HCV blah 10bit REON up scaler, the onkyo 875 sells for $1800 (msrp). oh and onkyos 905 has burr brown oamps.....
Oh well Congrats to Sony bringing more competition into the high end gear!!!!!!!!
Duwelon - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
I'm so sad for Monster that consumers don't want to pay a 1000% price markup on their cables. I bought a $5 DVI-HDMI cable about 6 feet long and it delivers a brilliant image to my sony 1080p TV.pervisanathema - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
Monster Cable's business model depends on the ignorance of consumers and peoples' blind attraction to shiny packaging and a slick sales pitch. It's common knowledge among the enthusiasts and educated consumers that Monster is the cable world's equivalent of Bose. Slick marketing, massive markup, inferior product.Locutus465 - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
Except Bose speakers (at least their real surround speakers) actually do sound great, and are high quality. Basically, you really do get something out of spending more on your speakers vs. cheaping out (like I did). If you cheap out you can get decent, but not amazing sound, if you spend extra cash, you get amazing... With monster, you really don't get anything at all.(qualifier, yes you need a decent receiver to go along with your shiny bose speakers for things to work out well).
SilthDraeth - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
I doubt monster makes crappy cables. There just isn't a need to pay the additional price.LoneWolf15 - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
Monster is also dependent on making sure big box stores like Best Buy only sell their brand of cables and no other, so that people who absolutely gotta have their new home theater working today (without travelling around to buy things) will spend the big bucks as opposed to being patient, going somewhere else or mail-ordering them, and saving the cash.
Best Buy (and some others) have learned that it nets them huge profits too. Same with computer cables (Geek Squad and Dynex). $33 for a USB cable I can pay $10 for anywhere else? Highway robbery --and enough to stop me from buying other items at their store as well.
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