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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monster will confuse people. they're hoping people will just jump onto the highest end equipment, rather than thinking about what they'll use it for.the article suggests using rating x for lengths 0-X, y for lengths X-Y, etc.
they should just make one cable for 1m, one for 2m, one for 3m, and so on. the consumer won't know that the 3m has, apparently, thicker wires. so monster can really skimp and give the thin wires for the standard hdmi (btw, i think monster invented that term, all i'm aware of is HDMI 1.3 spec). anyways, they'll give that the old 1500% markup, then they can markup the 2m at 1200%, the 3m at 1000%, etc.
you want to educate consumers? don't bother. take away their knowledge. give them one size fits all. it looks like monster just said the lowest end 2m cable works for the highest end application. maybe there's some proof that "it's all 0s and 1s, it either works or it doesn't" [it is true after all].
Myrandex - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
Unless I read it wrong, it looked like the lowest quality monster cable received more bandwidth at 2m then 1m (where it was quoted at selling for $50 for a 1m cable).911medic - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
The article states the Monster FS Perfectview 450 "will be shipping by the end of September at $699, which is quite pricey given the screen sizes we're talking about here." Monster products are overpriced/a waste of money, IMO, but the accompanying slide pretty clearly states a price of $349.95. Is that wholesale or something?Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
Very good question :) I had $699 in my notes but it's quite possible that I wrote it down wrong, let me see if I can confirm. $349 makes much more sense.Take care,
Anand
GTMan - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
One company has come up with a solution for longer HDMI cables.http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/dvi/index.htm">Blue Jeans Cable
GTMan - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
Whoops, here is the link...http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/dvi/index.htm">Blue Jeans Cable
mcnabney - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
Those are just as overpriced a Monster, but without the showy coloring.TonyB - Thursday, September 6, 2007 - link
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Im not a Blu-Ray fanatic, in fact I plan to purchase an HD-DVD ROM drive as soon as they're available (7-8+ Adult HD-DVD titles compared to 2 Adult Blu-ray titles).
The thing that pisses me off is that Blu-ray has a crap ton load of BD-ROM internal rom drives because they got all the drive manufacturers on their side.