Check out Mitsubishi's hand-held SVGA projector that will be available this summer 
http://www.chait.net/index.php?p=572&page=1
Wowzers, with 20,000 hour bulb life to boot
http://www.chait.net/index.php?p=572&page=1
Wowzers, with 20,000 hour bulb life to boot
Thanks to the LED's, this thing should be incredibly efficient. A normal DLP or single chip LCD simply throws away 2/3 of the available light from the lamp with color filters (on a DLP, it's the color wheel; on a single chip LCD it occurs on the level of each subpixel). In contrast, the LED's only produce the desired color in the first place! That's one thing that made them so perfectly suited for traffic lights even when their white light capability wasn't so impressive.
I have long wondered why this technique hasn't already been used. I guess it's just taken this long to get the blue LED up to par. Well, now there will be no stopping this technology! I expect DLPs will more or less take over within a few years. Rear projection DLP will become the CRT of the early 21st Century, while plasmas and LCD flat panels will be seen as a shortlived fad.
I have long wondered why this technique hasn't already been used. I guess it's just taken this long to get the blue LED up to par. Well, now there will be no stopping this technology! I expect DLPs will more or less take over within a few years. Rear projection DLP will become the CRT of the early 21st Century, while plasmas and LCD flat panels will be seen as a shortlived fad.
I guess my sarcasim was missed.
These units can only project a screen size of up to 27".
My TV is bigger than that.
These units can only project a screen size of up to 27".
My TV is bigger than that.
If they could get that image upto 40" 16:9 I would buy one. With the long life you could use this for your regular HDTV all day. If this is just the start of LED technology jus think of where projector technology could go next. You could have a small projector displaying 1080p content on a 110" screen and have a buld life of 20,000 hours. Since LEDs run cool you wouldn't need a fan so it would be silent. Now all we need are screens that make it so that daylight viewing is at least watchable.
jcbklyny said:
They're using Lumileds from Luxeon. These are leds capable of tossing out a tremendous amount of light. I vaguely remember reading about one LED chip that dissapated 3-5 watts of heat...
I'd guess it's something along the lines of this:
http://www.lumileds.com/products/family.cfm?familyId=2
I'm sure Mitsubishi has some customized set for this thing, but it still may need a fan since those LEDs do dissapate a lot of heat.
DJNUBZ said:
From the article:
"Users can easily create a 20-inch diagonal screen with only a little over a foot of projection distance, and a 40-inch screen image in less than a yard"
So it does a 40" 800x600 screen from less than a yard away. Not quite to where you want it, but give them 2 years and I'm sure they'll it out for you.
ringram said:
Actually, it does a 20" screen from about a foot away. It does 40" at about 1 yard. Do you have a 40" TV that weighs less than a pound, and can be powered by batteries?
ok, I will admit, there is a certain coolness factor to this unit. But it still isn't ready for mainstream markt yet.
A 40" picture is nice, but at that size, you would have to be in a dark room, and it's only 40". We'll wait and see how it matures.
A 40" picture is nice, but at that size, you would have to be in a dark room, and it's only 40". We'll wait and see how it matures.
ringram said:
I agree. I think this might be something practical for people who need a small presentation package, or as a fun novelty thing. It's a little expensive for the latter, but still, the concept is pretty dang cool. I'm guessing it'll only improve from here.
Heck, if they can do this, I wonder how long it'll be before they integrate the projector into laptops.
oooooo good call. Limited-sure, but a good way to shrink laptops for some purposes. Maybe a small screen with the projector option where it is usable.
I'm telling you, the big application for this technology will be rear projection monitors and TV sets. Right now, a 25+ inch flat screen monitor is expensive, but LED/DLP rear projection technology will make them really cheap.
A front projector needs to be pretty bright in order to cover a large area and still overpower the ambient light. In contrast, a rear projection monitor will cover a smaller area and the nature of the screen tends to "swallow up" a lot of the ambient light. That means that LEDs will have enough brightness and that they might not even need active cooling. That means less cost and even better reliability.
Don't let the $700 initial price fool you--these things are going to get cheaper really quickly.
A front projector needs to be pretty bright in order to cover a large area and still overpower the ambient light. In contrast, a rear projection monitor will cover a smaller area and the nature of the screen tends to "swallow up" a lot of the ambient light. That means that LEDs will have enough brightness and that they might not even need active cooling. That means less cost and even better reliability.
Don't let the $700 initial price fool you--these things are going to get cheaper really quickly.
But if they are rear projection, aren't they going to be a lot deeper front to back than a flatscreen LCD monitor?
Yep, and rear projection takes more light then front projection to project any sort of a decent image, not unless you want to pay BIG bux for a lenticular screen.
Trev 🙂
IsaacKuo said:
Nah. LCD technology is going to continue to get cheaper until Organic LED technology picks up the slack. So many manufacturers have invested tons in building LCD's that we'll see the price continue to plummet.
19" 16ms response time LCD monitors are now around $300, and 21" LCD monitors are around $550. It won't be long before 25" and 27" LCD's are in the $400 range, maybe lower.
I do agree that DLP technology will continue to get cheaper, which will make RPTVs much less expensive, but I think for 36" and under, LCD will rule the roost for the next decade or more.
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