I'm sure I'm not the only one who ever thought of this. I think a projector have the same kind of electronics components as a TV or vcr or dvd player. Its purpose is projection, if I'm not wrong, it doesnt take too much of a brainpower to make one. Its like a receiver or amplifier, takes in a source and amplifies it. I don't think it needs to decode or encode from a source. Just take in a source signal and project. I don't think it has expensive gold parts in it, and I don't think lenses costs a lot too. What am I missing here? why does it costs $2K+++?
Because of the lcds (size, res, contrast ratio, etc.)
Because of the physical size
Because of the lighting
Because of the brand
They really only cost about $50 to manafacture. And then, its profit.
Because of the physical size
Because of the lighting
Because of the brand
They really only cost about $50 to manafacture. And then, its profit.
why does a Hyundai cost $13,000 new and a Mercedes costs $45,000 new? Still a car with 4 wheels ,right? Because of quality, name brand etc. And projectors are very technical. im the first one to say they are way over priced but its what they do that makes them cost so much. bring the movie experience home.
ap0
ap0
To me, projectors have the same potential future as VCRs and DVD players. Expensive the first few years but constantly get cheaper as companies explore and pursue the retail consumer market and find ever cheaper ways to produce relatively decent pjs. At least, I hope they're planning to pursue the retail consumer market. My biz sense tells me pj would eventually be cheaper to produce and are already cheaper to ship than say, a 27" tube television. I'm holding out hope that within a few years we'll be seeing sub-$500 lcd projectors. Of course, that doesn't help for those of us who want the home theater experience NOW.
I don't think PJ's will ever penetrate the consumer market as much as regular TV's or rear projection TV's. That's because people want a no-brainer single machine that will give them video. Let's face it, you buy a TV, bring it home, plug it in, and you're all set. With a projector, you have to pick a special spot for, maybe mount it to a ceiling, fine tune the picture, get a projection screen, etc.... and even then they won't be satisfied because they won't be able to see if with their windows open unless they buy one with more lumen output. And consumers don't want to get that involved, besides the select few of us men that realize the potential of this stuff and are willing to do our research. I notice that all the women I talk to about this project aren't really interested and excited like I am.
Good points kl, and really, this discussion is a little ot and moot at the same time. If the companies producing these buggers think they can grow the bottom line by pushing further into the consumer retail channel, we'll probably see it happen. If not, there's always the few, the proud, the DIY.
I think you will find the markup on projectors is really no worse than any other piece of consumer equipment and they do cost a lot more than $50 to make them.
- A DLP or 3 polysilicon LCDs of some size are not cheap, even in high volumes
- Optics - lenses, hot\cold mirrors, dichroic reflectors to split colors, etc., they all add up and they are not cheap when they are good.
- Commercial projectors support multiple markets. So they have RGB inputs requiring an RGB analog I/F chip, not to mention video inputs, hence a video decoder. I need to mux this all together in the digital domain. The resolution of my sources does not match the resolution of my LCD, etc. so I need a scaling engine that probably does my de-interlacing.
- Very expensive bulb, not to mention the power supply that drives them is not free
- Universal input power supply for everything else
- Remote control
- Connectors
- Somewhat rugged so the optics do not misalign
- etc.
I would guess the BOM cost is about 30-35% of the retail cost, which is not any different from any other consumer product. Shipping, overhead, advertising, warehousing, bad debt writeoff, sales, returns, repairs, R&D, salaries, etc. makes up the rest.
The volumes on projectors is still relatively low. Look how cheap Camcorders and DVDs are now that the volumes are really high. The same thing will happen to projectors.
Alvaius
- A DLP or 3 polysilicon LCDs of some size are not cheap, even in high volumes
- Optics - lenses, hot\cold mirrors, dichroic reflectors to split colors, etc., they all add up and they are not cheap when they are good.
- Commercial projectors support multiple markets. So they have RGB inputs requiring an RGB analog I/F chip, not to mention video inputs, hence a video decoder. I need to mux this all together in the digital domain. The resolution of my sources does not match the resolution of my LCD, etc. so I need a scaling engine that probably does my de-interlacing.
- Very expensive bulb, not to mention the power supply that drives them is not free
- Universal input power supply for everything else
- Remote control
- Connectors
- Somewhat rugged so the optics do not misalign
- etc.
I would guess the BOM cost is about 30-35% of the retail cost, which is not any different from any other consumer product. Shipping, overhead, advertising, warehousing, bad debt writeoff, sales, returns, repairs, R&D, salaries, etc. makes up the rest.
The volumes on projectors is still relatively low. Look how cheap Camcorders and DVDs are now that the volumes are really high. The same thing will happen to projectors.
Alvaius
- Status
- Not open for further replies.