Green monster helps sell JVC high-def projector
DENVER--"Shrek 2" is a mildly amusing movie. "Shrek 2" in Japanese in a screening room in Denver? That's just random.
But when JVC wants to show off its new high-definition projector to reporters, a green monster with a Scottish brogue is one of the stars of the show. At CEDIA Expo 2006, the electronics maker used various video clips to show off the home theater gadget's sharpness, brightness and contrast, including "Harry Potter" (with Japanese subtitles), The Eagles Farewell Tour concert (the original, non-dubbed version), and the Japanese equivalent of QVC.
JVC says its new Digital Image Light Amplifier (D-ILA) microdisplay technology (its version of LCOS) inside the projector eliminates the "screen door effect" that occurs in almost any digital projector. When a lens is sharply focused, each individual pixel can appear on screen as if it's inside a black box, or as if a screen has been laid over it.
JVC says its first projector for the consumer market, which can convert any incoming image into 1080p resolution, has a 10,000:1 native contrast ratio, and a brightness level of 800 lumens. Sitting in a dark room and watching Shrek and Donkey prance around on a 100-inch projector screen, the effect is noticeable--at 10 feet away, individual blades of grass, tree leaves and even the pores on Shrek's face are visible. If that's important to your movie-watching experience, then watch out for the product to be released in early 2007. Company representatives wouldn't give a price except to say it will be less than $7,000.