Comments on: Not your sports bar's rear-projection TV

A start-up is betting that new technology and low prices can breath life into the niche market for king-size sets.
Photos: Liquid crystal TVs

[hunter_jc]

An't that much cheaper than DLP

I think 1500 for 55" rear projection an't much cheaper than some
established brand's rear projection. They need to do something as
drastic as Vizio, i think that is the brand.

[imtheben]

This is a *1080p* TV, mate

I think you'll find the $1500 price for DLP only applies to lower resolution 720p sets. Samsung's 1080p DLP is around $2400.

Also, logically these types of TVs are always going to be less expensive than flat panels: With flat, when you build a bigger screen you've also got to build more of the most expensive parts of the TV (glass panel, plasma cells, LCD doohickeys) that run the screen. Projection screens are mostly air--to build a bigger-screened projection TV, you just need a bright light source, a bigger mirror, and a bit more plastic to hold it all in place. Bigger, lighter, less energy wasted--my money's on projection.

Anyway, hard to diss MicroDisplay when their TVs aren't even in stores yet, so we can't really compare them to anything else. Proof is on the show floor.

[paulsecic]

Ain't

interested in expensive TVs

[meh130]

Sony and JVC have sold LCOS for years

Sony's SXRD and JVC's HD-ILA technologies are 1080p LCOS systems.

Sony's 55" 1080p SXRD set run between $2,000 and $2,500 street price.

Samsung's 56" 1080p DLP set runs between $1,600 and $2,000 street price.

The effect of the MicroDisplay product will be to reduce prices of LCOS and DLP sets.

Sony and Samsung will be able to maintain a premium, the question is how much.

I would rather see someone come in with technology to drive a 30"-40" HDTV into the $500 range.

[winstein]

I've heard it before...

15 years ago a CRT engineer friend told me that CRT will always be cheaper and with better picture quality than any LCD displays... Well, just look around.

[rkadowns]

He was correct.

And still is however most people don't really care.

I went to purchase my first big screen HDTV about a year ago. Was dead set on a Sony Vega until I visited the store where I was going to make the purchase. Sitting next to the Vega, with the same image showing, was a Toshiba CRT unit.

The picture quality wasn't even close.

I left with the CRT Toshiba and an extra 900 bucks in my pocket. I still don't regret it today even though the plasma and LCD market has made noticeable improvements.

[adot44]

I concur

He was correct. It makes me sad to see people (and companies) wasting their money and time buying and making LCDs and such when their old CRT has such a nicer, warmer, richer, realer picture. That's why I said in my previous comment that I might not laugh at people who spent thousands on a SED set, because it's supposed to be the same technology as CRT, just in a flat screen, with electron emitters on every pixel instead of in a "huge" gun that sweeps the screen. We'll see, though.