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Who says rear-projection is dead?

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

If the heyday of the gigantic-screen rear-projection HDTV is over, somebody needs to tell Mitsubishi. The company is the sole remaining proprietor pushing out 60-inch-plus TVs too thick to hang on the wall and too inexpensive to merit a cameo on MTV's "Cribs." Its 2009 lineup features two series of what it calls home theater TVs--to differentiate from its flat-panels--and the WD-737 is the cheapest.

The main reason for buying this TV is to get as much screen for as little money as possible, and the WD-737 series fulfills that role admirably. It can't match the black-level performance of most flat-panels we've tested, it has some uniformity issues unique to its category and, of course, you'll eventually need to replace the bulb. However, the replacement is relatively inexpensive ($99, plus shipping), color accuracy is very good, and did we mention the picture is gi-normous? If you want to go really big for less, the WD-737 series is the only game in town.

Read the full review of the Mitsubishi WD-737 series.

Mitsubishi WD-737 series--photos

Mitsubishi's new DLP sets include a 60-incher for $1499.

(Credit: Mitsubishi)

Rear-projection HDTVs have been waning in popularity with the waxing of flat-panel plasmas and LCDs, but Mitsubishi's new lineup of DLP models proves that the technology will be available in stores for at least another year.

In 2008, Samsung and Mitsubishi were the only two companies selling rear-projection behemoths and, due to lack of demand, we only reviewed one model from each company: the Samsung HL61A750 and the Mitsubishi WD-65735.

The LED-powered Samsung was clearly better, but that company has not announced any new DLP models for 2009, although it will continue to sell its 2008 models. I asked Samsung's reps last week about the company's DLP plans but they refused to provide any information, and I have a hunch they won't announce any new models this year, or ever.

That leaves the market for gigantic-screen HDTVs wide open for Mitsubishi. DLP-based models are generally less expensive and more efficient than LCDs or plasmas of a similar screen size, and despite sagging sales, rear-projection may still have legs, especially in a down economy. Mitsubishi's betting it does, and the price is right. It's least expensive 2009 model, the 60-inch WD-60737, lists at $1,500--the same as the 61-inch Samsung commands at Best Buy today and a lot less than any plasma or LCD in that size range.

Mitsubishi announced two new series of big screens, starting at 60 inches and going up to a new size peak: a colossal 82 inches.... Read more

The first time I bought into this this whole digital 3D thing was a 2006 showing of "Superman Returns" on an IMAX screen. In the scene, various objects floated around the screen and seemingly, right in front of my face. For me, this was the first time 3D had lived up to its promise.

If Dolby Laboratories has anything to say about it, it won't be the last. On Tuesday, the company announced that theater exhibitors will now be able to play Dolby 3D Digital Cinema content on screen sizes of up to 70 feet (42 feet was the previous cap).

(Credit: Barco)

If you went to the "Jonas Brothers 3D Concert Experience!" on a 42-foot screen thinking, "You know that was cool, but I still have most of my face attached," just wait until a full 70 feet of pure Jonas Brothers rock completely melts your f#*@ing face off!

Dolby went on to talk about its "environmentally friendly and reusable" Dolby 3D Glasses, which, according to the company, can be used repeatedly, significantly reducing the cost per viewing for exhibitors. My guess is that this probably won't translate into lower ticket prices, though.

Seemingly timed to coincide with the Dolby announcement, Texas Instruments announced its next generation DLP Cinema technology on Tuesday. The new platform is compliant with a newly adopted set of Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) standards and integrates the DLP Cinema tech onto one single board, down from three.

According to Texas Instruments, the new DLP Cinema chipset integrates high-security requirements and specification architecture defined by the DCI while providing a cost reduction to OEM partners.

Again, just my opinion, but moviegoers will probably only see higher ticket prices. Right now in San Francisco it costs $34 for a couple to see a movie in IMAX at night. Here's hoping all of this cheaper technology one day translates to cheaper seats. I won't hold my breath.

Samsung's 61-inch LED-powered DLP TV.

(Credit: Samsung)

Around the holiday season we get a lot of e-mails from readers agonizing over what TV to buy. With the economy the way it is, consumers aren't completely shying away from buying new TVs, but they're on tight budgets and appear to be predominantly interested in screen sizes 52 inches or smaller. The big problem with going bigger is that you jump into a whole new price class when you start looking at the Panasonic 58-inch plasma--and it gets worse when you check out Pioneer's 60-incher.

The exception to all this is DLP-based rear-projection HDTVs, where Samsung and Mitsubishi are the only real remaining players. Remarkably, Best Buy is selling our editors' choice Samsung HL61A750 for $1,600 and the 67-inch inch model in the same line goes for $2,000. Meanwhile, Best Buy has the 65-inch Mitsubishi WD-65735 for a mere $1,500.

But rear-projection is a dying breed, right? Or, as one reader commented, "Everyone seems to be getting out of the rear-projection market. What happens if Samsung completely kills it? What happens then? Will they service my TV?"

Read the full column.

The Samsung HL61A750 snagged an Editors' Choice award, but is it the last rear-projection HDTV to do so?

CNET's review of the Samsung HL61A750 just went up, and if you're still open to the idea of a rear-projection HDTV, it deserves a long look. With the HL61A750, you'll get a 61-inch 1080p HDTV for less than $2,000, which is one of the best screen size-to-price ratios you'll find. Not only that, but the HL61A750 bests the competition in terms performance, with very accurate color and respectable black levels. (Granted, that competition only includes Mitsubishi, as just about everyone else has left the rear-projection biz.)

Perhaps the more interesting question is: how much longer will rear-projection HDTVs be around? Will we be able to give a rear-projection HDTV an Editors' Choice next year, or will large screen flat-panels drop in price enough to make rear-pros an irrelevant category? Let us know what you think in the comments.

NEC's CRVD-LMD wraps 2,880x900 pixels around the viewer.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)

SAN FRANCISCO--Dell got a lot of attention at the Consumer Electronics Show when its Alienware group showed a mammoth curved-screen display for gamers, but NEC is hoping it'll reach an even bigger market with its own version of the technology.

NEC was showing off a prototype of its 42-inch, 2,880x900-pixel, curved-screen display, the CRVD-LMD, at the Macworld trade show here this week. The monitor is geared for professionals such as medical scanners, photographers, and video animators who need an immersive display and a lot of real estate but don't want their view interrupted by the frames of multiple monitors, said NEC marketing manager Tim Dreyer. It'll include professional features such as color calibration, he added.

The screen is due to ship in nine or ten months, Dreyer said. Its price in dollars should be in the mid-four figure range, a price that professional markets might well have an easier time stomaching than even hardcore gamers.

The 25-pound curved screen itself uses a DLP rear-projection system, not LCD or plasma. The panel technology, as in the case of the Alienware model, comes from Ostendo Technologies, said Erhan Ercan, that company's director of product marketing.

The prototype uses a dual-link DVI port to connect to a computer with a single graphics card, but the final version could use HDMI, Ercan said.

The prototype I saw was dim and had vertical banding artifacts resulting from the four projectors used to create the image, but those kinks will be worked out by the time the monitor ships, Dreyer said.

A few more numbers for the curious: The response time is less than 0.02 milliseconds, the brightness is 250 nits, and the "typical" contrast is 10,000:1, NEC said.

Mitsubishi's trio of laser TVs hang on the wall.

(Credit: Mitsubishi)

While rear-projection seems to be losing steam, Mitsubishi is doing its best to breathe new life into non-flat HDTVs with its introduction of the world's first model with a picture powered by a laser-based light engine. Unfortunately, the product's smoke-and-hyperbole-filled introduction at the Palms hotel's Rain nightclub, while long on lighting effects, was short on details. Pricing and available screen sizes were not announced -- only that the product will hit the market this year.

Watch the Mitsubishi Laser TV video on CNET TV.

... Read more

Mitsubishi's trying to bring 3D to the home.

(Credit: news.com.au)

Along with a few other tech journalists, I spent a couple of hours today over at the Westchester Country Club, which is gearing up for The Barclays PGA Tour event. What the hell was I doing there? Well, as part of a marketing deal with the PGA Tour, Mitsubishi is the "official large outdoor video display provider" of the Tour, and the PR team wanted us to see some of these displays in action--along with the Tour's ShotLink technology, which tracks players' shots almost down to the centimeter (the info is then displayed on those giant Mitsubishi scoreboards). That's all sorts of interesting if you're a golf fan, but things got a little sexier when Mitsubishi representatives took us into a hospitality suite, handed us each a pair of fancy 3D glasses (a little smaller than the ones shown in the photo), and showed us a demo of some new 3D-imaging technology the company's working on.

The demo was run from a massive Dell desktop and output onto a large DLP set. In an effort to inject new life into the fading rear-projection category, the company's pitch was that the 3D technology worked with existing DLP TVs and projectors (due to DLP's native 120Hz refresh rate, which allows you to split it into 60/60 for 3D) but not with LCD and plasma displays.

Most of us were pretty impressed by the demo, which included clips from movies, commercials, and sporting events. There was real depth to the 3D, and you got that 3D-feeling of objects poking out at you from the screen. All the demo material had been shot in 3D, but the kicker to the whole presentation was that Mitsubishi apparently has a Blu-ray player in its labs that can convert existing 2D movies into 3D on the fly. Better yet, according to company representatives, it may be available early next year.

... Read more