Oh, the beauty of progress. Just a few months back, Epson seemed fairly content showing off an HTPS panel with a WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) resolution, though today that very product just seems lackluster. Up until now, 4K x 2K projectors were reserved strictly for cinemas, businesses and consumers with a) more money than sense and b) room for a 200-pound beamer in their basement. The planet's first 4K-compatible high-temperature polysilicon (HTPS) TFT liquid crystal panel for 3LCD projectors measures just 1.64-inches and supports displays with resolutions as high as 4,096 x 2,160. Your guess is as good as ours as to when this stuff will actually hit the market in a functioning product, but yesterday is as good a day as any to start saving up.

[Via Akihabara News]

We already snuck a peak at the European version of Epson's Home Cinema 8500 UB (the EH-TW4400) and Pro Cinema 9500 UB (EH-TW5500) at the big IFA show in Berlin. Now they're US official, and joined by newly anointed PowerLite Home Cinema 8100 and Pro Cinema 9100 models. The new 8100 doubles the reported contrast of the old 6100 (on paper anyway) which should equate to a visible black level improvement for an asking price of just $1,500 after $100 rebate -- very reasonable for a Full HD home theater projector of Epson quality. The 9100 adds support for an anamorphic lens, ISF certification for professional setups, a bundled ceiling mount and spare E-TORL lamp, and a 3-year replacement warranty for a beefier $2,600. Expect the 8100 to hit US retail in October along side the "sub-$4,000" Pro Cinema 9500 UB while the 9100 lands in November with the "sub-$3,000" Home Cinema 8500 UB. Your holiday slide-shows will never be the same.

[Via The Art of Home Theater Projectors]

Read -- PowerLite Home Cinema 8100 and 8500 UB
Read -- PowerLite Pro Cinema 9100 and 9500 UB

It's that time again: the end-of-year rush to launch the best and brightest home theater projectors for the holiday cocooning season. Epson's casting its 2009 lot with the EH-TW5500 and EH-TW4400 3LCD projectors featuring Full HD (1920x1080) resolutions, a 1600 ANSI lumen brightness, and quiet 22dB operation. The TW4400 (aka, Home Cinema 8500UB as it will be known Stateside) touts a 130000:1 contrast while the TW5500 (aka, Pro Cinema 9500UB) ratchets the hyperbole up to 200000:1 -- that's about double the claim of Epson's previous high-enders that already featured excellent black performance. To be fair, Epson makes some of, if not the best, home theater projectors for the money thanks to its D7 C2Fine LCD panels manufactured in-house. Other specs include 12bit video processing, improved frame interpolation and 4-4 pull-down, x.v. color mode, 2.1x optical zoom with horizontal/vertical lens shift, and a range of inputs including 2x HDMI, YUV, and RGB.

We gave the TW5500 an eyes and ears-on here are IFA in Berlin in a finely-tuned home theater setup and came away extremely impressed with the image -- enough so that we'd be tempted to layout the €3,299 European asking price (€2,799 for the TW4400) come November if only we had the space to let this baby shine. But let's wait and see what the competition has in response when CEDIA kicks off later this week -- it's best to be informed and 3 grand ain't exactly chump change.

Read -- Press Release
Read -- Art Feierman's opinion

As a leader in home cinema systems, it's always a good idea to keep tabs on Epson's core technologies as a preview of what's coming up in next generation home theater projectors. Today Seiko-Epson announced the start of volume production for its 0.94-inch HTPS-TFT LCD capable of a WUXGA (1920 x 1200 pixel) resolution for 3LCD projectors pushing 1080p. The panel supports a brightness of 5000 lumens (or more!) using Epson's D7 process technology while achieving "higher than ever contrast" through its C2 Fine inorganic alignment layer tech. What this means is simple: expect to see a new brightness and contrast champion PowerLite Home Cinema projector announced at the end of Summer, as CEDIA tradition dictates, with product shipping by end of the year.

Slotted for those who want a top of the line 1080p projector and aren't afraid to pay extra for it, the just-launched Epson EH-TW5000 manages a dynamic contrast ratio of 75,000:1 and 1600 ANSI lumens from its 3LCD technology. Matched with an HQV chip capable of 12-bit image processing, 4-4 pulldown, support for ultra-widescreen lenses, ISF certification and a mere 22db of noise it should garner consideration in any home theater setup, About Projectors says it can be found for around $5,299.

[via About Projectors & Crave]

True, Sanyo's LP-WXU700 is limited to a WXGA (1280 x 800) pixel image. But it's still the world's first to transmit that video over 802.11b/g/n (draft 2.0). Grabbing wireless video off your Vista PC is a snap thanks to the projector's Windows Embedded CE 6.0 software with Video Streaming Function that links back to Vista's Network Projector Function. Spec-wise we're looking at a 0.74-inch 3LCD panel capable of projecting a 100-inch image at a distance of 2.5 to 4-meters at 3,800 lumens with a 500:1 contrast ratio. Sanyo even tosses in a single HDMI jack in addition to the usual analog inputs. While, it's targeted at offices and schools, it wouldn't surprise us to see this ¥62,790 (about $642) projector show up in make-shift home theaters and gaming rooms when it launches in June.

Update: Oops, dropped a 0 from the price. It's actually ¥627,900 or about $6,445 according to the native English press release but even that doesn't sound right.

[Via Akihabara News]

A little bit of keystone distortion during a PowerPoint has never bothered us too much, let alone an off-center placement, but if your boardroom won't tolerate such things then Christie wants to show you its new LW650 projector. The 1366x800 pixel, 3LCD beamer delivers 6500 lumens with a 2500:1 contrast ratio, but its real calling card is the lens shift technology (motorized, we assume) that will allow users to achieve undistorted images without resorting to any resolution-wasting digital corrections. Christie is promising a wide range of lenses that span several throw distances, so it's safe to assume that at least one short-throw option will be in there so you can hop on the bandwagon. Ping your Christie rep for a quotation, as retail pricing info hasn't been released.

Sony's certainly got lots of cheaper, higher-res options out there for folks who've already sealed out all of the light from their downstairs den (er, "home theater room"), but if you're looking for something to cut through ambient light, search no more. The VPL-FW41 WXGA 3LCD beamer sports an expected 1,280 x 800 native resolution but impresses with its 4,500 lumens of light output -- or enough to make The Sun look like a faraway glow in comparison. All kidding aside, Sony's newest PJ should do wonders for rooms with oodles of sunshine seeping in, and the 12-bit 3D gamma correction circuitry, HDMI socket and 3D digital comb-filter should keep most everyone happy. Unfortunately, you'll be paying for all that brightness, with the MSRP sitting at $6,710.

[Via AboutProjectors]

Making sure to differentiate white and color output separately, Epson's PowerLite G5000 comes in with an even 4,000 lumen figure for both metrics. The 3LCD, XGA resolution projector also boasts some nice convenience features like 30-degrees of tilt and both horizontal and vertical lens shift so you can quickly get things set up when moving from the classroom to the family room. Available now for $2,499 -- but that lack of 1080 vertical pixels and only 1,000:1 contrast leave us a little cold while we look across other Epson offerings, even if they require a little more light control in the room. Still, if blackout drapes are just out of the question for your setting, those 4,000 lumens speak volumes.

The InFocus IN5108 might be just what you're looking for if you need a projector that can do duty as your primary HDTV display, at least according to the Good Gear Guide review. The industrial design might not win your heart over, but the real beauty to this beamer is the abundance of light that spills out of the lens and wash away the ambient light in your room -- the review says 5,000 lumens, but InFocus specs the unit at 4,000. Either way, it was plenty of candlepower to make all 1400x1050 pixels of the 3LCD projector watchable in a bright, sunlit room. Before you jump on this $5500 cannon, remember to set aside some money to replace the 2,000 hour bulb and keep in mind that it's big enough you won't want to be sneaking it in and out of the workplace conference room on a regular basis.
[Via ARN]

Do you know when you don't need to worry about drawing the blackout shades and dimming the lights for projector use? When your projector cranks out 10,000 lumens, that's when. The Christie LX1000 is just such a beast, even though it looks to be a twin brother of the Sanyo PLC-XF71. For its part, the LX1000 is a dual-lamp, 3LCD setup with 10-bit image processing. The motorized lens shift and focus controls are to be expected at this level, but a nice 20,000 lumen surprise awaits you if you stack a couple of LX1000s. The good news is tempered somewhat by looking at the other LX-series models, which deliver 1024x768 resolution. Christie's not sharing pricing info, but this model has got to sit between the $18,000 LX900 and the $30,000 LX1500.

Sorry Hitachi, we really are, but there's no way consumers can squeeze a satisfactory amount of fun out of a SXGA+ projector. In fairness, the 3LCD CP-SX635 does boast a brightness of 4,000 ANSI lumens for showing up in even dimly lit areas, but the lack of 1080p just leaves us squarely on the fence. For those who aren't resolution junkies, this one also includes four optional lenses for various throw distances, a 2,000-hour hybrid filter, an inbuilt 16-watt speaker, network control capability and an HDMI input. Too bad we're not even given a price to ponder, huh? The full release is just past the break.

Here lately, the aura of 3LCD has been somewhat overshadowed by the glitz and glam that seems to be intrinsically connected to DLP projectors, LCoS beamers and those other "new technologies." But regardless of the star factor, 3LCD has managed to hang around in a perpetually changing industry for 20 years now. Way back in 1988, the very first 3LCD projector started to ship with Kodak and Epson behind the wheel, and it took until 1994 for a 3LCD VGA PJ to see the light of day. 'Course, we all know what happened from there, but if you're the nostalgic type, head on past the break for a tear-jerking time line.

Epson's EH-TW3000 isn't much to look at, but we all know it's the innards that count. The 1080p beamer sports the company's 3LCD technology, a 20,000:1 contrast ratio, 2,000 ANSI lumens, a 10-bit video processing engine, whisper quiet design, twin HDMI 1.3 inputs and a 3-year warranty. In other words, it's housing everything you need to make your movies look great, but it'll cost you a stiff €1,614 ($2,084) in order to bring one home.

[Via AboutProjectors]

You're probably wondering if adding in a fourth panel to an LCD projector is really worthwhile. Actually, you're probably willing to bet your bottom dollar that it's a gimmick. Sound & Vision took the time to actually critique Sanyo's latest with an open mind, and believe it or not, it found the all new QuaDrive technology to be everything it was hyped up to be. To be fair, the PLC-XP200L isn't tailored for the home theater; the lowly 1,024 x 768 resolution and 4:3 aspect ratio sound downright appalling. However, reviewers focused more on the actual technology / image quality given that Sanyo already has a compact, quieter, 16:9 QuaDrive beamer slated for 2009. During a demonstration, critics found the new tech to be visibly better than 3LCD rivals, with the picture appearing "dramatically more vivid." Should you rush out and buy the XP200L? Probably not. But you may just want to delay your impending PJ purchase until that HT version hits next year.