"Wobulating" RCA Scenium 50-inch HD50LPW175 reviewed

OK, hi-def diehards, stop reading right now and move on to the next post. Cause if you won't even give a second glance to any set that's not 1080p, then RCA's Scenium HD50LPW175 50-inch DLP at 720p ain't gonna rock your world. Those of us who are looking for a little bit of a bargain, however, will be interested in the solid review that Sound and Vision gives this new $2300 Scenium with "wobulation" technology. RCA employed Texas Instruments' "Smooth Picture" DLP chip, which displays overlapping images to trick the eye into perceiving 1920 x 1080 pixels, when only 960 x 1080 micromirrors actually reside on the chip itself. S&V is mostly down with wobulation (which we first spotted in some HP projectors last year), although they claim the RCA take is less smooth and grid-free than others they've seen, and they also notice some detail loss in darker scenes and a "modest" amount of video noise. Despite the less-than-perfect picture quality however, the HD50LPW175 offers a lot of bang for the buck, sporting a CableCARD slot and HDMI input, all packed into a pretty sleek design.

[Via HD Beat]

[Peter @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Rainbows?

Does Wobulation make them worse? Are they a thing of the past? Why do I see no mention of them. I notice them pretty easy when I watch a movie at someones home who has a DLP.

I dont' even know if I want a 1080p wobulation set, will there be a native 1080p DLP?

[Justin @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

1) The least you can do if you are going to link to an article is to read it. The RCA you link to uses wobulation to get 720p NOT 1920x1080 like you state. Thus you get a 1280 x 720 image from a 640x720 mirror chip.
2)Saying it tricks the eye is way misleading, it tricks the eye the same way that 60 frames per second tricks the human eye to see motion.
3) Wobulation does not make anything better or worse just look at some wobulation TV reviews such as the new HP's. They have better pictures than other native res sets.
4) You misread the review if you mean that the wobulation resulted in the picture problems rather than the sets processing and setup.
5) If you want a good TV picture you should give two shits about whether it uses wobulation as that has nothing to do itself with being a good or bad display. You should concentrate more on the processing and color rendition than how the TV actually throws the pixels up there. All that matters is the picture not the tech it uses.

[DJCarbon43 @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Yeah, get an editor or proofread before you post. Thats what allows established media outlets to dog on the bloggers. Peter, to answer your question you will probably experience rainbows on any set that uses a single chip. 3 chip sets wont give you the rainbow effect, and wobulation wont aggravate the effect from what I've been told. The effect is caused by having only one color wheel/micro-mirror inside. The spinning of the 3 color wheel is what causes the rainbow effect. Since 3 chip sets have (to my knowledge) a micro-mirror array for each color that problem is eliminated. 3 chip sets cost more of course.

I hope this information helps.

cheers,
DJCarbon43

[Peter @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

I think Rainbows should always be listed in the Cons section while they haven't dealt with them. I am aware of the cause.

I figured wobulation might make it worse because in a way you are probably effectively reducing the speed of the color wheel in half as now the same color wheel has to serve double the field information?? Two fields now, one for each wobble.

I think if I were looking for a big set, Sony's new LCOS variation would be higher on my list.

[Francois @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Going on a bit of a tangent here, if you'll allow me ;-), On other articles I've seen people complain about the fact that Sony's new SXBR models could only accept a max of 1080i and not full P, yet they dont seem to grasp that wobulation is exacly that... interlacing, except it happens horinzontaly, so the lost of image precision is much greater. 2x960 interlacing images compared to 2x540 interlacing images.

In my book any set with wobulation should never be considered to be a true 1080p.

Do note that Sony's SXBR does upscale any signal to 1080p, so while not a true 1080p it will display as one. (I swear I dont work for sony, lol.. but I did just by a SXBR though :p)

[TAZ427 @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Peter, actually the color wheel stays at the same speed and you're mirror flipping is twice as fast. The image is shift to left/right by half pixel every 1/2 frame to get the desired horizontal resolution.

I personally do not like it on the 720p sets, but the 1080p sets look awesome.

As for Rainbows, they can be a bit nasty, but the majority of people do not see them. I use to see them when I'd move my eyes away from the screen (i.e. turning my head to look at my wife) if there was a high contrast difference on the screen like a street light on at night. However, I now almost never notice them. I bought my HLP5674 back in Jan '05. Yes, it's 720p - no wobbulation.

Go to AVS Forum if you want to here more about Rainbows and Wobulation.

TAZ427

[PeterG @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

I see rainbows and while I don't own a set I visit a friend who does, I have yet to meet one person that if you describe the phenomena and tell them where to look for them, who doesn't see them. Everyone is capable of seeing them IMO.

Maybe the majority aren't bothered by them, but then again, the majority like their set configured as in the store as well with overly high contrast and brightness and lots of sharpness, halos be damned.

What the majority sees is of no interest to me.

[Logan @ Dec 31st 2005 1:08AM]

yeah i bought one of these a couple weeks ago and after two days of using it with my xbox 360 (which looks amazing) it stopped working. Cable would have sound but no picture. So i got a new lamp sent in and it still doesnt work... anyone had the same problem? Know what to do?