While it's tough to deny the wow-factor involved in watching a flick or gaming it up on a wall-sized screen, the one dig that
front projection has been forced to deal with is the necessity of darkness for optimal viewing pleasure. Planar has reportedly developed a specially designed
screen that works with any front
projector to provide a "colorful, sharp image" even with all the lights on. This widescreen display, dubbed the Xscreen, pulls off the seemingly impossible by sporting a 4mm layer of hardened glass beneath the actual screen, which apparently provides the "perfectly flat" surface needed to reflect those random rays of light that currently cause all that viewing frustration in lit environments. If that wasn't enough, Planar's design team stepped it up a notch by crafting a "black high-gloss finish frame sure to enhance any décor," which is presumably an attempt to overcome the Xscreen's inability to roll up and out of the way like other screens without a glass backpanel. While the Xscreen is nothing more than a display, the Xscreen Plus offers a smorgasbord of standard video and audio inputs / outputs (DVI, VGA, component, S-video, RCA, etc.) to make routing those lengthy cable runs a bit more manageable; the upgraded version also rocks "Pixelworks video processing," onboard speakers, a universal remote, and Europeans even get the luxury of dual TV tuners (got beef with America, Planar?). While both flavors are available in 60-, 70-, 80-, and 100-inch sizes, there's no telling how much this gigantic blank picture frame / front projection display will run you -- but until we get some face time with this enlightening panel to determine
marvel or gimmick, you're probably better off left in the dark.
[Via
Gizmag]
posted Aug 11th 2006 9:44AM
Is the screen floating in mid air?
This will be kewl if when the projector is off the screen area is transparent ..but somehow I think that might not be the case.
-sun
Cool, about time.
Seeing that the speakers in the background are around 20k for the pair(http://www.bang-olufsen.com/web2/systems/product.asp?section=systems&sub=ls&prodid=544), this screen must be expensive
Yeah the screen is floating... didn't you read that in the article that they have also overcome gravity
or you could just buy a mirror and paint it for under $300.
jus sayin...
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=705018
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=630888
Some people choose to have a flat-panel TV for day-time viewing and a drop-down screen and projector for the evenings. Let's be honest, though ... Not everybody can afford that.
Didn't Sony demo this exact same thing last year? Something the only reflects Red, Green, and Blue and therefore white/yellow light is not an impact on the screen. What ever happened to that?
Surely the pleasure of having a projector is that you have the massive screen available when (and only when) you want it, ensuring your living room doesn't look like a home cinema storefront? This screen's going to be just as intrusive as a large-screen plasma/LCD in that it's difficult to hide out of the way when not in use
I'm confused, is this a screen for "any front projector", or is this a display panel? Why would you need connectors, tuner, etc in a screen?
This isn't the first of its kind. Sony came out with the "ChromaVue" a couple years ago that works by reflecting only certain RGB wavelengths given off by the projector. Also the "Visage" by "Screen Innovations" that uses filter(s) to reject light coming in from certain angles and only reflecting those that come from dead on. But of course all these screen technologies are currently very expensive!
Jey - This isnt true. Even the basic DIY'er can have a 1080p front projector for about $1000. Lumenlab.com baby!
Or you could buy a screen that works in the light now from http://www.screeninnovations.com/
Traditional front projection will never be able to provide competitive viewing quality in daylight -- The future is in emissive screen front projection:
http://www.superimaging.com/
check out their DLP prototype.
i called them up, its like 7000AUD for the 100inch screen, so like 5000US...not too terrible
I just got back a quote for their 70, 80, and 100" non-plus models. Here are the prices, respectively.
$1699, $1999, and I think the last one was $2799 (can't remember the 100" quote, so it might be less, maybe $2399)
Hi all,
I'll try this again!!,
I'm new too this so be gentle eh ;-),
I am in the market UK for a new display unit & with these new daytime screens should I go down the projector route or stick with a Sony/Panasonic 40/50" LCD/PLASMA