TI aims to prove RPTVs still have a place in the market
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Jan 7th 2008 12:00PM
posted Jan 7th 2008 12:00PM
At the same time as some manufacturers are getting out of the RPTV market, Texas Instruments is continuing to find ways to add legs to their RPTV light engine technology. We don't think anyone would try to argue that front projector setups are going anywhere anytime soon, but RPTVs need some extra features to give them an edge over its thinner competitors. The most intriguing new feature is "3D Ready" and with the correct equipment this feature can enable you to enjoy 3D entertainment at home. DualView also sounds pretty cool, the way it would work is that two gamers could play against each other on the same TV without seeing the same video, but unfortunately they'd have to wear some customized DualView eye-wear. Although these features sound interesting, who knows when they will be a reality, but we have already seen a few new sets featuring at least one of them.
I think the PhlatLight PT120 LED lighting for the new Samsung Slim RPTV range, such as the 61 inch HL-T6187S, makes them worth further thought. They certainly seem to be doing well in sales through Amazon. LED lighting removes the possibility of rainbow effects and improves brightness.
http://www.presentationtek.com/2008/03/10/samsung-hl-t6187s-hl-t5687s-and-hl-t5087s-1080p-led-backlight-slim-dlp-hdtv-review/#more-296
Hey TI ... let it go.
Make another Speak & Spell
Until the cost of big plasmas or LCDs comes down considerably, RPTVs will still rule the big set market for the next couple of years (I agree though that their days are numbered). When you start looking at the ~60"+ range, RPTVs (which are mostly DLP) are still 1/2 the cost of a comparably-sized plasma or LCD.
I think RPTV and probably PLASMA's will be ultimately dominated by LCD's.
My aunt recently bought a top model Plasma and a top model LCD for a different room (both larger than 40") and both were hooked to HDTV sources. The LCD clearly looked better without artifacting around the fast moving images while the Plasma looked crappy.
LCD's are about the same size of Plasma's, in many cases cheaper and the ignorance of Best Buy employees leads people to believe that all Plasmas suffer burn-in from games which causes people to head the LCD direction.
As LCD technology evolves, Plasma and RPTV will get left behind...but LCD will be obsoleted by OLED screens within the next 5 years.
I agree that LCD's will begin to dominate in the future, but I still don't think they come close to a good RPTV in certain areas (even the ones that are 2 or 3 times the price). I think DLP is going to be around for several more years before it's gone.
Even though Bestbuy has been stocking HDTVs for what seems like a decade, they are still relatively new. The fact that an average person can go into a store and look at a mid-range HDTV playing a non-compressed feed and see motion artifacts, bright spots, and contrast issues is evidence of this. It still has a long way to go IMO. Hopefully OLED will remedy many of these problems, but it's not going to happen immediately.
A place in the market?
The Maxell guy doesnt count. Some of us need to look at the screen from more angles than "straight on".
I'd hate to be the Director doing the R&D for this project... talk about a waste of time! This product has absolutely no future and is one of the most ridiculous ideas I've heard in a while...
I recently returned a Sony Bravia 1080p rear projection unit. Reason is as follows:
All Rear Projection HDTV's suffer from the same problem (afaik). The problem with is a necessary characteristic of the screen material. The screens have been constructed with very small glass beads embedded in plastic in order to give the screen a wider viewing angle. This causes unevenness in the surface of the screen which can be detected very easily with a bright or white picture. The common name for this unevenness (or texture) is Silk Screen Effect.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_screen_effect
I won't be buying any rptv's ever again.