Designing Your Ultimate Home Cinema Projector

[stubie_do]

If you were in a privileged position to design your own Ultimate Home Cinema Projector from scratch, what features would you incorporate into its design?

You may have thought of some wacky idea before and wondered why a manufacturer has not included it in their design?

Obviously the design would have to be limited to the current resolutions available (hopefully this thread will be going when we have all got 1080p at sub £500 ) but it does not matter if it is LCD, DLP, LCOS etc.

Some features/requirements on my wish list that spring to mind are:

1. Lens Shift.
2. 3 Chip (DLP Technology).
3. Low Noise.
4. Lasers pointers built into the projector to calibrate screen distance & set-up.
5. Auto Iris Control.
6. Auto sensing of screen material with auto adjustment of colour balance etc (Epson?)
7. Built in test cards that can be projected without a source connected.
8. 12v light turned on/off via the projector remote control & power from the projector.
9. Auto download of software updates via the internet using a USB.
10. Theft alarm just in case they got past my two dogs.

Sometime the simplest ideas become reality but if you can think outside the box you just might come up with the Ultimate Home Cinema Projector!

BTW don’t put a down a wireless projector that hovers 2ft from the ceiling, that’s not reality, at least not yet!

[The Fatty]

a wireless projector that hovers 2ft from the ceiling AND projects a 3d holographic image lol

[Barcoing Mad]

Long life light source (20,000+ hours) which can be modulated rapidly in brightness (negating need for active iris)....and..er...an intrinisic contrast range and black level which negates the need any form of overall modulation.

[The Fatty]

iv got to ask, are you trying to get people to post there ideas so you can steal them and make a really expensive pj to sell us? i dont think anyone should post really good ideas on here unless they have it patent for it...i know i wouldnt post my really good ideas, someone would defo steal them lol...

[The Fatty]

forgot to say, i didnt mean to insiuate you would steal them, i ment others looking at this forum might

btw what do you manufacturer?

[binbag]

Not low noise - no noise.

I had a Sony 1020QM as my first PJ and everything since has been distracting.

[stubie_do]

Originally Posted by binbag

no noise

Can't have a “no noise” projector as Fatty has a patent out on that

Sound levels have improved over the past 5 years, 38db, 34db, 30db and in some cases down to 23db. I would agree that having a projector right above your head making a noise like my cars turbo at 2500rpm is very distracting.

[chedmaster]

A projector that can "project" black so you can use it in the day

But seriously longer life bulbs or cheaper bulbs (even if the PJ was slightly more money to start with) would make them much more user friendly and mainstream

[The Fatty]

Originally Posted by chedmaster

A projector that can "project" black so you can use it in the day

But seriously longer life bulbs or cheaper bulbs (even if the PJ was slightly more money to start with) would make them much more user friendly and mainstream

haha chedmaster thats funny! thats made my day lol. dosnt take much i know

[Ikklepip]

Hi All,

I'd like to see something like the Sony Ruby updated with the following:

* A cheaper , longer lasting (i.e. it doesn't lose half its output after c. 400 hrs) and brighter light source (capable of 1000 - 1500 lumens) like UHP or LED.

* More DVI / HDMI inputs - you can never have enough!

* Autofocus system like in an SLR camera.

* Colour calibration system like in some of the Marantz projectors (obviously doesn't take the screen and environment into account, but it's better than nothing.)

* more iris control presets - instead of just 5,000:1 or 15,000 contrast - how about 5 - 10 increments between them (you could even have special presets for favourite films like Star Wars, Dark City, Gladiator etc or genres - Old B & W, Sci-fi etc. This means that you can set the contrast / highlight clipping balance to your liking (source dependent).

* You could also have a projector that buffers and analyzes picture information from a dedicated player, then the DI KNOWS when to open and close or maintain an average setting - less chance of getting caught out by fast changes in brightness / contrast. Obviously some sort of digital audio delay will have to be used to compensate for the buffering - probably far too difficult to implement, I'm just 'brainstorming'.

* Or a DI system that uses a special subtitle track / range of pixels (pixel codes) not seen due to overcan / or embedded digital data as timecoded DI data through the film, telling the projector when to open and close its iris and to what level - highly implausible and studio (could be used as a Sony/Columbia marketing coup - superbit with supercontrast - ROFL) / source dependent - just another zany idea!

* Would another lcd further up in the light-path acting as a dynamic neutral density filter work? - It might help increase contrast / decrease highlight clipping. Although it could introduce weird artifacts, vastly decrease light output or add further delays to the picture / sound sync through extra processing problems.

Also, I know it's slightly off topic, but why hasn't anyone invented a FPD that you can just plug a colourimeter into and it will self calibrate? (I guess it's because it would too much hassle for customer support to deal with).

Cheers,

Ikklepip :-)

p.s. Please don't flame me if you think my ideas are crap or unfeasible - I'm just brainstorming ideas.

[throwit]

the projector manufacturers are furiously developing led lamped projectors, just don't ask them to tell you anything about it until five minutes before launch - they wouldn't want you to hold back on buying rip-off uhp lamps for your current model

doubling up the lcds in a projector

why don't projectors have a fourth lcd

[parky43007]

If you don't have a dedicated home cinema room then size does matter!
Before getting to the "technical" features, potential projectors on my evaluation list had to be low noise and not too big/intrusive - orders from the better half!
I would like a nicely designed projector (like the ruby) but half the size

[Miniholic]

Originally Posted by The Fatty

btw what do you manufacturer?

Ever heard of the H79? Unless I'm thinking of another Stuart Acey.

I'd like a sub £1000 DC3 (or better) pj with 2 way lens shift and a decent zoom to aid placement. I'm not expecting miracles so a 10,000 hour bulb life should suffice. 3 chip would be nice too, might even be able to stretch to £2k then.

[throwit]

any jobs going in the projector thinktank/r&d field there Mr Acey ?

[kballs]

1920x1080p native
sealed optics

no dust issues on panels or in lense
no air filter maintenance

single chip

no convergence issues (most 3-panel LCDs I've seen end up with the panels off by at least 0.5 pixel over time which leads to fuzzed images and CYM "shadows")

LED or laser light source

no lamp changes in life of projector
cooler projector
QUIET operation
no lamps or color filters/wheels
no fans, whole case is a heatsink
no dust inside the unit
perfect colors (LEDs and especially lasers are more monochromatic than any other source which means mixed colors are near perfect/accurate)

I see a lot of people complaining about oversaturated colors from LCDs and/or LEDs, but that's not because of the technology, it's because either the unit is adjusted too high, or the source material is actually oversaturated assuming the average viewing device will show very dull colors.

IMO the best alternative functional equivalent to this kind of FP technology would be a roll-up LEP/OLED/PHOLED screen which could replace a pull-down FP screen but have none of the noise, lamp, dust, convergence, or ambient light issues.