Infocus came out with a few announcements today that should make some consumers smile. First up, Infocus is dropping the price on the ScreenPlay 777 down to $9,999. Infocus makes a variety of specialty projectors and the ScreenPlay 777 is one of their best, and now it’s even more affordable. Along with the price drop, Infocus dropped a few new projectors as well, specifically the Infocus Work Big IN24+ and Infocus Work Big IN26+ business projectors. These two new projectors share a brightness of 2200 lumens and a contrast of 2000:1 as well as having the same connectivity of VGA, S-Video, and Composite RCA. The only difference is the resolutions and prices; the IN24+ has a single SVGA (800 x 600) DLP chip for $649.00 and the IN26+ has a single XGA (1024 x 768) DLP chip for $799.00. Both are currently available through Infocus and selected resellers.

Infocus also announced a few other projectors, but didn’t give any specific details on them. The Infocus Play Big IN1 will be a portable home cinema projector with an integrated DVD player and optional ceiling mirror so that consumers can enjoy movies and video games on the ceiling while lying in bed.
Infocus also announced the new Work Big IN36 which is following the Work Big IN32 and IN34 projector series. Details are kind of sketchy, but it looks like they are going to keep the same design as others in its series and Infocus is just bumping up the brightness to 3000 lumens. The Work Big IN36 will not be available for a few months yet and at a currently unknown price. Unfortunately, Infocus has yet to announce a 1080p home cinema projector which many consumers were hoping for at CES, though the Infocus representative at CES has been quoted throughout the show as saying “it’s coming.”

[via businesswire]

Viewsonic had some exciting news from CES recently in that they are adding six new projectors to their lineup, and two are specifically noteworthy. First up, let’s take a look at the Viewsonic PJ258D which includes an integrated iPod dock and is capable of displaying photos and videos stored on a variety of iPods. The core specifications are also quite impressive with the projector offering a native XGA (1024 x 768) resolution and several inputs, making its uses not limited to just the iPod. The other revolutionary projector introduced is the Viewsonic PJ503D; while only 1500 lumens and a single SVGA (800 x 600) DLP chip, the PJ503D will be the most inexpensive projector available on the market at only $399. This is excellent news for consumers as manufacturers are now competing in a race to the bottom in an attempt to offer the most inexpensive projectors at the highest quality. Viewsonic’s other new projectors are pretty standard but competitively priced. The PJ506D and PJ556D come in at $699 and $899 respectively, and the much more portable Viewsonic PJ358 is also only $899. For those needing a little more power, the new Viewsonic PJ588D offers 3000 lumens and an XGA (1024 x 768) resolution for only $1,199. Neither the PJ258D or the PJ503D are currently available, however, the rest are currently available.

[via Businesswire]

At CES earlier today, Sharp dropped two new projectors for the home cinema market. Unfortunately, they didn’t really provide any interesting details of the projectors beyond a few core specifications. Both the DT-510 and the XV-3100 are native (1280 x 720) machines and share a brightness of 1000 lumens, but the XV-3100 has a much contrast at 6500:1 as opposed to the DT-510’s 4000:1. Both have HDMI ports, luckily, so you’ll be good to go with all the fancy next-gen devices.

[via Engadget]

Starting off with the first of many CES 2007 projector updates, Optoma has introduced three new DLP projectors for business and home cinema purposes. First up is their new 1080p HD81-LV, which annihilates its predecessor, the HD81, in terms of brightness and contrast. Clocking in at 2500 ANSI lumens and a 12,000:1 contrast, Optoma is delivering to the consumers demanding brighter home cinema projectors for well-lit environments - 2500 ANSI lumens is definitely bright enough for daytime use in any room in the home. Like the HD81, the HD81-LV will have HDMI connectivity, but beyond that little is known - not even the price. Most likely, Optoma will bundle an external video processor with all the connectivity you need like they have for their other high-end projectors. One more added interest to the HD81-LV and HD81 is Optoma’s new BX-AL133 Cinemascope lens they’ve also announced at CES which converts Hollywood movies into their native 2.35:1 aspect ratio for ultra-widescreen viewing. Watching movies the way they were meant to be seen comes at a price, however, with the BX-AL133 running $3,999.

Next on the newly announced list is another home cinema projector which integrates all the bells and whistles with convenience and user-friendliness in mind. Optoma’s new MovieTime DV11 integrates a DVD player into the projector as well as two five watt stereo speakers, giving consumers a portable and easy to use home cinema projector. While not for the home cinema enthusiast with its 1300 lumens and non-widescreen (800 x 600) resolution, for viewing photo-CDs and full-screen DVD movies, the MovieTime DV11 definitely has a welcome place in the projector market and is completely affordable at $999.

Lastly, Optoma can’t leave the business community out of CES, and delivers the new TX773 office projector. At 3500 lumens, it’ll fit into any medium-large conference room and display those ever-important PowerPoint slides at a crisp (1024 x 768) resolution on up to a 300 inch screen. Throw in some DVI and other random connectivity most notably VGA inputs and outputs and the TX773 will prove to be a bright and functional office projector. For the kind of power the TX773 has, $2,499 isn’t too bad of an asking price.

[via Digitimes and Optoma]

The idea of putting a projector inside a cell phone isn’t anything new, but has yet to be implemented in any fashion. However, Microvision seems to show the greatest promise at the moment by unveiling a new mint-sized projector that can be integrated into a variety of mobile devices. Using Microvision’s proprietary Integrated Photonics Module (IPM), the projector can be used to display photos, movies, and whatever else a person carries on their mobile device. Microvision will be displaying the full extent of this technology next week at CES, so hopefully we’ll see the full capabilities of this new projection system. Microvision intends to have this technology shipping in 2008.
[via businesswire]

CES is next week, so we’ll be seeing some new projectors and hopefully some price-cuts on current projectors. One of these new projectors being introduced next week is a yet unnamed projector from Sanyo that utilizes AIMIMON’s WHDI (Wireless High Definition Interface) which will allow for High Definition content to be projected wirelessly, eliminating the need to run an excessive amount of wiring to a projector. Developer kits are already available for testing and the technology shows great promise as it can deliver 720p and 1080i video. We’ll have more information on the projector next week, so stay tuned!
[via Engadget]