When working with projection technology, you might be interested in learning more about the various interfaces involved with your projector. For example, take the BenQ W5000 projector, which has a native resolution of 1920 x 1080, and 1,200 Lumens. This projector has a number of connections (i.e. BNC, Composite RCA, S-Video, etc.), but among them are two High-Definition Multi-media Interface (HDMI) ports, which is a digital cable that is used to transmit video and audio signals from your cable set top box, DVD player or satellite receiver to your projector, and has about 5 Gbps of available bandwidth.

HDMI is able to support enhanced and high-definition video formats such as: 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p; in addition to standard formats like NTSC or PAL. There are various benefits to having HDMI, and they are the following: improved sound and video, reduction of cable clutter, and cost. Many home theater components use HDMI v1.3 now, which began in late 2007; this technology has a higher speed and deeper color. With projection technology, HDMI has the capabilities to be of great interest to home theater enthusiasts due to the various features included.

If this article has made you excited about HDMI cables, you might be wondering how much you should spend on a HDMI cable, or which one to purchase. Currently, 6 ft. cables can range from $15 to $200 Canadian. For cable selection, it’s always best to test out various cables to determine which one has been optimized for the technology. The folks over at Digital Home were nice enough to give us some stats; they connected a Blu-ray player and a DVD player to a Panasonic PT-AE1000 1080p projector. They tried three different cables and viewed a few hours of HD programming and it seemed there was no difference in picture quality.

[via Digital Home]

Microsoft’s “Home of the Future” is a mock home which is an attempt at reflecting their vision of what the home will have in the future. The home was recently renovated after 15 years, and it is to show what the home will look like in 5 or more years. Important aspects of the home include the following: everything in the home runs on a central network, with cellphones and even the doorbell residing as nodes on that network so that when people come home, it recognizes their mobile devices. Almost everything in the house will have a RFID chip in it, and according to Stephen Kim, “it assumes there will be more intuitive ways to interact with information.” The images on the walls come from projectors and companies like Philips are working on “thin organic light-emitting diodes” that could relate to wallpaper.

[via psfk]

AV Concepts supplied the American Specialty Health (ASH) 2008 Awards Banquet with two Christie LX-100 10k Data Projectors and two 4.6-6.0:1 Christie LX-100 Zooms, along with a Presentation Pro Switcher for the event video, in addition to EAW KF 300 speakers for audio and gobo lighting. On the USS Midway, they provided entertainment at the banquet. They used the term “Midway Magic” for the Navy on the USS Midway, due to its 47-year career of service to country.

[via Live Design Online]

If you want to see how the night sky at the South Pole looked a decade ago then you might want to take a look at the UCLA planetarium. At the planetarium, visitors can view the sky as it would have been at different times in history. During what the department calls “special topic” shows that occur every Wednesday, graduate students are able to teach visitors about specific topics. In the middle of the planetarium, running the show is a projector that fills the night sky with stars and allows visitors to see first hand what astronomy is about. In addition, the projector also utilizes digital imaging to provide information in specialized astronomical studies. According to Kevin Hainline, astrophysics graduate student and planetarium coordinator, “I’ll give shows and have college students really having a good time, little kids really enthusiastic, and then even the adults are also excited.”

[via The Daily Bruin]

Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America (SIICA) today announced the XG-P560W Wide-XGA .65-inch 3-chip DLP Professional Projector. This projector has around 5,200 Lumens and WXGA (1280 x 800) native resolution. This projector also includes a built-in video-processing chip that is called the Sharp “CV-IC II System.” It is a powerful projector and considered groundbreaking because it is Sharp’s first 3-chip DLP technology that offers 1280 x 800 resolution. Not only is it unique with regard to these qualities, but the projector has a 1,800:1 contrast ratio, WXGA native resolution for detailed images, seven interchangeable lenses, and a dual-lamp lighting system for environments such as shaded rooms where users can utilize single lamp or use in “eco” low brightness mode. The XG-P560W will join the available XG-P610X projector series which is a 6,000 Lumen, .7-inch XGA 3-chip DLP Professional Projector.

The XG-P560W has a feature for RJ-45 LAN networking, and has Display Manager Software that can connect one or more LAN-enabled projectors for configuration. Having several lens options is also an important feature of this model, which provides various placement choices such as motorized “H & V” optical lens shift which can minimize keystone distortion. The standard lens is a 1.25x powered zoom/focus for a maximum screen size of 280 inches. According to Dan Wynne, senior director of marketing, Professional Display Division, SIICA, “This model allows us to provide customers with excellent image quality and reliability at an affordable price point.”

The XG-P560W will be available in June with a price of around $16,995, and the XG-P560WN (the model which does not include the lens) will be available in June at around $15,995. So for this modest price, it might be worth having in your conference room or home theater.

[via BusinessWire]

The JVC DLA-HD100 is a projector worth getting in the mail, and according to this reviewer; that’s exactly what happened, but in a big box that was the size of a Volkswagen! Well not quite, but it would seem that way due to the weight of the projector. For this reviewer, the projector worked out well and didn’t have issues that would be typical in the projector market, such as using a dynamic iris to boost contrast numbers for deeper black levels. The DLA-HD100 can also work for a ceiling installation in a home theater. According to the reviewer,

“The remote control supplied with the DLA-HD100 is one of the better ones I’ve seen for a front projector. First and foremost it’s completely backlit. Secondly, you get direct access buttons for each of the various inputs. Menu navigation is merely average but nothing was terribly difficult to find. There is a convenient set of test patterns which you can access quickly by hitting “Test” on the remote.”

When connecting a Philips BDP7200 with a BetterCables HDMI cable, the reviewer watched “The Prestige”, and “was absolutely floored by the depth and quality of blacks put forth by the DLA-HD100”, he adds “With a slew of 1080p projectors now available in the $3,000 neighborhood, the DLA-HD100’s $8,000 price tag causes more sticker shock than it would have two years ago.”

[via E-Gear]

For the projection lineup that Sony offers, we should look to the VPL-VW40, which by most standards is second to the premium VPL-VW200 with regards to design. While both have similar qualities we should focus our attention on the VW40, which performs very well in home theater conditions. To begin, setting up a projector should not be difficult, and the VW40 follows suit with that role. According to the reviewer, “A single Lens button on the remote calls up a grid-based test screen, with the option to mechanically adjust the image’s focus, zoom and vertical position and the levels of flexibility in the zoom (1.8x) and vertical shift departments is impressive, making the projector easily adaptable to almost any room size, really.”

This ease of use continues into the image presets, basic settings, and connectivity options, which are the following: Two HDMIs; D-SSUB (VGA) PC input, component video input, S-Video, composite video inputs and a 12V trigger jack for a motorized screen. This projector features Sony’s Advanced Iris 2 feature, which can reduce the light that comes through the lens during dark scenes to improve black levels, in this sense the VW40 can deliver an impressive contrast ratio of 15,000:1. However, with the dynamic iris system we may have reduced brightness in the image, but most work without issues. According to the reviewer, when talking about the various features of the black levels, “For the record, my own preference was for Auto Iris 1 and the lamp set to low, as I felt this delivered the best combination of black level and brightness to suit my fully blacked-out room. Within an ‘Expert Setting’ submenu, meanwhile, you will also find further black level tweaks in the shape of an option to adjust a black level boosting processor, and a Gamma adjustment.”

The reviewer started the testing with Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, and Grand Theft Auto IV from an Xbox 360 which gave “really very impressive images indeed for its price point.” And with regard to image quality he states, “As it reproduces every leaf of a long shot of the jungle setting, every pore on the actors’ skin, and every face in the crowd at the Temple of Sacrifice.” The verdict on this projector is that for its price or around £1,622.09, it delivers quality.

[via TrustedReviews]

For a JVC “Hi-Def Experience!”, prepare yourself for Schneider Optics Cine-Digitar Anamorphic 1.33X Lens System for use with JVC home cinema projectors. From May 22, 2008 through October, 2008, the JVC “Hi-Def Experience!” will visit various NASCAR events, air shows, county fairs, balloon festivals and other events across the country for a tour. JVC has outfitted a 48-foot double expandable tractor trailer truck and a 53-foot straight tractor trailer truck for the tour which is scheduled to include nearly 30 events in 19 states, and around 12.7 million attending.

Rod Sterling, Chief Engineer, JVC North America R&D Center states, “We chose the Schneider lens for our projector demonstration because of its superior optics“, he adds, “We’re very proud of our projector and its performance capabilities, and we’ll be showing it off to thousands of people during this tour, so it’s important that we use a lens that delivers the best possible performance. After evaluating what was available, we decided that the Schneider lens offered the best optical performance combined with a well-designed mount.“

The Schneider’s Cine-Digitar Anamorphic 1.33x Lens will allow incredible full-screen Cinemascope images without an effect called “letterboxing”, which is a troublesome effect that has black bars appearing above and below the image during 16:9. The JVC “Hi-Def Experience!” tour vehicles offer demonstrations that include a home theater room that includes a DLA-HD100 front projector and the TH-F3 Front Surround Home Theater System. Various places the tour will stop include the “San Diego County Fair, Quick Chek Balloon Festival in Readington, New Jersey, Taste of Buffalo, Summerfest in Milwaukee, the Minnesota State Fair”, and many other similar events.

[via PR Web]

Telstra chief technology officer Dr. Hugh Bradlow made a ‘holographic’ impression on his audience today. His life-sized, real-time hologram was able to walk, talk, and interact with executives at the Adelaide conference. He was located at Telstra’s Melbourne office during this projection event. This technology, which was created by British company Musion Eyeliner, already allowed Al Gore to speak at the Live Earth concert London audience from Tokyo. According to Bradlow, “If you’re in the US and can’t attend a conference you could save many hours flying time in that sense to give presentations,” he said.

Last week, Bill Gates gave a similar presentation at the “World Congress on Information Technology 2008.”

[via News.com.au]

EYE has introduced a new method of advertising to travelers in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane airports. Projectors placed at specific locations at the Qantas Terminals allow consumers to “touch” advertising, giving them various options to choose from. According to Mike Tyquin, CEO EYE Media, Australia and New Zealand, “The media strategy for the first execution for client Ford was devised by Mindshare Melbourne and executed creatively by JWT’s experiential division, Experiencelab which has set new benchmarks for what is possible within airport terminals.” EYE is a leader in digital technology. They operate various airport, roadside billboard, and shopping mall media businesses in Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America.

[via The Moodie Report]