Gizmodo: d-ila

Meridian 10MP Projector Displays on 25-Foot Screen With No Pixelation

Benny Goldman — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 06:00:00 EDT

Meridian's 810 projector boldly claims to be the Reference Video System, and after seeing it for myself I think that's a fair assessment. The $185,000 box (that's right!) uses specially calibrated JVC D-ILA light engine panels to deliver a resolution of 4096 x 2400 pixels, or put simply, 10-freaking-megapixels. Compare that to 1080i's one paltry MP of resolution, or 1080p full HD's skimpy 2MP. So how does the 810 do its magic? With a very unique scaling engine.

The 810's Marvell-designed engine seen above stitches four 1080p scalers together with DVI connections to bump any digital source from 480i to 1080p up to a full 10MP. The projector can pump out a few different aspect ratios: 4:3, 16:9 and using a CinemaScope lens, 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen that's mostly used in old school films. It's also got a lamp that goes up to Hollywood-reference levels of 4000 lumens and a 10,000:1 contrast ratio which is odd since their $15K projector claims 30,000:1.

Either way, the picture projected by the 810 is pretty unreal. I stuck my nose up to the screen and couldn't see a pixel to save my life, and Meridian says that it will project on a screen up to 25 feet wide without any pixelation. The 810 comes in short, medium, and long-throw packages, as well as a very short throw package for rear-projection. It'll be available in September, if you can afford it. [Meridian]

JVC Makes First Super Hi-Vision Display, 16 Times Full HD Resolution

Kit Eaton — Fri, 02 May 2008 04:22:16 EDT

JVC's new Direct-Drive Image Light Amplifier for projectors has a staggering 8192 x 4320 resolution—that's 35 megapixels, or around 16 times more than full HD. In fact, JVC is saying the little single-device reflective liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) imager has the highest resolution in the world, and the first to enable projectors to produce "Super Hi-Vision" images. The technology behind it has been worked on since 2003, refining the pixel count and contrast upwards with each generation. Last year JVC made a 1.27-inch 4096 x 2400 version, which went on sale in a projector in February 2008. So does this mean we'll see the new 1.75-inch, 20,000:1 version in projectors soon? Very likely, but we expect you'll find it in professional projector gear, rather than for your home. [Akihabaranews]

Meridian's Latest 1080p Projector Is One Bad MF10

Wilson Rothman — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:00:43 EDT

How much contrast does one man need? Meridian's MF10 1080p projector is said to deliver 30,000:1, and for the low-end-automobile sticker price of $15,000. (Too bad it's not scalable: I'll settle for 10,000:1 for $5,000—or hell, a 30:1 for $15.) This projector doesn't use the more common lower-end engine based on TI's DLP chip, but a three-chip system based, like Sony's SXRD, on an LCD derivative called "liquid crystal on silicon." In this case, it's JVC's D-ILA technology. Each chip has the 1920x1080 resolution, and manages red, green or blue. There's a motorized lens with 2X zoom capability for smaller rooms, but who are we kidding? If you can afford this, you're gonna have a room big enough to do it justice. [Meridian]

JVC DLA-HD10K 1080p Projector

Charlie White — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 15:05:14 EDT

The JVC DLA-HD10K uses D-ILA (Digital Direct Drive Image Light Amplifier) technology to pump out 1080p with a contrast ratio of 2500:1 but unfortunately with just 600 lumens of brightness. This D-ILA is JVC's name for Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCOS or LCoS), a slightly different animal from garden-variety DLP, where it's still a reflective technology but instead of DLP's Rube-Goldbergian principle of thousands of tiny mirrors, it uses liquid crystals to reflect the light instead.

The remarkable component of this projector is its single 1.3-inch chip, capable of cranking out 2048x1536 pixels, well above what is necessary for 1080p, which is 1920x1080. Missing from its spec list is HDMI, were JVC saw fit to input this high-rez video via DVI—not a big sacrifice, but notable nonetheless. Set to ship July 1, it'll cost around $12,500. Expensive, yes, but just consider it a harbinger of even brighter D-ILA projectors, which will battle the impending onslaught of 1080p DLP models. Can't wait to see these 1080p projectors get into the sub-$5,000 range, so mere mortals might possess one. – Charlie White

JVC DLA-HD10K, the new HD D-ILA video projector [Akihabara News]