CEDIA 2010

Projectiondesign's press conference concentrated on the Optix SuperWide 235 (around $39,000 with a standard lens), whose DLP imaging chip boasts a native resolution of 2560x1600, though this model uses only 1080 horizontal lines. This projector can display any aspect ratio from 1.33:1 to 2.40:1 at constant height without needing an anamorphic lens or zoom memories, which rob the image of brightness. For wide-screen Blu-rays, it scales the image vertically and horizontally using Sigma Designs VXP processing and two custom FPGA (field-programmable gate array) chips to fill the 2560x1080 pixel structure and maintain a 12-bit color depth per channel.

The demo was shown on a 13-foot-wide Da-Lite Affinity screen (1.1 gain) with a hand-built prototype with only one of two lamps in operation, so we were seeing a peak-level of about 7.5 foot-lamberts. Clips from Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Spider-Man 3 looked quite good, though I would not have chosen Paul Blart—what an awful movie!