Premiere Design

Wolf Cinema is well known for its DCX series of high-end home-theater DLP projectors—in fact, I've profiled them here and here. Now, Wolf is tackling the challenge of LED illumination in its new DCL-200FD.

This 1920x1080 single-chip DLP design doesn't use a white lamp as its illumination source. Instead, it uses three LEDs—one red, one green, and one blue. And rather than using a color-filter wheel like conventional single-chippers, the red, green, and blue LEDs pulse on and off in sequence, performing the same task as a color wheel, but much faster, eliminating the so-called "rainbow effect." Another advantage is that the LEDs need no replacement—their expected lifespan is at least 30,000 hours, more than 10 times that of a UHP lamp.

Like all Wolf projectors, the DCL-200FD includes an outboard processor to which all the source devices are connected. The ProScaler is based on Anchor Bay's superb VRS technology, and it includes the ability to process the image for an optional fixed anamorphic lens.

The DCL-200FD even breaks new ground for Wolf in the price department—$25,000 is a lot less than its other offerings. Granted, its peak light output is less than half the rated output of its more-expensive siblings, so it won't light up nearly as large a screen, and it can't stand up to much ambient light at all. But it offers so many other advantages that I'm eager to give it a try in my black-hole studio. If and when I do, I will certainly report my findings here.