If The Mits Fits: Update on new HDTV technology from Mitsubishi including DLPs, 3-D Game features, X.v color technolgy and LCDs.
“73 inch is the new 65 inch,” is the new rallying cry for Big Screen TV booster Mitsubishi – touting the screen size it thinks will keep buyers excited about rear projection, 1080p resolution DLP based sets. Three series will offer that picture size, at prices ranging from $4,699 to $5,899. That’s down considerably from the sole Mits 73 incher offered at $6,499 in 2006 , yet the new line has been significantly upgraded with extra features.
 Mitsubishi Diamond WD- 73831 1080p HDTV |
In fact, all the sets in Mits 2007-2008 projection TV line (starting at a 52-inch) now feature a six segment color wheel – adding yellow, cyan and magenta to the regular red, green and blue segments, to refine the DLP engine’s color reproduction. Plus, the RPTs add an expanded color gamut technology which Mitsubishi jointly developed with Sony and which Mits now calls “x.y. Color.” Capable of reproducing 92 percent of the colors available in nature, versus the 60 percent of current HDTV displays, the technology is actually ahead of what video game and high def disc software currently can provide. So to demo the advancement on the show room floor Mits will need to hook up sets to a special hard drive serving up special content with a split screen demo.
Six of the brand’s DLP TVs also will have a 3-D game feature, previously announced by Samsung, but here renamed Game FX. Exploiting the 120 Hz frame refreshing feature of a DLP chip, these sets can display stereoscopic images (60 frames per side, per second) from specially coded PC games when the user wears a pair of connected, LCD shutter glasses.
X.v color will also show up in Mitsubishi’s LCD TVs, sized in 40 inch, 46 and 52 inch 1080p models from $2,699 to $5,000. Helping to warrant a higher price, all models boast a very thin bezel (picture frame) and side profile – half the depth of competitive panels. The top Diamond series adds the company’s Smooth 120Hz refresh rate and the new TV Guide Daily EPG (a free 24 hour guide now being carried on CBS digital channels.)
Most practical of all, the 8 model LCD line all boasts CEC (consumer electronic control) protocol for bi-directional control of audio/video equipment connected via HDMI cables. The same technology also is showing up this year in new products from Panasonic (which claims to have invented it) Onkyo, Toshiba, Samsung, and Pioneer. Thanks to CEC, a system buyer can mix and match say, a new Blu-Ray player from one brand with a audio/video receiver from another maker and a TV from a third company, and still have them work together. Just triggering the disc player’s power button, for instance, will automatically turn on and switch a receiver and a TV to the right settings for disc playback. How cool is that?
Jonathan Takiff
AllThingsHiDef
