OK, time to hang it up. The writing’s on the wall, the fat lady has sung, the clock has run out.

If one thing was abundantly clear at Cedia Expo 2003, it's that Texas Instruments' DLP technology has basically taken over the front projector market in the home theater space. Oh sure, you do see the odd polysilicon LCD projector here and there, and a few companies are still showing LCoS (reflective LCD) products.

But the home theater marketplace has voted, and cast its lot with digital micromirror devices. It doesn't matter if a particular projector design uses one or three devices, DLP is simply the way to go — for now.

Don't agree with that statement? Go argue with Yamaha, InFocus, Digital Projection, Sharp, Runco, SIM2, Marantz, NEC, DWIN, Crystal Vision, Toshiba, Samsung, Vidikron, Optoma, and BenQ. All of them had at least one DLP projector to brag about in Indianapolis, and several companies had two or three models.

To top things off, three of these companies showed three-chip DLP prototypes (no color wheel artifacts, just good old dichroics), which will all come to market in 2004. And there are other companies working on three-chip designs that will migrate from the Pro AV channel into the Cedia channel.

One of the most notable of the new LCos projectors at Cedia Expo 2003 was Sony’s Qualia.

There were some excellent images being projected in booths and on the trade show floor. In particular, the InFocus three-chip prototype, Samsung's new SP-H700A (designed with a lot of help from video veteran Joe Kane), Digital Projection's single and three-chip chassis, and Marantz's VP-12S3 (single chip).

There is now so much DLP-engined product in the market that it has taken a lot of the suspense out of press conferences. The minute SIM2 announced a single-chip projector using the Matter-horn 1024×576 device, you knew at least half a dozen other manufacturers would have it in short order. I am aware of at least six different three-chip designs that are being engineered for home theater, and the latest TI HD2/Mustang 1280×720 DMD is now popping up in nearly a dozen front projector designs.

But the microdisplay wars are far from over. Companies such as Panasonic, Sony, and JVC are countering with projectors based on high-temperature poly-silicon or LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) devices. The most notable of these was Sony's Qualia projector, an enormous chassis resembling a high-tech bathroom scale and using three 1920×1080 LCoS panels, dichroics, and a xenon lamp.

The Qualia dominated Sony's booth, and lines to see its images were long on all three days. I managed to sneak into the demo an hour before the show closed and watched about 10 minutes of clips from HDCAM, including some original 1080i footage and film transfers. Image quality was good, except for what appeared to be some compression at the high end of the grayscale (known as “crushed whites”). I've seen this before with other LCoS demos, both front- and rear-projected.

While Sony's Qualia did kick up a lot of interest, JVC had an equally interesting and quieter demo off the floor at the Hyatt. A new 1400×750 front D-ILA (also LCoS) projector was on display, and I was able to see a prototype front LCoS projector with .8in. 1920×1080 D-ILA panels that took up about 1/3 as much room as the Sony box — and its picture quality wasn't too bad. High black levels and some white crush were the usual suspects.

It's good to see both companies working on an alternative to the flood of DMDs, but keep in mind that the manufacture of LCoS panels is tricky and usually means low device yields. That's because the walls between pixels are so thin. Thin walls (cell gaps) mean a larger “fill factor” (more than 90% of the panel surface is for imaging), but the pixel walls can break or deform during fabrication.

So the big question for Sony and JVC (not to mention Toshiba, Hitachi, and several other companies using LCoS microdisplays) is this: Can you get enough devices to manufacture a viable, deliverable product? So far, no one has been able to solve the LCoS conundrum, and in fact some companies have switched from LCoS to DLP simply because they can get enough devices to deliver a working product in large quantities.

Samsung's entry into the front DLP market was one floor down in the Hyatt. Joe Kane did the demos himself on the SP-H700A, a unique little box with selectable color gamuts (EBU/SMPTE/HDTV), numerous user memory settings, and the ability to directly input R,G,B color coordinates to get to a specific white point.

InFocus came into the market last year, and many of us adopted a “show me” posture when the folks from Oregon announced they intended to be major players in the HT space. Well, after selling several thousand projectors worldwide, it looks like they do have it all figured out. They announced the ScreenPlay 7205 as their latest entry. This 1280×720 DLP box employs Faroud-ja FLI2310 processors and a seven-segment, five-speed color wheel.

Vidikron unveiled the Vision Model 20 and Vision Model 40 front DLP projectors, the difference being that the Model 20 uses the Matterhorn 576p chip and the Model 40 goes all the way with a 1280×720 native device. Meanwhile, corporate partner Runco (which never does anything low-key) announced eight (that's right, eight) new high-end, three-chip DLP machines that provide anything from 3000 to 6000 lumens with 1280×1024 DMDs and 720p, 960p, or 1024p outboard processing.

Marantz demonstrated an updated single-chip model, the VP-12S3, and a three-chip prototype that was running a bit on the red side but still looked good. Digital Projection is poised to compete in the $10,000 and up arena with a bunch of products. One is the super-small iVision HD, a single-chip 1280×720 DLP design that weighs but 6.6lbs. The three-chip Mercury HD was in evidence, and there are plans for a three-chipper using the new 2K cinema-grade DMDs.

Optoma had the H76, the current price leader in the single-chip 1280×720 arena. This box is selling for less than $8,000 and has the potential to be a “disruptive” product in terms of price, as does BenQ's PE8700, which is a very similar product and sells in the same price range. SIM2 had the Domino on display, and this little wonder makes use of the Matterhorn 576p DMD device to compete with other 576p and 1024×768 front projectors at a lower price.

Projection wasn't the only highlight of the show. In fact, the deluge of flat-panel technology into the consumer electronics and home theater markets has the potential to be another slam-dunk. With all of the oversupply and price wars taking place in Asia, the field of plasma and LCD resellers and retailers is more crowded than the recent California recall election.

The writing is clearly on the wall — flat panel TVs are the wave of the future, and that wave is coming faster than many expected. The forecast is for flat-panel technologies to surpass CRT displays by 2005 in all categories. Now, with plasma and LCD TVs and monitors available in sizes from 10in. to 63in. (with some 70in. and 72in. product in the works), the battleground will extend even to rear-projection TVs using microdisplay technologies such as (what else?) DMDs and LCoS panels.

For more on flat panel displays, see my plasma and LCD roundup in next month's Video Systems.

As CEDIA demonstrated, the market is being redefined by microdisplay and flat panel technologies. Eventually, the two will compete head-to-head in 40in. and larger screen sizes. Right now, DLP has the advantage in price but that will surely change with time.

My prediction is that LCD monitors and TVs will take over the market up to 40in. to 42in. in a couple years, with plasma hanging on in larger sizes. LG and Samsung have shown LCD TVs with screens larger than 50in., and Sharp has a 60in. in the works. To be sure, these aren't viable products yet, and are too pricey to compete with plasma and rear-projection TVs. But the day is coming. …