Sony Unleashes 4K SXRD Projectors for Digital Cinema

[Audioholics]

Sony seems to be aggressively going after the emerging digital cinema market with the introduction of two new "4K" projectors offering a 4096 x 2160 pixel resolution and a high contrast ratio.

"A 4K projector has long been considered the holy grail of digital cinema," said John Scarcella, president of Sony Electronics' Broadcast and Production Systems Division. "This is what the industry has been waiting for, and that desire will soon be satisfied." ​

The SRX-R110 is a 10,000 ANSI lumen model while the SRX-R105 sports 5,000 ANSI lumens. Both use a Silicon X-tal Reflective Display (SXRD) imaging device that delivers nearly four times the pixel count of current HD displays. This new technology debuted in Sony's QUALIA 004 projector, a "2K" version targeted toward the higher-end consumer residential and custom installation markets.

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[av_phile]

Pardon my ignorance, but I suppose this is for movie houses, not for home theaters, right?

 

[jzac]

Seems like they are targeting high-end home theatres with both the models. I can see it being a good fit for cinema theatres unless the bulb life is a problem. 15 feet wide to 40 feet wide screens for a home?... mama, that's huge and you better have a wall that big to fit it! I can imagine the cost of it considering this is a breakthrough in tech. I guess all the manufacturers are going to jump into it if there is a demand for it. It will be like the plasmas when they came out with ridiculous prices a couple of years ago, and now with demand the prices plummeting. It will be interesting to watch Silicon X-tal Reflective Display (SXRD) tech develop. Do they have the likely price of these 2 models mentioned anyhere?

 

[docferdie]

What is the resolution used by Lucasarts for episode 2? I presume it was much higher but I just haven't found the exact number.

 

[Audioholics]

4K is the equivalent to film resolution in terms of the "magic number" to not seeing pixels on a large cinema screen. This projector is basically Sony's flavor of LCoS so the pixels are densely spaced together on the imaging device - unlike LCD which still sports a "screen door effect" upon viewing at closer distances.

This is mostly news for professional theaters, but like THX and DTS, watch for these advances because it's an indicator of what will eventually trickle down to the home theater market.