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NEC NP41 and NEC NP61 are the latest digital projectors launched by NEC Display Solutions of America on August 4. Both are mobile projectors with powerful features, destined to the corporate and educational sectors, featuring 1600:1 contrast ratio, XGA 1024 x 768 resolution, 3.5 lbs weight, 15-pin RGB, RCA, S-Video input connectors and audio input, High definition support, and 32Db operation noise.
NP41 provides 2300 lumens brightness and the NP61 features 3000 lumens, both NEC DLP projectors delivering rich colors and sharp images. They measure 246×177x72 mm.
The user can benefit from a quick start, quick cooling and automatic focus.

“The NP41 and NP61 projectors provide the powerful features required by mobile users while remaining lightweight and cost-effective,” said Rich McPherson, Product Manager at NEC Display Solutions. “Their automatic features deliver the technological innovation expected of NEC products, delivering bright and brilliant images.”

The BrilliantColor technology has 6-segment color wheel and increases the brightness and color saturation significantly, while the AutoSense synchronizes the projectors with the computer signals intuitively, featuring one-touch optimization.
With the ECO Mode technology the lamp life increases up to 40% reaching 3500 hours of operation.

The Digital Light Processing technology used by NEC DLP projectors is a technology using reflective surface made up of thousands of tiny mirrors representing pixels, instead of the 3 LCD glass panels for red, green and blue image components used by LCD projectors. Benefits of DLP projector technology include small construction for mobile use, higher contrast video with deeper black levels, higher contrast ratio, reduced pixels visibility from a specific distance.

NEC NP61 and NEC NP41 will come out next month and in September respectively, with a 2-year warranty, and will be available at $1,399 and $999.

The new products from Sony bring new quality definition for the entry-level projectors’ market.
Sony’s new E-series projectors use the BrightEra 3-LCD technology that offers the unparalleled picture quality, higher brightness and an increased panel life.

Each of the new products brings new features to this industry. The VPL-EX50 is Sony’s first 2500 ANSI lumen model under 3kg weight category and the VPL-EW5 is the first native 1280×800 WXGA projector made by Sony. More than that, the EW5 is HD ready and by using the 1280×800 resolution means it’s clearly designed for following the laptops’ widescreen video sources. With a standby power consume less than 3 watts, VPL-EW5 becomes the lowest power consumption projector in its class.

Among the interfaces incorporated by the E-Series I would mention a second RGB input for connection with more than one computer for VPL-EX50 and the RS232C to control the external device (used by all those three new projectors).
Setting up these projectors becomes an easy job for every user with the “Quick Start” and “Off&Go” technology.

The most affordable projector from Sony’s E-Series is the SVGA VPL-ES5 that offers brightness to 2000 Lumens at a SVGA 800×600 resolution. Even though this product doesn’t take advantage of the BrightEra 3-LCD technology, the low-price could make it a good seller on the projectors’ market.

The E-Series address to business and education projector market and offering the BrightEra 3-LCD technology to consumers could be a smart move made by Sony in this entry-level business.

I like small gadgets, as long as they are not too small, so they become very likely to be lost without their owner feeling that. When talking about projectors, it’s really nice to see one that can be carried around in a pocket, compared to older models that are pretty large and, in some cases, very heavy. Anyway, we’re not going to talk about some small projector, because Explay is the company that managed to design and build the smallest projector available at this time!

If you didn’t know about this, just as I wasn’t aware of it, Explay is a company from Israel, and their tiny projector, called Oio and categorized by its creator as a “nano projector”, is a device that may be incorporated in various mobile phones and cameras, as well as laptops and other devices, in the years to come.

Basically, the Oio employs a hybrid laser, combined with a LED light source, to project images on a certain surface. It is battery-operated, child safe, and future products incorporating it will be able to project screen sizes starting at 7 inches, up to 30 inches.

For now, this is more of a prototype than a finished product, but I am sure we’ll get to see it more and more often, in the second half of this year. A PMP with built-in projector, anyone?…

The natural step from LCD and plasma displays is, for some of us, a projector. In my opinion, it’s better to have them all, if you can afford, because each has its advantages and drawbacks, at this time. Anyway, today I want to tell you about two new projectors from Optoma, the EP1691 and EP7155.