Sony Unveils New Home Theater Line

Have you been thinking about converting a room into a home theater or gaming room? Or maybe you just want widescreen, high definitions movies in your living room or bedroom? Either way, Sony Australia has announced a line-up of new home theater projectors that promise to be great for any room in your house. The range has three new models: the VPLBW7, the Bravia VPLHW15, and the Bravia VPLVW85. The projectors will be available through Sony authorized AV dealers and IT distributors by the end of November 2009.

The VPLBW7 is the entry level model but according to Sony, lower price doesn't mean compromising quality. Its compact size makes it a great projector for any room in the house. It's also great for any lighting conditions. Vincent Bautista, a product manager for Sony, calls it "heaven sent for apartment dwellers who may not have the long throw distances required for a traditional projector. It's low price ($1,795) also makes it attractive to average gaming and entertainment enthusiasts.

The Bravia VPLHW15 is the middle projector in the range and is designed specifically for movie buffs and home entertainers. The projector has SXRD technology which minimizes the the space between pixels and dot-less picture, regardless of the surface your image is being projected onto. It also responds to the light in the room and selects the optimum contrast levels automatically. Priced at $4,299, the VPLHW15 is a great piece of equipment for anyone who is looking for a "fully immersive home theater that doesn't break the bank," says Bautista.

The top model in the line is the Bravia VPLVW85 and it is made specifically for those looking for the ultimate home theater technology. The premium projector has already won the European Imaging and Sound Association Award for Best Product 2009-2001 in the video projector category. "The VPLVW85 gives consumers looking for the very best in home theatre exactly what they’ve been after. This projector delivers on the promise of a true cinematic experience for AV enthusiasts who are looking to give their home and family the best home theatre experience possible," Bautista said of the $8,999 projector.

All three projectors are designed to be flexible and easy for users to setup in their homes.

Blow Up Your iPhone Movies with the New Sparkz Projector

If you're an iPhone user, at some point, you've probably watched a movie or some other type of content on your phone and decided that it's just not the same on that 3.5 inch screen. Well now, there's a solution. Sparkz has released a new projector that allows you to dock your iPhone (or iPod) and allows you to blow up and project any movies stored on your phone. It also works for other devices such as video cameras, gaming systems, DVD players, media players and laptops.

The handheld pico projector is only 4.5 x 3 x 2.5 inches and allows you to watch any media directly from your gadgets. That includes podcasts, camera roll videos, photo slideshows, Youtube, iTunes, etc. It will also charge your iPhone or iPod while you're watching. It has a built-in external stereo speakers with audio out and a high capacity battery that allows for 2.5 hour run time with each charge.

It has a brightness of 15 lumens and the lens is 3M LcoS. LED Life is 50,000 hours, Battery is Lithium-polymer 3500mAh and resolution is 640 x 480 VGA or 1024 x 768 XGA. The projector sells for about $500 and that includes the tripod and all cables needed to hook the projector to various devices.

NECs New Entry-Level Projector: The NP610

Japanese company NEC has released a number impressive projectors to dates, and the new NP610 is the latest. The entry-level projector is designed for people who want quality images and advanced capability without going broke or compromising features. NEC is expected to heavily market the projector to college and university students and staff, but it is also expected to make a splash in the corporate world, as it is the perfect projector for training and conference rooms and lecture halls.

Rich McPherson, the NEC Product Manager for projectors says the NP610 offers a number of desirable features, "The NP610 is an ideal entry-level installation projector that offers all the features our customers need to succeed in connecting with their audience. From increased brightness and color-enhancing technologies to environmentally-favorable specifications, this projector meets the standard criteria required for integration projectors.”

So what exactly are those features? The projector, which has a brightness of 3500 lumens and a native resolution of 1024 x 768, offers a contrast ratio of 500:1, up to 5000 hours of lamp life, and lower power consumption, making it environment-friendly. It features a comprehensive input panel with DVI-I with HDCP, 15-pin, RCA and S-Video, along with a built-in closed captioning, variable audio-out, and AutoSense, which syncs the projector with computer signals. Automatic keystone correction technology makes it so that the NP610 projects a square image, even when it's propped at an angle and a built-in wall color correction preset provides adaptive color tone correction to images displayed on non-white surfaces.

The NEC NP610 is expected to retails for $1,499 and each purchase will come with a two-year parts and labor warranty. The project is expected to ship sometime in November.

A Buyer's Guide to Finding The Perfect Home Theater Projector

So if you were to decide that you wanted to purchase a home theater projector, would you really know what it is that you should be looking for? Well when I was totally honest with myself, I admitted that before I did some serious research I didn’t have a clue! Home theater projectors are becoming increasingly popular, and I feel that it is important to know the facts before you start your shopping.

The first and most important thing to consider about your home theater projector is image quality. Now when considering image you need to account for native resolution, your source material, and the uniformity of brightness.

As of now, the most common home theater resolutions found in projectors are WVGA (854 x 480), ¾ HD (960 x 540), and WXGA-H (1280 x 720). A projector with WXGA-H has two times the number of pixels of a WVGA projector. The more pixels a projector has the sharper the image quality and the better compatibility it has with HD sources.

It is recommended that if you will be using the projector for HDTV purposes, you should look into a product featuring WXGA-H (1280 x 720) resolution or high resolution XGA (1024 x 768). If you will mostly be utilizing your home theater projector with your DVD player (with a resolution of 480p), then it is much more cost effective to look into a WVGA projector.

The uniformity of the brightness of the projector is a big factor to consider too. The uniformity is defined as the percentage of brightness of the image that is carried from corner to corner and edge to edge. The higher the uniformity of your projector means the more consistency that can be found throughout your image. For a consistent image, you should look at projectors that have a consistency rating of 85% or more.

The next thing that you should consider after examining the uniformity of your perspective projector would be the actual brightness of it. The brightness of projectors is measured in ANSI lumens. Typically, the brightness of home theater projectors ranges from 700-2000 lumens or possibly more. The amount of lumens that you will need in your projector will depend on where exactly you’ll be placing your projector within your home. If you have an actual home theater room where there is controlled lighting and the room can be made completely dark, then you will be able to purchase a projector with lower lumens, but if the room features ambient lighting from windows a projector with a higher amount of lumens will be required.

For dedicated home theater rooms, it is recommended to look into projectors with 1000 lumens or more. When using your projector in a room with some ambient light, you should consider projectors with at least 1200 lumens. Any room with a high amount of light should have a projector with about 2000 lumens.

Once you have considered all of these factors, next you should consider what connections will give you the clearest image quality with your home theater projector. You should make sure that the projector you are interested in has at least one component video input and an HDMI or DVI connection. Component video is currently the most common high quality signal available, and the HDMI or the DVI connections will provide you with the best HD connectivity.

After all this you should probably learn about the lamp life of projectors. Most LCD and DLP projectors feature a lamp life ranging from 2000-4000 hours. This estimation actually refers to the “half-life” of the projector which is the point where the lamp is half as bright as it was when you purchased the projector. The longer the lamp life of the projector, the less money that you’ll have to put out to maintain the quality of your home theater. A replacement lamp costs between $200-$400. You should factor this into your decision, depending on if you will be using the projector as a television replacement or just as a movie and special events provider.

There are a few other things to consider when purchasing your home theater projector, but they mainly consist of what you prefer within your home. I hope that now when you go out to shop for your new projector, you have an idea of what you should be looking for. From the resolution to the connections that you need, you now possess the knowledge to make the best possible choice for you and your family’s entertainment needs.

---

Looking for an Affordable LCD Projector Rental then call 800-736-8772 today. Ask about the newest type of projector that's "all in the mirrors" and see if a DLP Projector Rental is right for you.