In a little-noticed press release, Seiko Epson Corporation (Suwa, Japan; www.epson.co.jp/e/) recently announced it has begun shipment of its first high-temperature polysilicon (HTPS) TFT liquid crystal panel designed for 3LCD digital cinema projectors. The move is aimed at providing a viable alternative to DLP-based digital cinema projectors, which essentially own the segment today.

Matt Brennesholtz
Analyst for Insight Media

Epson’s 1.6-inch panel will feature a resolution of 2048 x 1080 and will be fabricated with it D4 process technology. The design leverages a previously developed 1920 x 1080 panel (L3D16U) of the same diagonal and process generation. Texas Instrument’s digital cinema chip with the same resolution is about 1.25 inches in diagonal

The cinema market includes about 36K screens in the US and about 170K screens worldwide. For a variety of reasons, including increased security against piracy, reduced distribution costs, and increased use of theaters by non-cinema events, the studios, distributors and theater owners all want to convert from film to digital cinema. While there are currently only about 250 d-Cinema installations worldwide, installations are now increasing rapidly following a series of announcements. Industry experts expect there to be at least 10K digital cinemas by the end of the decade. While these numbers are small compared to consumer or other professional applications, at $90-$100K per screen, the total value of the market is high.

Since the formulation of specifications by the Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) last July, a group made up of the major Hollywood film studios, resolution of 4K x 2K or 2K x 1K has become the standard for digital cinema. This panel targets the digital cinema business with HTPS panels conforming to this 2K x 1K DCI standard.

Sony is also active in the digital cinema segment to offer 4K x 2K DCI compliant projectors based on its own SXRD (LCOS) technology. We have seen demonstrations of this projector and have been blown away by the clarity of the image.

Digital Cinema projectors based upon 3LCD technology, even at 2K x 1K, are likely to offer stunning image quality too. While the aperture ratio (light passing area) of 3LCD technology is considerably smaller than DLP or SXRD. For example, Epson noted that the aperture ratio on its new panel is 60% - a far cry from the 90+% offered by DLP and SXRD technology.

However, with enough pixels and a relatively small screen, you don’t see the screen door effect. The 1920 x 1080 resolution projectors we have seen to date with this technology have not shown the “screen door effect” - at least on screens in 65- to 120-inch range. That may be a different story with a 30 or 50-foot wide screen. If the screen door effect is visible - even from the front row of the theater, it will be a distraction for viewers and may not pass muster with theater owners.

The proof will be in the pudding - we can’t wait to the image and find out how well it holds up. - MB