Microdisplay Corporation (Fremont, CA, www.microdisplay.com) reports that they are in the final stages of transitioning their large screen, rear projection television into production and offering it (through brands) for sale to the masses. The RPTV has been designed from the ground up to have a simple configuration, to have only those features that consumers want and need the most and to have a really low selling price. The idea is to enable everyone that wants to have a large screen HDTV to have one. If that product description sounds familiar, it was also the design premise behind the much beloved Beetle, Volkswagen’s people’s car.

Art Berman
Insight Media Consultant

Marty Zanfino, VP of Marketing at Microdisplay Corporation told us all about the company’s plans during an hour long telephone interview. Microdisplay Corporation comes to RPTV by way of their earlier business model that focused on the design, manufacture and sale of LCOS microdisplays. They make the 0.82-inch diagonal, single LCOS microdisplay used in the RPTV. It has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and operates in the field sequential mode at 540 Hz. The news here is that Microdisplay Corporation’s highly ambitious goal is to reduce the cost of the LCOS device (by far the most expensive component in the HDTV) by 75% over the course of the next three years. The RPTV utilizes a 160 Watt UPH type arc lamp as the light source.

The basic idea behind the electrical and mechanical design of Microdisplay Corporation’s RPTV was: keep it simple. To that end, the entire television mechanism is contained in the base. It consists of three component groups: the power supply, the light engine and the video circuit module. The video circuit module deserves special mention in that it consists of exactly one circuit board. On the board are the audio amp processor, the tuner, the video processor and the LCOS driver. All front and rear inputs and the front control buttons interface to this board.

The base is intended to be compatible with a variety of cabinets. We were told that only the lens needs to be modified to accommodate a range of screen sizes. This approach allows different customers to build with the same basic projection
mechanism yet achieve an RPTV that has a considerable different look. In fact, since both base assembly and fabrication of the customizable plastic enclosures are accomplished at an unnamed Chinese supplier, Microdisplay Corporation’s approach allows, in principle, a custom look to be accomplished inexpensively and within a few months. The HDTV sub-assemblies are shipped to an unnamed Mexican subcontractor for final assembly.

The current plan calls for Microdisplay Corp. customers to place a 56" RPTV with an enclosure depth of 16" in the store this year by October or November at a selling price of about $1,299. If Microdisplay Corporation’s large screen HDTVs are anything as successful in the market place as the Beetle, they will soon be showing up in the TV room of homes all across middle income America.