CES: Samsung's DLP with out a lamp
By Matt Burns 
posted Jan 7th 2006 9:53AM
posted Jan 7th 2006 9:53AM
What is the biggest drawback to DLP? The lamp. A person
simply cannot buy one of these sets as a primary TV without replacing a lamp at
least every couple of years. They have an average of 4-6 thousand hour life and six hours a day equates to 2000
a year. You do the math and at a couple of hundred a piece, they can add up. So what does the leader in DLP TVs do? Samsung just gets rid of it. They are replacing the lamp with a LED cluster that has a life of 20,000 hours. Since LEDs can produce color, they rid themselves of the color wheel too!
So the new DLPs by Samsung last a lot longer thanks to LEDs, do not produce rainbow affects thanks to LEDs, and check this out, accept and display 1080p signals. Remind me again why I never liked DLPs? I sure cannot remember.
The DLP will be available in April at a cost of around $4,200 for the 56-inch.
Now the chip makers of LCOS and LCD might actually have something to worry about. That color wheel idea to me was a bad but workable idea. LED is a way better idea. Either 3-chip DLP (yeah right, too expensive) or now LED backlight for me. Might give it a second look now...
This could be very interesting - while everyone is showing 80" LCD's and 100" plasma's, Samsung seems to really have something special here.
I want to know much much replacement LCD's work!
Also, how do they control the R,G,B light output? All three LED's can't be shining on the screen at once, right? Don't they have to 'take turns' and 'share' the one DLP chip?
They cycle through red, green and blue. The "no rainbows" claim comes from the fact that they can cycle much faster, theoretically beyond the human eye's capability to resolve the flicker. If you're rainbow-sensitive, wait and see.
This is important technology, but is it really worth $2000 more than a traditional DLP? I could by TEN bulbs with that kind of money!