Next month (Sept. 2016) is the time for the largest home theater oriented trade show in the USA - CEDIA Expo 2016 (14-17 Sept. in Dallax TX). It's also the time for the largest consumer electronics show (including Home Theater products) in Europe - IFA (2-9 Sept. in Berlin, Germany). Traditionally video projectors, and often related products, have been introduced at one or both of these annual trade shows. This blog discusses what new home theater projectors (with a focus on 4K compatible models) we expect to see announced and perhaps demo'ed at these events. The information provided in this blog is a combination of officially released information, rumors from generally reliable sources, and educated speculation.
UPDATE (10 August): Confirmation - the JVC UK web site now has a IFA preview and JVC USA web site a CEDIA preview for the new DILA 4K projector using "BLUEscent" (i.e., JVC's trade name for their blue laser/phosphor wheel technology). HERE is the link to the JVC UK web page.
As for JVC's current projector line-up, I would expect these models to be most likely continued for another year, or at most, slightly updated versions to be announced at CEDIA Expo/IFA. SONY - Last year at CEDIA Expo Sony announced upgraded versions of their lower-end native 4K projectors as well as announcing a new flagship model VPL-VW500o ($60,000) using a laser light engine. That latter projector didn't begin shipping until a few months ago so I don't expect any replacement for the VW5000 to be announced at this year's CEDIA or IFA shows. However, the previous flagship, and now aging, model VPL-VW1100 was carried over again for 2016. I would expect Sony to announce a replacement for the VPL-VW1100 to offer support for such capabilities as HDR, HDMI 2.0a, and improved WCG compatiblity with 4K/Ultra HD Blu-ray discs. There are some unconfirmed rumors floating around the web that a VW1100 replacement will have a laser light engine, but with lower light output than the flagship VW5000. As for Sony's lower-end (but still rather expensive) native 4K models, HDR support was added last year, but WCG, supporting least DCI P3 color space, is lacking from the current models. Also these models do not have full bandwidth for their HDMI 2.0 input. So perhaps, Sony will offer up replacement models for their VW3xx, VW5xx and/or VW6xx series (VPL-VW665ES review is HERE) of projectors that will be capable of more fully supporting the features offered by the latest 4K/UHD video sources, i.e., Ultra HD Blu-ray discs and streaming 4K video sources, and upgraded to provide full bandwidth HDMI 2.0a (or 2.0b) inputs. This is all speculation at this point, as Sony has not yet released any official information on their planned product introductions. DLP 4K PROJECTORS - Last year during CEDIA Expo Texas Instruments (TI) held private showing of an engineering model 4K DLP projector. Consumer home theater projectors based on the TI 4K chip-sets are now forecast to begin shipping within the next few months. This design uses pixel shifting, but unlike pixel shifting projectors from JVC and Epson, the TI design starts with a display chip that can display one half the pixel count of a native 4K display while the JVC and Epson projectors use 1080p display chips which only have one fourth the pixel count of a native 4K display. This means with the DLP approach the full 8M pixels of a 4K image/frame can be displayed as two 4M pixel sub-images. As with conventional 1080p DLP projectors that use a single display chip plus a rotating color wheel, these new DLP 4K projectors can still be subject to a visible "rainbow effect". This results from using a single display chip and sequentially displaying the red, blue and green sub-images. In fact the initial designs for the 4K DLP projectors appear to provide a maximum effective color wheel speed of 3X while the better home theater 1080p DLP projectors frequently offer 5X or 6X speeds. I assume the 3X limitation is due to the need to display each 4K image as two half resolution sub-images. That would mean that a color wheel rotating fast enough to provide 6X speed in a 1080p DLP projector would, at that same mechanical rotation rate, only be providing 3X speed in a 4K DLP projector. So who is going to be offering these 4K projectors and what will be demo'ed at CEDIA Expo (or IFA)? Both Optoma and Benq have already announced plans to release 4K DLP projectors in the 2nd half of 2016. These are expected to include both entry-level lamp-based models, with prices starting in perhaps the $5000 price range, as well as more expensive LED based models. Neither Benq nor Optoma are listed as exhibiting at CEDIA Expo (however, Optoma is listed as exhibiting at IFA). in any case, there is always a chance their projectors might show up in some other exhibitor's booth at CEDIA Expo. It's also possible one or more of the more upscale DLP projector manufactures, that do have exhibit booths at CEDIA Expo (e.g., Digital Projector, SIM2, etc.), will announce a 4K projector using the new TI 4K chipset.