DLP Cinema delivers enhanced 4K chip to light up biggest screens

DALLAS, USA: Texas Instruments (TI) DLP has started shipping DLP Cinema Enhanced 4K chips to its licensees, Barco, Christie Digital and NEC.

Projectors with the DLP Cinema 4K chip are expected to be installed in Q1 2011 and several industry demos are anticipated between now and then by DLP Cinema licensees. With the availability of this chip, DLP Cinema offers exhibitors the widest variety of stable resolution options to suit their needs at any screen size.

"Regardless of resolution option or screen size, exhibitors can count on DLP Cinema's award winning technology to deliver all the light, to all the pixels, all the time," said Dave Duncan, business manager for Texas Instruments, DLP Cinema Products.

DLP Cinema's 4K chip will enable its licensees to manufacture the brightest and most energy efficient digital cinema projectors in the world. In addition, all projectors utilizing the new 4K chip will be designed to meet the Digital Cinema System Specifications developed by DCI, LLC for established image quality and security. Currently, all DLP Cinema 2K projector models with the next generation DLP Cinema electronics platform are DCI compliant.

Exhibitors will likely install the DLP Cinema 4K solution to light up theatre screens as wide as 100 feet and 3D screens as wide as 75 feet, which has been a challenge for competing technologies. All DLP Cinema projectors, regardless of the resolution, have the leading attributes for which DLP Cinema products are known, including precise DCI compliant colors, superior contrast ratios including greater than 2500:1 and light output necessary to illuminate the largest auditoriums.

"DLP Cinema remains dedicated to providing the cinema industry with diverse platforms in both 2K and 4K solutions," said Kent Novak, senior vice president and general manager for DLP Products. "Texas Instruments will continue to innovate and further the development of its DLP Cinema 2K chips which are indisputably the industry standard, including the capability of upgrading the newest 2K projectors to 4K."