MTBS Interviews David Naranjo From Mitsubishi Electric!

[Neil]

It's been awhile, huh?

Ok, maybe this will make it up to you.

Read our in-depth interview with David Naranjo, Director of Product Development for Mitsubishi Electric. They are one of the leading 3D HDTV manufacturers, and he covers everything from S-3D gaming and at-home cinema to brand new technologies like laserTV!

He plans on doing a follow-up interview for our members, so post your thoughts and questions here. The interview is in the MTBS Blogs section which is accessed by clicking NEWS from the main menu, and MTBS BLOG at the top.

Regards,
Neil

[nubie]

Very interesting, 60hz has been known to give me a lot of trouble on a CRT, has the DLP transmissive material been designed to minimize the flicker?

Are there deals on the glasses in bulk? (2, 4-5, and 6-10 pairs?) Will 2 sets come with the system, or a rebate for purchasing (or free) glasses?

Is Mitsubishi Electric researching a Passive Glasses (Polarization based) display system? Would such a system be cost-effective?

Are they interested in mainstream-size 42" and lower 3D support? Or DLP Projection support?

Will we see a system priced below $2,000 sometime in the future?

[Freke1]

Wow, great stuff. Laser TV
I want to see Terminator 7, Jurrasic Park 8 and other DVD's on a HUGE 3D Laser TV. That would be so kool.
Great interview thx, Neil.

[Tril]

I wanted to ask a question and after searching, I eventually found the answer. Here's the question I wanted to ask and the answer I found.

Q. What are the model names of the current Mitsubishi HDTVs that support S-3D (3D Ready) with their resolution and size?

A.
WD-57833 – Diamond 57” - 1080p
WD-65833 – Diamond 65” - 1080p
WD-73833 – Diamond 73” - 1080p

As this progresses, we clearly see console game hardware manufacturers also developing the capability for console games. Our Diamond 2007 DLPs and 2008 DLPs are able to leverage all of these technologies.

That's something I'm looking forward to.

I play the XBOX 360 with a 71 inch screen and a DLP 1024x768 projector. The first time I played Assassin's Creed and climbed a tower for the first time and got a beautiful view of the surrounding, one of the first thing I told myself is that this game would really look awesome in S-3D. It's bit dizzying to look down from high up on a big 2D screen so I just can't imagine how it would look in S-3D with a higher resolution.

Mr. Naranjo is looking forward to seeing more content and so am I. If I could buy the Blu-ray disk of the S-3D version of the recent Beowolf movie, I would buy it and I would buy a Blu-ray player. I did not like the story much but I want it, for the S-3D experience. I don't know what they are waiting for to release it. It's probably not showing anymore on any S-3D theater so they would not loose anything by releasing it now. There is not any competition in the market of S-3D Blu-ray disks so it's the time to make the first move and release the first S-3D Blu-ray movie ever produced.

Maybe they are trying to come up with a standard way of making the disks, players and HDTVs compatible together easily for S-3D content. It needs to be user friendly. But I don't really see how hard this can be. They can just put the left and right pictures interlaced on the disk like they do for curent HQFS DVDs and add an option in the TV to activate stereo (of course, it's better if this is activated automatically when you start the disk playback).

I have a question :

• Does Mitsubishi plan on developping their own shutterglasses?

I currently have eDimensional shutter glasses for the pc. There are a few things i don't like about them.
- I wear prescription glasses. I wear the shutterglasses over them and they don't sit well over them, they keep falling down.
- The eyepieces of the shutterglasses are too small. To watch a big HDTV from a short distance, you need big eyepieces, otherwise you won't see all the screen because the glasses frame will hide some of it.
- When transparent, the shutterglasses tints everything with a greenish tint. It must be possible to make shutterglasses that don't add any tint. It's important to allow the viewer to take full advantage of the good color reproduction of the HDTV.
- The glasses need to be sold at a reasonable price. The price is reasonable for the eDimensional models but there are some drawbacks for them, like I mentionned above.

DLP is not dead and I don't see why it would be. Around Christmas, I went to a local big electronics store and I asked the price of one of the Sansung HLT DLP HDTV models. The first thing the seller on the floor told me what that I should look at technology other than DLP, that it what something of the past. I had to insist a bit to make him give me the price of it. My guess is that this is because it's currently trendy to buy a tv that's very light and very shallow.

Mr. Naranjo and Mitsubishi have my support. I'm looking forward to their next products.

[dtdoupe]

At the CES conference in 2007 the Mitusubishi Laser TV was announced to be consumer available at the end of 2007. Then it was suposed to have twice the color brightness, half the weight, consume half the power, and cost half as much as other technologies of the same screen size.

For some reason it has been delayed to the end of 2008. I've postponed my purchase of HDTV for this laser technology. I'm still waiting for it. At the end of 2008, if it's not available for purchase in large screen format (greater than 59"), I'll have to go with another technology for my S-3D because I'll not wait any longer.

Can Mitshubishi guarantee this time that they will have consumer availble laser S-3D product by thge end of 2008 with all the claims yhey made in 2007?

[Neil]

Hi Dtdoupe,

Thanks for asking the question. Can you rephrase this in a more positive manner? We are very lucky to have the involvement of leading industry people like David Naranjo, and you are obviously very excited by Mitsubishi's new product line. Can you phrase it more like "Can you give us a measure of how likely it is that you will meet your current production goals?"

Regards,
Neil

[dtdoupe]

I became very excited when Mitsubishi Electric announced in 2007 laser HDTV technology that produced twice the brightness, half the weight, half the power consumption, and at a significantly lower price point of other HDTV technologies for comparably sized sets. The laser technology is the one reason I have stopped considering LCD technology and gone back to considering DLP-like technology. I am holding off my purchase of a large screen HDTV with S-3D capability until the laser products are available.

Could you give me a confidence estimate on consumer availability of Mitsubishi Electric laser HDTV (60 inches or greater) before the end of 2008? Where may I shop for these TVs?

Thanks.

[Neil]

Perfect! That's something I can ask!

Regards,
Neil

[Tril]

I have questions about the April 2008 1080p DLP HDTV releases :

• Are these HDTV all using bulb lamps or are there any using LED lamps?
• What are the specs on the bulbs (hours to failure)?

The new Mitsubishi models are interesting. They are big. The S3D effect really improves with bigger sizes.

The price for the 60" model is interesting. Some of the Samsung models are available with LED lamps, which last longer than the ususal bulb lamps. You need to factor in the price of the bulbs if you think you plan on keeping the HDTV long enough to change the bulb.

[nubie]

Wow Neil, verbatim! 8)

I am very happy that we got such good answers (hmm, a little coy with the $2,000 question though ) I see that the prices on the 2007 model WD-57833 are around the $2,000 mark, it gives me something to shoot for though.

[mykee90]

Holy poop