DLP vs. LCoS

Earlier this year, my 15-year old 26″ JVC TV started showing its age. About twenty scan lines into the image, about five scan lines would be skipped. The top of the image would shift down to fill the gap, showing the scan lines that normally aren’t visible due to the fact that all CRT-based televisions overscan the screen slightly so that you don’t see black borders. Even worse than missing lines was the fact that periodically the lines would reappear, causing the top part of the image to shift up and down in a very annoying way. The problem usually appeared only after the TV had been on for at least 30 minutes, so it was likely some thermal problem with a transformer. Given the age of the TV, I decided it wasn’t worth fixing.

Being a moderate gadget freak, this struck me as the perfect opportunity to buy a big-screen HD-capable TV. At about the same time, Intel announced that they were planning to release a new LCoS chip later in the year that would drive the cost of big screen TVs down to the $1000-2000 range. So, I settled in for the long wait.

Of course, I continued to do research,and I eventually decided that a DLP chip-based TV would also be an excellent solution. The Samsung HLN437W had a lot of good reviews and it was the perfect size for my living room and the piece of furniture in which it would be housed. Then I found one for a very good price at Magnolia Hi-Fi. I decided not to wait on Intel, and I went ahead and bought the Samsung. Not waiting on Intel turned out to be a good decision, as they announced this week that they were
cancelling their LCoS plans.

For the most part, I’ve been very happy with the Samsung HLN437W. The initial reviews on Amazon were pretty good, though a lot of negative ones have appeared lately.

The only times I’ve had issues with the Samsung have been when the ambient temperature of the room rises above about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Though Oakland’s climate is very temperate, we do get a couple weeks each year where outside temps hit the upper 80’s or the 90’s. Since this doesn’t happen often enough during the year, my house, like many others here, doesn’t have an air conditioning unit. Due to the big windows on the south side of the house, the inside temperature often hits the mid to upper 80’s when it’s very hot outside. If the global warming trend continues, though, I expect even more toasty hot days in the coming years.

The two heat-related problems are that the TV sometimes takes a very long time to turn on (up to ten minutes, or even longer) and the audio and video get out-of-sync. The first problem is obviously the worst, since the TV is pretty useless if it won’t show an image. The second problem is not as bad as it sounds, at least for the kinds of things I watch. A very large amount of my TV viewing consists of soccer matches. Thankfully, you rarely see the announcers, so I usually can’t even tell if the sync problem is occurring. I mainly notice the problem when watching movies with a lot of close-up dialog. The reason I think it is heat-related is that the problem seems worst on hot days, and the magnitude of out-of-syncness seems to increase the longer the TV is on. One of the movies I TiVo’d was Destroy All Monsters, which I’ve saved for a hot day, just to watch the double effect.

I’ve yet to observe any of the other problems people have observed with DLP TVs, such as the rainbow effect or loud whining noises. One thing to be aware of, though, is that while the horizontal viewing angle is quite good, the vertical viewing angle is not so great. Since the bottom of the TV is currently about a foot above my head (and across the room, of course), the screen is not as bright as if I were standing up. From the floor, the screen looks very dim. Going left to right, though, I’m amazed how good the screen looks at sharp angles. The matte surface of the screen also does a great job of diminishing reflections. That was something that really bugs me about CRTs and most of the other DLP TVs (the RCA Scenium, in particular) that I looked at.

I had already planned to get a portable air conditioner, but the purchase has now gained a bit more urgency. It’s never pleasant when you come home from work to a house at 88 degrees F, knowing that it will take a couple hours, assuming there is a breeze outside, for the temperature to get back down to the 70’s. The cats aren’t too excited about the heat, either.

So, here’s an advance stock investment tip for the spring – buy shares in companies that manufacture portable air conditioning units.