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By: Richard Del Cazzo
Web site: http://www.hdtv-hdtv.com
With a new range of three home theater projectors Philips
is meeting the increasing wish of consumers for an immersive,
larger-than-life viewing experience. All three new models
project a brilliant, outstanding picture quality onto a large,
perfectly flat display area, transforming the consumer's living
room into a personal home cinema. These new projectors enable
consumers to see their movie idols on DVD as they were meant
to be seen, and to immerse themselves in the accompanying
music and sound!
The new home theater projector models are the Astaire Deluxe
and Astaire with WVGA resolution, and the Bogart Matchline
with XGA resolution. Brightness levels of up to 1000 lm (Astaire
Deluxe) and a contrast of up to 1800:1 (Bogart Matchline)
ensure a brilliant, vibrant picture quality even in daylight
viewing conditions. Operation couldn't be easier, thanks to
the remote control unit with fluorescent buttons, quick plug
and play installation and an intuitive On Screen Display (OSD)
following exactly the same, clear principles as Philips' other
TV products.
All the new home theater projectors have a compact, bookshelf-size
format for a perfect 'home fit' allowing discreet, unobtrusive
installation in the living room environment. Underlining their
compact size, the new projectors have a compact weight of
only 1.6 kg for the Bogart Matchline with its DLPTM* display
panel technology, and 3.5 kg for the Astaire Deluxe and Astaire
models.
Thanks to their extensive connectivity features these new
home theater projectors allow consumers to watch programs
from a variety of sources. Designed primarily to take full
advantage of the excellent image quality delivered by prerecorded
movies on DVD discs, the projectors can also be connected
to other sources such as video recorders, digital cameras
and game consoles. The PIP (Picture In Picture) mode (Bogart
Matchline and Astaire Deluxe) makes it possible to watch images
from two connected sources at the same time, with instant
switching between the main and insert pictures.
Projected picture sizes are up to 100 inch (250 cm) at projection
distances of up to 3 meters. All home theater projector models
are 'ceiling projection' capable, making them ideal for watching
movies in bed. The Keystone Correction feature (2D on Astaire
Deluxe and Bogart Matchline and 1D on Astaire) makes it easy
to correct for misalignment of the projector with the viewing
surface (wall or ceiling), giving increased flexibility of
positioning.
The Zoom function on all home theater projector models allows
optimum adjustment of picture size to match the viewing and
projection distances. A 2.5x SuperZoom function (optical plus
digital) on the Astaire Deluxe and Bogart Matchline allows
optimum adjustment of picture size to match the viewing and
projection distances. The Astaire model has a digital zoom
function with a range of 1.2x.
The Astaire Deluxe and Bogart Matchline home theater projector
models have extensive picture enhancement features ensuring
the best possible picture quality from prerecorded movies
on digital DVD discs. These include Philips' acclaimed CrystalClear
technology, with Comb filter, Black-Stretch and DCTI (Digital
Color Transient Improvement), DLTI (Digital Luminance Transient
Improvement), Intelligent Edge De-interlacing, Film Mode Detection
and Cross Color Suppression (features included depend on model).
Other advanced picture quality features include, Temporal
Digital Noise Reduction, Flesh-tone Correction and Color TrackingTM.
The Smart Picture function on all models gives users a choice
of six options to optimize the image according to their personal
preferences and the type of program they are watching, and
avoids the usual need for manual picture adjustments. These
modes provide an instantly optimized picture for Movie, Nature,
Sports, Cartoon, Game and Internet viewing.
Solving one of the main disadvantages of conventionalhome
theater projectors, the new projectors are very quiet in operation,
with no cooling fan noise to disturb viewing..
Meeting the wish for an immersive, realistic home cinema
experience
With these innovative projectors Philips is meeting the wish
of consumers for an ever more immersive and realistic home
cinema viewing experience to share with family and friends
in the living room environment. These exciting new projectors
offer a breathtaking quality of picture and sound reproduction
that brings a new dimension to the concept of home cinema
viewing. They are further excellent examples of how Philips
its putting its 'consumer experience' marketing concept into
practice, delivering an unequalled Home Entertainment experience
in their category of large-format video images.
The new home theater projectors will be available in Europe
from September 2003 onwards and will be priced at approximately
2999 Euro for the Bogart Matchline, 1999 Euro for the Astaire
Deluxe and 1499 Euro for the Astaire.
* Digital Light Processing, DLP, Digital Micromirror Device
and DMD are trademarks of Texas Instruments Inc.
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