Optoma, one of the leading manufacturers of digital projection and display devices, announced the shipping of the HD81-LV 1080p home theater projector. The latest native 1080p home theater projector in Optoma’s award-winning projector line, the HD81-LV is the latest incarnation of the company’s unique two-piece projection system that includes a native 1080p projector and studio-grade video processor.

Marantz America, a renowned manufacturer of advanced home entertainment solutions introduced an upgraded version of its groundbreaking VP-11S1 High-Definition DLP front projector that features HDMI 1.3 inputs with Deep Color capability. With its HDMI 1.3 Deep Color capability and 12-bit color depth, the upgraded VP-11S1 is capable of displaying an astonishing 68 Billion colors! All VP-11S1 units now shipping to retailers will incorporate the upgrade, with no increase in the suggested retail price of $19,999. In addition, Marantz will be offering a service solution for units currently in the field, which will allow all existing VP-11S1 owners to have their projectors upgraded to HDMI 1.3 with Deep Color (Pricing for the upgrade will be announced shortly.).

Texas Instruments (TI) have debuted one of the first 3-chip 1080p DLP projectors in a demo theater at CEDIA Expo 2006 – giving custom installers a premium 1080p projector solution for the high-end home theater market. The DLP booth features a prototype SIM2 HT-5000 3-chip 1080p projector. The addition of 3-chip 1080p DLP technology for the home theater market creates a breadth of 1080p projector options that fit any home cinema environment.

Solidifying its leading position in the high-end home theater market, at CEDIA EXPO 2006 (Booth #141), Runco International will launch their highly anticipated line of single-chip and 3-chip 1080p native resolution (1920 x 1080) DLP projectors and will showcase the demo of a 3-chip 1080p projector with CineWide technology in the Runco theater on the show floor.

Panasonic introduced the new PT-DW5000 and its selectable lens (without lens) version PT-DW5000L, two widescreen one-chip mid-to-large venue DLP™ projectors ideal for projection interstitial materials including movie trailers and commercials.The PT-DW5000 and PT-DW5000L will be available in June 2006.