Introduction It has been a little over a half-century since Saul Marantz started a small company, aptly named Marantz, dedicated to producing the highest performance vacuum-tube audio electronics of the era. Revered by many, these products defined state-of-the-art audio during that early period, helping usher in the age of high-fidelity sound. Since then, the company has gone through many transitions, expanding into a global leader in both high-performance audio and video products, continuing to be recognized for their engineering and manufacturing innovations. The Marantz company has entered the 21st-century dawn of digital video with an aggressive assault on the hotly contested and rapidly advancing DLP projector arena. Their latest single-chip high-definition DLP projector, the VP-12S3, which is now in its third generation, incorporates the strengths of its predecessors, culminating with the most recent technological advancements. The VP-12S3 supports a host of new innovative features, including the latest Texas Instruments HD2+ DMD chip, new sophisticated video processing technologies and ...

Introduction When assembling a fulfilling home theater system, it is hard to dismiss the significant importance of picture size and quality. The size of an image can dramatically affect the realism and emotional involvement we experience while viewing our favorite events or videos. Additionally, combining high-quality video with multi-channel audio can convert your viewing environment into a virtual movie theater, sports arena or live concert venue. Although many exceptionally satisfying systems can be configured using a good tube or rear projection television, there’s a natural limit to just how large their enclosures can be. Even with some of the mammoth rear projection units currently available, the overall viewing area may still not provide a large enough picture to truly recreate a movie theater experience. This is one key reason why stand-alone projectors have become much more prevalent in the home consumer market today. Given their ability to mate with free-standing, wall-mounted or drop-down screens, these combinations ...

Introduction A large part of the experience of watching a movie at your local theater is derived from viewing film-quality images on a very big screen. Otherwise, nearly everyone would merely wait for the film to be released on video and watch it at home on their trusty 27-inch television sets at home. The audio portions of home theater systems have steadily improved over the last 10 years, and many of us now own audio equipment with the latest Dolby and DTS technology that rival (if not surpass) the sound of many commercial theaters. Yet affordable video projection has lagged somewhat behind until just recently. CRT (cathode ray tube) projectors have been around for years and can project film-like images with wonderful lush colors and excellent contrast, but can cost upwards of $50,000. Luckily for those of us without a 1/2 share of a NetJet, digital video projectors are making significant inroads into the high-end ...

Introduction Up until a couple of years ago, the biggest picture that you could get, short of spending the equivalent of the average college tuition, was a 50-65-inch rear projection “big screen” TV. While the picture on a big screen was huge compared to tube sets of the past (never larger than 40 inches), the resolution was never fantastic, the sets were physically deep and could get really expensive at the 60 to 70 inch category. Today, someone trying to live the bigger is better mantra though their TV has exciting new possibilities (without surgery, pills, pumps or weights). Projection systems were once a toy for the very rich, but with the invention of two new projection technologies (Texas Instrument’s DLP and JVC’s D-ILA), large-scale video systems are available to the masses with less maintenance, more brightness and a gigantic picture. Plus Vision Corporation created quite a stir when it introduced the HE-3100 DLP projector in ...

In the last few years, the world of large-scale video projection has been turned upside down by the advent of fixed-pixel digital projectors. The two most prevalent technologies are Texas Instruments' DLP and JVC’s D-ILA chip based units. While the digital projectors clearly have shortcomings when compared to traditional CRT projectors, especially the big gun nine-inch CRTs, these new projectors have won over many a fan because of their diminutive size, incredible brightness, their reliability and ability to project huge images for home theater applications. The SIM2 HT200 DM is a single-chip DLP front video projector that is capable of 800 x 600 lines of resolution and, as with all projectors in SIM2's Grand Cinema line, is specifically designed for the home entertainment market. Most DLP and D-ILA projectors are first designed for professional applications such as conference rooms, Las Vegas sports books and restaurants. The HT200 physically measures 13-3/4 inches wide, 6.5 inches in height, ...