3D Projector Reviews

Several class action suits were raised against Sony for their SXRD projection televisions from the mid-2000's. As someone who is now on their 4th optical engine (under warranty, and turned down a 5th as part of one of the suits), I can attest that Sony was challenged by this new technology.

In their release documents, did Sony address the color shift problems of the SXRD chips (turning pink or green) over time? Did they address the contamination of the optical path with particles?

I hope the answer is yes, but Home Theater never alluded to any of those documents. If they didn't address the issues that raised lawsuits in the past, why would Home Theater give a glowing review to something that has a much higher failure rate than a more conventional technology?

I purchased my SXRD set, in part, because of Home Theater's glowing review. The technology was brand new then, so it was a bit of a gamble -- and it didn't pay off. Now that there is a history of the SXRD technology weaknesses, Home Theater should have mentioned any of Sony's attempts to improve SXRD. Without even referencing the challenges that Sony previously had, the review is, at best, uniformed, and at worst, a shill for Sony. I'm hoping it is merely uniformed...

Hello Ducksoup, The problem you're referring to is in relation to the Sony SXRD rear-projection televisions. This problem has never manifested with SXRD projectors that I'm aware of and I've never read anything to the contrary. I imagine this has to do with the light engine used in the RPTV configuration since it never was an issue with the projection designs.

Sorry for the delay, but a family emergency has kept me from this...

I was hoping that someone in the press, i.e. Home Theater, wouldn't wait for problems to develop before reporting them to the public. I was hoping that someone in the press would ask Sony,"The SXRD technology was less than perfect in your rear-projection TVs, as demonstrated by the multiple class-action suits. How have you improved the technology to eliminate those problems in this family of projectors?" If it's truly "never manifested with SXRD projectors", then ask, "What is different on the projectors that eliminates the chip color changing issue that was documented in the projection TVs?"

I'm surprised that Sony didn't address that issue in their product release documents. After all, why would anyone purchase a projector that uses the same projection chips that turn green or pink in the TVs -- after several months of use, not just a few hours of a review process -- if it wasn't fixed? I would have expected Sony to be proactive and happily tell how they've now learned from the old chips and improved everything about SXRD.

Maybe most readers are too young to remember that Ford sold the Pinto with a known defect because they figured it was cheaper to settle the lawsuits that would occur than to recall the car. Has Sony decided to go this way to help recoup their SXRD investment? Just keep pumping SXRD units out until they maximize the return, regardless of their customers hard-earned $$$?

Those are the things that I'd hoped to see in Home Theater, or, maybe have HT anonymously send over a file to Consumer Reports so they could follow up on this. I guess that's just too much to hope for when you're talking about a big potential advertiser and a small mag.