NEC To Bow Next Generation 50W PDP

By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 9/5/2005

INDIANAPOLIS — NEC will reveal at CEDIA Expo a line of installer-targeted HD plasma display monitors in 42W-inch, 50W-inch and 61W-inch screen sizes. All feature new mechanical designs.

Models include the 42W-inch 42XR4 ($5,995 suggested retail, shipping in November); the 50W-inch 50XR5 ($7,995), which is scheduled to ship in December; and the 61W-inch 61XR4 ($13,995, November). All will offer a new, sleek cosmetic design and clear high-definition picture performance, NEC said.

All models include ISF Day/Night Support, IR throughput which allows the display to act as an IR receiver for other devices, a new input panel which includes composite video, S-video, RGB, two component video and two HDMI connectors, and a remote ID for up to four units. A seamless orbiter is added to further enhance the AccuShield functionality.

Key features in the 50XR5 include split-screen picture-in-picture capability and six memory locations for storing setup information.

Meanwhile, NEC recently announced that it has reached an agreement with Silicon Optix to bring HQV processing powered by Teranex to an external video processing unit called NEC TheaterSync.

The device, which will ship in October at a $3,595 suggested retail price, is designed to enable a NEC plasma display or video projector to achieve HD quality out of non-HD sources such as cable, DVD and VHS. It is slated to ship in the fall at a price to be announced.

NEC said the TheaterSync processing unit will seamlessly connect to its displays.

The Silicon Optix/Teranex technology uses true 10-bit video processing, and full four-field motion adaptive video de-interlacing for both standard-definition and high-definition signals.

The scaling engine inside the Realta uses as many as 1,024 taps and can scale all resolutions up to QXGA. The Realta implements the same video processing power — 1 trillion operations per second — as the $60,000 Teranex Xantus box.

TheaterSync includes connectivity for all SD, HD and PC signals over standard analog, DVI and HDMI inputs. It will also incorporate the newest HQV algorithm, CNR (codec noise reduction), to reduce the artifacts caused by MPEG and other codec compression methodologies.