Hisense and Samsung showed prototypes of short-throw 8K DLP projectors 

At the last CES 2023 exhibition, there was one sensation, which was perceived by the majority as a completely logical phenomenon but caused a lot of questions among experts. The point is that two companies at once – Hisense and Samsung – introduced household DLP projectors in the form factor of ultra-short-throw models with the ability to output 8K video.

Hisense gave his creation the name Laser TV 8K 120LX, which means that the projector comes with a 120-inch screen, and the projector itself, like all “laser TVs” of this company, has its own VIDAA OS and built-in acoustics. In this case, it was supplied by Harman Kardon, and among the supported formats there are not only Dolby Atmos but also DTS: X. The light source in the projector is a proprietary Trichroma circuit with three lasers. Accordingly, support for 100% of the Rec.2020 and Dolby Vision color space is declared, although the brightness on the screen, even according to official data, for the Laser TV 8K 120LX does not exceed 400 nits (cd / m2).

At the suggestion of the French publication on-mag.fr, European and our portals even published the price for this device – 28,000 euros, as well as the date of appearance of the “laser 8K TV” in stores – the second half of 2023, although nowhere in official and American sources the cost of the projector, nor the timing of its appearance are not given.

There is much less information about the Samsung prototype, called The Premiere 8K: it is only known that it can work with screens up to 150 inches, it has Dolby Atmos support in the speaker system, and the traditional absence of Dolby Vision in the video part, and the release dates are not even called approximately.

The most interesting thing is different: both companies directly stated that their devices use a “new 0.94-inch DMD chip” from Texas Instruments with real UHD resolution and an optical conversion system up to 8K. This caused a lot of questions from specialists who are really versed in projection technologies. First, there is no 0.94-inch chip in the Texas Instruments catalog. It can be assumed that this is a new development. However, for example, the latest 0.78-inch chip with real UHD resolution, which has not yet been used anywhere, is in the catalog.

Secondly, a chip of such a large size requires the use of an appropriate engine-block and optics, which should be 1.5 times larger and, as a result, much more expensive. Nothing like this is seen in the prototypes. Thirdly, all currently existing 8K DLP projectors use their own chip control units, and not a ready-made “single-crystal” solution, like all other micromirror devices. That is why they are fabulously expensive.

Fourthly, if such an 8K-chip with single-chip control did appear, companies specializing in the production of expensive professional projectors, such as Barco and Christy, would be the first to receive it, which they would not hesitate to inform the whole world about.