PANASONIC INTRODUCES HIGH-BRIGHTNESS XGA PROJECTOR

LOS ANGELES, CA (March 2001) - Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Company has introduced the PT-D8500U, its third generation large-venue DLPx-based projector offering XGA (1024 x 768) resolution with built-in edge blending.

The PT-D8500U utilizes three 0.9" Digital Micro-mirror Devicesx panels to deliver an exceptional high light output of more than 7,000 ANSI lumens, a greater than 450:1 contrast ratio, workstation (1280 x 1024) compatibility with built-in Universal Format Conversion, and 10-bit digital signal processing for excellent picture quality. The unit provides ultra-bright projection for use in large-venue installations, including control rooms, churches, theaters, sports and entertainment arenas, casinos, auditoriums and boardrooms as well as meeting demanding rental and staging requirements.

The PT-D8500U is also fully HDTV compatible, with the capability to provide full resolution for all DTV and HDTV formats in 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios. Using available optional lens, the PT-D8500U can project an image from 100" to 600" in 4:3 and from 100" to 550" in 16:9.

The projector offers built-in edge blending, allowing two to 100 (maximum 10 x 10) PT-D8500Us to be set side-by-side or stacked up to 10 x 10 for displaying full motion images over the entire span without any discernible lines between projected images. An outstanding benefits of edge blending is that it increases the image's horizontal resolution while maintaining the maximum vertical resolution.

The PT-D8500U's resizing engine utilizes Panasonic's Emmy Award-winning Universal Format Conversion (UFC) technology to reformat video signals carrying massive amounts of data without being able to perceive individual pixels. The resizing engine permits electronic anamorphic squeeze from any aspect ratio to 5:4 or 4:3, depending on the PT-D8500U's aspect ratio that then fills the DLP imagers. When using an optional anamorphic lens, the image can be spread back to the original format for display on screen. The image's vertical resolution improves by about 30 percent in the case of 16:9 HDTV images and even higher on other motion picture wide-screen formats. When using the optional HD SDI input board, images are displayed in their native frame rates including 1080/24p without any conversion. Cinema content in 24-frame HD looks natural and completely flicker- free with no interlace artifacts.

For whisper-quiet operation, the PT-D8500U includes a special acoustic design that reduces ambient noise to make the projector quiet enough to be used in any conference room environment.

With its Digital Circuit and Advanced Multimedia Display Processor, the PT-D8500U achieves an exceptional level of natural color saturation and color reproduction (equivalent to 1.3 billion colors) as well as remarkably super-smooth transitions from video to computer images.

With its Advanced Expansion circuitry, the PT-D8500U can Auto-Scan from PAL/NTSC (fH=15kHz) to SXGA (fH=100kHz) level frequencies as a full screen image without the jagged lines of conventional projectors. The projector is capable of displaying 480 interlace, 480 progressive, 576 interlace, 720 progressive (HDTV) and 1080 interlace and progressive (HDTV) images, and can automatically synchronize and display 16:9 aspect ratio images (NTSC).

The unit supports most worldwide video standards, including NTSC, M-NTSC, PAL, SECAM, S-Video and HD (1080i, 720p). The projector is capable of producing crystal-clear images with a 90% center-to-corner brightness ratio in almost any large venue.

Utilizing digital keystone correction, the PT-D8500U's setup is fast and efficient, even for multiple units. Setup parameters can be stored in memory for future use. The DLP projector uses 1200-Watt Xenon lamps with a life expectancy of 1,500 hours providing up to one year of normal use. The PT-D8500U is VGA, SVGA, XGA, SXGA, UXGA and WS-compatible, and can be used for front or rear projection, on a desktop or installed in the ceiling with optional brackets (including ceiling mount and dual stacking mount).

Four optional lenses are available for the PT-D8500U, the ET-D95LE3 zoom lens (4.0 - 7.0), the ET-D95LE2 zoom lens (2.5 - 4.0), the ET-D95LE1 zoom lens (1.5 - 2.5), and the ET-D95LE9 fixed short focus lens. Optional accessories include ceiling mount bracket; dual stacking mount bracket; and five input boards (480i/576i SDI, 480i/576i/480p SDI, 720p/1035i/1080i/1080p SDI, composite NTSC, video/s-video/Y CB CR, and TMDS).

The PT-D8500U will be available this month at a suggested list price of $75,000.

For more information on Panasonic's full line-up of projectors, plasma displays and presentation systems, phone 1-800-528-8601 or find us on the web at www.panasonic.com/presentations.

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