Sony Introduces Ultra Personal™ 8.2-Pound LCD Projector Offering 600 ANSI Lumens of XGA Output

PARK RIDGE, N.J. February 5, 1999 - Sony Electronics is adding the Ultra Personal™ VPL-XC50U XGA LCD projector to its family of LCD projectors. Designed for easy portability, the new 8.2-pound projector provides outstanding brightness, reliability, durability and image quality.

"Sony’s portable projectors are easy to set up and include all the features needed for an impressive and effective presentation," said Jim Sandy, vice president of display products for Sony Electronics’ Broadcast and Professional Company. "Using the VPL-XC50U projector, presentation professionals can walk into a meeting with a notebook computer and set up immediately, thanks to a variety of new features including preset data memories and Auto Pixel Alignment."

The projector is housed in a magnesium diecast body that is extremely lightweight, yet tough and durable in design, making the unit rugged enough for frequent travel, and light enough for easy portability. The magnesium casing also provides natural heat dissipation helping to prevent heat build up in the projector. The unit also comes with a built-in carry handle for extra convenience.

According to Sandy, Sony’s newly developed optical system yields a uniform performance with almost no image degradation, even in the corners. It consists of new 10 x 8 element fly-eye light integrators, a prism block, polarizing plates, a short arc 120W UHP lamp, a high performance zoom lens, and Sony-produced .9" true polysilicon XGA LCD panels. These combined elements provide 1024 x 768 resolution and 600 ANSI lumens of light output for bright and clear images even in environments with ambient light.

Additionally, Auto Pixel Alignment (APA), a Sony-developed algorithm, was incorporated to make set-up effortless. By connecting a computer signal source and pressing the APA button on either the projector or the remote, the projector will optimally align the image pixels with the panel, without requiring complicated adjustments. Further, Advanced Scan Conversion (ASC) technology using bilinear interpolation provides excellent image quality for both lower and higher resolution signals scan converted to XGA resolution for display.

Acceptable signal formats for the VPL-XC50U are composite video, S video, component video (Y/R-Y/B-Y), RGB video, VGA, SXGA, XGA and Macintosh® 16" mode signals as well as signals with horizontal frequencies from 15 to 91 kHz.

The VPL-XC50U has a laser pointer built into the supplied Remote Commander® unit full-function remote control. When the projector is connected to a computer mouse port, the Remote Commander unit can be used to control all mouse functions for a total presentation solution.

The VPL-XC50U has a zoom lens, 22 user memory settings and a front height adjustment foot allowing for the height of the image to be adjusted quickly and easily.

Pricing and Availability

The VPL-XC50U will be available this month from select Sony resellers at a suggested resale price of $7,490.

Editor’s Note: More information about Sony products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sony.com/professional, or readers may call 1-800-686-SONY. Additional press information is available at http://www.sony.com/news.