SXRD (Silicon X-tal Reflective Display) is

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

's proprietary variant of

liquid crystal on silicon Liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS or LCOS) is a miniaturized reflective active-matrix liquid-crystal display or "microdisplay" using a liquid crystal layer on top of a silicon backplane. It is also known as a spatial light modulator. LCoS initia ...

, a technology used mainly in projection

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

s and

video projector A video projector is an image projector that receives a video signal and projects the corresponding image onto a projection screen using a lens system. Video projectors use a very bright ultra-high-performance lamp (a special mercury arc l ...

s. In the front and rear-projection television market, it competes directly with

JVC JVC (short for Japan Victor Company) is a Japanese brand owned by JVCKenwood. Founded in 1927 as the Victor Talking Machine Company of Japan and later as , the company was best known for introducing Japan's first televisions and for developin ...

's D-ILA and

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It is one of the top 10 semiconductor companies worldwide based on sales volume. The company's focus is on developing analog ...

' DLP. Sony has discontinued the production of all of its rear-projection televisions, including those that used SXRD display chips, in favor of flat-panel sets utilizing

LCD A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers to display information. Liquid crystals do not em ...

and

OLED An organic light-emitting diode (OLED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a type of light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is an organic compound film that emits light in respon ...

displays. Sony has now concentrated SXRD on HD home front-projectors and next generation 4K digital theater projection.

Models

The following SXRD-branded products have been released or announced:

Controversy

While capable of producing good high definition picture quality, Sony have had problems mastering the technology of mass-producing the rear projector version of these displays. A high failure rate of the optical block has required repeated replacements of the optical blocks on some televisions. Sony previously settled a class-action lawsuit filed by owners of the first generation of the SXRDs, and apparently failed to fix this defect. Sony ceased production of all SXRD rear projector sets, as owners of most second-generation sets filed new class-action lawsuits. The second generation class-action suits were recently filed and are pending in Federal Court.

References

External links

SonyStyle VPL-VW40 product pageAll Engadget SXRD articlesSony Professional SXRD SiteSony optical block problems site
Sony hardware Japanese inventions {{Product-stub