SXRD (Silicon X-tal Reflective Display) is
Sony's proprietary variant of
liquid crystal on silicon, a technology used mainly in projection
televisions and
video projectors. 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 corporation. Founded in 1927 as the Victor Talking Machine Company of Japan and later as , the company is best known for introducing Japan's first televisions and for ...
's
D-ILA
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 referred to as a spatial light modulator. LCoS was ...
and
Texas Instruments'
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. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but in ...
and
OLED 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