To all the CRT pundits out there, guess what? Over the next 12 to 16 months, the CRT is going to enjoy a resurgence in sales due to the long awaited debut of HDTV. No, not because it’s impossible for DLP and LCD technology to display the new 1920 x 1080 standard (although no LCD or DLP manufacturer has an HDTV projector as I write this), but because it will be a while before they can do both.

“The CRT is dead”, was heard all around the INFOCOMM and NAB shows earlier this year. In fact, that statement was supported by the fact that less than 10% of all the projectors in the Shoot-Out were CRT based. But, I am going to contradict that statement in this month’s column by explaining why the CRT is about to enjoy a resurgence that it has not experienced since the early 1990’s. That’s right, I said resurgence. Why? Four simple letters: HDTV. The FCC approved the broadcast standard in 1996, the broadcast networks and cable TV providers have agreed to use one of the three standards (see Sound and Communications Vol. 44 No.6) and the consumer electronics manufacturers are all in the process of introducing their TV sets capable of displaying HDTV programming.

So, what’s all this have to do with the CRT? Well, in consumer world, it’s possible that everyone will be happy with a set that displays everything 16 x 9 (HDTV’s aspect ratio) and when you want to watch regular TV you get black bars on the left and right side of the picture. In fact, it’ll probably be years before the average consumer ever sees an HDTV broadcast in their home because of the price of the first generation TV’s. However, in the Pro AV world of boardroom, conference room and training room installations, HDTV will be the “must have” feature of the next 12 to 18 months. No one who spends 100K or more on a boardroom is going to want to be told that it isn’t compatible with HDTV. So, that’s where HDTV will really makes it debut.

As I am sure most everyone knows by now, HDTV is at an aspect ratio of 16 x 9. Well, most PC’s as well as NTSC video are at an aspect ratio of 4 x 3. Thus, a projection technology that is capable of displaying both 16 x 9 and 4 x 4 is going to be required. Well, to do this, the projector must be capable of being set-up to memorize both a 4 x 3 and a 16 x 9 setting for size, shift, brightness, contrast and color settings. Then, it also must be capable of automatically switching between both aspect ratios. So far, the only projection technology for under $75,000 that is cable of automatically doing this is the CRT.

So, let’s assume that all the LCD and DLP projector manufacturers eventually add memory to their boxes and can handle the switch between 4 x 3 and 16 x 9. There’s still another hitch. Since the CRT is not a fixed resolution device, we can use the horizontal and vertical size controls to insure that we are filling the entire raster of the CRT to maximize resolution (i.e. adjust vertical sizing down for 16 x 9 so that we are still using all it’s video scan lines to display maximum resolution). However, in the case of a fixed resolution device, such as an LCD or DLP, we can’t do this. When displaying 16 x 9, we will actually lose resolution (not use all the pixels) as we will have to use some of the crystals (LCDs) or mirrors (DLPs) to display black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. Thus, although the fixed resolution may be 1280 x 1024, we will only be using 1280 x 720 to show the HDTV image. This means a lower resolution displayed image and about 30% less light output too (although the light output loss isn’t significant as LCDs and DLPs blow away CRTs already).

So, what’s the solution? Well, there are a couple of answers. First, the native resolution of the LCD or DLP could be 1920 x 1080 (the highest resolution of the HDTV standard) and then when we display 4 x 3 we are getting a lower resolution image. This option is a couple of years away as although some manufacturers are in the planning stage of 1920 x 1080 projectors, they are still a couple of years away from mass production.

A second possibility would be to utilize a scaler and an anamorphic lens (one that squeezes the image down vertically to get the 16 x 9 aspect ratio). When you display 4 x 3, blow the image up vertically with the scaler (so that everything is too tall) so that the anamorphic lens squeezes it back to 4 x 3 on the screen and when you display 1920 x 1080 process it as 4 x 3 on the LCD or DLP and use the lens to squeeze it down vertically to be 16 x 9 on the screen.

So until the fixed resolution display manufacturers solve this problem, the CRT will benefit as a solution in the waiting. One thing’s for sure, in either case, both Da-Lite and Stewart Filmscreen are going to be the real winners. Both of them make screens that can transform themselves from a 4 x 3 aspect ratio screen to a 16 x 9 aspect ratio screen with the touch of a button.

Gary Kayye is Principal of Kayye Consulting a firm that specializes in providing marketing consulting and training development to the professional audiovisual industry. You can contact Gary at www.kayye.com or via e-mail at gkayye@kayye.com.