MUMBAI: Texas Instruments DLP Cinema unveiled the new .98 DLP Cinema chip at FICCI FRAMES. The new chip enables DLP Cinema licensees to ultimately become more competitive by providing an increased variety of projector options to theaters looking to convert to the digital format on smaller screen sizes.

The announcement aligns with a banner year at the box office for DLP Cinema, marked by 350 per cent growth in deployed DLP Cinema projectors globally. Following the trend of going digital, exhibitors in India now have more options in choosing the projectors that can well fit their budget and spec requirements.

The new .98 DLP Cinema chip offers the same flawless, pristine picture as the original 1.2 DLP Cinema chip introduced in 1999, and is optimized for screen sizes up to 20 meters. The .98 chip is housed in a smaller, more efficient cabinet and outputs up to 18,000 lumens to produce an immersive picture. It has already been adopted by Barco, one of the leading digital cinema projector manufacturers, which recently announced it is building its new DP-1500 and DP-2000 model projectors around the .98 chip technology and has been contracted by GDC Technology to supply 700 digital cinema projectors in China. Christie and NEC are expected to adopt the new chip in the near future.

In addition to the .98 chip option, new products will continue to be manufactured and deployed globally on the original 1.2 chip, including the recent announcement of Christie’s CP2000-ZX DLP Cinema projector.

“We are pleased to introduce the new .98 chip, which will make the conversion to digital cinema easier and more cost-effective for many theatres around the world. India represents one of the largest film markets in the world. Major exhibitors including Sathyam Cinemas, Fame Malad and Real Image have all started to install DLP Cinema. As the new DLP Cinema projectors featuring the .98 chip hit the market, local exhibitors who are keen to convert to the digital format now have even more options in terms of prices and product specs,” said DLP Cinema Products Group business manager Nancy Fares. 

DLP Cinema is a proprietary technology that delivers clear, sharp, bright and accurate images to movie theatres globally. Currently 3,334 screens in commercial theaters worldwide are DLP Cinema equipped and more than 100 films were released in digital format last year. In 2006, the 18 top-grossing films were released in digital format and shown on DLP Cinema projectors.