Marantz fires up high-contrast 1080p DLP projector

Marantz today comforted home theater enthusiasts with the VP-15S1, its new range-topping DLP unit. Although it musters a full 1080p widescreen image, a new dual iris lens boosts the projector's contrast ratio from 6,500:1 in the old VP-11S1 to a much improved 10,000:1 while also stepping up brightness from 700 lumens to 1,000. This is accomplished even as the 15S1 steps down from a 7-segment color wheel to a 6-segment model; the new wheel more faithfully reproduces colors for each segment and is also quieter than the old model, Marantz says.

The 1.45X zoom factor DLP device keeps the strongest aspects of its predecessor and exploits the hardware's 12-bit color processing through dual HDMI 1.3 inputs as well as analog HD through either dual component inputs or a VGA connection. Marantz is shipping the VP-15S1 first in Japan and anticipates a release in mid-November for an estimated $8,471 including tax. International launches were not discussed as part of the debut. [via Impress]