C3X 1080: The Next Generation Projector

SIM2 just introduced the next-generation design of the award-winning Grand Cinema C3X projector. SIM2’s C3X 1080 is one of the first to utilize Texas Instruments DLP Product’s latest DarkChip 4 chip to integrate superior contrast plus 1080p video display with the features required to power today’s home theaters.

The 17-inch-square, 22-pound C3X 1080 is housed in a high-gloss sculpted cabinet designed by Giorgio Revoldini with the company’s trademark, flowing lines. Revoldini, who has designed several SIM2 models, has received several industrial design awards, including a 2006 Good Design medal—a coveted award in industrial and graphic design administered by the Chicago Athenaeum.

Although small in size, the C3X 1080 conceals a great deal of technology. The projector is based on a trio of the latest 0.95-inch, 1080p DLP chipsets from Texas Instruments, whose centerpiece, the DarkChip 4 DLP device, catalyzes an important increase in picture quality with improved blacks and superior brightness. DarkChip 4 helps the new 3-chip DLP SIM2 product achieve a combination of contrast, color, brightness, and resolution that repositions the digital imaging benchmark for a compact high-performance projector.

The three-chip SIM2 design further exploits improved all-glass optics in SIM2’s proprietary ALPHAPATH light engine to form a system able to deliver full-HD, 1920x1080 progressive video. The combination’s superb contrast (>10,000:1, typically) matches its impressive color depth and remarkable brightness capability, for a net result of breathtaking, almost three-dimensional picture performance from high-quality source material.

With the C3X 1080, SIM2 has created more than a reference-grade projector. Full-depth 10-bit video processing, with HD scaling and deinterlacing capabilities, maintains 1080p/24fps full-HD purity under actual content-playback conditions, and does much to upgrade the delivered perceived quality of lesser formats. What’s more, SIM2’s newly developed, advanced color-management software is available to permit installers and calibrators to precisely match each projector to its home theater environment, with near total control over color, and white-point coordinates, gamma correction, and more, for unprecedented power to refine and improve real-world installed performance.

Of course, the latest SIM2 achievement incorporates the functions and features demanded by custom-theater designers and installers. The C3X 1080 delivers two selectable HDMI inputs (both fully HDCP-compliant), as well as inputs for legacy formats component-, S-, and composite-video, as well as RGB connection. Both RS-232 serial and USB ports are included to ease connectivity for control and software/firmware communications, and even an optical digital-audio, and 12-volt-trigger outputs and IR-sensor inputs are on board for total flexibility of installation and control.

Availability: November 2007
Finish Options: High-gloss Gunmetal (standard), Black, Red, and Gold color options available to order.
Suggested Retail Price: $29,995

For more information visit www.sim2usa.com.