Constant Image Height (CIH) projectors: still rare?

[John Simpson]

After a few months of trolling this and other HT forums, I've noticed almost everyone is going the CIH route. I understand only the Runco (?) currently has this feature on its projectors -- are there any other less expensive models coming out soon that can do CIH?

I saw an NEC that can do auto-zoom, depending on format, but this is reducing the number of usable pixels in the image...

[gsmollin]

The Panasonic PT AE-1000U has the vertical stretch feature built in, so if you add a panamorphic lens, you can make a CIH PJ. Other than that you can add a video processor to many projectors to get the proper image for the panamorph.

[Prof.]

Many of the current digital projectors can be used for CIH, for the vertical stretch control ..but only with the addition of an Anamorphic lens...None to my knowledge have a buit-in facility to do the required horizontal optical stretch..

[John Simpson]

Prof, so *all* projectors require an anamorphic lens for cinemascope? How bizarre is that?

Obviously there's a huge potential market here -- why hasn't a manfacturer jumped on it? (Do you know any HT fan that *wouldn't* have a scope setup, if they were constructing today?)

[Prof.]

It all comes down to cost...
Most Anamorphic lenses cost as much if not more than the projectors they are being fitted to, which would make it a very expensive proposition for the average user..
At the high end of the market, there would be some limited demand for a projector of this type..probably not enough for a manufacturer to mass produce a combined projector/lens unit
The other aspect is that many people don't like the bulk of an Anamorphic lens in front of the projector,including WAF, and tend to shy away from CIH because of this..
It's only the mad enthusiasts (like me) that don't mind having this great lump of a glass hanging off the end of their projectors..