HP id5280n DLP elininates color wheel uses LED's

[Foxbat]

Still, eliminating the color wheel would be terrific and if Samsung implemented their iris tech to get the 10,000:1 contrast ratio, I'd most definitely be interested.

No iris required, since the pulse sent to the LEDs can be shortened to reduce the apparent amount of light emitted. It would be able to respond instantly to an overall reduction to a scene's light level, so you could get much greater detail a dark nighttime scene since the full 8-10 bits worth of DLP mirror movement would still be available to render the scene. Of course, the brightest item in a scene would determine the LED's apparent intensity.

Back in the 1980s, before 16-bit DACs were affordable, Commodore used two 8-bit DACs to achieve a quasi-16-bit DAC by using one 8-bit DAC for the fine waveform control, and the other 8-bit DAC to control the the overall volume level.

 

[long_time_DNC]

The HP specs stated a 2500:1 contrast ratio however. If they could/would take your approach, Foxbat, and offer something close to or exceeding 10k:1 without the iris, hey, I'd go for that too.