Casio Targets Game Market For First Time With Green Slim Projectors

LOS ANGELES -- Casio is going after the core gamer market for the first time with its line of Green Slim projectors that shipped early this year, Bill Dickey, general manager of the company’s projector division, told Consumer Electronics Daily at E3 here. It was the manufacturer’s first time exhibiting at E3, he said.

The projectors use a hybrid blue laser/LED light source that carry a $100-$200 premium over lamp-based models. The projectors, which use Luminus’ PT-54 LEDs, feature brightness up to 2,500 lumens, combining a red LED diode, 445-nanometer blue laser and green phosphor wheel. “High-brightness projection is achieved without using a high-pressure mercury lamp by using blue light emitted by a blue laser, green light converted from blue laser light with a fluorescent element, and light emitted by a high-lumen red LED through a DLP chip onto the screen,” Casio said. The top-end model features 1,600x1,200 resolution, 2,500 lumens and 1,800:1 contrast ratio and $999 price, although the company is also fielding a higher-priced version that adds USB, Dickey said.

The Casio XJ-A240 is carried in all Best Buy stores, and the XJ-A130 ($849) with 1,024x768 resolution and 2,000 lumens is in the chain’s top 200 outlets, we were told at the Projection Summit in Las Vegas (CED June 9 p5). The projectors are also being sold at B&H in New York and Fry’s, Dickey said. Despite the push to get them into the gamer market, they're not being sold at GameStop. But Dickey said Casio “is approaching several retailers regarding assortment in a gaming-related retail environment."

Casio demonstrated the $999 projector at E3 with the help of Electronic Arts, which supplied the new mixed martial arts game MMA, and the use of a PS3, Wii and Xbox 360. “We're game console agnostic,” Dickey said. But he said the PS3 provides the best possible resolution thanks to its 1080p via HDMI connection, while the Wii provides the lowest resolution of the three as that console doesn’t support HD.

The projectors offer displays 100 inches and larger, Casio said. Casio demonstrated them at E3 on 73- and 92-inch screens, but Dickey said the image can be blown up to 300 inches or narrowed to as small as 15 inches, depending on their placement and how the 2x powered zoom lens is used. The key advantage there for gamers becomes apparent when two people are in multiplayer mode on a game and the screen is split into two, Dickey said. Even when using a big-screen TV, the half of the screen that each player gets is no longer that big anymore, he said. The projectors gives each gamer the ability to get the equivalent of a full-size screen in multiplayer mode as long as their wall is large enough, he said.

The projectors also offer an affordable alternative to higher-priced HDTVs, Casio said. They eliminate the need for a mercury lamp and replace it with “a long life solid state light source,” it said. The light source “will provide up to 20,000 hours … allowing consumers to spend money on games rather than lamps,” it said. The typical life of a competing projector’s lamp, meanwhile, is 2,000 hours, meaning that with heavy use they can burn out once a year, and each one costs $200 to $500 to replace, Dickey said. That puts the cost “much higher than a TV set,” he said.

Shortly after the Casio projectors shipped, however, brightness ratings were found to be less than those quoted in spec sheets. Tests conducted by Projectorcentral.com found the A130, which is rated at 2,000 lumens, measured a maximum of 1,288 lumens. The A145 came in at 1,220 lumens, against 2,500 lumens, Projectorcentral said. Casio found a glitch in the alignment of the LED and laser modules that was being done during assembly at Foxconn plants in China, Frank Romeo, vice president of Casio’s Business and Professional Products Division, said. Projectors with the new alignment start production this month, he said. While Casio agreed to replace projectors affected by the glitch, Casio has had “very few” returns through Best Buy, Romeo said.

"There’s been a strong response to” the new projector line, but from a gamer perspective we really haven’t targeted” that market before, Dickey said. Initial sales were strong and Casio was “in a sold-out situation” last week on the $999 model, but the $849 model, which retails for $799, is in stock, he said.

To help promote the projectors to gamers, Casio is advertising them in Game Informer magazine, Dickey said. It will also “start trying to do some promotions,” he said. At E3, Casio hosted a gaming lounge at an EA event, the manufacturer said.