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 After its sale to new parent company Planar, Runco has had its share of troubles over the past year. With the move of its manufacturing and customer service facilities from Northern California to Planar's home in Oregon came new challenges to dealers and owners of Runco products that had never occurred before. The previously sterling customer support system fell by the wayside, and products were not being shipped in as timely a manner as Runco had been known for. But Planar's CEO, and new General Manager of their Home Theater division, Gerry Perkel used their CEDIA Expo press conference to map out a new direction for the company, a direction that promises to not only bring Runco back to where it was pre-sale, but instill a commitment to “building the best damn Runco ever.” As part of the new focus, Planar will be phasing out the Vidikron brand, with its higher-end dealers moving to the Runco line and the others switching to Planar products. Current Vidikron owners will continue to receive the same support they have always enjoyed, but new products will not be introduced under the banner. The Planar brand will also get a new more narrow focus. With these changes, Runco will become Planar’s key brand in home theatre. They are channeling greater resources into the development, marketing, sales, and support for the Runco brand of products, and will be extending their product portfolio to include more differentiated products that Runco hasn’t shown before. One new product demonstrated at the press conference was the self-contained VideoWall™ VW-100HD ($39,995) in-wall, 33-inch deep DLP-based rear-projection system using a mirror to shoot an image onto a Planar-developed screen. Using all Runco and Planar engineering, the 1080p projector with 100-inch diagonal screen is said to be easy to install (in under an hour) and has the appearance of a large LCD or plasma display. The screen’s border has the same black, brushed metal appearance of Runco’s plasmas and LCDs, and the hard-coated screen adds to its flat-panel appearance. The projector includes Runco’s Constant Contrast™ frame-by-frame “contrast correction” technology, WideVision™ aspect ratio conversion technology, and their SuperOnyx™ chipset. The CinOptix™ lens system with O-Path™ light path enhancement is also used, as is their  ViViX II™ internal processing. Only one additional projector was introduced, the three-chip DLP 720p VX-8d. With CorrectColor calibration, the projector is promised to accurately reproduce the Rec. 709 high-definition color gamut with linear D65 gray scale accuracy. The images looked sharp and beautiful from the $19,995 projector, and as Runco pointed out, “it’s not all about resolution.” The projector can accept 1080p24 signals over its HDMI inputs and scales the image to the projector’s native resolution and will be available in January 2009. Flat panel was more of a focus for Runco at the press conference, with seven new models introduced. The 70-inch CX-70DHD LCD ($34,995) includes Runco’s external DHD with ViViX II processor with their WideVision technology and VirtualWide™ enhancement. The 47-inch CX-47HD ($4,495) and 65-inch CX-65HD ($14,995) LCDs offer internal ViViX II processing with Runco’s RTR™ (Real-Time Refresh) 120 Hz technology. The XP-50 ($6,495) 50-inch and XP-65 ($12,995) 65-inch plasmas were also unveiled, with choices for internal or external processing available and Runco’s Dynamic Pixel Protection™ technology for reducing static image retention. Runco also introduced their micro-visual OPAL (Optical Path Alignment) surface treatment that has been brought over from Planar. Found in the indoor CX-OPAL47 ($6,495) and outdoor WP-OPAL42 ($8,995), the system includes ACE (Acute Contrast Enhancement), ALR (Ambient-Light Rejection), and ISS (Impact, Shock, Shake) to improve contrast in any lighting situation and enhance the displays’ resistance to daily wear and tear. Detailed information was not available at the time, but ACE is said to increase contrast by up to three times over their non-ACE displays while maintaining detail in dark scenes; ALR is said to “reduce internal and surface reflections by more than 20 times”; and ISS “enhances the panel's resistance to dust contamination, condensation and even occasional direct impact, such as a blow from a hand-held game control.” Runco has said that with the OPAL treatment, the displays can be cleaned with typical household glass cleaner without leaving a film.  Internet Contacts: http://www.runco.com
Tags:
- equipment -
- Runco -
- Planar -
- Vidikron -
- plasma -
- LCD -
- projector -
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