Do you want to buy a projector for your High Definition Television tuner? Have you been bombarded with info that you do not understand about the liquid crystal display (LCD) and the Digital light processing (DLP) projectors? Then you have come to the right place.

LCD and DLP technology are both very suitable for a home theater. The two of them produce a high quality picture but in totally different ways. Before you run to the local electronics store, you should know what you are looking for and why. Here is some basic information on both technologies and their potential applications.

LCD

The LCD projector uses a separate panel for all three colors red, blue, and green. When the light passes through the LCD panels, picture element it will ether open and let the light through or close and stop the light. This is how the LCD projector places an image on the screen.
There are three major advantages that the LCD has that the DLP does not. The first of the three is the LCD has a sharper image. The LCD is also more energy efficient. In addition, due to the three LCD panels the color is more pronounced.

Now the LCD seems to be the superior projector but it does have some flaws. The major downfall to the LCD is the absence of absolute black. This means you do not get as good of contrast with the LCD as you do with the DLP. Then there is the screen door effect, the technical name for this is pixilation (when you see the individual pixels). DLP has the ability to project a truer black making for dramatic contrast, which in turn gives images a much more true to life appearance.

As often happens in the field of electronics technology does improve. Higher resolution LCD projectors are now available, these high definition projectors have resolutions in excess of 720p and this means the screen door effect is not nearly the problem it once was. The improved technology has also given LCD a higher dynamic contrast ratio, which is improving the black levels immensely, they still are not true or absolute black, but they are much better than they were.

DLP

Dr Larry Hornbeck of Texas Instruments developed the DLP in 1987. The technology consists of a semiconductor chip also know as a digital micro mirror device, DMD, a light source, and other various components. The DMD contains thousands of tiny mirrors each one representing one or more pixels of the projecting image. The DLP projectors come with ether one or three DMD chips.

The three chip DLP projectors are the top of the line for home theater projectors or cinema systems found in digital movie theaters. These projectors use a prism in conjunction with the lamp and DLP chip to produce 35 trillion colors, thus expanding the array of image possibilities. You will not likely have these on your list of choices however as they start at $20,000 retail.

One-chip systems incorporate the chip, a color wheel, and white filters to produce the color images. The wheel itself is made up of different primary colors, the wheel turn between the light source and the thousands of tiny mirrors. These mirrors then tilt toward or away depending on the desired color output.

DLP does have a slight disadvantage in this debate. Older DLP projectors were prone to something called the rainbow effect. This was caused by the spinning of the filter wheel, which would cause a strobe effect. Not everyone could see this but a few consumers were sensitive to the light changes and got headaches. The increasing speed of the wheels has made this almost nonexistent problem in newer DLP projectors.

Choosing

Now that you know a bit more about the different types of projectors, you will need to consider just a couple of more things. How you are going to be using the projector and under what conditions.

All projectors are rated by lumens; this is a fancy way of describing the brightness of a projector. The more lumens the unit has the brighter the image and the larger the room and screen you can use them with. If you are looking for a home theater projector for a basement family room, first consider which of the two types you would prefer, DLP or LCD and then look for a projector with around 1500 lumens.

On the other hand, if you will be doing larger productions say in an auditorium with bright lights and a huge screen you will want to look more towards the 3000 or more lumens projectors. DLP and LCD both have their pros and cons, the best choice you can make will be decided by personal preference and budget.

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