REAR PROJECTION DLP

REAR-PROJECTION INTRO

Plasma and LCD are very expensive in the large sizes. Once you get past 42", things get exponentially more expensive. With 1080p resolutions now available on all displays, 50" will cost you almost a body part. A 40" or 42" is a lot more affordable. Going back to our concept of "perception" in the beginning and also introducing the factor of "substitution", manufacturers developed several technologies to address the "big screen" issue. Some consumers would rather have a huge 70" screen even if it means giving up quality. Enter the following display types; Rear projection LCD, LCOS, DLP, and as they use in the cinema, front projectors. Rear projection allows for the "blowing up" of the picture in a cost-effective manner. What we get is a huge screen in the 60"+ range with good performace. I stress "good", because as it stands now, quality IS substituted for size. When compared to Plasma, LCD or CRT's, colors will look washed out and far from realistic while, contrast, vividness, response times, and refresh rates, will look far from that of their counterparts. When you look at the specs for any of these screens, you will often see 10,000:1 contrast ratios or 5ms response times; similar specs to those of plasmas or LCD, but I urge you to physically look at the display. The nature of the technology, the way the picture is created, will produce a very different result despite their high end specifications. Now let's not compare them. Let's look at them for what they are. What you have is a huge screen cinema experience with a great picture! Let's look a little more indepth on each individual rear projection technology.

DLP: DLP was developed by Texas Instruments. A spinning color wheel with a single DLP DMD chip OR a Prism with a 3-Chip projector are used to create the image. Both use thousands of little mirrors which reflect the results onto the display. The 3-chip (one for each primary color) creates a superior quality image. To learn more indepth about how DLP technology works, please watch this flash demo: http://www.dlp.com/dlp_cinema/includes/demo_flash.asp. DLP is currently (February 2007) one the most popular rear-projection technologies amongst consumers. A new version of DLP is planned named "Laser TV," but it is too early to know how these compare to regular DLP's.

Pros:

• Small and light weight
• Perfect geometry
• Good color replication
• Very good whites and blacks.
• Relatively inexpensive.

Cons:

• Scaling of non native resolution seems to worsen with lesser models.
• Suffers from the Rainbow effect when you're eyes move from left to right. Watch this clip for a demo.
• ftp://ftp.extremetech.com/pub/extremetech/displays/SamsungHLN4365WRainbowClip.wmv This effect is less apparent in the 3-Chip models.
• Unwanted light created by the reflecting of the tiny mirrors has to be effectively removed. The inability to do this effectively can create washed out colors, grey blacks and less white, whites.
• The lamp that creates the light needs to be replaced when it burns out. Thankfully however, lamp life is excellent.

Recomendation: Samsung HL-S6187W 61" 1080p DLP HDTV represents one of the best DLP screens currently available to consumers.