Dream in DLP All the Quality Half the Price By: Kevin Hayes, Staff Writer

HOW IT WORKS

The constantly improving quality of DLP televisions is moving in the direction of most electronics (except the physical size of the screen, of course!), which abides by the ethos “Smaller Is Better”. Essentially, the picture is formed by reflecting light off of thousands of tiny mirrors, each of which corresponds to a pixel. Each pixel is turned on or off by turning the mirror towards or away from the light source and thereafter reflected onto the screen. Smaller mirrors facilitate more pixels in a compact space, and the projection means that you’ll still get tons of resolution on an impressive scale.

BENEFITS OF DLP TECHNOLOGY

No danger of burn in: Because they operate on mirrors there is no danger of lasting impressions, also known as burn in. DLP's are ideal for video games and sports broadcasts as they have graphic and textual elements that may linger long enough to cause permanent damage to a plasma.

 

Better Contrast Ratios: Since the mirrors inside a DLP are turned completely on and off, it creates better contrast than is found in LCDs and plasmas.  LCD pixels always have a current of electricity going through them that creates luminescent blacks, and plasmas must pre-charge each pixel to prepare it to be lit causing the same effect.  Because of this, DLPs generally still have better contrast ratios, meaning the difference between the lightest whites and the darkest blacks, than LCDs and Plasmas.

 

No Screen Door Effect: DLP has gone on to fix another major problem associated with rear-projection televisions, which is the ‘screen door effect’. When pixels are clearly visible on the screen, like you would see on an older tube television, it gives the illusion of a screen door. The increased resolution and method of projection eliminates this problem.

Screen Size: Determining what screen size would be ideal for you is the first step. DLP's generally start at 42” and go up past 70”, so there’s a wide range to choose from. There are guidelines that you’ll be able to find online as to how large a screen should be in correspondence to how far away you’ll be sitting, but it all comes down to personal preference. Any DLP on 6ave.com will be at least 1080i, meaning that the picture quality will be superb regardless of the distance.

 

Selection of Inputs: The inputs are a major factor in getting the most out of a television. All our televisions come equipped with at least component inputs (The red green and blue cables), but HDMI is the way to go for superior video quality and ease of installation. It combines HD video at any plausible resolution and perfect audio into one simple, purely digital connection. For example, if you had 3 HDMI inputs for video and audio, when translated to component plus audio cables, you have the equivalent of using 15 wires. HDMI is going to be the standard, so stay ahead of the curve.

THE FUTURE OF DLPS

DLP televisions are very much in the television race in terms of quality, and are about to make a large step towards grabbing a piece of the market. As technologies revolving around projection DLP's are advancing, the picture keeps improving while the cabinet is getting smaller and smaller. Very soon you’ll even be able to wall mount some DLP televisions just like you would a Plasma or LCD. Even on the floor, DLP's offer the same novelty that console televisions once served to a different generation, but with a much thinner footprint and far superior quality.

DLP's solve most of the major problems people have with flat panels while offering an equivalent standard of quality, all for a cheaper screen size to dollar ratio. When you’re thinking about upgrading your home theater, make sure you give DLP another look.