Projectors: Home theater entertainment

Published by: Elizabeth Gormley
Published on: 2010-01-10 15:26:13

For many of us, the word “projector” conjures memories of long ago, a white slide pulled down in a dark living room, a beam of light through a reel of spinning film, the faces in the audience aglow with an old family vacation, prom, barbecue, or birthday. When the spool was spent, it slapped its celluloid tail until someone turned it off. Today, the word “projector” usually refers to state-of-the-art home theater. The concept is similar, but these days it’s digital. The following three are among the most popular and practical for in-house entertainment.
    DLP is often referred to as “the world’s most sophisticated light switch.” A DLP chip contains a rectangular array of up to two million hinge-mounted microscopic mirrors. When a DLP chip corresponds with a digital video or graphic signal, a light source, and a projection lens, these mirrors reflect a digital image onto a screen. This process minimizes the gaps between pixels in an image, and creates an ultra-smooth picture.
    LCD is known as the “modern analog” version of the old-school projector. LCD stands for “liquid crystal display.” Light is sent from a metal halide lamp through a prism that breaks light down into three poly silicone panels, which are the red, green, and blue components of video signal. Individual pixels either open to allow light, or close to block light, creating a vast array of color and shade in the picture. In the past, the LCD image has been considered inferior to DLP, however, an improved iris in the lens of the projector has many believing the two are now equal.
    LCoS stands for “liquid crystal on silicone.” It’s something of a cross between DLP and LCD, essentially utilizing the best of both worlds for optimal resolution. The liquid crystal panels are modulated in the same three panels as LCD, red, green, and blue, opening and closing for light. But LCoS uses the “reflective” technology of DLP with a single mirror, sending the image to the screen.
    Projectors can be mounted to the ceiling or set on a tabletop. Most projectors today weigh less than twenty pounds, so you can take them to different areas of the house, or even outside, should your screen allow portability. Keep in mind the “throw” ratio, which is the relationship between the projector’s distance from your screen and the width of the image. The further the projector is from the screen, the larger the image will be. Throw ratios vary from projector to projector.
    Because there are so many component factors, resolution capabilities, and construction qualities, home theater projectors cost anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars. Lamp life is between 2,000 and 4,000 hours, with replacement bulbs running $200-$400. Cleaning the filter of your projector and using it properly will significantly extend the lamp life.
    New home theater projectors give a nostalgia-inducing machine a high-tech edge, with their sleek shapes and different colors. The way they operate may be more complex, but the endgame is the same, one magical beam of light for the sake of home entertainment.

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