Projection TV Terms

Can't they just speak English!

The best projection TV is the one you have in your living room correct? Well how are you going to figure out just which one that is if you don't understand a word of what the sales associate is saying? Arm yourself and don't get blindsided by techno-babble.

Projection TV

All Projection TVs create a miniature picture inside the projector. Then a bright lamp is directed through the image in order to project it onto a screen, very similar in concept to film projectors.

Front Projection: Front Projection is where the projector is separate from the screen; in the same way they are at a movie theater.

Rear Projection: Puts projector and screen in one cabinet. Since this set up has fewer variables it is less prone to issues that can arise from human error.

DLP (Digital Light Processing): These Sets use a very small color wheels that make images in each of three colors; red, green and blue. The viewer's eye then forms a full color image out of these three projected colors. A small number of people have reported seeing a rainbow like effect.

DTV (Digital Television): DTV is the new standard for American Television. It comes in two distinct styles: HDTV or High-Definition Television, and SDTV. 

 
DVI (Digital Visual Interface): This is the new way to hook up an HDTV antenna, DVD, cable and HDTV satellite. They look exactly like a computer monitor cable.

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display): The image is formed on this type of display by sending an electrical current through two transparent panels. The current then affects a liquid crystal solution sandwiched between the two panels. The liquid crystal acts like thousands of shutters that open and close to form the image.

Lamp: Keep in mind all projection TV's use high intensity xenon arc lamps that burn out every 3000 to 10,000 hours and cost in the area of $200 dollars to replace. The lamps can also take up to twenty seconds to light.

LCoS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon): This type of display is a variation on LCD, which replaces one of the transparent panels with a highly reflective panel. The two are then mounted on a silicon chip. Manufacturers use different names for their LCoS-based technologies. The JVC projection TV uses D-ILA or HD-ILA, while the Sony projection TV uses SXRD.

Microdisplay: The name for the new LCD, LCoS and DLP technologies. All of them use a movie projector type lamp and shine it through a chip that produces the image that eventually winds up on the wall, front projection TV, or on the screen at the front of an enclosure, rear projection TV.

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