LCD vs DLP Projectors
LCD vs DLP Projectors – When you are looking to buy projectors for home use, or trying to find out best home theatre projectors in the market today, chances are that you will come across terms like LCD and DLP. It may add on more confusion to the already unresolved questions of ‘What projector to buy? and Where to buy a projector’? In this article, we will deal with the first question and that too from a perspective of LCD vs DLP Projectors technologies.
LCD vs DLP Projectors – Can I use them as projectors for home use or projectors for home theatre?
We can argue that these two technologies dominate the projector business today, and both have their own unique advantages and drawbacks. This article is to help you with some information around these two projector technologies by dealing with some of the common questions around the LCD vs DLP Projectors.
What is an LCD Projector?
LCD or Liquid Crystal Display technology has been around for a while now – invented in 1968. LCD projectors are comprised of three LCD panels, one each for the red, green and blue colour components of an image.
Light is fed through these panels and controlled using small shutters or ‘pixels’ within the panels which allow light through in various degrees.
The LCD projector channels light first through a metal-halide lamp and then through a prism or group of dichroic filters (the “liquid crystal”) that divide the light into a trio of panels to handle the red, blue and green elements in the display. Polarized light moves through the panels and opened and closed pixels determine whether light goes through or is blocked.
This series of open and closed pixels generates a rainbow effect of colors in the projector’s output. In this way dark and light are distinguished and vivid colour is expressed.
Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) projectors offer more contemporary options for showing video, still images or digital files and data than its predecessors. LCD projectors remain popular among hobbyists and the DIY crowd.
What is a DLP Projector?
Today, DLP front projectors operate in a standalone manner, typically for education in classrooms and business settings. Comprised of chipsets, DLP itself relies on optical micro-electro-mechanical technology that involves the use of a digital micro-mirror device, or a myriad of tiny mirrors.
A DLP chip is vital in the capture and projection of your media files, and a spinning color wheel shines red, blue and green light to create patterns that translate into the intended images being projected.
DLP projectors (Digital Light Processing) are composed of a chip with millions of tiny mirrors, each of which is a single pixel. The image projected to your screen is created by light shining onto the DLP chip, with its mirrors shining the light either towards or away from the screen. DLP, or digital light processing technology came out in 1987.
DLP technology continues to enjoy a large market share for front projection devices as well as the pico category of compact, mobile display projection systems.
Which projectors are better in brightness & colour?
When comparing LCD vs DLP Projectors, both LCD and DLP projectors are capable of bright, crisp colour, depending on the model you choose. However, LCD projectors are known to provide superior colour saturation, appearing somewhat more vibrant than DLP projectors.
DLP projectors are capable of better contrasts and black levels. Both technologies do have their shortcomings though.
LCD projectors run a slight risk of producing ‘dead pixels’, or pixels which are permanently on or off. Whilst this is not an issue on a small scale, should there be a large number of these it can be an annoyance.
LCD vs DLP Projectors – How to find the right projector?
What are the advantages of LCD Projectors?
What are the advantages of DLP Projectors?
What are the drawbacks of an LCD Projector?
Earlier generation LCD projectors did produce a ‘screen door’ effect, as if you are watching the projection through a screen.
Whilst this is vastly improved on in newer LCD models.
Relatively these projectors can be little bulkier than DLP.
Image projection is comparatively less smooth than the DLP projectors.
What are the drawbacks of a DLP Projector?
DLP’s major drawback is its ‘Rainbow Effect’. This is due to the fact that at each instant, DLP projectors show the image entirely in red, blue, or green. These colours combined become the full range of colours you see usually.
However, some people can notice the constant flickering of colours, which can prove to be distracting.
Also, these projectors have more moving parts and produce audible whine.
It has poorer reds, yellows at full power and requires more lumens than LCD with ambient light.
What to consider when buying a projector?
Depending on your price range and purpose of use (i.e. business presentation, home theatre, gaming etc..) either of these projectors – LCD projector or DLP projector – can meet your need. However, some further help for you here to weigh your options of LCD vs DLP Projectors by answering our final big question.
Things to consider when buying a projector – Final round of comparison between LCD vs DLP Projectors.
So here, we conclude our article ‘LCD vs DLP Projectors’ – Please share your thoughts on this article with us..
References used in creating this article LCD vs DLP Projectors is as below:
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