In mid 1990’s Texas Instruments developed Digital Light Processing. DLP technology is based on DMD or Digital Micromirror Device. It is a switch, which controls the intensity, and placement of projected light via 4,80,000 mirrors. In a DLP-based display there are unlimited colors. You can control the saturation and clarity to make bright video as clear as you want. The DMD is coordinated with a graphic signal, a light source and a projection lens.

The micromirrors of DLP are fixed on a panel of small pivots, which enable them to slant either way. If it slants towards (on) light source it creates bright pixels on the screen and when it slants the other way (off) it creates darker pixels. When the bit-stream image code enters the semiconductor, the semi conductor directs the switch to on or off. If the switch remains on more times than off, it reflects a light gray pixel. Otherwise it reflects darker gray pixel.

In DLP systems white light is passed through a color wheel and it runs to the surface of the DMD panel. The color wheel converts the white light into red, green and blue. From these three colors a DMD chip can create 16.7 million colors. So a 3-DMD chip DLP system can create a mammoth 35 trillion colors. Then our eyes understand these colors and see an image.

Think about it, you can get images up to 120 inches whereas the largest plasmas or rear projection TVs are only 70 inches in diagonal length. Furthermore, these huge televisions cost an exorbitant amount ranging from $5000 to $10,000.

Compare them to budget PROJECTOR models which sell for less than $1,500. Now’s really a good time to consider them. They used to cost many thousands of dollars and prices have since fallen.

Now the market is in favor of new PROJECTOR technologies such as LCD or DLP which utilize compact digital image chips which have brighter light output than CRT technologies. Now there’s no need to completely see your movie in total darkness. A dimly lit room will do just as fine.

The older CRT technology were heavier at over 100 pounds. These new generation of PROJECTORs are compact and light. They weigh from 5 to 15 pounds. You can carry the lighter ones around. There’s no need to rush home to watch your live sports programme. You can just simply bring it wherever you want. An example would be watching a movie in a friend’s house. A compact PROJECTOR is a great idea if you have several houses since there’s no need to buy a PROJECTOR for every home. One PROJECTOR will do simply fine.

Their small size is a boon. They may either be placed on a coffee table or be mounted on a ceiling. Imagine the mammoth hulk of a projection TV taking up your previous living room space which otherwise could have been used in more better ways.

New PROJECTORs boast an array of connectivity options which regular television sets lack. You can hook it up to your PC enabling you to surf super sized web pages, watch slide show of your digital camera photos or play computer games.

Nowadays you have the option of either having a projection screen or simply using the wall to project the image on.

Setting up is easy and new PROJECTORs offer simpler solution. Normally your entertainment console consisting of all the various components such as DVD Player, Cable set top box and other AV components will be in front of the living room while the PROJECTOR will be mounted at the back of the room. So how do you reconcile the difference in location for all these gizmos? You either had to move all the components back or simply lay cables from the various sources to the PROJECTOR behind.

The writer is the webmaster of Buy Home Theater which covers the various aspects about buying a home theater.

Now there’s PROJECTOR.htm>all in one home theater with speakers and DVD player thrown in together in one unit. There’s no need to worry about cables snaking from one end of the room to the other, not to mention the headache of setting up the PROJECTOR system.

Another alternative would be PROJECTOR.htm”>wireless PROJECTOR allowing you to bring your PROJECTOR from room to room without worrying about wires and cables.

The best way to get an idea of the electric PROJECTOR screens is to have a look at the types of the screens that are available in the present day market. These include:

VMAX Series Electric Screen of Screen ratio 3:4

VMAX Series Electric Screen HDTV of Screen ratio 9:16

Home Series Electric Screen 3:4

Home Series Electric Screen HDTV 9:16

Designer Contour Electrol Screen Standard 3:4

Cosmo Electrol PROJECTOR Screen Standard 3:4

Designer Contour Electrol HDTV 9:16 Screen

Designer Contour Electrol with Built in Infrared Remote 3:4

Cosmo Electrol PROJECTOR Screen HDTV 9:16

Contour Electrol Screen Standard 3:4

Designer Contour Electrol 9:16 with Infrared Remote

Contour Electrol HDTV 9:16 Format Screen

Tensioned Cosmopolitan Electrol 3:4 Standard Format

Tensioned Contour Electrol Screen Standard 3:4

Luxus Model A Electriscreen 3:4

Visionary Electriscreen Standard 3:4

Luxus Model A Electriscreen HDTV 9:16

Visionary Electriscreen HDTV 9:16

Vision XTC Silver Star 3:4 Screen

Vision XMV Silver Star Vertical Masking Screen

Tensioned Director Electrol Screen Standard 3:4

The best electric screens have the following features: they require little effort to open and close compared to other ordinary manual screens, they are ceiling-recessed, and they are available in ascending floor models.

However, electric screens are complicated to install, as these screens require a power source to operate.

Well, for starters, we often give more attention to the overheads than the audience. It can’t be helped. After all, we have to pick up the right overhead, separate it from the next one, get it on the PROJECTOR properly, check it out on the screen, and so on.

While doing those things, we’re taking our eyes off the audience. At the same time, the audience spends a lot of time looking at the screen, rather than at us. And, nothing detracts from good communication like loss of eye contact with the audience.

We’re also taking our mind off the audience. Instead, we’re focusing our thoughts on the technical issues involved in showing the overhead, including our explanations of the visuals.

Then there’s the amount of material. Almost every time I see a speech with overheads, I see way too much content. One of the best lessons I’ve learned in several years at Toastmasters is that less is more. Don’t try to explain everything to your audience, just pick one small sliver of an issue and explain it well – a speech is not a book or a written article!

And, then there’s the simple fact that the PROJECTOR gets between you and the audience. There’s noise and the size of the PROJECTOR, which mean a PROJECTOR can be a more powerful presence at the front of the room than you.

Perhaps there should be a 12-step program for getting over overhead PROJECTORs. While they’re unlikely be an addiction, they can be a crutch, one that allows us to make presentations without adequate thought or preparation.

Personally, I like the idea of giving up overheads and PROJECTORs altogether. A colleague recently asked if we should use overheads when we do some upcoming presentations together. I expressed my opinion firmly. Need I say what that was?

If you’re not ready to give them up, use your overheads in a supporting role. Don’t ask them to carry a substantial part of the message; you should deliver the message, and the overheads should reinforce what you say.

For example, if your presentation involves numerical information, a simple bar or line graph might help the audience get the point. Or, if you’re talking about a sequence of events and their order is critical, a numbered list might help.

But the best bet may be to go without. Before the presentation, think hard about the message or messages you want to convey. Boil them down into no more than three points, and then look for stories, analogies, metaphors, and anything else that will illustrate and reinforce each point. Try to create mental images with words, like good radio ads.

In summary, overhead PROJECTORs put serious communication barriers between speakers and audiences. Get rid of them. You’ll be glad you did – and your audience will, too.

Robert F. Abbott writes and publishes Abbott’s Communication Letter. Learn how you can use communication to help achieve your goals, by reading articles or subscribing to this ad-supported newsletter. An excellent resource for leaders and managers, at: http://www.communication-newsletter.com

You’re finally making the jump to the holy grail of home theater video displays; the front projection system. There’s nothing else that delivers that really big, impressive video image like a front projection system. It’s how you get that real cinema experience in your home theater. Home theater PROJECTOR prices have plummeted in recent years, and the size of the units have shrunk right along with the prices. No more do have to live with a coffin sized box on your ceiling. As sizes have decreased, the image quality and brightness have actually improved dramatically. You’ll notice image quality and brightness are two separate issues.

How do choose the correct home theater PROJECTOR for your application from the myriad of PROJECTORs on the market today? There are so many different units, each with their strengths and weaknesses. First of all, there are two main projection technology categories, analog and digital. Analog PROJECTORs are based on CRTs, a mature technology that’s been around for decades. Those are the PROJECTORs with the separate red, green and blue picture tubes and three lenses on the front. The other PROJECTORs use one of the newer digital technologies. These PROJECTORs have a single lens on the front. There are three major types of digital PROJECTORs on the market today; LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), DLP (Digital Light Processing) and LCOS (Liquid Crystal On Silicon). Each type of digital PROJECTOR has it’s advantages too.

You need to evaluate your specific requirements in order to make the proper decision. First of all, look at the room. Is it a dedicated home theater or a multi use room? Do you have complete control of the light? What aesthetic concerns are you dealing with? What is your PROJECTOR budget? How large of an image do you want? Do you watch primarily DVD movies, TV movies, sports, or other TV programming? What specific source components will you be using with your PROJECTOR now or in the future? Is picture quality the most important thing, or are other concerns, such as noise, size or brightness more important? Are you installing the PROJECTOR yourself, or are you hiring a custom installer to do the installation for you? Where must the PROJECTOR be placed? Can you get the required video and control cables to that location? These questions must be answered to ensure you get the proper PROJECTOR for your home theater. If you are using a custom installer, they will take into account these factors and specify the appropriate unit for you.

Dramatic improvements in the picture quality of digital PROJECTORs notwithstanding, CRT PROJECTORs still deliver the most film like image. They have no pixel structure and deliver rich, deep blacks. Properly set up and calibrated, with a good video processor, and with the proper size screen, a CRT PROJECTOR will deliver simply stunning picture quality. You’ll need to use a good quality projection screen, typically with 1.3 – 2.5 gain depending upon the size, viewing angel and ambient light in the room. Prices on really great CRT PROJECTORs have fallen like a rock in the last year or two. You can get a 9” CRT PROJECTOR that used to cost $35,000 to $50,000, for less than a third of that figure now. Many firms no longer make CRT PROJECTORs due to the decreased demand for PROJECTORs using this technology. In addition, the required video processors have decreased dramatically as well. Ten years ago a great video processor used to cost $10,000 to $20,000. Now you can get one for well under $5,000 and as little as $2,000, brand new. They also easily last 8,000 – 10,000 hours when properly set up.

If they are so fantastic, why doesn’t everybody still use CRT PROJECTORs? Well, there are many detriments to a CRT PROJECTOR as well. The best ones, with the 9” tubes, are simply huge. It’s like hanging an upside down bathtub on your ceiling. If you want to put one under a coffee table, it’ll be one large table. They are also very heavy, around 150 – 200lbs, so you need the proper structure to support them. CRT PROJECTORs also require precise placement. They must be perfectly square with the screen, at the correct elevation for good picture quality. In addition, while many digital PROJECTORs have zoom lenses, allowing the PROJECTOR to be placed at a range of distance from the screen, CRT PROJECTORs must be at a very precise distance for a specific screen size. These factors severely limit placement options. While the larger CRT PROJECTORs put out more light than their smaller counterparts, they have pretty dim images compared to even the least expensive digital PROJECTORs. Finally, CRT PROJECTORs require specialized setup in order to get a watchable, much less an optimum image. Every 6 months to a year, they must be re-calibrated to ensure you are still getting optimum picture quality.

There are some very good reasons why most people are using digital PROJECTORs in their home theaters today. Many are small and light, require minimal setup and calibration (compared to a CRT), are quiet and have a bright, sharp image. But, there are many different digital PROJECTORs, ranging in price from around $700.00 to over $100,000.00. Which one is the best for your specific application? Thankfully, the situation is changing, but many of the digital PROJECTORs marketed for home theater use are really just re-badged presentation units. Presentation PROJECTORs sacrifice good video quality for brightness. Brightness is much more important when giving a Powerpoint presentation in a lit room than the correct color palate or the black level. The red on the pie chart looks great, no matter what, as long as you can see it from the back row.

You want to choose one of the newer units that has been truly designed for home theater applications. The actual technology used for the imaging chip is not all that important, there are great examples using all three of the digital technologies. Companies such as Sony, Runco, InFocus, Vidikron, Marantz, Benq, Panasonic, Sharp, Optima and Sanyo and some others all make great home theater PROJECTORs. The PROJECTOR will have great black levels, to accurately reproduce detail in the darker areas of the picture and give great contrast. Absolute brightness is not extremely important, unless you have a multi-use room without complete light control or you have a lot of people over for sporting events. If you are entertaining many people for sports, it’s nice to have some light on in the room, so a brighter PROJECTOR is advantageous.

PROJECTORs come in a number of different resolutions. The lower the resolution, the smaller the screen you can use before you can see pixel structure. Also, the lower resolutions will not support true HDTV. Most will display HD, but at a decreased resolution. The lowest end PROJECTORs typically have resolutions of 800 x 600. The Texas Instruments Matterhorn chip is popular on budget priced wide screen PROJECTORs, and has a resolution of 1024 x 576. Anything over a resolution of 720 will allow for true HDTV. The TI series of HD-2 DLP chips has a resolution of 1280 x 720. In April of 2005, TI announced new DLP chips with 1920 x 1080 was ready for production, allowing for true 1080p resolutions. PROJECTORs with this chip will begin shipping in Q1 of 2006. Blu-Ray Disc has stated they will support 1080p, so by late 2006 there will be commercially available 1080p content besides Microsoft’s WMHD discs.

Another very important aspect of home theater PROJECTORs is the internal video processing. This is one of the primary differences between good home theater PROJECTORs and presentation PROJECTORs. Digital PROJECTORs must display progressive scan images at the native resolution of the chip, so any interlaced signal, such as 1080i HDTV, must be de-interlaced and then scaled to the native chip resolution. Poor quality video processors, weather in the PROJECTOR or external units, cause all sorts of video artifacts that can get in the way of a satisfying video presentation. This subject alone is too in depth for this article, as entire texts have been written on the subject. However, one common video artifact is “jaggies” where diagonal lines are jagged instead of straight. Another annoying artifact caused by poor video processing is moire’. This is a pattern seen as alternating light and dark lines that change position as the image moves.

You’ll want to be sure your PROJECTOR supports the HDMI or DVI with HDCP copy protection to allow you to connect a HD-DVD, scaling DVD player or Blu-Ray Disc player. These devices will only allow maximum resolution on a display that has a digital video input with HDCP copy protection. In the future, cable TV and satellite providers may restrict the maximum resolution to their digital outputs too.

When choosing your new home theater PROJECTOR, make sure it has the video quality, brightness, size, auditory and budget characteristics that you need. PROJECTORs are a large investment, choose carefully and you will be rewarded with years of thrilling video in your home theater.

Steve has 15 yrs in custom electronics. He is a CEDIA certified designer with ISF and THX certificates. His experience includes: installer and programmer; system designer; business unit director for an a/v importer; sales rep for a CE distributor; and principal of a $1.5M+ CEDIA firm. He’s now senior sales engineer for Digital Cinema Design in Redmond, WA. Get more great home theater and home automation information here:PROJECTOR_information.html”>Home Theater PROJECTORs

1. Low-cost PROJECTORs normally make two main sacrifices. The brightness, which is measured in ANSI lumens, will be relatively low, and the native resolution will be limited to 800×600. Neither one of these will be serious drawbacks providing you lower your room lights, draw the blinds, and there isn’t too much detail in your slides. Home cinemas definitely do not require anything more. Movie enthusiasts are more likely to be concerned with the lamp life and replacement cost.

2. Image quality is obviously important but very hard to test based on specifications. A high contrast (500:1 or above) ratio adds depth to the picture and is one substantial benefit of PROJECTORs based on digital light processing (DLT), as opposed to the older LCD technology. Do keep in mind though; the optics and color balance cannot be assessed without consulting a review.

3. Where you will be using your PROJECTOR also needs to be put into question. Size and weight are obviously very important if you’ll be moving the piece around a lot. If portability is a factor, aim for a PROJECTOR that is less than 3kg. Small rooms will demand a quiet (below 33dB) PROJECTOR with a flexible throw distance – or how close or far away the screen must be. Most PROJECTORs can rotate or mirror their image to cope with ceiling mounting or rear projection.

4. Make sure the PROJECTOR you are looking at covers all the signals you might want to feed it with. Common video formats are supported by almost all PROJECTORs, but high-resolution VGA signals aren’t. High quality pictures will only display at their best only on pricier PROJECTORs, with a 1,024×768 native resolution.

5. Top-of-the-range PROJECTORs have 2,000 ANSI lumens brightness or more to overpower brightly lit rooms. They also come with a handful of useful features that make presentations look and sound slicker, as well as making it easier for the presenter. Anti-theft features may also be something worth looking into.

6. After sales Warranty and support is definitely a must, especially for the heavier users. Make sure you have access to bulb replacements (or replacement service).

Recommended Minimum Specs-

Native Resolution: 800×600 Brightness: 1,100 ANSI Lumens Contrast Ration: 500:1 Lamp Life: 2,000 hours Check: Weight, throw distance and noise.