Flat Screen Projection TV Technology.
Until recently, the luxury of watching TV on a wide screen at home was limited to only a few wealthy people who had the space to fit a bulky TV set. More ordinary mortals had to go to the cinema to benefit from the experience of a wide screen and surround sound. Nowadays, however, more and more people can take advantage of flat screen projection TVs. These come in two basic types: front projection TVs and rear projection TVs.
A front projection TV has the flattest of flat screens - this type of projection TV works by projecting the image forward onto either a special screen or onto a flat, painted wall, rather like the OHPs and old reel-to-reel movie players that they have replaced. This type of flat screen projection TV technology is becoming more and more widespread, especially for use in school, conferences and churches, as a front projection TV can often take input from a PC, allowing slideshows and presentation to be displayed. Front projection TVs are one type of flat screen projection TV that may be suitable for home use. However, to get a big, wide image, you need to place the projector at the right distance to get the image focussed correctly. While it might be a pleasant daydream to have the widest wall of your lounge used for watching movies, it is unlikely that your lounge will allow for a front projector to be placed right. You will have to consider the other option in the flat screen projection TV range: rear projection TVs. Flat screen rear projection TVs come in several basic types, each using a different type of technology. CRT rear projection TVs use lots of small cathode ray tubes which work like a normal TV set. These, however, tend to be bulkier, and are not, technically speaking, really flat screen rear projection TVs. The true flat screen rear projection TVs include the LCD variety, which has a display screen similar to that found on a calculator or digital watch but much, much more sophisticated; the DLP or DMD (microdisplay) variety, which uses an array of tiny mirrors, and the LCoS type of flat screen rear projection TV, which uses a combination of LCD and DLP technology. The flattest of flat screen TVs, however, is the plasma TV. However, this is not projection TV, technically speaking, as the screen itself produces the light with a massive array of tiny fluorescent lights, each light forming one pixel. As nothing is projected, it is not really a flat screen rear projection TV. But a plasma flat screen TV certainly has the flattest type of screen available. |