19 Feb 10 Choose the Correct Home Theater Projector

Choosing the right projector for your home theater

You are ultimately the leap to the holy grail of home theater video displays, the front projection. There is nothing else that delivers the really big, impressive video image like a front projection. It's like you get that real cinema experience into your home theater. Home theater projector prices have fallen dramatically in recent years, and the size of theUnits to the right shrunk along with the prices. No longer do have to live with a coffin middle field on your ceiling. Decreased as size, brightness and image quality have really improved dramatically. You will notice image quality and brightness are two different things.

How to choose the right home theater projector for your application from the large number of projectors on the market today? There are so many different units, each with their strengths and weaknesses.First of all, there are two categories of projection technology, analog and digital. Analog CRT projectors are a mature technology has been focusing on for decades. These are the projectors with the individual red, green and blue picture tubes and three lenses on the front. The other projectors using 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). Any type of digital projector has its advantages.

You must evaluate your specific requirements in order to make the right decision. Above all, look at the rooms. Is it your own home theater or a multi-purpose room? You have complete control over the light? What aesthetic concerns, you do it? What is your budget projector? How big an image you want? Have you seen mainly DVDFilms, TV movies, sports or other TV programs? What specific source components you are using with the projector, now or in the future? Image quality is most important, or are other issues such as noise, size or brightness more important? If you are installing the projector yourself, or you are hiring a custom install to do the installation for you? Where the projector must be installed? Can the required video and control lines to this place? These issues needbe answered to ensure you have the right projector for your home theater. If you use a custom installation, they are these factors into account, and enter the appropriate device for you.

Dramatic improvement in image quality of digital projectors notwithstanding, CRT projectors still deliver the majority of films like image. You have no pixel structure and deliver rich, deep blacks. Properly adjusted and calibrated, with a good video processor, and with theScreen, a CRT projector is easy to deliver a superior picture quality. You must use a good screen, usually with 1.3 to 2.5 gain depending on the size, just angels, and ambient light in the room. Really great prices on CRT projectors as a rock in the last year or two fell. You can use a 9 "CRT projector that used to $ 35,000 to $ 50,000, less than one third the number who do now receive costs. Not many companies, CRT projectors due to the decreased demand forProjectors using this technology. In addition, the required video processors have decreased dramatically as well. Ten years ago, used a large video processor to cost $ 10,000 to $ 20,000. Now you can once and for well under $ 5,000 and as little as $ 2,000, brand new. They also easily last 8,000 – 10,000 hours, when it is set up correctly.

If they are so fantastic, why does not everyone still with CRT projectors? Well, there are many disadvantages to a CRT projector as well. The best, with the 9 "Pipes are simply huge. It's like an upside down bathtub hanging from the ceiling. If you want to put a coffee at a table, it is a large table. They are also very heavy, about 150 – 200lbs, so you need the right structure to support it. CRT projectors also require accurate placement. You need a perfect square with the screen to the right height for a good picture quality. Moreover, while many digital projectors have zoom lenses, so that the projector be placed at agreat distance from the screen, CRT projectors need to be on a very precise range for a given screen size. These factors limit the placement options. While the larger CRT projectors put out more light than their smaller counterparts, they have rather dark images even in comparison to the least expensive digital projectors. Finally, CRT Projector Setup experts to be a Lovely receive less than optimal images. All the 6 months to a year, they must be recalibrated to ensureThey are still the best picture quality.

There are some very good reasons why most people are using digital projectors in their home theater today. Many of them are small and lightweight, require minimal installation and calibration (compared to a CRT), are quiet and have a bright, sharp images. But there are many types of digital projectors, ranging in price from about 700.00 $ to over $ 100,000.00. Which is the best for your specific application? Fortunately, the situation is changing, butmany of the digital projectors for home theater applications are placed on the market really only re-badged presentation units. Presentation projectors sacrifice good video quality for brightness. Brightness is much more important, when issuing a Powerpoint presentation in a lit room as the right color palate, or the black level. The red on the pie chart that looks good, 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 really beenDesigned for home theater applications. The actual technology for the imaging chip is used, not so important, there are great examples of all three of the digital technologies. Companies such as Sony, Runco, InFocus, Vidikron, Marantz, Benq, Panasonic, Sharp, Sanyo and Optima and a few others all make great home theater projectors. The projector will have great black levels, accurate detail in the darker areas of the image reproducing and largeContrast. Absolute magnitude is not very important if you are a multi-use room without light have complete control or you have a lot of people on sporting events. If you have many people to the sport are entertaining, it's nice to have a little light in the room, so that a bright projector is an advantage.

Projectors come in a variety of different resolutions. The lower the resolution, the smaller the screen, you can use before you can see pixel structure. Also, the lower resolutions isno support for true HDTV. Most are HD display, but on a reduced resolution. The lowest end projectors typically have a screen resolution of 800 x 600 The Texas Instruments Matterhorn chip is popular on the best projectors and wide screen has a resolution of 1024 x 576 Anything over a resolution of 720 is for true HDTV. The TI series of HD-2 DLP chip has a resolution of 1280 x 720 In April 2005 the new TI DLP chip with 1920 x 1080 was announced for production ready, so that fortrue 1080p resolution. Projectors with this chip with the shipment in Q1 2006. Blu-ray Disc has declared it will support 1080p, so that by the end of 2006 there will be commercially available 1080p content in addition to WMHD discs Microsoft.

Another very important aspect of home theater projectors is the internal video processing. This is one of the major differences between good home theater projectors and projector presentation. Digital projectors must displayProgressive scan images with the native resolution of the chip, so any interlaced signal such as 1080i HDTV, you must de-interlaced and then to the native chip resolution. Poor quality video processors, the weather in the projector or external units, lead to a variety of video artifacts that get in the way of a successful video presentation. This issue alone is also in depth for this article, have written articles on the subject as a whole. However, it is a common Video Artifact "aliasing"where diagonal lines are jagged instead of straight. Another disturbing artifacts caused by poor video processing Moire ". This is a pattern change, such as alternating bright and dark lines, the location, as moving the image to see.

You want to be sure your projector supports HDMI or DVI with HDCP copy protection, so you connect to an HD-DVD, DVD player or Blu-ray scaling Disc player. These devices will only allow maximum resolution on a display that a digital video input with HDCP hasCopy protection. In the future, may restrict cable and satellite TV providers, the maximum resolution on its digital outputs.

When choosing your new home theater projector to make sure, the video quality, brightness, size, budget, auditory and features you need. Projectors are a great investment, choose carefully and you will be rewarded with years of exciting video to your home theater.

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