Home Theater Components - Receivers, Displays, and Projectors (Page 3 of 4)

 Organic Light Emitting Diodes are capable of emitting light on their own and thus do not require a backlight to function. This functionality removes many layers from the manufacturing process and allows for building thinner panels.

OLEDs can be printed on flexible surfaces and opens the way to roll-up displays. OLEDs offer better color range, brightness values, and contrast values compared to other technologies. However, the lifetime of the organic materials are limited – around 5 years with a constant 8 hours use per day (14,000 hours). In comparison, LCD TVs offer 60,000 hours of operation time.

OLED TVs are very new and they are under development.

Just as with TVs, there are a number of different types of projectors that you can implement into your home theater system:

• Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Projectors
• Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) Projectors
• Digital Light Processing (DLP) Projectors
• Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCOS) Projectors

Now, we'll examine the pros and cons of each of these home theater components.

 These projectors have separate red, green and blue light bulbs which send the display to the wall or curtain. These are the oldest projectors in the market and they are too bulky to carry around, therefore making them ideal for static placement. The maintenance costs are minimal compared to LCD, DLP and LED projectors. The setup and adjustment of this type of projector involves considerable time, but they can service up to 10,000 hours and can display resolutions up to 1920 x 1200.

 The idea behind LCD projectors is very basic. A light is sent from a light source, through a prism which separates the light into three components: red, green and blue. Then, these three components pass through polarized filters, a LCD display and an analyzer, which forms the images. These images are sent to the prism or lens, which makes them bigger, and are then sent to the surface where the image is to be displayed.

LCD projectors produce a wide range of colors and shades but require high maintenance costs. The lamps should be renewed when they are worn out, and a typical replacement costs a couple of hundred dollars.

Nowadays, Digital Light Processing (DLP) and Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCOS) projectors are taking the place of LCD Projectors.

Continue to the next page to find out more about other types of projectors available for home theater systems.