Buying Guide for Today's Projectors
Today's projection technology stretches the possibilities of home cinema, corporate presentations and big screen entertainment well beyond the confines of the television tube. The multitude of lightweight, compact projectors on the market enables you to carry big screen entertainment or business applications with you wherever you go. With a computer-run projection system you can turn the entire wall of your living room into an enormous TV screen. Or transform the corporate boardroom into the site of dazzling presentations that will train your employees, dramatize exciting new marketing concepts, or illuminate strategies that will grow your business for tomorrow. Portable projectors are the perfect way to engage customers while on the road. They're great for classrooms, conferences, and absolutely wonderful for watching sports. You can even watch the Super Bowl or the World Championship Poker Tournament on the back wall of your basement! Yes, the uses for modern projectors are limited only by the constraints of your imagination!
Surprisingly Affordable
Intimidated by the price of projectors? Don't be. We sell some of the best projectors in the world at incredibly low prices. And a high quality projector can make all the difference in the world between a flat presentation and one that really shines. So, if you are tempted to skimp on quality to appease your budget, remember that a great presentation can increase sales and enhanced corporate image, result in better productivity when used as a teaching tool, and dramatically improve your entertainment programming. You must take all those factors into consideration before you sacrifice performance for cost.
Shedding Light on Projector Technology
Believe it or not, people were using projectors, or at least dreaming about them, centuries before the advent of silent movies. In fact, a fellow named Johannes de Fontana rendered the first drawing of a projector-like machine back in 1420. And in 1645, a Jesuit scholar illustrated a device for reflecting sunlight from a mirror, through a lens and on screen. He called his invention a magic lantern! Today's technology is quite a bit more complex, but the idea remains the same - to project an image on a smooth surface so that many people can see and enjoy it. Here is a brief synopsis of the nuts and bolts of present-day projector technology.
The Three Types of Projectors
There are three major types of projectors: Standard LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), Polysilicon LCD, and DLP (Digital Light Processing) projectors.
Standard LCD - Standard LCD projectors have one panel of LCD glass that controls the three primary colors. Standard LCD projectors are becoming less common as polysilicon LCD and DLP projectors gain popularity. They usually display a much brighter image than DLP. However, their transmission design limits the amount of time they can be used. LCD-based projectors often operate effectively only a short time, with image deterioration present after 8-10 hours. Because LCD projectors transmit light through LCD chips, then through the optics and onto the screen, heat is transferred to the LCD chips from the light source. This causes the LCD chip to deteriorate and will probably result in severe image loss and can permanently damage the LCD projector.
Polysilicon LCD - These projectors control colors through three panels and are higher in quality than standard LCD projectors. Projecting through 3 panels allows polysilicon LCD projectors to have higher color saturation than a standard LCD projector.
DLP (Digital Light Processing) - The most common type of projector on the market, DLPs use a single chip with thousands of micro mirrors to modulate the lamp's light and project it through the lens. DLP systems are
