The 6 Best DLP beamer

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A few years ago, DLP projectors were still among the top devices in the upmarket price segment, but after a drastic drop in prices they have now become affordable for almost every household. The special feature of the DLP beamers is the technology with which they project the images. The abbreviation DLP stands for “Digital Light Processing” and means “Digital Light Modulation”. The light is modulated by a component known as a DMD or “Digital Micromirror Device”, which carries up to several million mirrors on its surface, which can be individually controlled, i.e. tilted, by the electronics. This technology was developed by the Texas electronics group Texas Instruments

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Television & Home Cinema: DLP beamer Video Guide

For each pixel the DMD has its own independently tiltable mirror. When an image is generated, the mirrors are specifically controlled and the light beam is deflected in the direction of the beamer optics. Since with this technology only the states On or Off can be switched, as is usual in digital technology, the brightness gradations are reproduced by a fast pulsation of the mirrors. The impulses follow each other so quickly that the pauses cannot be perceived by the human eye. The mirrors of a DLP projector reach a frequency of up to 5,000 tilting movements per minute. In a DLP beamer, the colours are generated by a fast-rotating colour wheel, which allows the three basic colours to be projected one after the other. In the first devices, the color wheel consisted of the three basic colors. In the recent past, however, more and more DLP beamers have been launched on the market, where the number of colour segments of the colour wheel has been increased to six or seven. By increasing the number of segments, mixed colors can be displayed more precisely. Professional devices also have a colorless segment that improves the light output for displaying white areas. Professional PLD projectors for commercial use are equipped with three DMD. The Acer P1185 3D SVGA is a DLP beamer recommendable for the home area. The Acer H6517BD 3D Full HD DLP projector offers an even higher resolution for sharper images. Both beamers are also directly 3D capable.

The very high speed of the image generation allows a projection without afterglow or re-touching of the image. For this reason, DLP beamers are very well suited for the projection of 3D films and games. For example, the mirror technology prevents the image from being burned in in computer games and provides a higher contrast with a deep black. Another affordable and 3D capable DLP projector for home use is the TW529 DLP projector from BenQ

Since the number of mirrors on the DMD is a fixed quantity, only content with optimal quality is projected, whose resolution does not exceed or fall below a certain level. In all other cases, the image content is scaled, resulting in a deterioration of the image quality. Various DLP projectors for home use show slight weaknesses in colour reproduction. This applies in particular to the representation of red and orange shades and to green. The defect is caused by the color wheel. Less common is the so-called rainbow effect, which is caused by a colour wheel rotating too slowly. In isolated devices, a noticeable flicker may occur when playing back different shades of grey.

Thanks to the drop in prices, DLP projectors are no longer reserved for professionals only. The affordable beamers today have a thoroughly interesting price/performance ratio. The longer lifetime compensates the current disadvantage of the price compared to the LCD beamers by far again.

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