Available sizes: 42" - 67"
Advantages:
Black level - Currently sports better black levels than LCD.
Smoothness - DLP offers a smooth picture due to the smaller pixel gap.
Disdvantages:
Video noise - Random sparkles in darker areas of the screen.
Possible rainbow effect - Moving your eyes quickly may cause you to see a rainbow of color
Texas Instruments shipped the first DLP chip in 1996. Since then, it has shipped over 5 million DLP products to manufacturers worldwide.
DLP stands for Digital Light Processing, and is based on their patented digital micromirror device (DMD) invented by Dr. Larry Hornbeck of Texas Instruments in 1987. DLP works by using a small chip with millions of tiny mirrors on it. A bright light shines on to the chip, and the mirrors quickly move between on and off states to produce 1,024 shades of gray. The light then passes through a spinning color wheel, which creates the primary colors of the image. The rapid movement of the light pulses are blended by the human eye, creating the illusion of up to 16.7 million colors.
DLP chips are most commonly found with a resolution of 1280 x 720, which is high enough to faithfully recreate a 720p high definition broadcast. However TI has recently released a 1080x1920 version of the chip, which can fully create every pixel of a 1080i broadcast.
For a fixed-pixel display, DLP is known to have good black levels. While they don't compete with CRT or plasma displays, they have been steadily improving over the years. One odd phenomenon for DLP is the random video noise in low-level signals, which looks like small sparkles in dark areas. While it can be annoying close up, it's rarely visible at a distance. Color reproduction is fair, but LCD-based televisions arguably have better color saturation.
Since DLP has a thinner pixel gap, the image becomes smoother. This is in stark contrast to LCD, where the wide pixel gap can give the illusion of looking through a screen door at close distances. However, single chip DLP sets are prone to the rainbow effect, which can occur if you quickly move your eyes across the screen. However, the use of faster color wheels has made this effect less common in most situations.
TI's DLP technology has been a smash hit among consumers, and has been growing in popularity thanks to heavy advertising from manufacturers like Samsung, LG, and Mitsubishi. When shopping for a microdisplay, DLP is a must see before any decision is made.
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