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The Science Behind DLP Television
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By Mitchell Medford
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DLP televisions are based on a technology invented by TexasInstruments back in 1987 called Digital Light Processing. Thetechnology is based on an optical semiconductor called DMD(Digital Micromirror Device) chip. It is a highly reliable,all-digital display chip that delivers the best picture across abroad range of products, including large screen digital TVs, andprojectors for business, home, professional venue and digitalcinema. The chip consists of over one million mirrors to processlight. They come in either single chip or 3 chip configurations.One-chip DLP systems use a projection lamp to pass white lightthrough a color wheel that sends red-green-blue colors to theDMD chip in a sequential order to create an image on-screen.Only one DMD chip is used to process the primary RGB colors.Three-chip DLP systems use a projection lamp to send white lightthrough a prism, which creates separate red, green, and bluelight beams. Each beam is sent to their respective red, green,and blue DMD chip to process the image for display on-screen.One-chip models are said to produce a display of over 16-millioncolors. Three-chip models can produce a display of over35-trillion colors. The result is maximum fidelity: a picturewhose clarity, brilliance and color must be seen to be believed.
When a DLP chip is coordinated with a digital video or graphicsignal, a light source, and a projection lens, its mirrors canreflect an all-digital image onto a screen or other surface. TheDLP chip and the sophisticated electronics that surround it arewhat we call Digital Light Processing technology.
Benefits of Single chip DLP:
1. Fantastic color accuracy.
2. The best contrast ratios and shadow detail. 3. Generally veryquiet. 4. Very little space between each pixel creates a verysmooth image, even when using lower resolution projectors.
5. Light engine failures are very rare so repairs are lesscostly than other technologies. 6. Technology doesn't degradeover time. With proper routine maintenance, DLP? projectorsconsistently provide just-out-of-the-box performance. (DLP? isthe only technology that makes this claim).
Benefits of Three chip DLP:
1. Good contrast; much greater than film theaters.
2. Good shadow detail.
3. Can provide high brightness compared to the limitedbrightness of single chip versions. 4. Overall image qualitydeemed as the best of any type of micro display technology.
5. Same technology as projectors installed in digital theaters.
6. Pure digital technology.
The bit-streamed image code entering the semiconductor directseach mirror to switch on and off up to several thousand timesper second. When a mirror is switched on more frequently thanoff, it reflects a light gray pixel; a mirror that's switchedoff more frequently reflects a darker gray pixel. In this way,the mirrors in a DLP projection system can reflect pixels in upto 1,024 shades of gray to convert the video or graphic signalentering the DLP chip into a highly detailed grayscale image.
The white light generated by the lamp in a DLP projection systempasses through a color wheel as it travels to the surface of theDLP chip. The color wheel filters the light into red, green, andblue, from which a single-chip DLP projection system can createat least 16.7 million colors. And the 3-chip system found in DLPCinema? projection systems is capable of producing no fewer than35 trillion colors. The on and off states of each micromirrorare coordinated with these three basic building blocks of color.For example, a mirror responsible for projecting a purple pixelwill only reflect red and blue light to the projection surface;our eyes then blend these rapidly alternating flashes to see theintended hue in a projected image.
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