by: Andrew A
With all of the technology that is available for people to be able to make their family or living rooms into their own personal home theaters, many people are deciding that a television, no matter how large it is, is simply not enough to complete their home theater experience. A new line of comparatively small and inexpensive digital home theater projectors is now available for anyone looking for the ultimate home theater experience. People who want to truly experience the atmosphere of the theater can now do so by creating their own miniature screening room complete with a home theater projector.
A home theater project isn’t just for showing movies at home. While videotapes and DVD’s can look amazing when viewed through a home theater projector, television programs, sporting events and even video games viewed through a projector are incredibly entertaining. The price of home theater projectors is very attractive when compared to the latest in big screen televisions and plasma TVs. A home theater project can provide the larger view of television programming often for thousands of dollars less than large televisions.
There are a number of different home theater projectors available to choose from to provide the exact viewing experience each individual desires in their home. It is important to keep in mind when deciding to purchase a home theater projector for the home that it will require a relatively darkened room in order for the images to be seen clearly. Many people can remember seeing the older reel-to-reel projectors that their parent’s showed home movies on for years. Today’s home theater projectors have incorporated digital technology into their design in order to be of a smaller size than traditional projectors and to be able to adjust settings for the perfect image.
Today’s home theater projectors project the light that displays images a number of different ways including the use of a liquid crystal display (LCD), mirrors or a combination of both. Home theater projectors that use a LCD is more likely to be less expensive than other models that use a combination of projection techniques. The most expensive type of home theater projector uses something called Liquid Crystal on Silicon to display images that some people believe to offer the sharpest image from a projector. Once a home theater projector has been chosen, it will require a screen on which to display images or if a person enjoys a challenge, he or she can attempt to construct their own original screen.
Most projectors seem to work best when they are mounted up high or even from the ceiling. Cables coming out of the projector tend to be unsightly and can be hidden inside the ceiling or walls. Hiring a professional to complete this task might be the only way to avoid damage and accidents when attempting to do it alone. Some people find creative ways to conceal the cords by covering them with neutral colored tape and then painting over the tape with the color that matches the ceiling or walls. Other people cover cords with furniture like paintings or bookshelves.
Once a home theater projector has become a part of a complete home theater system, most people rarely opt to use their television for their viewing entertainment. Home theater projectors truly allow for anyone to have their own movie theater right in their own living room.
About The Author
Andrew A is the webmaster and owner of “Discounted-Home-Theaters.com" and has been researching and reporting on Home Theatre for years. Click Here ==> http://www.discounted-home-theaters.com/
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Home Theatre
The Science Behind DLP Television
by: Mitchell Medford
DLP televisions are based on a technology invented by Texas Instruments back in 1987 called Digital Light Processing. The technology 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 a broad range of products, including large screen digital TVs, and projectors for business, home, professional venue and digital cinema.
The chip consists of over one million mirrors to process light. They come in either single chip or 3 chip configurations. One-chip DLP systems use a projection lamp to pass white light through a color wheel that sends red-green-blue colors to the DMD 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 light through a prism, which creates separate red, green, and blue light 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-million colors. Three-chip models can produce a display of over 35-trillion colors. The result is maximum fidelity: a picture whose clarity, brilliance and color must be seen to be believed.
When a DLP chip is coordinated with a digital video or graphic signal, a light source, and a projection lens, its mirrors can reflect an all-digital image onto a screen or other surface. The DLP chip and the sophisticated electronics that surround it are what 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 very quiet.
4. Very little space between each pixel creates a very smooth image, even when using lower resolution projectors.
5. Light engine failures are very rare so repairs are less costly than other technologies.
6. Technology doesn't degrade over time. With proper routine maintenance, DLP™ projectors consistently provide just-out-of-the-box performance. (DLP™ is the 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 limited brightness of single chip versions.
4. Overall image quality deemed 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 directs each mirror to switch on and off up to several thousand times per second. When a mirror is switched on more frequently than off, it reflects a light gray pixel; a mirror that's switched off more frequently reflects a darker gray pixel. In this way, the mirrors in a DLP projection system can reflect pixels in up to 1,024 shades of gray to convert the video or graphic signal entering the DLP chip into a highly detailed grayscale image.
The white light generated by the lamp in a DLP projection system passes through a color wheel as it travels to the surface of the DLP chip. The color wheel filters the light into red, green, and blue, from which a single-chip DLP projection system can create at least 16.7 million colors. And the 3-chip system found in DLP Cinema™ projection systems is capable of producing no fewer than 35 trillion colors. The on and off states of each micromirror are coordinated with these three basic building blocks of color. For example, a mirror responsible for projecting a purple pixel will only reflect red and blue light to the projection surface; our eyes then blend these rapidly alternating flashes to see the intended hue in a projected image.
About The Author
Mitchell Medford is an author and product consultant for several consumer electronics manufacturers. Visit his website for more information on home theater, LCD TVs, and plasma televisions: http://www.newtechnologytv.com
Revolution In Digital Video Recording
by: Mitchell Medford
The latest advancement in the recording technology has transcended all boundaries and has brought convenience to your doorstep. The top American channels can be accessed and viewed at your leisure with the TIVO or the Digital Video Recorder.
A common term that is synonymous with TIVO is “personal video recorder” (PVR). The latter is a consumer video device which has the ability to capture television programming and store it on an internal hard drive to be viewed at anytime in the future.
No longer do you have to schedule your plans around your favorite television program. Let your favorite shows and programs be watched anytime and watched over and over again.
Having a TIVO gives you the option to select your preferred programs to record either by time, specific program title, or by amalgamation of genre, actors and directors etc. All programs will remain intact until it is manually deleted to give room for newly recorded items.
The capacity of the internal storage is enormous and can accommodate most of your favorite shows. The database of programs available is determined by the customer's location and their cable/satellite services and is updated daily over the phone or network connection to TIVO control center. The TIVO system is comprised of a non-removable hard drive as well as sophisticated software that allows users to easily program and record their selected shows. The software can even be set to record shows it thinks the viewer may be interested in based on their viewing habits!
You can even pause, rewind, and fast forward the recorded programs just as if you were viewing them on a VCR or DVD player, but there are no messy tapes or discs to keep track of. If you are recording a program, you can still watch it in real-time as well.
TIVO guarantees that the digitally recorded images are received, stored, and played without any weakening in the quality of the image. Videos that are digitally stored will retain the same quality as the day the image was recorded.
TIVO also offers a user rating system where viewers can score the television shows they watch on a scale which ranges from three "thumbs up" or three "thumbs down". These ratings are then used to further determine the user's preferences and recommendations are suggested based in part on these ratings.
"Season passes" instruct TiVo to record a show each time it is aired on television regardless of when the show begins, with the option of ignoring reruns. Award-winning features such as “Wish List” searches and TIVO “Online Scheduling” have made TIVO a necessity for every household. The home entertainment innovations provided by TIVO surpasses features of a television possessing digital music, snapshot, and picture in picture features. The inlcusion of 'TIVO To Go' allows for the transfer of shows to your laptop or DVD.
You can always be up to date with the current programming on your television as your
TIVO routinely will keep you updated with the daily programming. The sophisticated technology combined with the user-friendly navigation allows you to search for programs just by using the remote.
The only drawback of the TIVO system is a minor one. It requires a land-based phone line to ensure successful activation and full functionality of the DVR service. This may be a problem for some customers as more and more people are canceling their land-line phone service and relying solely on their cell phone.
Your television set up is not an issue for you to make a TIVO acceptable to every household. It can be traditional cable, digital cable, satellite, or even combinations of these. TIVO is proving itself as a viable and efficient companion to your home theater system that pledges to be useful and economical.
About The Author
Mitchell Medford is an author and product consultant for several consumer electronics manufacturers. Visit his website for more information on home theater, LCD TVs, and plasma televisions: http://www.newtechnologytv.com.
Top 3 Tips For Buying An LCD TV
by: Amy Metz
I want a larger screen and so do you. There is absolutely no reason for this wanting except for the feeling of power that a large screen gives you. I have no idea why it is, but we all seem to want a larger screen for our TVs these days. The question is, how to get a good deal on an LCD TV without paying a fortune. Let’s give you our top 3 tips on buying an LCD TV.
1)Don’t buy a used one if you don’t have to. The funny thing about these TVs is that their prices drop significantly every month and that if you just wait a little longer, the price you’ll pay for a new TV is probably not going to be too far off from the price that you are going to pay for a used one. A little patience might actually save you some dollars here.
2)Compare features, not just prices. One of our favorite places to go to compare prices on LCD Tvs is ConsumerReports.org. Consumer Reports was rating different items way before the internet even become popular. Remember buying your first real car? I do. And I went straight to Consumer Reports to find out that the Honda Accord was the car to buy (and still is according to CR). Shopping for a high end LCD Tv shouldn’t be any different than shopping for a new car. All the resources are at your disposal, so give it a try. I’m sure you can find some gems of information at CR regarding your LCD Tv purchase.
3)HD is coming, don’t miss out. High definition television has allegedly been “right around the corner” for years. Well, that time may finally have arrived. Some LCD Tvs come HD ready and some do not. Make sure your new LCD TV supports HD so that when it is finally popularized, you can watch the programs utilizing this latest technology.
And by the way, why would someone want to buy an LCD TV over a “Plasma”. And what is a plasma? Are they different than LCDs? Basically yes. The big difference is that they use different technologies to deliver a picture. Both have pros and cons. However, both deliver a large screen experience to the user.
About The Author
Amy Metz is a contributing author for http://www.lcdtvme.com. We feature all sort of articles on lcd tvs at LCDTvme.com. Don't buy an LCD TV without reading up on them first.
