DLP Vs. LCD

We have seen a proliferation in the number of options that we have at our disposal, when choosing a television or a projector set in recent times. Thanks to advances in display technologies, you can now choose one from among LCD TVs, LED TVs, Plasma TVs and DLP TVs, besides the age-old CRT television sets. A much less known technology is the DLP technology, which differs substantially from the LCD or LED TV technology. The intention of writing this article is to present a clear DLP vs. LCD comparison, which will make a clear distinction between them and help you choose between a DLP or LCD TV/projector.

No technology is perfect and every one of them is in a constant flux of evolution. You need to consider the pros and cons of purchasing a product and select one which would be the best for your requirements. In the following lines, you will find a brief discussion about DLP vs. LCD technologies. After underlying the basic differences between DLP and LCD, we will go on and compare the features of DLP and LCD televisions, as well as projectors.

DLP Vs. LCD Comparison

There is a fundamental difference in the way that LCD and DLP projectors, as well as TVs work to display pictures. In the first section of this DLP vs. LCD comparison, let us see how the internal working of a DLP TV differs from that of an LCD TV.

Basic Differences
Let me briefly explain the working of a DLP TV or projector. I think DLP technology is fundamentally different from most of the other technologies in the method that is used for displaying pictures. DLP stands for Digital Light Processing. This technology creates images through reflection of light from a digital micromirror device (DMD), which has hundreds of tiny mirrors inscribed on it. Light from a lamp is first made to pass through a color wheel, after which it gets reflected off tiny mirrors on the DLP chip to create a display image.

The reflecting mirrors on the DMD chip are switched on and off several times every second, to create an image. The color wheel controls the color of light being reflected from the DMD chip. Using this technology, almost up to 1024 shades of gray can be produced quite easily. The dynamics of the color wheel, DMD chip and its associated optics, make the size of DLP projectors and TVs quite large.

The LCD (liquid crystal display) technology involves the manipulation of the polarization properties of liquid crystals embedded enclosed within the screen. Cold cathode lamps are used to illuminate the liquid crystal display screens from behind and images are created through changing of polarization of liquid crystals. As you can see, this is substantially different from DLP based television sets.

Projector
The DLP projectors have an edge over LCD projectors with reference to size and weight. The DLP projectors marketed by Texas instruments are the most compact mobile projectors in the market today. Compared to that, LCD projectors tend to a little bit more bulky. However both projectors offer comparable quality of picture and the deciding factor for you will be the price, which is again comparable.

TV
Let us continue with this LCD vs. DLP comparison and discuss features of television sets based on these two technologies. Both DLP and LCD television sets offer great picture quality. DLP TVs offer the biggest screen sizes up to as much as 65" inches without compromising picture quality. DLP TVs models tend to be plagued by the rainbow color effect, while LCD television sets score low on the degree of blackness (or black levels) and contrast offered by them. However, both technologies have now improved enough to overcome these flaws. However, overall, considering picture quality, brightness, color saturation and the ease of viewing angle, LCD has a slight edge over DLP. In terms of price, DLP TVs are cheaper than LCD TVs and offer bigger screen size. I would recommend that you make a DLP vs LCD vs. plasma vs. led comparison before choosing as it will let you take all options into consideration.

Hope this DLP vs. LCD comparison has made it easier for you to decide which technology would be the right choice for you. Both technologies have their advantages and disadvantages. I would personally prefer an LCD model if I am looking for a television, and if I need a projector, I would prefer a DLP model. However, both technologies provide large size screens, good contrast ratio and good overall picture quality. As of now, it's really difficult to choose between the two. Consider the features of both technologies presented above and choose whichever one is best according to your requirements.