Digital Light Processing (DLP®), unlike LCD technology, is 'reflective'. Instead of passing light source through a liquid crystal material, light is reflected off panels called Digital Micro-Mirror Devices or DMDs. The DMDs are made up of tiny mirrors, each reflecting a single pixel in the resolution of the projected image.
For example, if you were to project material from a typical laptop computer, it would be in SXGA+ resolution and made up of 1050 vertical lines each containing 1400 pixels. By the same measure, a DLP projector with SXGA+ resolution would use a DMD panel or panels (like LCD, higher-quality systems use three panels, one each for the Red, Green and Blue color signals) that was made up of 1050 rows of mirrors, with each row containing 1400 tiny mirrors.
The DLP advantage
The advantage of this system is that it offers better color control in any image since each individual pixel is controlled, and a smoother, cleaner image since the space between the mirrors on a DMD is less than the space between an LCD panel’s crystal cells.
Because all the light is reflected out of the projector, DLP projectors also tend to be brighter, unlike transmissive LCD technology where some light is lost passing through the liquid crystal panels. This difference means that DLP projectors have the potential to offer higher brightness from smaller units and consequently use less power to achieve the same levels of brightness.
These quality benefits of DLP projection technology do come at an increased cost however and such have remained at the top-end of the projection market.
Christie offers DLP projectors for