Rear Projection TV Sets - Large Televisions With an Affordable Price

Rear projection TV is a leading flat screen technology that came to market before plasma televisions. Rear projection televisions produce picture quality that is somewhat inferior to that of plasma, and they are not thin and compact. But, projection TV sets are considerably cheaper and can be made to have very large screens.

Rear projection television are a cheaper flat screen alternative to plasma.

As their name implies, rear projection TV sets work on the principle of projecting a small image into the back of a larger screen, which is viewed from the front. Similarly, front projection TVs rely on comprable technology but use a different configuration. Front projection televisions look more like movie or slide projectors that are used to project an image onto an external movie screen. Rear projection TV sets have a screen built in and look more like conventional box TVs.

Images within rear projection televisions are created by a picture producing element, and then focused by a lense onto a screen. One of several different technologies can be used in the picture producing element.

Another type is the LCD. LCDs (liquid crystal displays) are commonly used in laptop computers. Liquid crystal is a material that can pass or obstruct light in response to an elecrtic field. LCDs form an image by shinning a light through a liquid crystal panel. Since they rely on a back light, LCDs can be made to shine brighter than CRTs, a quality that is good for a projection TV system. LCDs can also be made to have greater image resolution than CRTs, and are smaller and lighter. But LCDs suffer from large gaps between their pixels, which create a visible grid on the projected image. This effect can be minimized in more expensive LCDs. Additionally, LCDs have less contrast (difference between maximum and miminum brighntess) than CRTs.

The CRT and LCD methods are transmittive projection systems because light is projected through (or originates from) the picture producing elements. Other projection methods use reflective projection systems, in which the picture producing elements are used to reflect light sources onto the screen. One reflective projection system is called digital light processing (DLP). DLP rear projection TVs have been gaining much popularity because of the great improvement in image quality over older projection methods they present. You can read more about DLP TV technology on the DLP TV page.

A rear projection TV is a good alternative to plasma, if you don't need to save space with a super thin television, and don't want to spend a fortune, but still require a very large screen. But, you have to keep in mind that rear projection televisions do have drawbacks compared to plasma. In particular, their picture is not as bright and sharp, and they suffer from darkening picture when viewed off center.