lcd display for projector free sample

When considering a lamp-free projector, it’s important to have all the facts. Comparing lamp projectors with LED projectors or laser projectors reveals each has its own strengths in terms of certain key factors like cost, image quality, and size. And each will have certain situations in which it will work better. Which one wins in the end? You’ll have to see for yourself.

There are different types of projector — LED, Laser, and Lamp-based. Are you curious as to the difference between these three variants, beyond that of lamp vs. lamp-free projectors?

If so, then we have good news. This piece serves as a complete comparison between LED projectors, laser projectors, and lamp projectors, and will help you make an informed decision as to whether to invest in a lamp or lamp-free projector.

In order to project, projectors need a light source. Some use LEDs, some use lasers, and others use lamps. Lamp projectors are the oldest, yet cheapest, variant, with bulbs containing mercury and a relatively short lifespan. LED and Laser projectors, on the other hand, are much more modern, with consideration paid towards their more eco-friendly natures and greater lifespans.

Those brief comparisons are just that – brief. When it comes down to it, there are 7 key factors that differentiate between the three light sources that comprise lamp and lamp-free projectors – LED, lasers, and lamps. Although lamp life, cost, and brightness are the obvious data points to consider, truly discerning customers will go deeper in their quest for informed purchases. That’s where the additional factors — color quality, power-up time, the presence of the rainbow effect, and machine noise — come into play.

Folks may want to buy the newest versions of products, but at the end of the day, they’d also like their currently-owned products to continue functioning. That’s why the stated life span of a projector’s light source is so important – you don’t want to invest your money in something that’ll die in short order. Luckily, in the world of projectors, even the shortest of the stated life spans for the different light sources will net you more than a year of continuous use.

Getting into the specifics, lamp, laser, and LED  projectors claim to have 10K, 20K, and 30K hour life spans, respectively. This equates to, approximately, 14, 28, and 42 months of constant use respectively. For the sake of clarity, be sure to remember that these life spans indicate the length of use, not the length of ownership. If you own an LED projector for 42 months, for instance, it won’t suddenly die. Instead, if you only use your LED Projector for 6 hours a day, then the light source may stay functional for around 7000 days, or 19.2 years.

Money makes the world go round and it shouldn’t be spent all in one place. That’s why the cost of items, particularly in relation to one’s income, is so important. Put plainly, oftentimes, people want to get the best value for their hard-earned cash, as opposed to blowing it all at once. This concept absolutely applies to projection products, whether they are LED projectors, laser projectors, or lamp projectors. Therein, consumers should be interested in the TCO, or the total cost of ownership, of a product. This goes beyond the initial sales number and considers potential repairs and replacements that may be needed in the product’s lifespan.

When it comes to pure cash, lamp projectors are considered to be very affordable, while LED and laser projectors are deemed generally affordable and relatively expensive, respectively. However, TCO is the great equalizer in this case, as lamp projectors have the highest potential for replacements and repairs. As such, a laser projector’s high cost begins to look better, when placed against a lamp projector’s poor TCO. Something to think about, indeed.

In nearly every product, glitches happen. Sometimes they can be entertaining, other times annoying, or else debilitating. Projectors are not exempt from glitches, unfortunately, and they come in the form of the rainbow effect. To understand this effect, consider how each projection type generates color. Lamp projectors and laser projectors use colored filters, or color wheels, to alter the projected light as needed. Therein, there might occasionally be moments where the color wheel is too slow, and the projected image is stained with unwanted colors. This is the rainbow effect.

Although lamp and laser projectors are stuck with the possibility of the rainbow effect, LED projectors are not. This is due to the optional presence of two color wheels, in which the rainbow effect can be filtered out before it is outwardly projected. On the other hand, since LED projectors have no need for a color wheel, as they produce colors natively, they are not at risk of experiencing the rainbow effect.

What point is having a visual product if you can’t see it? You may not think about it often, but the brightness of a display is of critical importance and is a massive factor upon which final purchase decisions may rest. Think about it, if you were looking at a monitor or screen whose screens you could barely make out, would you buy it? The answer is probably a resounding, “no”.

When it comes to projectors, brightness is expressed by way of American National Standards Institute (ANSI) lumens. Therein, the higher the number, the greater the brightness. Lamp projectors tout more than 2000 ANSI lumens, while laser projectors offer more than 3500 with the option of further scaling by way of attachable modules. LED projectors, on the other hand, suffer in this regard, with a lumen count that only goes up to a maximum of 2000. However, in the case of LED projectors, this number isn’t to be taken purely at face value. In fact, LED makes up for this numerical efficiency with its higher quality image perception. This is thanks to improved color saturation and luminous efficiency, which allows LED projectors to appear to have higher image qualities than they may actually possess.

4K! 8K! OLED! These high-tech buzzwords are rampant in the consumer-level visual products industry. The thing is that 4K is a level of resolution and OLED is a means of light emittance – though the average consumer may think that these are one-in-the-same, all indicating high performance. This confusion carries over to color quality, which is indeed separate from resolution and light emittance and is actually determined by color gamut and saturation.

Color gamut refers to the spectrum of colors that can be identified by the human eye – a standard of which is displayed by any given visual product. Moreover, a visual display’s color saturation indicates the intensity of those colors present in the gamut. When it comes to projectors, each variant — LED, laser, and lamp — all use the same color standard, Rec. 709. However, LED projectors go one step further with the ability to offer color saturation up to 125% of the norm.

We get it, you want your device to work and you want it to work now. Instant gratification is a natural thing to want and it’s the reason behind the advent of flash memory and other ‘instant-on’ advances that have become popular in recent years. Think back to your days in school, when the projector would take a minute or two to properly boot up. That was time wasted, and thanks to those aforementioned advances, it won’t happen again.

The different projector types differ in their ability to turn on as fast as possible. On one hand, LED and laser, or the lamp-free projectors, are able to offer instant on/off capabilities. On the other hand, lamp projectors cannot. Instead, they offer exactly what you remember from school – warm-up and cool-down periods, that can take up to two minutes, before and after use.

This is why size and machine sound are both important factors to consider when purchasing a projector. Lamp-free projectors especially excel in this realm. LED projectors, for instance, are the top of the line in this regard, with compact designs and low-level machine sounds. Laser projectors on the other hand, because of their thermal elements laser projection systems, are both slightly larger and noisier. Lamp projectors fall in the middle in terms of size.

When it comes to making a decision between a lamp and lamp-free projectors, ultimately, the final choice rests in your hands. However, we’ve done our best to provide you with the facts necessary to make the most educated choice possible. If brightness is your main focus, then laser projectors might be best for your business. If that’s the case, then we recommend the LS800HD, LS800WU, or LS830 projectors.

Lastly, if you’re interested in purchasing a projector that, although not the cheapest or brightest, excels in all other ways, including lifespan, color performance, size, mechanical noise, and rainbow effect incidence, then an LED, the lamp-free projector is most certainly for you and your home. For that, we recommend either the X10-4K projector or the M1 portable projector. To learn more about ViewSonic’s projectors for home, click here.

Projector resolution is an important feature when choosing the right device for your needs. Resolution describes how clear a projected image will be based on how many pixels can be displayed on a given space. Common resolutions range from SVGA at 800 x 600 pixels up to 4K UHD with 3840 x 2160.

The best projector resolution for you would be based on your needs, however, so make sure to check out the full list below. Or go straight to some recommended projectors here.

Choosing the right resolution for your projector is essential to getting the most of your purchase. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at the definition of resolution and how you can determine the best fit for your needs.

Resolution (sometimes referred to as “native resolution”) is defined as the number of pixels (i.e. individual points of color) that are used to create an image on a projecting image. It’s expressed as the number of pixels on the horizontal axis by the number of pixels on the vertical axis. The higher the resolution of a projector, the more pixels it depicts in images.

Another term commonly associated with projector resolutions is the aspect ratio. This is defined as the ratio between the image width and height. The three most common aspect ratios in the projector space are 4:3, 16:10, and 16:9.

XGA – This stands for “extended graphics array,” and is an improvement on the SVGA standard. It has the same 4:3 aspect ratio; however, it provides a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels.

WXGA – Building on the previously outlined standards, WXGA stands for “wide extended graphics array” and carries a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, resulting in a 16:10 aspect ratio. This ratio is associated with widescreen images as there are nearly twice as many horizontal pixels as there are vertical pixels. WXGA is the most common resolution with entry-level projectors.

It’s worth noting that there are a few 8k projectors available – or in development – but it’s debatable whether there’s any value in this extremely high resolution. Also, there isn’t much 8k content out there. Read more about the comparison of 4K versus 8K in TVs here.

Something else to consider is a projector’s “maximum resolution.” In the previous section, we focused on “native resolution,” which is the total physical pixel count in a given resolution. Maximum resolution, on the other hand, is taken to refer to the highest signal resolution that a projector is built to process and display.

When the resolution of the content doesn’t match the native resolution of a projector, “scaling” occurs. This is when the projector adjusts the picture to match the native resolution.

For example, if a standard definition video is streamed through an HD projector, the device will have to enlarge the signal to fully display the image. On the other hand, if HD content is streamed through an XGA projector, then the device will compress the image into fewer pixels.

Scaling is a process of approximation, meaning that the projector is estimating how the image would look if the content were shown in its native resolution. Since the projector isn’t able to add additional detail to the original signal, it works to approximate how the image should look, while minimizing any loss of quality.

Today, however, scaling engines have gotten to a point where scaled media content looks as good as if it were shown in its native format. Unfortunately, these improvements don’t apply to signals from computers.

If you’re looking to display PowerPoint presentations or web pages using a projector, it’s best to set your computer’s output resolution to match the projector’s native resolution.

When you’re evaluating projectors for your home or business, there are a few questions to keep in mind. First, consider how much detail or delicacy you need in the images you’re presenting.

After determining the level of detail you expect from the projector, you need to consider how often you’ll use the projector and the aspect ratio of the content you plan to view.

The most common aspect ratio for content in home theater projectors settings (e.g. cable/satellite feeds, streaming content, etc.) is 16:9. That in mind, 1080p and 4k UHD are the two resolutions home users should consider. A few examples of projectors for home use include the X10-4K, PX727-4K, and PX747-4K.

Business and education settings aren’t as simple because projectors are used in a variety of scenarios. This versatility means that you can choose from a variety of resolutions that best fit your circumstances.

For example, visual multimedia content often uses a 16:9 aspect ratio, while PowerPoint presentations and slide decks often are in a 4:3 to 16:9 format depending on the company practices.

Of all the components that go into choosing a projector for your home or business, one of your top considerations should be projector resolution. This is the number of pixels (individual points of color) that are used to create an image. It’s expressed as the number of pixels on the horizontal axis, by the number of pixels on the vertical axis.

While there are a variety of standards associated with projector resolutions, the ones you’ll want to keep an eye out for include WXGA, FHD, WUXGA, and 4K UHD. In order to choose the right standard for your needs, you need to consider the type of media you will be showing with the projector (videos, PowerPoint presentations, etc.), and also the general size of the images and picture quality.

Now that you know how to choose the right resolution for your projector, now you can easily find the right projector for your home or business. Or check out the video below for a handly little anywhere projector.

1080i is ATSC high definition 1920 x 1080 interlaced video format where a frame of video is delivered in two fields. The first field contains the odd lines of the image, while the second field contains the even lines. Each field is updated every 1/60th of a second resulting in 30 frames of video per second.

1080p is ATSC high definition 1920 x 1080 progressive scan video format where a complete frame of video is delivered at either 60 or 24 frames per second.

A projector that is 3D Ready can accept a 120Hz frame-sequential 3D signal from a computer via either NVIDIA"s 3D Vision system or one of several educational software suites. These projectors are not compatible with the HDMI 1.4 3D specification used on 3D Blu-ray players and set-top boxes. We also refer to this type of 3D as PC 3D Ready.

Common 3 color system for projecting images via LCD or liquid crystal display. Uses dichroic mirrors to separate the RGB components of white light coming from a projection lamp. Each color is feed to separate LCD panels which control the about of colored light that passes through. The light from each LCD is recombined using a dichroic prism before going out the lens and on to a screen.

480i is ATSC Standard Definition Television (SDTV) 720 x 480 or 640 x 480 interlaced video format where a frame of video is delivered in two fields. The first field contains the odd lines of the image and the second field contains the even lines. Each field is updated every 1/60th of a second resulting in 30 frames of video per second.

480p is ATSC Enhanced Definition Television (EDTV) 720 x 480 progressive scan video format where a complete frame of video is delivered at either 30 or 24 frames per second.

720p is an ATSC high definition 1280 x 720 progressive scan video format where a complete frame of video is delivered at either 60, 30 or 24 frames per second.

An IEEE specification for wireless networking that operates in the 5 GHz frequency range (5.725 GHz to 5.850 GHz) with a maximum 54 Mbps data transfer rate. The 5 GHz frequency band is not as crowded as the 2.4 GHz frequency, because the 802.11a specification offers more radio channels than the 802.11b. These additional channels can help avoid radio and microwave interference.

International standard for wireless networking that operates in the 2.4 GHz frequency range (2.4 GHz to 2.4835 GHz) and provides a throughput of up to 11 Mbps. This is a very commonly used frequency. Microwave ovens, cordless phones, medical and scientific equipment, as well as Bluetooth devices, all work within the 2.4 GHz frequency band.

Adaptive transform Coder 3, the bitstream designation of Dolby Digital. A variable, lossy audio compression method using perceptual coding to drop sound data you cannot hear. It can be used to deliver from 1 to 5.1 tracks of audio along with metadata on how best to play back a particular recording on a particular system. The ".1" track is a low frequency effects (LFE) track limited to 120 Hz. Metadata can offer control information on down-mixing, dynamic range and level normalization as well as informational data such as artist, copyright etc. The proper ATSC designation is presently A/52A. Encodes audio sampled at 32KHz, 44.1KHz and 48KHz into 32Kbps to 640Kbps data streams. Compression varies with quality with an average of 12:1.

A common type of LCD used in laptops, cameras, and LCD projection panels that were produced in the late 1980s to early 1990s. Another name for it is thin-film transistor (TFT). A typical active matrix TFT display is a single panel of LCD glass that controls all three primary colors. TFT displays are noted for their quick response time and their ability to display full motion video and animations without image ghosting.

Auto Gain Control. A feature typically for VCRs that adjust incoming video levels to reasonable levels. Video copy protection routines fool this component into thinking the incoming video is too "hot" which therefore causes the video to be extremely dim, sometimes to the point where you can’t see anything.

Amplitude Modulation (AM) is a method of transmitting information using varying signal levels on a non-varying carrier signal. The waveform of the information being sent exists in the difference of signal level between the peak of the first carrier wave to the peak of the next carrier wave and so on.

A movie industry term for the potential to create high quality copies of copy protected digital content by digitizing the analog output that is unprotected. Digital streams can be copy protected using encryption whereas analog signals cannot.

A technique for changing aspect ratios by optically or digitally stretching or compressing an image to or from a format with a different native aspect ratio. Movie studios used this technique to put the first widescreen movies on standard 35mm film and then used an anamorphic lens to recreate the image in the widescreen format in which it was originally shot.

An anamorphic lens is a lens that has different optical magnification along mutually perpendicular radii. This provides the ability to project a source image of one aspect ratio, such as 4:3, into a different aspect ratio, such as 16:9, by using different magnifications for the horizontal and the vertical dimensions of the projected image.

American National Standards Institute. A private organization that coordinates and administers various voluntary consensus standards such as ANSI lumens. The first ANSI standard was for pipe threading in 1919 when it was called the American Engineering Standards Committee.

Contrast is the ratio between white and black. The larger the contrast ratio the greater the ability of a projector to show subtle color details and tolerate extraneous room light. There are two methods used by the projection industry: 1) Full On/Off contrast measures the ratio of the light output of an all white image (full on) and the light output of an all black (full off) image. 2) ANSI contrast is measured with a pattern of 16 alternating black and white rectangles. The average light output from the white rectangles is divided by the average light output of the black rectangles to determine the ANSI contrast ratio. When comparing the contrast ratio of projectors make sure you are comparing the same type of contrast. Full On/Off contrast will always be a larger number than ANSI contrast for the same projector.

ANSI lumens is a measurement of the overall brightness of a projector. Because the center of a projected image is brighter than the corners, ANSI lumens is the most accurate representation of the image brightness. ANSI lumens are calculated by dividing a square meter image into 9 equal rectangles, measuring the lux (or brightness) reading at the center of each rectangle, and averaging these nine points.

A set of vertical wires to mask the electron guns in a CRT to ensure the beams hit their respective color phosphors. One or two horizontal stabilizing wires are used for spacing, which can be usually seen on the monitor. Monitors using this technique are usually flatter than their shadow mask counterparts. This technique was originally patented by Sony and marketed under the Trinitron name, which has since expired.

Flaws and aberrations in a video image that derive from technical limitations in the capture, encoding/decoding, transmission, and display of a video signal.

The ratio of image width to image height. Standard television is 4:3 or 1.33:1. Panavision or Cinemascope is 2.35:1 with 1.85:1 being quite common as well. Widescreen displays are 1.78:1 or 16:9.times the height. For example, if you want an image 40 inches high then you need a screen that is at least 40 * 1.78 inches wide or 71 inches. Other relatively common aspect ratios are 3:2, 4:3 and 5:4.

A case rated strong enough to be shipped by common carrier; freight lines, UPS, FedEx, etc. Most cases of this type are easily recognized by their metal reinforced corners and handles. These cases are often referred to as "Anvil cases".

Advanced Television Research Consortium. An industry group composed of RCA, Sarnoff Labs, Philips and NBC, banded together in 1990 to develop digital HDTV technologies. Sarnoff designed the transport layer for the presently used MPEG 2 bitstream, which is a way to reduce errors, and Philips designed the HDTV decoders for the present ATSC standard.

Advanced Television Systems Committee. Formed in 1982, this international committee develops voluntary standards for terrestrial digital television. Countries adhering to its standards include Canada, Argentina, Mexico, South Korea and the U.S.A. ATSC Digital TV Standards include HDTV, SDTV, data broadcasting, multichannel surround audio, and interactive television.

A system for detecting errors in color balance in white and black areas of the picture and automatically adjusting the white and black levels of both the red and blue signals as needed for correction.

Audio/Video Interleave. The file format for Video for Windows (VfW). Used in conjunction with a codec to play back video. Format dictates how video and audio are stored in relation to each other but not the particular compression scheme used, which is handled by the codec.

A type of speaker wire plug with a expanded single shaft that looks like a banana. Inserts in 5-way binding posts and offers a large contact area, which helps performance.

The darkest part of a picture. This can vary between display devices and viewing environments. NTSC black is set at 7.5 IRE, which is very slightly gray. The white level divided by the black level gives a contrast ratio for a particular display device.

Blackboard mode is a projector feature that allows the projector to detect the color of the display surface such as a chalkboard of painted wall and automatically adjust its output to optimize accurate color reproduction.

The brightness of a projection system can be precisely measured with a light meter. For example, a typical movie theater is setup to deliver 16 foot-Lamberts. The higher the foot-Lamberts, the brighter the image.

A common misconception is that a projector with twice the foot-Lamberts of another projector will be twice as bright. While it is true that a light meter will detect it as twice as bright, your eye will not. The perceived brightness will increase by about 50%. It will not double because the human eye has a logarithmic respond to light.

Brilliant Color - a technology developed by Texas Instruments for its DLP projectors that produces six channels of color including red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, and yellow; thereby, allowing an increase in the color gamut.

A set of status bits or flags that are included with a television program that dictates whether or not the program can be recorded. It may also indicate other restrictions on the recorded content such as prohibiting the viewing of the content on an analog display.

Image distortion where phosphors are discolored at a differing rates in a display device such as a plasma, CRT or SED TV. Usually caused by displaying a static image for extended periods. Screensavers are used to prevent burn-in on CRTs and plasma displays use a periodic dynamic single pixel shift of the image to avoid burn-in.

An alternative to a cable TV set-top box which allows the consumer to choose which type of set-top box they want as opposed to only the ones a particular cable company offers. Many display devices offer a direct connection for a CableCARD which is a PMCIA type card that handles decryption. A new standard of CableCARD has been proposed which offers interactive features such as pay-per-view and interactive program guides.

Community Antenna TeleVision or cable television. Method of delivering television broadcasts via coaxial cable, which is less susceptible to interference that via antenna. CATV cable is another term for coaxial.

Constant Bit Rate. Refers to an unchanging encoding rate for MPEG where quality gets downgraded on compression demanding scenes such as ones with a high amount of movement. Variable bit rate (VBR) encoding keeps quality at a standard level and is considered more efficient.

Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association. International industry association for home electronics installation and design related businesses. It also certifies members with professional designations.

Center designated signal of a 5.1 audio system. Typically for home theater, the corresponding speaker should be as close as possible to the video image associated with the sound.

In 2012, the Society for Information Display (SID), introduced the Color Light Output (CLO) specification as an alternative to the ANSI lumen measurement of brightness in projection systems. The essential difference is that the ANSI lumen specification provides for the measurement of maximum white brightness based on white light output alone, whereas CLO represents the sum total brightness of the three independent color channels, red, green, and blue. While all projector manufacturers continue to publish the ANSI lumen brightness specification, some publish the CLO specification as well.

Closed caption (CC) superimposes a transcript of the audio portion of a video program over the program image. Its primary use is to provide people that are deaf or hard of hearing the opportunity to read a transcript of the audio as it is being played. Closed Caption is also helpful for people learning to read or learning a foreign language. Closed Caption can also be used to display text unrelated to the program being viewed, such as weather or news.

A variety of materials put on high quality lenses to minimize the amount of light reflected back to the lamp and the amount of ambient light that mingles with the focused light leaving the lens. Generally good coatings can add 15% or more to the lenses brightness. Other coatings are used for filtering colors.

Stands for COmpression/DECompression. Generic term for an algorithm for compressing and decompressing data, audio, or video files. Lossless codecs such as LZW are used for data files where every bit must be preserved, while lossy codecs such as MPEG and WMA are used for video and audio files where losing information is tolerable.

Image anomaly which looks like a rainbow at the edge of bright objects on screen. Also called rainbow effect where sequential color systems, such as single chip DLP projectors or some LCoS RPTVs, update color information at different locations on the screen because of quick movement of screen objects or a viewer’s gaze. For instance, the red component of a white object will show at a different location on the screen than blue when an object moves quickly across because color is being displayed sequentially. This also occurs with quick relative movement such as moving your gaze from point to point across the screen. Most noticeable in bright objects.

Circuit in a display device that separates the color part of the signal from the luminance. Can effect picture quality if set by manufacturer to compensate for higher color temperature of overdriven displays or other color variations.

Measure of color purity. Highly saturated colors emit a very narrow band of wavelengths of light instead of the broader spectrum of frequencies emitted from mixed colors. A display with good saturation capability will look vibrant.

Color balance of white light which goes from red to blue as the temperature rises. Measured in degrees Kelvin, which starts at absolute 0 or -273 degrees Celsius, color temperature matches the reference standard of the light being emitted from a carbon block heated to the stated degrees. For instance, the early morning sun is around 2500K, which is the same warm light that a carbon block heated to 2227° Celsius would emit. Heating the block further to ~10000° Celsius would emit the same bluish light of a blue-sky mid-day sun. Common color temperatures are 5500 Kelvin (black and white movies) and 6500 Kelvin (standard color films).

Rotating wheel with 3 or more translucent color filters used to display sequential color on single imager light valve based projection devices. The imager reflects or transmits the color component of a given image when the wheel’s corresponding color filter is affecting the light passing through to the lens. A 1X wheel cycles through all colors in 1/60th of a second.

A motion artifact caused by interlace where an object has moved appreciably within a frame and its new position is displayed in a different position in one field over the other. Looks like the teeth of a comb.

Component Video is a method of delivering quality video (RGB) in a format that contains all the components of the original image. These components are referred to as luma and chroma and are defined as Y"Pb"Pr" for analog component and Y"Cb"Cr" for digital component. . It is comprised of luminance (Y) and two chrominance channels of blue minus luminance and red minus luminance.

Most projectors and displays automatically accept images that are of greater resolution than the native (true) resolution of the video device. The resulting image is scaled to fit the native resolution of the video device using a variety of scaling algorithms. Not all video devices use the same compression algorithms; therefore, the quality of compression can vary. The nature of compression in a digital device means that some image content is lost.

The ratio between white and black. The larger the contrast ratio the greater the ability of a video device to show subtle color details and tolerate ambient room light. There are two industry methods used: 1) Full On/Off contrast measures the ratio of the light output of an all white image (full on) and the light output of an all black (full off) image. 2) ANSI contrast is measured with a pattern of 16 alternating black and white rectangles. The average light output from the white rectangles is divided by the average light output of the black rectangles to determine the ANSI contrast ratio. When comparing the contrast ratio of video devices make sure you are comparing the same type of contrast. Full On/Off contrast will always be a larger number than ANSI contrast for the same video device.

An issue for CRT displays, projectors, and RPTVs. Convergence is the alignment of the component colors of a display where the respective electron beams or pixels must sit at the precisely correct position for the proper color to be rendered.

Colors of a color component display such as a CRT or projector do not line up correctly to create a proper image and create color halos or incorrect color.

Crestron RoomView® Express software provides enterprise help desk management, remote monitoring and control of global AV networks without any special wiring, hardware or programming. Once connected to the network, classroom teachers and presenters can instantly control any installed RoomView Connected™ projector. With no programming required, AV and IT managers can globally monitor and control networked projectors throughout a school, campus, or corporate enterprise.

By leveraging the Ethernet port on RoomView Connected projectors and accessing RoomView, AV managers and support staff can remotely take control of classroom technology, troubleshoot and perform remote system diagnostics, track projector usage and lamp life, log network activity and much more. Remote capabilities allow efficient scheduling of projector power-off at preset times, routine maintenance, faster response times to support calls, alert notifications if projectors are disconnected, and broadcast messaging of emergency alerts to all projectors.

A mirror or lens that reflects or refracts selective wavelengths of light. Typically used in projector light engines to separate the lamps "white" light into red, green, and blue light.

A DICOM projector (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) provides the medical profession with the ability to simulate 21 different levels of grayscale in the rendering of X-rays, CAT scans, MRIs and other medical imaging applications.

Digital closed caption is available on digital TV programs at the election of the service provider. Unlike the Closed Caption sytem, Digital Closed Caption allows the setting of the size, color, style and opacity of captioned text. When Digital Closed Caption is in use, it will be indicated by the appearance of a 3-letter abbreviation that indentifies the language of the displayed text.

As it relates to surround sound systems, discrete sound is a separate recorded track for each channel. Other systems may amalgamate tracks into one and then separate them out electronically.

DisplayPort is a digital display interface developed by the VESA. The interface is primarily used to connect a video source to a display device such as a computer monitor, though it can also be used to transmit audio, USB, and other forms of data. Displayport can be used to transmit audio and video simultaneously. The DisplayPort signal is not directly compatible with DVI or HDMI but passive adapters can be used to adjust the signal levels and convert the connector style.

An amplifier used to maintain a clean noise free signal to a projector or flat panel device over significant distances. Even with good heavily shielded cables, range of video and computer signals is limited to a few dozen feet before noticeable degradation. In ceiling mount situations, where the wiring may pass along side or across electrical conduits, a distribution amp may be needed with shorter distances.

DLP (Digital Light Processing) is a commercial name for a display technology from Texas Instruments (TI). The technology inside is often referred to as DMD (Digital Micro-Mirrors). It consists of an array of mirrors where each mirror represents a pixel element. Each mirror is attached to an electronically driven hinge that controls the amount of colored light that is reflected from the mirror into the projection lens and onto a screen. Projection systems using DLP technology use 1 to 3 DMD devices.

A document camera can be attached to any projector; however, there are projectors that integrate these features either as a camera on an arm that is attached to the projector or a document scanner that is built into the body of the projector.

Backwards compatible system to add a sixth channel used for the middle rear playback to Dolby Digital (AC-3) making it 6.1 or 7.1 sound. 7.1 sound uses an additional center rear speaker playing back a duplicate track. Needs a Dolby EX decoder. See AC-3.

Updated version of Pro Logic. Offers better performance with playing back non-encoded sources over a surround sound system with full spatial cues and fidelity.

Missing information from a broadcast or recorded media and typically show up as white specks in an analog environment. Dropout is more pronounced with interframe compression techniques such as MPEG because the error displays until the next complete frame is drawn, otherwise known as an I-frame. This can take up to ½ a second.

Sound process that separates stereo audio into 5 or 6 channels. Also decodes Pro Logic encoded analog sources. It offers two modes, music and cinema. Music mode allows the left and right channels of a stereo signal to pass through without processing, retaining fidelity, but still adds signals for the remaining speakers. This gives up some imaging for fidelity.

A Dual Lamp projector has two lamps where one lamp either serves as an automatic backup to the other lamp or is preprogrammed to switch at specific intervals. The benefit of this type of lamp system is it significantly reduces the probability of lamp failure during use.

Digital Versatile Disc. Same physical size as a compact disc but has a capacity to hold a minimum of 4.7GB of data, 9.4GB if dual layer and/or dual sided. DVD-Video discs can hold about 4 hours of video on a dual layer disc depending upon the amount of compression applied. It uses MPEG-2 compression at a maximum rate of 9.2 Mbps with most video compressed at about 4Mbps at 720x480 pixels. All players support AC-3 (Dolby Digital), PCM, and MPEG-2 audio with up to 8 separate tracks. DTS is usually supported but isn’t mandatory to the format. DVD-Audio supports up to 6 channels of 24 bit, 192KHz sampled PCM audio.

Digital Visual Interface. DVI is a standard that defines the digital interface between digital devices such as projectors, flatscreens and personal computers. For devices that support DVI, a digital-to-digital connection can be made that eliminates the conversion to analog and thereby delivers an unblemished image.

The ratio between the highest and lowest levels a device can perform. For a video device it is a measure of contrast ratio. For an audio device it is usually stated in dB.

When more then one projector is used side by side to project wider content into a seamless wide image, Edge Blending technology can be used. Edge blending can be done in the projector or with an external video processor. Edge blending works to remove the bright visible band that occurs when two images overlap. Edge blending will gradually fade out one of the images in the banded zone while the adjacent image is gradually faded up.

Extended Definition TeleVision. EDTV is a class of digital television (DTV) that refers to the 480p format. 480p is a progressive scan video format that produces a full frame of 480 lines of video.

A device used in a CRT to shoot electrons at screen phosphors, which then excite and light up creating an image. There are three guns in a color CRT, one for each primary color (RGB), and one in a black and white.

Looks like a regular conference-room whiteboard except that it captures notes and drawings made on it electronically that can be sent remotely for teleconferencing or stored digitally for future reference.

Given as a percentage, this characteristic indicates how smooth an image will look viewing a particular display. An imaging system with a low fill rate will exhibit a screen door pattern in its images.

Frequency Modulation. Method for sending information by adding the frequencies of the information to be sent to a carrier versus modulating a carrier’s wave amplitude. The carrier is filtered out.

Measurement of luminance (brightness) emitted from a surface. One foot-Lambert is equal to one lumen per square foot. The metric equivalent of one foot-Lambert is 3.426259 nits or cd/m2. The SMPTE standard for theater cinema is 16 fL.

A general description of a projector or flat panel"s size and shape. For example, a light projector with a small case can be said to have a small form factor, and would be good for mobile presentation. Similarly, a flat panel that is slim and wall mountable would be considered to have a small form factor.

Frame interpolation, also called motion interpolation, is a video processing technique in which two sequential frames of video are analyzed for motion shifts that occur between Frame A and Frame B. Intermediate frames are then created and inserted between A and B to estimate incremental steps in the movement. The objective is to reduce motion blur and judder in order to achieve a cleaner and more stable video image.

A projector that is Full HD 3D compatible can use any of the 3D formats enabled in the HDMI 1.4 3D specification: frame packing, top/bottom, or side-by-side. These projectors are compatible with the 1080p 3D signal from a Blu-ray player, set-top box, or other HDMI 1.4 device, but may not be compatible with 120Hz frame sequential 3D from a computer.

Contrast is the ratio between white and black. The larger the contrast ratio the greater the ability of a projector or flat panel to show subtle color details and tolerate extraneous room light. There are two methods used: 1) Full On/Off contrast measures the ratio of the light output of an all white image (full on) and the light output of an all black (full off) image. 2) ANSI contrast is measured with a pattern of 16 alternating black and white rectangles. The average light output from the white rectangles is divided by the average light output of the black rectangles to determine the ANSI contrast ratio. When comparing contrast ratio, make sure you are comparing the same type of contrast. Full On/Off contrast will always be a larger number than ANSI contrast for a given product.

Relationship between input video voltage and output brightness. Determines how mid-tones appear as eye sensitivity is non-linear and display devices use different methods to account for this as well as their own display characteristics.

Adjustment to gamma or how gray levels between black and white are displayed as the eye is sensitive to these in a logarithmic manner. For example, good gamma correction allows subtle shadow detail in a dark image to be easily perceived.

Characteristic of a display to accurately show an image without distorting it. When a display’s geometry is good, it represents square objects as a square, etc. See pincushioning and barrel distortion.

Geometry Correction (sometimes referred to as Image Warping) is the process of digitally distorting a projected image so that it precisely matches a specific projection surface or shape. Image geometry correction compensates for the distortion created by off-axis projector or screen placement or non-flat screen surface, by applying a pre-compensating inverse distortion to that image in the digital domain.

A table of shading devoid of color, progressing from black to white. The number of discernible gray levels defines the color resolution of the display device and is used to evaluate color acuity and contrast.

High-Definition Digital Versatile Disc. Two formats have been proposed for these high-capacity DVDs, including Blu-ray and the generically named HD-DVD. Blu-ray is backed by Sony and Panasonic among others through the Blu-ray Disc Association and HD-DVD is backed by NEC and Toshiba through the DVD Forum. Blu-ray uses a higher resolution blue laser allowing for more disk capacity than HD-DVD, 25GB compared 15GB per layer. At present Blu-ray is more expensive and cannot be replicated on existing manufacturing lines.

Serial Digital Interface (SDI) is a standard for digital video transmission over coaxial cable. The most common data speed is 270 megabits per second (Mbps). However, speeds of up to 540 Mbps are theoretically possible. A related standard, known as high-definition serial digital interface (HD-SDI) provides a nominal data rate of 1.485 Gbit/s Standard 75-ohm cable is used.

HDBaseT is an international standard for the transmission of ultra-high-definition video & audio, Ethernet, controls, USB and up to 100W of power over a single cable, for up to 100 meters. HDBaseT eliminates cable clutter without compromising performance and high quality. The connector is typically a RJ48 8 pin Ethernet jack.

High Definition Compatible Digital commonly known as High Definition Compact Disc. Codec for traditional audio CDs with audio resolution of 20 bits for more accurate replication of the original sound.

HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) is a method for protecting copyrighted digital content that uses the DVI (Digital Visual Interface) or HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface, previously known as DVI-CE) by encrypting its transmission between the video source such as a set-top box, DVD player, or computer and the digital display device such as a projector, monitor or television. To view digital HDCP protected content, both the sending and receiving device must support HDCP.

HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) is an uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface that supports audio/video sources such as a set-top box, DVD player, A/V receiver, and video monitors such as a digital projector or digital television (DTV). HDMI is backward compatible with DVI 1.0 specification and supports HDCP.

High Dynamic Range (HDR) yields higher overall contrast than Standard Dynamic Range (SDR). Deeper blacks and brighter highlights result in a longer tonal scale that can render detail in shadows and highlights that tends to get lost in SDR. HDR systems generally come with wider color gamuts for greater potential color accuracy.

High-Definition Television. Generic term that indicates a higher resolution format than previous standards. At present, denotes anything higher than a 480p signal. Most common formats are 720p, 1080i and 1080p.

A television that supports 720p or 1080i or higher resolutions and has a built-in HDTV tuner for off-air reception of HD signals from a special antenna. To view cable and satellite HDTV programming, a cable set-top-box or satellite receiver is required.

A television that supports 720p or 1080i or higher resolutions and does not have a built-in HDTV tuner for off-air reception of HD signals from a special antenna. To view cable and satellite HDTV programming, a cable set-top-box or satellite receiver is required.

The purpose of Lens Shift is to eliminate keystoning and provide greater flexibility in the placement of the projector relative to the screen. Lens shift may be a manual adjustment or motorized.

Horizontal lens shift typically allows the projector to be placed anywhere between right and left edge of the projection screen and may also be used to geometrically align images when stacking projectors. Vertical lens shift is also available on some projectors.

Improved Definition TeleVision. Television transmitters and receivers that (a) are built to satisfy performance requirements over and above those required by the NTSC standard and (b) remain within the general parameters of NTSC standard emissions. Note 1: IDTV improvements may be made at the TV transmitter or the receiver. Note 2: Examples of improvements include enhancements in encoding, digital filtering, scan interpolation, interlaced line scanning, and ghost cancellation. Note 3: IDTV allows the TV signal to be transmitted and received in the standard 4:3 aspect ratio. Synonym enhanced-quality television.

Also called FireWire or iLink. A serial bus which can address up to 63 devices, communicating at up to 400Mbps but is limited to a cable length of 4.5 meters. Its content copy protection scheme is called DTCP or 5C. Most DV camcorders have a IEEE 1394 port as well as D-VHS VCRs and some set-top boxes for cable and satellite.

IMAX Enhanced is a new licensing and certification home entertainment program established in 2018. To qualify and carry the IMAX Enhanced logo, the highest-end TVs, projectors, sound bars, and A/V receivers must meet stringent performance standards established by IMAX, DTS and Hollywood"s leading colorists in order to create a consistent and higher bar for image and sound performance on premium devices.

Input lag is the delay between your video source sending a frame to your projector and the projector actually displaying that frame. This is a very important aspect of gaming, where an input lag of 40ms or less is preferred.

Interactive projectors became popular in 2010 and come in many variations. This technology encompasses any solution that enables active participation by the user with the projected content, rather than just the passive viewing of content.

Typically the presenter is allowed to interact with either the projected image, the projector, or in some cases another device, using either an electronic pen, a mechanical pen or even a finger.

These Interactive Projectors essentially create an electronic whiteboard on any surface where the image is projected allowing the presenter to interact with the projected image using a stylus that may be electronic or mechanical.

Some interactive projectors allow user generated information to be captured and replayed, printed, or copied with or without the original projected image.

A process where a video image is delivered in two fields each containing half the video image rather than a single frame that contains the entire image. The first field contains all the odd lines and the second field contains all the even lines. For example, each 480i frame is made up of two fields of 263 and 262 lines of resolution and updated at 60Hz. 480 denotes the active picture area; however, the total frame size is actually 525 lines. 480i and 1080i are interlaced signals whereas 720p is a progressive signal where each video image is delivered in a single frame. Interlaced video was introduced with the first televisions because of bandwidth limitations.

The non-picture area between pixels in a fixed-pixel display. Commonly called screen door effect when noticeable. Also relates to fill rate, a measurement that describes this characteristic. For example, a D-ILA projection system has a fill rate of 93%, which indicates a smooth image and has a small interpixel gap.

Invert image flips the image from top to bottom, to compensate for ceiling mounting a projector upside down. Projectors typically ceiling-mount upside down, because most have a built-in offset that allows you to mount the screen at a comfortable height, yet still project an image without tilting the projector and causing keystone distortion.

Imaging Science Foundation. Organization that trains and accredits display calibration technicians as well as certifies display hardware. Designs standard testing and calibration procedures and tools.

The stair-step or sawtooth effect seen on lines that are not horizontal or vertical or the edge of objects in digital displays. Also known as aliasing. Smoothing and antialiasing techniques can reduce the effect of aliasing.

Joint Photographic Experts Group. Name of association that created the image file standard of the same name. A lossy compression scheme for storing high quality, full-color images. Also used as a video format under the guise M-JPEG of which a variant is used for DV video.

Apparent stutter of on-screen movement. Motion judder in film is due to the fact that the 24 frame/second sampling rate is too slow to resolve camera panning motion. Judder is also caused by 3:2 pulldown where movie frames are on screen for differing times due to frame rate translations. Also occurs on PAL to NTSC conversions.

A security device found on projectors and other electronic equipment that allows the equipment to be secured by key or combination to another object using a rubberized cable.

Keystone correction makes a projected image rectangular. This can be accomplished by positioning the projector to be perpendicular to the screen. Since this is not always possible, most projectors are equipped with keystone correction that allows the image to be keystone corrected (made rectangular) by adjusting optics, making mechanical adjustments, or applying digital scaling to the image. Keystone correction can be one or two dimensional and manual or automatic depending on the projector and the manufacturer. Be aware that digital scaling will introduce some artifacts that are more evident when viewing small text and less evident in presentation type material or video.

The time between a device being requested to do something and the start of the device actually doing it. It’s a measurement usually used for LCDs where the shorter the latency the better. NSTC requires a latency of no more than 16ms in order to update the screen in time without leaving a ghost of the previous image.

Liquid Crystal Display. A display device for generating color images using a matrix of LCD pixel elements. Each pixel element consists of 3 sub-pixels and an RGB color filter of red (R), green (G), and blue (B). By controlling the voltage to each sub-pixel of an LCD, each cluster of RGB pixels can create a full spectrum of colored light. LCDs are used in flatscreen displays, cameras and notebook computers to name a few.

Nearly every projector made with LCD technology uses 3 separate LCDs, one each for red, green and blue. Light from the projector lamp is separated into RGB with a set of dichroic mirrors. The three light beams (RGB) are passed through separate LCDs and recombined to project a color image.

Liquid Crystal on Silicon. Type of LCD panel that reflects light as opposed to blocking it. Usually offers a comparatively high fill rate creating a smooth image but generally has difficulty giving a high contrast ratio.

Light Emitting Diode. A light generating technology that uses a semiconductor diode that emits monochromatic (single color) light when charged. They offer a very low power light source for projectors versus a gas filled lamp or a laser.

The ability to define and recall specific zoom lens positions so the projector can automatically configure subject matter of a given aspect ratio to a particular screen. This requires a projector with a powered zoom lens. Lens memory is often used to automatically set a zoom lens to fill a 2.4:1 format screen when displaying a 2.4 format film, then reset the lens to allow 16:9 aspect ratio material to fit the vertical height of the screen. Lens memory is typically used as a substitute for an anamorphic lens.

The purpose of "lens shift" is to eliminate keystone correction and provide greater flexibility in the placement of the projector relative to the screen or the alignment of stacked projectors. This is accomplished by allowing the optical lens to be physically shifted vertically and/or horizontally. These adjustments may be manual or motorized depending on the projector. See horizontal lens shift and vertical lens shift for typical adjustment ranges.

A method of preserving the originally aspect ratio of a production when presented on a projector with a different aspect ratio. This is accomplished by showing the full image and black where no image exists.

A long throw lens allows greater distance between the projector and the screen while being able to maintain the image size and brightness of a shorter throw lens for any given projector. Depending on the room, a long throw lens may be required due to mounting constraints nearer the projected image.

A measurement unit of total illumination. Typically a 100-watt light bulb outputs 1700 lumens over a wide area. Projector light output is measured in ANSI lumens. A projector with a higher lumen number will produce a brighter image for a given image size. See ANSI Lumens

A standard for measuring light equal to the amount of visible light per square meter incident on a surface. 1 lux = 1 lumen/square meter or 0.093 foot-candles.

Sometimes used to refer to the distance from the screen that a projector can focus the image. Most of the time, it is the manufacturer"s opinion of how far from a screen the projector can be to cast an image that is useable (bright enough) in a fully darkened room. Consult the Projection Calculator for guidance on proper placement of a projector for a given screen and content.

The largest image a projector can reasonable throw in a darkened room. Consult the Projection Calculator for guidance on proper placement of a projector for a given screen and content.

Maximum Resolution refers to the highest resolution that a given display device can support. If the Maximum Resolution exceeds the Native Resolution, , the image is usually scaled to match or approximate the Native Resolution of the projector. Some display devices allow pan and scan where rather than scaling the image, the display devices allows you to use the native resolution of the display to view portions of the higher resolution image. Scaling reduces the image resolution and produces some artifacts in the image that are more apparent when viewing text than graphics or video.

A feature on some projectors that allows photos, documents and/or presentation material to be projected using a memory card and thereby eliminating the need of a computer.

Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) is an industry standard for a mobile audio/video interface that lets you connect mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets to projectors and other HD video displays. MHL is a consortium made up of major companies in the consumer electronics industry, including SONY, Nokia, Samsung, Silicon Image, and Toshiba.

Sometimes referred to with the acronym "MD" as in MD-RPTV. Refers to projection-based displays using a chip-based imager. Examples are DLP, LCD and LCoS/D-ILA.

A feature of some LCD projectors where tiny lenses are aligned to individual pixels of an LCD panel in order to increase the light that passes through each pixel element. Also reduces screen-door effect.

An output on the projector or large-screen monitor that allows you to connect additional monitors or projectors to display the same image. Also known as "RGB out" or "VGA out."

Motion Picture Association of America. Trade association of the U.S. film industry started in 1922. Advocates for film industry to public and government.

Older video compression format that doesn’t compress interlace video. Although the format is capable of other resolutions, the standard expected is a 352x240 pixel image running at 30 frames a second and encoded at a constant bit-rate (CBR) of 1.5Mbps. It only supports mono or stereo sound.

The standard file format for DTV, DVDs and DBS, among others. Uses same techniques as MPEG-1 but adds support for interlace video and multichannel sound as well as offering higher bit rates.

An audio/visual file format that is designed for multimedia applications. It allows for other types of media such as 3D objects as well as video and offers interactive capabilities. It is a more efficient compressor than MPEG-2 and can be up to 50% smaller in file size at a given quality.

Some projectors use multiple lamps that can be controlled by the user to increase or decrease the brightness of the image. This lamp redundancy significantly minimizes the risk of total lamp failure during use.

Another type of multi-lamp system is a Dual Lamp. With a dual lamp projector one lamp can serve as a backup to the other lamp in the event of failure or the lamps can be programmed to switch at specific intervals.

Nearly every projector or display today will support multiple aspect ratios; however, each manufacturer must decide who their intended audience is and optimize the projector for that audience. This means each device has a native aspect ratio that is optimized for specific viewing material. Images shown in native aspect ratio will utilize the entire resolution of the display and achieve maximum brightness. Images shown in other than native aspect ratio will always have less resolution and less brightness than images shown in native aspect ratio.

Native Resolution is the number of physical pixels in a display device. For example, an XGA display has a native resolution of 1024 physical pixels of resolution horizontally and 768 pixels vertically or 786,432 total pixels. See Maximum Resolution.

National Television Standards Committee. Established the first color TV standard in 1953 and is the North American standard for video and broadcasting. Also used in the Caribbean, South Korea, Japan and South America. A 30 fps signal with 525 lines of resolution of which 480 to 483 are viewable. Transmitted via a 6MHz channel.

The common abbreviation for overhead projector. Used to project transparencies onto a screen or wall. Also used with transmissive LCD panels to project video or data.

Projectors that are identified as "Operate 24/7" means that the projector can operate continuously without a need to shutdown other than for maintenance.

Typically the less expensive projectors come with a built-in lens that is designed to serve a specific type of setting or application. A projector that supports optional lenses can address a wide variety of installation needs. This gives a projector great flexibility at an incremental cost.

On Screen Display. Menu shown on display device screen allowing display adjustment without having dedicated physical controls such as knobs or buttons for each adjustable parameter.

A device consisting of a light source, a transmissive or reflective platform, and a focusable lens assembly. An OHP is designed to project images from tranparencies or LCD projection panels onto a screen.

Given as a percentage or pixel count, the amount that a particular display device crops the edges of an incoming video signal. This is done to ensure the image area contains only picture information.

A method to fit source material of a different resolution or aspect ratio onto another. Sometimes used with computer input when the input resolution exceeds the resolution of the display device. Used extensively for broadcast and DVDs, it simply crops the sides of widescreen material and the transfer operator chooses the best part of the frame to show. Often an electronic camera pan is used to change the area being shown. This is used when characters are talking to each other but one is off screen due to cropping and they become the focus of the shot.

A projector that is PC 3D Ready can accept a 120Hz