TV Buying Guide-5: Front Projection Televisions

Front projection TVs, which like movie projectors project images onto a screen or wall, are the closest that you can get to a theater experience in your home.

Traditionally projectors have been based on bulky and expensive CRT technology. However the product has been transformed by the arrival of inexpensive and extremely light DLP and LCD projectors.

Front projectors have several advantages over regular televisions. They have fewer parts than TVs and the average quality of those parts is usually higher. They can produce massive, near cinema-quality pictures and, because there is no glass involved in the screen, don’t suffer from glare or reflection.

The units themselves just weigh a few kg and can easily be placed in your cabinet after use.They do have a couple of disadvantages: they are best viewed in darkened rooms and the light bulbs have a typical life of a few thousand hours.

Hence projectors are perhaps not ideal as your primary TV. However they are rapidly getting cheaper and models like the BenQ PB7110 DLP projector are much cheaper per square inch than other technologies making them ideal as a second viewing device for special events like movie screenings and sports events.

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Television | CRT | Plasma | LCD | DLP