Rear Projection TV Facts

Understanding the Pros and Cons of Rear Projection TV
Rear Projection TV Facts

One of the big questions every home theater enthusiast has to face when planning a new home theater is whether to invest in a big screen rear projection TV, or to opt for either a large flat-panel display or a front projection set-up.

Each of these solution has its pros and cons. In this article, we discuss the advantageous and limitations of rear projection television systems as a big screen solution in the home theater.

Samsung HLT6187S 61" Slim LED Engine 1080p DLP HDTV

For our detailed review, click here.

Rear Projection:
An affordable big screen TV option for your Home Theater

But... A great deal of consumer appeal for rear projection TV systems arise out of the shear simplicity that rear projection HDTVs offer as an immediate solution to getting a bigger TV.

No mess, no fuss... If you have the necessary floor space, either visit your local big screen retailer - or better still check at your favorite on-line electronics superstore - to order your rear projection HDTV and get it delivered in just a few days.

Once delivered to your doorstep, the only thing you have to do is simply to unpack and there you have a big screen TV in your living room ready for immediate use!

We have prepared this short introductory guide to rear projection TV to help you discover if the rear projection HDTV option is for you.

It presents a list of rear projection facts that should give you a better insight to what you are in when opting for a rear projection system as a big screen solution.

Rear Projection TV Facts:

Price:

As stated earlier on, rear projection offers a most immediate affordable solution to getting a bigger TV. Things are changing fast with the advent of flat-panel HDTVs in that these also provide an immediate solution to big screen entertainment but...

If you want an 'affordable' big screen option, rear projection is the way to go. Big screen plasmas and LCD HDTVs are still substantially more expensive than their RPTV counterparts. The lower price tag of RPTVs should not be taken to equate to a lower picture quality as instead some sales representatives seem to imply. In particular, the latest rear projection HDTVs can deliver exceptional picture quality, and this applies irrespective of display technology. Just a look at the latest reviews on our site of the Samsung and Sony rear projection TVs would surely persuade you of this.

Yet, there is a fourth option in the home theater - front projection, or more specifically, the two-piece projection screen, video projector set-up.

Front projection gives you the biggest screen for your money, and if you want the best cinema-like image, there is nothing better than front projection. Unfortunately, this option is often discarded by many starting in home theater in favor of rear projection TVs, plasmas, and LCD HDTVs.

It is true that front projection requires more effort but probably, the real 'culprit' behind the lack of popularity of front projection systems arise out of a twofold argument brought about by sales reps in most retail stores.

First, there is the present trend that flat-panel is the way to go; this is more than understandable - from a sales perspective, plasmas and LCD HDTVs bring about higher profit margins due to the higher costs involved.

Secondly, there is also the issue that most big screen retailers give the impression that today big screen (60-inch plus) rear projection TVs provide a cheaper solution to a front projection set-up.

This may be true in retail stores, but not necessary so when buying on-line. 0n the internet, it is most likely that for a given budget level, front projectors will deliver a much more cinema-like experience for the same price.

What's more, as things stand today, you can easily get a basic 100-inch front projection set-up using a 720p home theater projector, motorized projection screen and appropriate ceiling mount for the price of a premium 60-inch rear projection TV. And it would not cost much more than the 70-inch rear projection TV referred to above if you were to step-up to a top-performer 1080p projector such as the Optoma HD80 1080p Home Theater Projector.

Optoma HD80 1080p Home Theater Projector

Therefore, do not base your decision on the misconception that the box-type rear projection TV is always the cheaper way to go. At times, the two-piece projection screen home theater projector set-up is just a hair-line away, in that for the minimal extra effort required, it can deliver a more cinema-like experience than a rear projection TV.

Clearly there is a market for both. The primary factor should be your room size. If you don't have a large viewing room, a 50" to 60" TV will probably be more than adequate, rendering a rear projection TV the most straightforward and affordable solution - as long as it fits in the available space.

Power Consumption

An issue that is becoming a major concern among consumers is the power consumption of the various appliances as a result of the higher energy bills.

In this respect, rear projection TV sets consume less energy than any other display system per unit screen size. If one where to compare the power consumption of the latest microchip-based rear projection TVs with that of plasma and LCD HDTVs, one would find that in general RPTVs consume typically 50% the energy required by LCDs and only 40% the energy requirements of the power-hungry plasmas.

Size, or rather Unit Depth

This is becoming less of a problem with modern LCD, DLP, and LCoS rear projection TV sets. While up to a few years ago, traditional CRT-based rear projection TVs required anything between 24 to 30-inches in depth, today slim-styled microchip-based rear projection HDTVs require typically less than half this depth.

For example, the ultra-slim HL-T6176S 61-inch Samsung DLP rear projection television pictured here has an overall depth of 12.3 inches.

Surely, it is not as slim as flat-panel plasmas and LCDs, but at this depth you can literally hang your RPTV on the wall.

Similarly, the Mitsubishi WD-73733 73-inch 1080p DLP HDTV - despite its huge screen size, is only 17.5 inches deep. This massive rear projection 1080p HDTV is selling at around $2,400. Relatively inexpensive when considering that the smaller TH-65PZ750U 1080p Panasonic plasma HDTV is selling at around twice the price, this despite the recent drastic drop in the pricing of plasmas and LCD HDTVs.

Texas Instruments - the DLP chip maker - is predicting that new developments in rear projection technology will soon lead to even slimmer RPTVs that are no more than seven inches in depth as against the three to four inches in depth of plasmas and LCD HDTVs.

This move towards slimmer, big-screen rear projection designs that are relatively inexpensive for the screen size in comparison to flat-panel TVs, is expected to help slow down the present drop in sales of rear projection TVs.

It is the significant difference in the price between rear projection televisions and their flat-panel counterparts that still leaves today low-price yet high performance RPTVs as the most affordable 'immediate' big screen TV option in the television mass-market.

Rear Projection TV Limitations

However, prior to committing yourself to a rear projection set-up, it is important that you are fully aware of a few limitations associated with rear projection TV systems - limited screen size, limited viewing angle, glare, poor aspect ratio management, and poor use of floor-space. We explain each of these limitations in further detail below.

Screen size:

Rear projection TV systems come in screen sizes ranging from around 40-inch up to a maximum of just over 70-inch.

This may not necessarily be a limitation in that the screen size should be dimensioned to suit your room size (see our TV Viewing Distance guide). If your room size does not support bigger projections than these, than rear projection is still probably the best way to go.

Viewing angles:

Rear projection TV systems used to have a rather limited viewing angle - with the optimum viewing position being one directly in front of and eye-level with the unit. Move away to either side and color, contrast, and brightness will degrade substantially. A narrow viewing angle will limit the number of people who can watch the set due the lowering in picture quality at the extreme viewing angles.

Most modern top-brand systems support viewing angles in excess of 160 degrees - which is more than adequate for normal home theater use. However, if in doubt, it is always best to check on this prior to your purchase as some products are worse than others.

Reflections:

It is common that any light source at a complementary angle to your viewing angle will result in glare - in particular if the unit makes use of a 'screen-saver' (a clear protective shield that covers the fragile projection screen itself).

Glare can seriously degrade the overall picture quality. Usually, removing this clear protective shield will improve the situation. If this option is supported by your TV, then you will find the necessary instructions in the user manual. Otherwise, be aware that this may void your warranty. In either case, keep in mind that an unprotected screen is fragile and expensive to replace if damaged.

A more appropriate move is to the use drapes to block light coming in from any offending windows and doors, as well as through proper placement of any room lighting.

Floor-space:

Any rear projection TV is literally a large box. Up to a few years ago, these TVs did come with a relatively large footprint. Things have changed drastically in this respect. We have already referred to the super slim 61-inch model from Samsung - the HL-T6176S DLP RPTV - which with its 12.3-inches in depth, can be literally hung on the wall.

In general however, a typical microchip-based rear projection TV would require anything between 15-inches and 18-inches. In comparison, the almost non-existent CRT-based rear projection units would stand out by at least 24 to 30 inches - depending on the screen size - to allow for the necessary airspace between the back of the unit and the wall.

Take this into your calculations when planning your home theater as these two feet or so, will have to be deducted from your available viewing distance.

Rear Projection TV Speakers:

Forget all about them! Do not give any weighting to the speaker system coming with your rear projection unit. You would not be using them as you will surely want to replace these with your dedicated home theater surround receiver speaker system.

Do not even think of using the built-in speakers of your rear television set as a center channel replacement. They will just interfere with the sound coming out of your dedicated system - hence do not pay anything extra for this as you will surely be switching off your TV sound during a movie show.

Aspect ratios:

We have already mentioned a few limitations associated with rear projection, yet in comparison, these are just minor issues. The real serious limitation with any fixed aspect ratio display - irrespective of whether this is an RPTV, plasma, LCD, or the old CRT TV - is aspect ratio management.

Aspect ratio refers to the ratio of the screen width with respect to the height of the image. Standard television comes only in 4:3 format. Old CRT rear projection TV systems came in both standard 4:3 and in the 16:9 widescreen format. On the other hand, today's high-definition TVs - whether these being rear projection, plasmas or LCD HDTVs - come in one format, namely the 16:9.

At the same time, most modern films come in one of the many widescreen formats - the most common being the 2.35, which in itself is not compatible with any of the fixed aspect ratio TV systems.

Up to not so long ago, this used to be the trickiest of all decisions since once you choose your format, you had to live with it. With the advent of today's high definition rear projection TVs, you no longer have a choice - the 16:9 widescreen format is standard. But then there arise the issue of how are you going to display original 4:3 TV content.

There are various ways to deal with this - including:

Image stretching to fill the available screen.
Use black or gray bars, either on top and bottom of a 4:3 screen to show 16:9 content (letter-boxing), or on either side of a 16:9 screen when viewing 4:3 program content (pillar-boxing), to view the program content in its correct aspect ratio. In either case however, the effective film or program content will not be making use of the full screen area - hence you will be effectively displaying a smaller image.
Pan and scan editing where only the most important portion of each frame is shown with the rest being discarded.

Image stretching and horizontal/vertical bars can be irritating while in the 'pan and scan' you are giving up film information to have a full screen view. Worst of all, prolonged use of horizontal bars - especially black bars - leads to tube burn-out in CRT based system at HUGE costs to you.

With a front projection set-up, aspect ratio is less of an issue. Mind you, digital video projectors still come with a fixed native aspect ratio. However, a front projection setup makes it possible to use a manual or electrically-driven black masking system that adjust the projection screen border to suit the image source aspect ratio (more on this in our projection screen section). For best results, you still need to match the projector native resolution with that of the incoming video signal.

This will help you present the full image content without losing any picture detail as a result of the necessary rescaling when adjusting the image aspect ratio.

Making the Choice:

For a better understanding of the pros and cons of the different rear projection HDTV technologies, we advise to go through our Guide to Rear Projection HDTV Technology. If discusses the ups and down of CRT, DLP, LCD, and LCoS technologies, as applicable to rear projection systems.
If you think that the rear projection TV option represents a possible solution to your needs, we also suggest that you take a look at our selection of Rear Projection TV Reviews.
For our home theater projector reviews, please click here.
To view the full range of projection television products available at AMAZON, please click here.