Rear projection televisions, or RPTVs, were first produced during the 1970s. It has mainly three types: the CRT RPTVs, the DLP, and the LCD projectors.
CRT rear projection TVs are the first kind to be introduced in the market. CRT or cathode ray tubes of CRT RPTVs show images as the same way that a traditional CRT TV does. CRTs fires a beam of electrons to a phosphor coated screen, in which the image is then projected to a large screen. CRTs have the ability to display changeable resolutions without suffering image quality, but since it is phosphor-based, it is prone to burning in. Burn-in takes place if an image has the effect of being etched in the screen if it is shown for a long time. This is also one drawback with plasma TVs (again, because of the presence of phosphor). Although many TV viewers don’t mind it at all.
LCD rear projection TVs is a better invention of RPTVs. First it is much smaller and lighter compared to CRT projectors; it uses a different material on its screen which is not subjected to burn-in; and lastly, it is easier and much cheaper to repair compared to CRTs and other kinds of HDTVs. But then again, still one of its drawbacks is poor angle views- if you’re not viewing from the sweet spot. Also LCD RPTVs are still bulkier compared to DLP projection televisions.
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Lastly, the DLPs or the Digital Light Processing projectors is the most popular kind of rear projection televisions nowadays, and in fact, the most dominating kind, while its other siblings LCD and CRT RPTVs are continuously diminishing and already not widely available in the market.
Texas Instruments is the semi conductor manufacturer that is producing DMD (Digital Micromirror Devices) Chips that is used in DLP technology. TI sells these chips to the main DLP rear projection TV producers such as Mitsubishi and Samsung.
Aside from the fact that DLPs are the slimmest kind of all projection televisions, it also has an excellent black level feature for exceptional image quality viewing.
