Assembling the Perfect DVD Presentation System: Getting Visual - Buyers Guide

Emedia Professional, Nov, 1999 by Mark Fritz

BEST FOR VIDEO?

So of the three major projector technology types (CRT, DLP, and LCD), which is best at handling the high-resolution digital video of DVD? Well, everyone seems to agree that CRT is the best, but they also agree that the inconveniences of CRT cancel out the advantages they have over the other two technologies.

"CRT at the moment supplies the best representation of video," says Dan Zubic, product manager, visual systems at NEC Technologies, while adding: "However, it lacks the white output that gives an image `punch,' and you really need a dark room for it to look good."

"CRTs, because they are analog, are more flexible, especially when it comes to changing resolution or aspect ratio," says Bill Coggshall. Almost all of them are capable of easily switching from the 4:3 aspect ratio of ordinary TV to DVD's 16:9 ratio.

And market analyst Sweta Dash notes that while LCDs and DLPs have pushed CRT out of the low-end of the business presentations market, "CRT is still very alive in home theater, where because of its great color saturation, it is considered better for video than the other technologies."

Yet despite the unanimous praise for CRT video quality, there is also the nearly unanimous opinion that LCDs and DLPs have caught up with CRTs and will soon overtake them.

"LCD and DLP are getting so good that it's difficult to justify buying a CRT anymore," says Dan Zubic. "LCDs and DLPs are much easier to set up, install, adjust, and maintain than CRTs are." These finicky behemoths use three cathode ray tubes, one for each color, which must be perfectly aligned to create a single combined beam, a task that often requires a trained technician. "CRTs are just too troublesome," says Zuhic. "People aren't willing to deal with the nuisances of CRT anymore. They did in the past because they had to, but with the recent progress of DLP and LCD, they don't have to anymore. And they won't."

So the real battle now is between LCD and DLP. Each technology has its proponents.

Michael Rousseau works for Plattsburgh, New York-based Audio Plus Services, the American distributor of DreamVision DLP projectors. He's not exactly unbiased. "When it comes to video image quality, there is no comparison," says Rousseau. "Because of their grids or matrices, looking at an LCD image is like looking through a screen door. DLP images are brighter and have higher contrast. We can get deep blacks. And there are no motion artifacts."

Some people say that the slow reaction time of LCD pixels, called "lag," results in blurring effect in motion video. But Manx Research's William Bohannon says LCD lag criticism is outdated. LCD technology has advanced beyond such problems. Bohannon gives the edge to LCD when it comes to video quality. He says he routinely uses DVD disc images in his projector testing, and he prefers LCD images because of their better color saturation.

While the edge goes to DLP in this ongoing battle, the bottom line is that both technologies will do a great job at delivering DVD-Video images.