A Buyer's Guide to DLP TVs

DLP technology is one of the fastest growing segments of the television market, and as of 2004 DLP TVs had captured a full 10% of the market for new televisions. DLP televisions use the same technology that has long been used to power projectors and similar devices. The technology that makes DLP televisions possible was invented at Texas Instruments back in 1987, and Texas Instruments remains the primary manufacturer of this technology to this day.

What makes DLP television technology so unique is that it uses a small digital micromirror device, or DMD, to tilt over 1.3 million tiny mirrors, each smaller than the width of a human hair. Each of these tiny mirrors is tilted either toward or away from the source of the light, thus producing the light and dark pixels that make up the display. DLP televisions are rear projection TVs, but they are not as large, as heavy or as bulky as the traditional rear projection televisions of years past.

The manufacturers of these DLP televisions reads like a veritable who