New Technology TV

When shopping around for high definition television equipment, one option that home theater aficionados don't often consider is using a projector as a way to display a high definition image. This should pretty much be second nature considering that the whole point of having a home theater system is to replicate the movie theater experience in the comfort of your own home. However, that said, there are a couple of reasons why a projector might not be the first option that you think of. First, flat screen TV's are trendy and therefore get more media and advertising hype. Second, projectors are expensive.
Even though projectors are expensive, they do offer a number of benefits. For one thing, they're compact and can be mounted on the ceiling of your living room. That means that they don't take up much space in your living room and can be easily concealed. This can be a great benefit for anyone who might find a flat screen TV to be too cluttering. But that said, you will need an actual screen to project the image on to and that will mar the decor in and of itself. Of course purchasing a pull down screen will give you more control over the appearance of the room when the projector isn't in use. Another advantage is that even though projectors are expensive, you'll be hard pressed to find a better value in terms of over all screen size. One model can even project a high definition picture onto a fifteen foot wide 16:9 aspect ratio screen!

The company InFocus supplies a number of high definition projectors for use in home theaters. The home entertainment models claim to be suitable for high definition television, standard definition television, video gaming. Some also have connections that allow them to be used to display desktops and other graphics off of home computers. Though they are multi-functional, they only claim to produce pictures with resolutions up to 720p (the high definition television format standard includes 720p, 1080i, and 1080p). This relatively limited resolution is largely offset by contrast ratios in excess of 2800:1 and the fact that the premium model takes advantage of three DLP (Digital Light Processing) chips to separately process each of the main colors: red, blue, and green.

InFocus's premier model, the SP777, takes full advantage of the latest generation of DLP technology to deliver a great high definition home theater experience on screens up to fifteen feet wide. It's also the largest and most expensive model. (It's the only one that InFocus's website doesn't give a price for!)

A less advanced model, the SP7210, retails for about forty five hundred dollars and will project a high definition picture with a contrast ratio of 2800:1 onto a screen up to eleven feet wide. Though smaller and more compact (and definitely more affordable) than the SP777, the SP7210 is much less sleek and futuristic looking.

Other high definition home theater projectors are also sold by InFocus for as little as seventeen hundred dollars and all of them take advantage of DLP technology. If you're looking for a really large screen high definition television experience, a home theater projector may be the most cost effective alternative.