Types of HDTV - Projection

With so many different terms being used with HDTV, it can get confusing for consumers to distinguish between them all. There are a few major forms of High Definition Television. These include Front and Rear projection televisions, LCDs, and Plasma screens. There are a few other types on the market but for the most part they are still in development or are too expensive to be considered viable solutions for high definition televisions. Here, we will cover projection televisions; discussing their history and their role in today’s field of HDTVs.

Projection screens have been around longer than televisions, and have been a source of entertainment since their original development. Projection screens have a very humble beginning, having been originally used by a German priestess to project story images onto a sheet. All she had to use was a singe candle.

They were later used in the Shakespearian era to create the ‘behind closed doors’ effect. They were still using the same technology at that point. Then came the invention of film and the projector. The first projectors could only display static images, but the development of the movie projector soon allowed for moving images, and hence movies. Projectors are actually still used in theatres today. Around 1940, both front and rear projection screens started being used in homes as entertainment systems.

In today’s market, both front and rear projection televisions have left their mark on the industry. They remain a viable technology to this day. Interestingly enough, almost half of all HDTVs on the market are projection screen televisions.