Video Projector Lamps & Components
Video projectors are pieces of equipment that allow you to display videos at various sizes. They’re useful as presentation tools in classrooms and at business conventions because they’re relatively small and light, which makes them portable. These pieces of equipment can also be incorporated into home-theater setups to make the viewing experience even more enjoyable.
How do video projectors work?There are two types of projectors: Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) projectors and Digital Light Processing (DLP) projectors. These two types of equipment operate in different ways.
- LCD projectors: These pieces of equipment use customized LCD chips to create images and project them onto an external screen. In all but a few instances, the pixel density of these chips corresponds to the resolution of the projector. A beam of intense white light is emitted from a projector lamp. That projector lamp beam bounces off an arrangement of mirrors within the projector. There, it’s broken down into three beams of light, which are tinted red, green, and blue. These colored beams then pass a display of LCD chips, which filter the light selectively to produce three versions of a scene: one tinted red, one tinted green, and one tinted blue. The three tinted scenes are then combined into a single scene through the use of a dichroic prism. Auxiliary lenses may be employed to concentrate the beams of light.
- DLP projectors: These pieces of equipment use Digital Micromirror Devices, which are customized chips that contain infinitesimal micromirrors. Each micromirror represents a single pixel. Light from a projector lamp passes through a kind of color wheel that’s spinning at a high velocity. The chips’ micromirrors tilt toward and away from the color wheel, thereby creating a sense of movement. DLP technology has supplanted the use of traditional projectors in movie theaters around the world.
When you’re replacing a component in your video projection system, it’s important to identify the light source associated with your equipment. Some equipment uses conventional projector lamp bulbs while others use lasers or LED lights.
- Projector lamps: Projector lamps are lamps or bulbs that emit very high light intensities. Due to the high demands placed upon these bulbs during the screening process, it’s a good idea if you use this type of equipment to have a supply of backup bulbs at hand. Projector lamp bulbs typically last between 3,000 and 5,000 hours.
- LED lamps: These lamps use high-intensity Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) as their light source, which mitigates the need for lamp replacement. LED lamps typically provide between 10,000 and 20,000 hours of use.
- Lasers: Not only do lasers provide a potent light source for video projectors, they also focus the light they emit into a single concentrated beam, which lessens the need for auxiliary lenses. Lasers generate less heat, and they consume less power. They support an extremely wide range of colors, and no warmup time is associated with their use. Lasers typically provide 20,000 hours of use.