If youre looking for a good mix of size and performance, rear projection entertainment centers may be your answer. Prices will vary considerably according to the make, model, and supported features. Equally important, today HDTV rear projection TVs can do a remarkable job in delivering a great image that lacks nothing in comparison to that from their latest rivals – plasmas televisions and LCD HDTVs.
What are Rear Projection Entertainment Centers?
Rear-projection TVs work by using lenses and mirrors to magnify images and project them onto a translucent screen. Newer rear-projection TVs have a slimmed-down profile. They arent as thin as flat-panel TVs, but neither are they as bulky as old-school CRT TVs.
For front-to-back depth, youll need about twenty inches of depth.
Size and Angle
Rear projection TVs come in fairly wide screen sizes, some as high as 73 inch size.
Before purchase measure the width, depth, and height of your entertainment center, or wherever you plan to place your TV. When in doubt, more room is better than less.
Angle-wise, rear projection TVs are prone to glare, so if you have or plan to get one make sure the room can be suitably darkened, or the reflections will interfere with the rays of light from the projector.
Maintenance
Cleaning rear projector entertainment centers takes some skill to do without damaging the screen, but can be done with just a vacuum cleaner, duster, and some cleaning liquid.
The most common repair required is replacement of the projector bulb, which can often work wonders for a fading image.
Rear projection TVs produce high quality images at less cost, because the imaging component, lots of pixels concentrated on a single microchip, is cheaper to produce. A high refresh rate, which is inherent with micro-displays, also adds to the overall image quality. Even with their limitations, rear projection TVs are a great compromise between a CRT and LCD.