The what, the where and the WOW! How DLP makes rear-projection TVs bigger, sharper — and surprisingly, lighter.
With all of the initials floating around the TV world today, there’s one that may be able to get you lots of video bang for the buck. If you’ve looked at big-screen TVs recently, you’ve probably noticed that most rear-projection sets are much lighter and have lower profiles than their predecessors of even just a few years ago. It’s now possible to design a rear-projection TV that weighs less than 100 pounds with a 60-inch screen, and a chassis that only adds an additional foot to its height. This would have been unheard of five or six years ago. You can thank digital light processing (DLP). DLP was invented in 1987 by Dr. Larry Hornbeck, an engineer at Texas Instruments. Originally, it was called the Digital Micromirror Device (DMD), an optical semiconductor capable of steering photons with remarkable precision. By 1993 the technology had a new name, and TI created the DLP Products Division. They remain the sole manufacturer of the DLP chipsets, which are licensed to manufacturers. How
