What is the the DLP Rainbow effect?
This visual artifact is best described as brief flashes of perceived red, blue, and green ‘shadows’ observed most often when the projected content features bright/white objects on a mostly dark/black background (the scrolling end credits of many movies are a common example). Some people perceive these rainbow artifacts all of the time, while others say they only see them when they let their eyes pan across the image. Yet others do not notice the artifact at all. The effect is likely rooted in the concept of the flicker fusion threshold. The “Rainbow Effect” is unique to single-chip DLP projectors. As described above, only one color is actually displayed at any given moment. As the eye moves across the projected image, these separate colors become visible, resulting in a perceived “rainbow”. The manufacturers of single-chip DLP projection systems have used color wheels rotating at higher speeds, or with more color segments, in order to minimize the appearance of the artifacts. These are