LCD Posted on May 25, 2021 By Phil Jones Back to Glossary The technology behind LCD (Transmissive Liquid Crystal Display) starts off with a single light source, just like with DLP. But, with LCD and 3LCD, the single light source is split into 3 beams — one each for red, green, and blue – the primary colors. Once the light is split, mirrors send the beams to different locations inside the projector box. At that point, the light passes through one of the LCD panels (or three panels if it is a 3LCD projector). These panels are not colored but grayscale, and each has a different color filter. The end result, when light passes through them, is the red, green, and blue beams that then pass through a dichroic prism, which recombines the three beams into a single full-color beam. 3LCD projector, unlike most single-chip DLP projectors, can reproduce an equal amount of color lumens as white lumens, which can result in bright richer, looking colors which is beneficial when viewing HDR. The light from a lamp or laser source is split into red and green, and each color passes through a dedicated LCD imaging panel. The light from the three panels is then combined and sent through the lens to the screen. While early LCD projector’s contrast performance was behind its DLP competition, over the years, there have seen remarkable leaps forward for LCD. A projector is more than the sum of its parts. It has been said that the actual projector is only one-half of the equation, with the screen being the other factor that impacts perceived picture quality. The truth is you have to look at the projector systemically. When you do you will find, among other improvements, the dynamic iris contributes to LCD projector’s improved contrast. Back to Glossary
