DLP - 35 Trillion Colors… and Counting

The heart and soul of DLP (Digital Light Processing) television is the optical semi-conductor called the DMD or Digital Micromirror Device. While we don't yet know the long term prognosis on the durability of this type of HDTV set, we do know that it offers a brilliant, quickly responsive picture that is among the most alluring of the HDTV's. Doctor Hornbeck invented the DMD and light processing technology in 1987 while he was working at Texas Instruments. Hornbeck began exploring the possibilities of “steering light” as early as 1977, but it was not until 1994 that he had a public demonstration of his prototype. Only two years later, in 1996, the first commercial units were shipped, and one year after that, the Motion Picture Academy in Hollywood, CA choose to do the Oscars' presentations that year using his technology! They have used DLP every year since, so the world's most demanding and knowledgeable artists and technicians must be making a statement about the amazing quality and versatility of DLP. Larry Hornbeck's DLP chip itself has been called the most technological light switch in the world. It is an amazing rectangular platform of nearly two million tiny mirrors that dance and move thousands of times a second according to the electronic input they are receiving. Each microscopic mirror is mounted on a hinge and the width of each mirror is smaller than one-fifth the sized of a human hair! Imagine each mirror moving independently, reflecting light at breakneck speeds. In a movie theater, where a three chip projection is used, as many as 35 trillion colors are generated and projected onto the screen! At most, it is theorized, that humans can see around ten million distinct colors, so I wonder what our brains think about this sensory overload? Perhaps we will have to upgrade our eyeballs to keep pace with this technology. Essentially, the hinges control whether the light is “off” or “on” by pivoting in place. In one direction, they reflect light towards the screen, and in the other, they ideally reflect nothing when they tilt in the opposite direction.

The drive train, so to speak, of DLP is a digital video signal, a light source, a lens that the light travels through, the aforementioned mirrors on hinges and a color wheel of red, green, and blue that spins. A purple pixel, for example, will be generated when the tiny mirror reflects a combination of blue and red. A single chip can generate over 16 million different colors, which is probably beyond human capability, but man, does it look superb! The one knock against DLP, at the moment, is something called the “Rainbow Effect.” Many people can't see it or don't notice it, but once told about it, they sometimes become bothered by it.

Hornbeck's brainchild from the seventies, micromirrors on micro-hinges that are only 20% the size of a human hair, raises the bar on what is considered high technology, and DLP astounds our visual world with its brilliance.

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