DLP vs 3LCD vs LCoS
The light-valve type that turns light into an image: - DLP: Texas Instruments DMD micromirrors. - 3LCD: three transmissive HTPS panels. - LCoS: reflective liquid crystal on silicon. - Single-panel LCD: the budget transmissive design.
- Standard
- ISO/IEC 21118 Table 1, display system
- ISO 21118
- ISO 21118 required
The chip is a grid of micro-mirrors, one per pixel, each tilting ±17°. "On" sends that pixel's light into the lens; "off" sends it to a light dump. Brightness comes from how long each mirror is on during the colour field. Because there is one chip, colour is sequential. Use the mirror tilt toggle below.
How to compare it
Imaging technology
The single most predictive spec for image character: - DLP: sharp, fast, rainbow risk. - 3LCD: no rainbows, high colour brightness, modest native contrast. - LCoS: highest native contrast, smoothest image, slower response. - Single LCD: dim, low contrast, often pixel-gap visible.
Technology brand
The vendor's trade name for the light valve. SXRD is Sony LCoS and D-ILA is JVC LCoS.
Mostly SEO and grouping. Within LCoS, SXRD and D-ILA differ meaningfully in native contrast and processing.
Standard: PSDS
Number of imaging devices
1 or 3: one DMD with a colour wheel or field-sequential LEDs/lasers, versus three panels or DMDs with simultaneous RGB.
1-chip means colour is sequential in time, which brings RBE risk and makes colour brightness depend on the wheel. 3-chip means colour is simultaneous, which brings convergence risk.
Standard: ISO/IEC 21118 Table 1
Optical system description
A plain description, e.g. '3 LCD + cross-dichroic prism' or '1-chip DLP + phosphor wheel + colour wheel'.
Helps nerds reason about colour brightness, RBE and convergence.
Standard: ISO/IEC 21118 item 3
Marketing traps
- Imaging technology: Single-panel LCD 'native 1080p' boxes that 'support 4K' accept a 4K signal and downscale it. Nothing about the image is 4K.
- Number of imaging devices: 'RGB triple laser' DLP is still 1-chip and still field-sequential. Rainbows are reduced, not gone.
Across the catalogue
Deep cut
Imaging technology. How each one works: - DLP mirrors tilt ±12° (classic) or ±17° (tilt-and-roll) and make grey by binary PWM bit-planes, so dark gradients can show dither noise. - LCoS has no inter-pixel wiring on the light path, so its fill factor is very high (no screen door). - 3LCD splits light with dichroic mirrors and recombines it in an X-cube prism, so panel convergence is a real QC variable.
Technology brand. Canon and some others also make LCoS ('LCOS', 'AISYS'). D-ILA's native contrast lead comes from vertically aligned LC and its optical block design.
Number of imaging devices. 3-chip DLP is cinema/large-venue territory (DCI projectors). Consumer DLP is almost all single-chip.
Terms on this page
DLP (Digital Light Processing)
Texas Instruments' MEMS technology. A DMD chip carries millions of micro-mirrors that tilt on/off thousands of times per second. Consumer DLP is single-chip: color is produced sequentially by a color wheel, sequential LEDs or sequential lasers. Strengths: sharpness, no convergence errors, compact, no panel degradation. Weaknesses: lower native contrast than LCoS, and the rainbow effect. ⚖ imaging.technology = dlp
3LCD
Uses three transmissive LCD panels, one each for red, green and blue, combined by a dichroic prism. Epson dominates this technology. There is no rainbow effect, and color brightness equals white brightness (see Color light output). Weaknesses: native contrast is lower than LCoS, panel convergence can drift, and on some models the panels yellow over time. ⚖ imaging.technology = 3lcd
LCoS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon)
Reflective liquid-crystal panels, usually three of them. LCoS delivers the highest native contrast among consumer projectors. Sony calls it SXRD and JVC calls it D-ILA. Native-4K LCoS is the reference class for home cinema. Panel resolution varies: current Sony VPL-XW5000ES/XW7000ES use 0.61" SXRD at 3840×2160, while JVC's native-4K D-ILA (NZ series) and older Sony 0.74" SXRD are 4096×2160. ⚖ imaging.technology = lcos
SXRD
Sony's LCoS implementation. ⚖ imaging.technology_brand = sxrd
D-ILA
JVC's LCoS implementation. ⚖ imaging.technology_brand = d-ila
Single-panel LCD
Cheap transmissive LCD with an LED behind it. Almost every sub-$150 "native 1080p, 9500 lumens" listing on Amazon uses this. Light efficiency is poor, contrast is poor, and there is visible screen-door effect. ⚠ We should label these clearly because they make up most of the low-end catalogue. ⚖ imaging.technology = lcd_single