Home Theater

A Guide for the Home Theater Enthusiasts

Types of Home Theater Screens

Types of Home Theater Screens

The centerpiece of any home theater system is the viewing screen itself. This, naturally, is the equivalent of a movie theater's viewing screen and the main reason why you have a home theater in the first place. There are four major types of display screens that people prefer for their home theaters, and each have their own pros and cons that you should consider when picking one up.

CRT TVs - these are pretty much old-school cathode ray tube TVs. They're cheap, reliable, easy to repair and maintain, and can be found most anyplace. On the downside, they're bulky, tend to run hot, and offer grainier picture resolution than the more modern LCD and Plasma Screen TVs. High definition CRTs are available that provide better picture quality than regular CRTs, but these are expensive and bring a heftier price tag.

LCD Screens - these are based on computer monitors and use liquid crystal displays to create high resolution digital images. They are often flat screens and take up less space than CRTs, and also run much colder than either CRTs or Plasmas. On the downside, LCD screen images break up and refract when viewed from anything except a direct angle, meaning you get fuzzier images when watching the screen from the sides.

Plasma Screens - these offer picture quality equal to an LCD, but have a few differences. For one, plasma screens run hotter than LCDs and CRT screens. On the upside, however, they can be viewed from any angle and still maintain picture quality. Also, unlike CRTs and LCDs, they are less prone to light reflection, which is a common sickness of TVs where glare is generated by room lighting reflecting off the TV screen. Plasma Screen TVs can also come in models much larger by comparison to LCDs, because LCD technology limits the available screen sizes of LCD TVs.

CRT Projectors - one of the final derivatives of CRT technology are projector units that work like first generation "reel" projectors. These projectors are always sold with a seperate viewing screen that can be mounted on a wall where the images are displayed by the projector unit. CRT projectors are often more expensive than CRT screen TVs and also run just as hot. However, CRT projectors have one advantage over the other 3 types of theater screens above; the size of the display can be adjusted depending on the projector's distance from the viewing screen. Added to this is the nostalgic feeling of really being in a movie theater simulated by a projector.