CRT rear projection sets are getting pretty thin on the ground these days. I think they're going to be squeezed out of the market entirely pretty soon, not because the technology is obsolete, but because the dollars are flowing elsewhere. The main knocks on CRT RPTV are bulk, weight, off-angle viewing and the need to adjust convergence. But in terms of pure picture quality from a room's sweet spot, they are still hard to beat. And the price per diagonal inch is pretty much unbeatable.
That said, a microdisplay would be a good choice for the application you describe. LCD RP, DLP, and LCoS are all viable technologies, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. They are all much lighter and less bulky than CRT RPTVs, as their image sources are much smaller than CRTs. From the front they hardly look bigger than flat-panels, and they're less than half as deep as a comparable CRT RPTV. (My 56" JVC LCoS is just under 18" deep and it weighs less than 100 lbs. Compare that to my 56" Toshiba widescreen CRT-RP set that was over 3 feet deep and weighed about 300 lbs.) My nephew's
46" Samsung DLP (and yes, they also make then in 42" - but you might think about a 46" as a compromise for the space you're describing) is 13 1/2" deep and weighs 66 lbs.
LCD RP suffers from less-than-perfect blacks, just as LCD panels do. But in both cases the technology is
much better than it was just a few years ago and unless you're in a perfectly light-controlled room this may not be an issue. LCD RP is also subject to the "screen door effect" - detectable pixel borders visible under certain conditions. This is one of those things that drives some people crazy while other people scracely notice it. Figure out which kind you (and your financee) are. If one see the SDE and hates it and the other doesn't care, forget about LCD RP.
LCD RPs come in two flavors - 3 panel sets where different panels produce the red, green and blue portions of the image, and 1 panel jobs which use a rapidly spinning color wheel and "shutter control" to create the image. These are becoming much rarer, but check the specs. 1 panel sets may not only be liable to the SDE inherent in LCD projection, but might also be prone to the primary weakness of DLP sets - the Rainbow Effect. (RBE) Thus you could end up with the worst of both worlds.
DLP produces a great picture, but it can be subject to the "Rainbow effect". Three chip DLP systems are too expensive to compete in the RPTV market, and are currently limited to high-end front-projection systems. So any set you're apt to see on the showroom floor will depend on a color wheel to produce an image. Even with the most rapidly spinning wheels some people are able to detect the separate colors at times, usually in the form of a "rainbow" at the edge of objects, hence the name. Other people (I'm one of them) don't seem physically capable of seeing the problem
Liquid Crystal on Silicon is an improved variant of LCD RP that almost entirely eliminates that screen door effect and uses three panels to avoid the rainbow effect. JVC sells its proprietary LCoS variant as the HD-ILA line, available in various sizes and in both 720p and 1080p versions. Sony has dubbed their entry in the LCoS sweepstakes SXRD, introduced with the 50" and 61" 1080p models. They have been adding other sizes to the line-up since the roll-out.
When I was in the market for a new TV last year my research, viewing habits, room size and other factors led me to choose LCoS. At the time JVC only had the 720p models, Sony didn't have a set in a 56" size which was what I really wanted, and I couldn't see paying a lot more for a 50" Sony 1080p set than for a
56" JVC 720p box, much less paying
a lot more for a 61" Sony that would really be too big for my room. I bought the JVC
and a 27" LCD flat panel for the bedroom and still spent less than the small Sony would have cost me. I love the TV.
On the other hand, I've watched a few things on my nephew's
Samsung DLP since calibrating both his set and mine with
Video Digital Essentials and I'd be hard-pressed to say which has the better picture. (The link goes to the specs for the 42" version of his set.)
I think any of the tecnologies might serve, depending on how sensitive you are to SDE or RBE. But do take a good look at LCoS as an option. After my initial research I was all set to buy a DLP RP myself, but after I saw the Sony SXRDs and the JVC HD-ILAs LCoS gradually won me over.
Regards,
Joe
