There are several choices for displays when designing your own home theater. Most usually, consumers will opt for a large CRT (box shaped) television, usually in widescreen format but sometimes in the old 4:3 format, else they will opt for the newer and thinner plasma screens available. However, it is worth considering home theater video projectors as they can come closer to offering the true theater experience compared to traditional televisions.

A home theater video projector can enhance this experience and is probably the most affordable solution that gives rise to the largest screen possible in the residential environment.

Whereas video projectors used to be expensive and of poor quality compared to the traditional alternative, the television, these days the technology has dropped considerable in price and is within reach of most home theater enthusiasts. Furthermore, the quality, brightness and sharpness of the image are vastly improved.

There are currently three main different types of home theater video projector - CRT, LCD and DLP.

CRT (cathode ray tube) video projectors are what you really get in a true theatre - they are the machines with red, blue and green lights. The advantages of such devices are a long lifetime and a proven, tried and tested technology that has stood the test of time for well over half a century. They also provide high image quality and sharpness. Unfortuantely, they are usually quite large, bulky and heavy. As well as this, they tend not to be as bright as their more recent digial counterparts.

LCD (liquid crystal display) video projectors use lcd wafers (like your digital watch) to either block out light completely, pass it completely, or somewhere in between. When you consider that this can be done for all three primary colours (red, green and blue) you can see that a large variation can be created and hence a projected image. Such LCD projectors are very lightweight and bright, and tend to be affordable due to the widespread use of lcd technology. Unfortunately, they suffer from a poor contrast range and bulbs need replacing very often. Bulbs are not cheap and can cost several hundred dollars depending on your model of projector - this running cost is a consideration that you should make when selecting your projector.

DLP (digital light processing) are the newest type of home theater projector. They operate in a similar fashion to lcd projectors, except that instead of lcd wafers, they use silicon chips called digital micromirror devices, or DMDs. The result is again a lightweight device as with LCD, but also brighter display and a better contrast range that its LCD brother. However, again, running costs i.e. bulb replacements, are very high.