DLPA068C November   2019  – May 2022 DLP160AP , DLP160CP , DLP2000 , DLP2010 , DLP230NP , DLP3010 , DLP3310 , DLP470NE , DLP470TE , DLP4710 , DLP471NE , DLP471TE , DLP471TP , DLP480RE , DLP550HE , DLP550JE , DLP650LE , DLP650NE , DLP650TE , DLP651NE , DLP660TE , DLP670RE , DLP780NE , DLP780TE , DLP781NE , DLP781TE , DLP800RE , DLP801RE , DLP801XE , DLPA1000 , DLPA2000 , DLPA2005 , DLPA3000 , DLPA3005 , DLPC2607 , DLPC3420 , DLPC3421 , DLPC3430 , DLPC3433 , DLPC3435 , DLPC3438 , DLPC3439 , DLPC4422 , DLPC6401

 

  1.   Trademarks
  2. 1Introduction
  3. 2Determining the Right Brightness for Your Product
  4. 3The Impact of Ambient Light Level
  5. 4The Impact of Screen Size
  6. 5Trade-Offs Associated With Brightness
  7. 6Other Considerations
  8. 7Summary
  9. 8Additional Resources
  10. 9Revision History

2 Determining the Right Brightness for Your Product

Answering the two most frequently asked questions proposed in Section 1 depends on the following variables:

  • Ambient lighting environment. The ambient light level of the expected use-environment is a critical factor to consider. For example, with the same projection system, the perceived brightness of a 50-inch (diagonal) image in a well-lit office may be similar to a 100-inch image in a dark room.
  • Screen size required. For every 2x increase in the image diagonal (20 inch to 40 inch), projector brightness (lumens) needs to increase by 4x (50 lumens to 200 lumens) in order to maintain constant image brightness (nits).
  • Video content type. The brighter the image content (technically, the higher the average picture level) or the more colorful the image content (technically, the more saturated the colors are), the fewer lumens or nits needed to create an image that appears bright.
  • Projection surface. For the purpose of this application note, a non-glossy, white surface is assumed. For applications requiring a different type of surface, such as a patterned or colored surface, more nits may be required.

Ultimately, necessary brightness is a subjective assessment. This paper will focus specifically on how a projection system’s brightness requirement is impacted by ambient light level and screen size.