If money and space are not an obstacle, three-tube CRT projectors, followed closely by three-chip DLP projectors, provide the best images. These cost tens of thousands of dollars and usually require a dedicated screening room.
Opinions on real-world HDTVs vary among experts, but most would probably agree that the best consumer direct-view CRT tubes provide the most consistently great images of the bunch. Among larger-screen sets, the best plasmas are the champs to my eye (although plasma picture quality varies greatly between makes), followed closely by LCD microdisplays (chip-based rear-projection), which in my opinion beat DLP and the rest by a nose because they don't exhibit rainbow effects. Again, there is lots of variation between makes, and many people don't notice rainbows with DLP.
That could change with the introduction of yet more new microdisplay television technology, which also includes DLP and LCoS and its variants. Flat-panel LCDs are also getting better rapidly, but they're not yet at the level of the others. Rear-projection CRTs and analog direct-view sets make up the bottom end of the scale.
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