Why do they still use xenon lamps, even though LEDs are more efficient.
In: Technology
It’s very difficult (expensive) to create a LED projection system that has the required color rendition and brightness.
* Color rendition. Cinema xenon bulbs can produce pure white light ([100% CRI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_rendering_index)) which is hard to achieve using LEDs. Most high quality LED lights are around 90-95 CRI which may fall short of certification requirements.
* Brightness. It takes extreme brightness to light up a cinema screen, because the light has to pass through a medium then get reflected by the matte screen some distance away before reaching our eyes. As an idea, most projector LEDs are barely adequate for home / office use (around 2000 lumens of brigtness). A cinema projector might need 40,000 lumens. An IMAX projector might need 600,000 lumens.
Instead of LEDs, manufacturers are switching to RGB lasers in their new generation high-resolution projectors.
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