If you are like many people, you may not have even heard of the term, ultra-short throw, or UST, as the industry has adopted. The technology is totally different from a flat panel TV and consists of a new breed of projectors and screen material.
With a UST projector, the light engine is designed for a very short distance between the projector and the screen. Typical front projectors need to be a pretty good distance back from the screen and are usually mounted on the ceiling. With a UST projector, it normally sits 24” or less off the wall, which means it can just be placed on top of a credenza or cabinet making installation far easier than mounting a normal projector.
UST projectors also have a very bright light source, usually a laser light engine. This provides you with enough output to rival the brightness of flat-panel TVs in the right environment.
While you can just shine the UST image on a white wall, the real magic, and another reason for this breakthrough, is a new breed of screens made specifically for UST projectors. These screens reject ambient light and are also designed to take the very steep angle of the image coming from the projector and reflect it back into the viewing area. They are made so specifically for these screens that if you turned one upside down, you would have a very dull picture in the viewing area. These types of screens allow you to enjoy an immersive experience even with some light in the room.
Flat panel TVs are well known to everyone, but there are various types of display systems — from LED, to Mini LED, to OLED, and more. For the purposes of this comparison, we will just look at them generically, but you may want to check out our article & video where we compare all of the new flat panel technologies.