Light conditioning of direct view display for cinema

A projection system comprising:

• a projection lens having an aperture stop and a baffle;
• and
• at least one array of light emitting sources configured to emit image light having a first etendue that is larger than the projection lens to increase an image contrast of the image light, the light emitting sources comprising at least one light source that is an image pixel and that is controllable as an individually addressable image pixel,
• wherein the projection lens is positioned to receive the image light from the at least one array of light emitting sources and direct the image light toward a screen, wherein the aperture stop and the baffle are configured to block at least 15% of the image light in an emitted light path from the light emitting sources by reducing the first etendue of the image light to a second etendue that is smaller than the first etendue and is receivable by the projection lens.