one? These are the kind with the fresnel lenses. If so how did they work?

8/3/2005 12:06:01 AM

serpents

8/3/2005 12:17:54 AM

omg i tried this a long time ago. fuckin bullshit. you gotta turn your TV upside down and build a fucking cardboard enclosure and have the fresnel lense in front. only problem is that the picture will be inverted which isnt that bad but the shitty thing is the picture is bad quality. blurry and not bright at all. you also need a pitch black room to watch anything.
Its fun to do if you have an extra day or something just for fun--remember if you do this for the long term you will have a fucking upside down tv with a big ass cardboard box around it so it isnt exactly the best piece of furniture. if you seriously want a projection for movies then the best thing is to do the homemade LCD/overhead project. google it and what you do is break open an LCD monitor and tape the screen on an overhead projector and then project that image onto the wall. i havent seen it first hand but ppl say it good enough to read text from a PC.

8/3/2005 12:31:01 AM

Quote :

" you gotta turn your TV upside down and build a fucking cardboard enclosure and have the fresnel lense in front"

huh? what are you talking about?

8/3/2005 12:43:18 AM

Yeah, but I saw a set of lenses that claimed the tv did not have to be upside down, but I was pretty sure the picture quality would suck...... oh well I can't help I'm a cheap-ass bastard! Hoped I could get something for nothing or at least very little! Damnit it's true! There IS NO free lunch!

8/3/2005 1:52:39 AM

You aren't goin to get shit for quality. Someone here did it with a projector and an LCD screen not too long ago, I can't remember who though.

8/3/2005 7:39:14 AM

^ Quinn

8/3/2005 9:19:09 AM

Uhhh

Quinn and Stein's projector will take the motherfuckin Pepsi challenge with any HDTV you kids could wish to buy: Plasma, DLP, LCD, CRT or LCDP and win in nightime movie viewing.

Consider that our small PIP screen equates to a 28 inch TV before coming up with a retort.

Furthermore, the movie quality is excellent, especially with 1080p...er wait, you can't compare 1080p can you. No HDTV you could possibly afford plays that format (or downconverts it). Regular TV viewing is also fairly spectacular, especially on any of the HD channels that matter. I personally can't wait to catch some football games in HD.

As for "ugly furniture", our projector which was built by Quinn is actually suspended from the ceiling in a custom made box. The box is fairly large because we didn't want to do the mirror reflection math for a more effecient design, but its definitely not an eyesore.

Oh, and we have cinema curtians on the way too.

And a mini fridge.

In fact

I don't think im going to stop watching movies in a few weeks.

ever.

8/3/2005 10:47:36 AM

Are there any pics of the whole setup?

8/3/2005 11:13:01 AM

Projector is the black thing in the top left.



Partially completed Cinema screen.



Old picture without screen or any image quality adjustments.

8/3/2005 12:10:46 PM

He, I was curious as to how big the projector is. I've been thinking about doing one for awhile.

8/3/2005 12:49:48 PM

^^dude that last picture is damn good quality. Yall built that yourself? How much did the whole thing take to do/cost?

8/3/2005 3:07:45 PM

We're probably up to around 300-400 by now for everything. Not bad at all considering the quality.

That picture really doesn't do it justice though. It's on a cream colored wall and from before we tweaked the bulb and reflector positioning.

8/3/2005 3:33:06 PM

^ you guys really need to write up a tutorial and component list of parts

i'd like to do it as a hobby project

8/3/2005 3:39:56 PM

hell yeah - I'm sure a ton of people would love a "How-To" site for that

8/3/2005 3:41:52 PM

found a pretty good how-to on tom's hardware guide

http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20041113/index.html

you guys could probably cover a few things with experience though

8/3/2005 4:18:27 PM

PROJECT DOG COFFIN




Ive watched last samurai 3 times in the last 2 days, its one of the best filmed movies ive viewed yet. The resolution on the projector is high, so the picture is as clear as the source. The only thing it lacks is brightness, which isnt too bad a problem at night. Well it isnt a 1300$ problem that i would buy a sanyo z3 to fix. If there were a way to tweak out more brightness , there would be no reason to ever replace it. It is for movies, not powerpoint, so i dont need the brightness of the sun but it would be nice to have a few more lumens for afternoon viewing of bright movies (you can have 200000 lumens until you buy a sony black screen you aint watching tv during the day without it looking washed out) The bulb we are using costs 25$ and lasts for 10,000 hours (the thing is on about 6-8 hours a day, someone is always using the damn thing). I would love to get my hands on a nice small 800x600 panel to build one for my room, or retrofit into an old busted RPTV.

We went and checked out the projector they have at tweeter for comparison ($5k yamaha), I personally was not impressed but totally dig the maroon painted room.


You're more then welcome to come check it out, just pm me and bring an import six pack.

8/4/2005 2:04:51 AM

^ Did you mean $25 for the bulb really? What kind of bulb is it?

8/4/2005 2:07:29 AM

MH400W

metal halide 400watt

i remote mounted the ballast with 16 gauge wire






Shot of my dads projector room.

[Edited on August 4, 2005 at 2:13 AM. Reason : .]

8/4/2005 2:08:59 AM

The projector hanging from the ceiling. We should probably do a little more masking for the wires.

8/4/2005 2:42:42 AM

How heavy is it?

8/4/2005 1:10:49 PM

30 lbs maybe?

8/4/2005 1:28:51 PM

This sounds pretty goddamn interesting.

8/4/2005 2:26:51 PM

200000 anus eye looms?


Very nice project btw. My father-in-law has a projector setup in his house. It's awesome for movies. He built in surround sound speakers into the walls and has all the lights in the room setup on X-10 macros so it will dim like when you are at the movie theater. Add DirecTV, a DVR, and two brand new La-z-boy recliners and he has one really nice setup.

8/4/2005 3:13:48 PM

^


I'll have that.....one day.

8/4/2005 3:15:42 PM

i really wish tww's upload didnt make all the images look like shit, wtf is with this compression

[Edited on August 4, 2005 at 8:47 PM. Reason : .]

8/4/2005 8:47:37 PM

use your unity space newbie

8/4/2005 8:49:26 PM

Damn, I miss mine. Going from a 13 foot screen to a 13 inch television is tough. I've always had good luck with buying and fixing surplus projectors.

8/4/2005 9:40:21 PM

^from?

8/4/2005 9:55:59 PM

u used a diff kind of projector i see though. i thought those things were insanely expensive

[Edited on August 4, 2005 at 10:01 PM. Reason : 4]

8/4/2005 10:00:53 PM

NCSU surplus

Better deals can be had at UNCCH and ECU.

8/4/2005 10:04:08 PM

to use a 13 foot screen i would need a 30 foot living room . im not about getting motion sick

[Edited on August 5, 2005 at 1:16 AM. Reason : .]

8/5/2005 1:16:02 AM

Quote :

"u used a diff kind of projector i see though. i thought those things were insanely expensive"

Same principle. Different implementation.

8/5/2005 1:41:40 AM

I projected it from the kitchen into the living room, a 26' distance. The couch was like 10 feet from the screen, so it was definitely front-row-of-the-movie-theater overkill.

8/5/2005 2:10:09 AM

that is a terrible viewing distance ratio, did you ever feel motion sick?

8/5/2005 2:18:56 AM

Sed, how did you make the screen? Do-able???

8/5/2005 10:42:29 AM

I did the tom's hardware one. here's my thoughts:

-overhead projectors are cheap. great. I paid $40 for mine, $10 shipping (ebay)
-LCD monitors that can do 1024x768 are getting cheaper, the smaller the better so they can overlay the stage. my 15" ran $120, incl shipping (ebay)

problem:
15" diag LCD is 12" w by 9" tall. the stage on my typically shaped overhead projector is 10x10. so... I'm missing two inches worth of the 12" width of my screen, and as I would think is typical of LCDs, unlike CRTs, the picture is shiftable L/R and U/D, but not in scale, so I can't get the screen output to fit over the lighted area:

planned solution:
-bigger fresnel lens coming in the mail.
-going to build up the sides of my overhead and mount the larger (presumably 15" diag at least) fresnel lens at a height over the projector where it is fully lit but light not conically hanging over the edges.
-build a support structure out of allthread, nuts, and some sheet aluminum, allowing for making a box structure that allows for relatively easy height adjustment and also a way to pinch the LCD so that it isn't just sitting out in the open or taped to some styrofoam. I'm also going to have to make brackets for the cooling fan that will blow between the fresnel lens and the LCD (see tom's hardware site on LCD projectors...), as well as for the various parts of the monitor that make the LCD understand the VGA cable transmission. It's a bitch, it's 4 pieces of circuitboard that don't want to lay in the same plane, such are the various connections and twisted wires. The less modification the better, but this super-careful handling of the naked LCD is getting to be a bitch. I can't wait to have it finished. I'll post pics of it when its done. What I've got now works for the 9x10 area that the LCD and the stage overlap, but that's just not satisfactory.

8/6/2005 3:46:13 AM

^

Save yourself the effort and just build one box and remount everything. Save your triplet and maybe your light source and move on. You are about to take 2 steps backwards trying to reuse an overhead chasis (which is ugly anyways).

Good luck, and pm me if you need any help.

8/7/2005 12:45:19 AM