| Author | Message | ||
| Kevin Allen, Nebus (91flyer)
Rating: N/A |
Ok, this message really has nothing to do with buses directly, but I posted this info over on the Skoolie site and the great folks over there really appreciated the information... so, I decided I'd post it here too. First, I'll tell you up front I *HAVE* done this. I took apart an LCD monitor Sunday afternoon after reading this, and tried it out with a projector I had sitting here (funny, it was actually for a similar project a few years ago)... and to my amazement, the picture is STUNNING. Even on my low-lumen projector, it was absolutely GORGEOUS. The only thing I have to do now, is to fabricate a case to hold all the parts together and protect the VERY delicate (and THIN) LCD panel. Incidentally, I also purchased another projector unit capable of 6000 lumens.. roughly two and a half times what my old projector is capable of. It's a 3M 9800 projection unit. I snagged it off eBay for $160 after shipping... this same unit sells new for around $800 to $1100. Not a bad savings, if I do say! So, without further delay, here's the link to the instructions for this great project! http://www20.tomshardware.com/howto/20041113/index.html ---- Now, second thing... email addresses... I have a GMail account, and have two invitations I can give away. I've given two to the skoolie folks that wanted them, and I have two remaining... anyone who would like a GMail account, just say so... first come, first serve... For those that don't know what GMail is, it's a free web based email system from Google. It has 1GB of email storage, and has automatic filtering, and has a great deal of options which can be set... It really is a GREAT webmail system... but unfortunately, it's invitation only right now. So, here's your chance! If anyone wants an account, let me know. Take care, and happy busin'! -Kevin | ||
| Derek (Derek_l)
Rating: N/A |
Kevin, are your gmail invites working? I have 11, but when I click on the link nothing happens, and my popup blocker isn't blocking them. | ||
| Kevin Allen, Nebus (91flyer)
Rating: N/A |
I sent out two yesterday... Just tested it and it brings up the window asking me for who I want to invite... appears to be working fine. Try flushing your cache and clearing your cookies and temp files. Alternatively, try another computer... I.E. is really quirky sometimes.  Also, try pressing SHIFT when you're clicking the link. Sometimes makes a difference if you have a blocker running you're not aware of (I've seen it happen). -Kevin | ||
| Derek (Derek_l)
Rating: N/A |
Yes, been through all that... I oft think that computers aren't as static as we like to think.. If they feel like working, they will. My experiences, anyway. Thanks. *EDIT* I've got it working now. Firefox didn't like gmail too much.. If anyone needs, I've got invitations as well. | ||
| Kevin Allen, Nebus (91flyer)
Rating: N/A |
Hehehe... Rule # 1 in the web world, don't trust your browser to be compatable with any given web site. I forget what Rule #2 is..... I'm off to bed now... lots of work to do, and a funeral to prepare for. :: sigh :: -Kevin | ||
| John that newguy Rating: N/A |
The trouble with -ALL- the "free" things in life, is that they're very rarely "free". The price tag for the "free" email? Everyone you send an email to, gets added to a list of viable email addresses that is sold to companies seeking those lists. It's easy to sneak spam through filters once you know what filter is allowing receipt. Oh well..... It's like the "free" "web flowers", "cyber postcards", and all the rest of the great "free" stuff. Your pals will love you for it. | ||
| John that newguy Rating: N/A |
On that do-it-yourself projection tv? "The display becomes permanently burnt out if repeatedly overheated, and will no longer display in the damaged area. " That can certainly add to the expense. There are quite a few commercially made projectors that can be bought new for under $800. Used models and old stock/last year's models can be had for under $400. It's the bulbs that are expensive at $200-400 each. Projector bulbs usually last about 2,000 to 3,000 hours. They last only seconds, if they're bumped, banged, or handled carelessly. Even a finger touching a cold bulb can render it useless, since the oil from the finger will destroy the bulb's coating. Oh..... hey.... just call me "negative John".. | ||
| Gary McFarland (Gearheadgary)
Rating: N/A |
I use a lot of these new projectors, the price of bulbs has come down recentely, to about $150 or so, at least for the ones I use. There is a super tiny one at costco right now, kinda hard to believe. And yes, they get seriously mad if you bump them. Gary | ||
| John that newguy Rating: N/A |
As long as this thread's about video projectors... How 'bout telling me more about the one's you've had? Our 19 yr old 42" set finally died again (3rd time) and I don't think I can fix it anymore. The manufacturer's cold soldering has taken it's toll. I've been considering a projector/screen, rather than a standard projector set, DLP or otherwise. And Plasma is out (for us anyway), due to the lack of longevity of the plasma screen. The LCDs are nice, but for a 30+ the price is far too high. So Gary.... What's the scoop with the projectors? Will the heat and/or noise distract from viewing in an RV, if used there? How about using it for normal, everyday use... On at 7-8am and not off until 11pm or later every day? Your experienced input is welcomed!! | ||
| ChuckMC9 (Chucks)
Rating: N/A |
YOUR TV IS ON 15 HOURS A DAY???? !!! dOOd, GET OUTTA THE HOUSE! | ||
| John that newguy Rating: N/A |
I didn't say I was watching it. I don't have time to, what with typing to this forum 24/7.. HARWF! The thing's always on. Most of the time it's treated like a radio: It's there if you want to be bothered to listen/watch.. Ignored the rest of the time.. Kinda' like the average husband.. (sob) | ||
| Kevin Allen, Nebus (91flyer)
Rating: N/A |
Well, let me tell you about my experience with this projector setup... I had an LCD monitor I was willing to donate to this little experiment... These things can be had with burned out backlights for very cheap... like $40 or so, sometimes less off of eBay. Anyway, my LCD was a perfectly good working unit... high contrast, good color and an excellent picture... I figured, hey... if I'm going to do this, it might as well be with a decent monitor. My particular model can be had for around $150 to $200 from eBay.... So, I took it apart, spread the parts out over top of my old projector unit.... and what do ya know? It works perfectly. But, as the article says, if you don't cool it, the LCD panel itself will eventually go bad, unless you only plan to use it for 5 minutes at a time, which is impractical..... What's the solution? To provide cooling for it. A simple computer fan will suffice. I have two of them that I'll be putting in. If you're handy with your hands... and I assume most of you are, considering the nature of this board... Then you'll know you need to construct a suitable enclosure to protect the panel and its parts that used to be protected inside the LCD monitor's casing. Each LCD is different, and has different space requirements... The LCD I chose just happens to have an external 12v jack for speakers and such, but will drive the cooling fans for me instead. The monitor has its own built in power supply, and video logic board... both of which are about 5 inches square.... so, spread out, my projection unit will be fairly large. Larger than I wanted it, but for the price, I can live with a little oversize (I seem to live with the theme of oversized things lately, anyone notice?). There's a lot going on in my personal life right now, so the project is moving along very slowly... but once I can get up to Lowe's to get some supplies (Lexan, wood, silicone and "Great Stuff"), I'll be building the cabinet. Incidentally, the overhead projector I have currently is a small one, with maybe 3000 lumens. I'm not sure, but it's not the brightest thing with an LCD over it. So... On Sunday, I ordered a 3M 9800 tabletop projector unit from eBay for $160 (that's with shipping). It's a relatively new unit. I checked the prices for this unit new, and they're still selling for over $800 new... so, I got a nice savings from eBay on this part... The output rating for this unit, using a bulb I can get for only $10, is 6000 lumens. Not bad, considering that many of the low end "professional" units projecting at 800x600 are only 3500 to 4500 lumens. Using the LCD I have, coupled with the larger 11.25"x11.25" projection area of the 9800, I'll have almost the full 1024x768 area this monitor is capable of producing... There'll be a narrow strip along one or both edges that won't quite be on the projection surface... which is fine, if I need to, I can resize the picture on the LCD to match the projection surface. Since I had the LCD laying around and unused and got it from a friend for free because he got a bigger 21" LCD... that was free to me. I already had a projector from a previous (similar) project, that only cost me $45, but it just wasn't bright enough for my needs... so, right now the project price for me stands at $160 for the projector and $20 for two bulbs. That's $180. Add onto that the price for the custom built case that I need to make, maybe another $30 to $40... $50 tops, that comes out to $230. I know I can easily get a 10 foot diagonal from this particular setup and view it in a lit room, or a 15 to 20 foot diagonal in a dark room. On my previous setup, I could get a 9 foot screen in a dark room, but it was only for TV NTSC use, and was an 800x600 display unit... the computer display side was burned out, but the TV side worked ok... it was just an old unit, and darks were too dark, and brights were too bright... With my test of THIS setup on Sunday, the light/dark problem that plagued me on my last setup didn't exist. The LCD panel is of a MUCH higher quality, and the contrast ratio is a much better match to a usable display. With the 6000 lumen projector, it'll be even better. The cooling system I'm going to build into the case is a draft type cooler with a filtered suction. This way, I only have to take the glass apart to clean it once every 3 months, instead of once ever two weeks (as my other panel was required). So, there's my current experience with this experiment. This setup DOES WORK. I've already tested it. As long as you provide cooling for the panel, the concern about burning it out (literally) isn't an issue. The instructions on the link stated specifically to provide cooling... So if you read it carefully, and follow the directions, you shouldn't have a problem... If you DO happen to burn out your LCD... just get another from eBay for cheap and fix your cooling problem... no biggie. And besides... once you have that projector unit, you can print out transparencies and project them onto your rig for artwork purposes... This is exactly my intention for my old projector. I'm going to print out patterns, pictures and designs I like and project them onto my bus for tracing and duplication. I can't think of a better way to scale, size, and duplicate drawings for the bus... Heck, you could do this to your house, awnings, the streets and sidewalks (with proper mirrors and chalk, of course) or anything else you want. Even if your video projector project fails, you would still be left with a projector unit that has more than just one use... just use your imagination! -Kevin | ||
| John that newguy Rating: N/A |
I remember some years back (sounds of quirky harp music, please), A guy in LI, NY got arrested for showing porn. The clown had his (movie) projector aimed at the white, front window drapery he was using for a screen..... | ||
| Gary McFarland (Gearheadgary)
Rating: N/A |
There's one around here that has died, but due to management's proclivity to buy "Won hung lo" brands, they don't understand that cheap is expensive in the long run. I can't remember what that was, Trash fodder as far as I am concerned. We have a Toshiba TLP-B2 I bought about three years ago, it's a traveler, but thankfully, never had to replace a bulb ($~400, last time I checked). We have a permanently (Ceiling) mounted Infocus, in a 12X20 conference room. We don't notice the fan noise, but I just walked in there, and the noise might be more noticible in a coach. Thankfully, we have not had to buy bulbs for either unit. Sharp Projector This one is the one on display in Costco, it is so tiny it's hard to believe. It DOES support HDTV. I didn't recall how noisy, but a Costco isn't the best environment to check such things. Overall, before buying I would reccommend checking price and availability of spare bulbs. gary | ||
| gillig-dan Rating: N/A |
Kevin, I guess throw distance will not be a problem on a 60' bus. Just be hard to keep the projector pointing in the middle going around corners? Gillig-Dan | ||
| Kevin Allen, Nebus (91flyer)
Rating: N/A |
Dan... This little project isn't necessarily for INSIDE the bus... But it could be used inside... just not while moving. As has been previously said, the bulbs in the projectors don't take kindly to bumps of any kind, even the cheap bulbs like mine will blow if they're bumped. Think of a normal household incandescent(sp?) light... if you bump the fixture, sometimes even lightly, the bulb will blow... that kind of thing is amplified the higher the wattage... My new projector uses 400w bulbs, granted, I can get them for only $10 each, but they still blow pretty easy if bumped... I'm building this thing more for my computer than I am for anything else... I can play DVD's and such on the putter though... but I think Doom III will just be awesome thrown up on a 72" screen in 1024x768 in broad daylight and easily visible. One thing I forgot to mention on the new projector I bought... It has a high/low intensity setting ability. So, I can adjust the brightness to extend the bulb life, or visibility. If I do use it in the bus, it'll most likely be set for the low setting, since I obviously won't have the space to set up a 15 to 20 foot screen! I'd be happy with a 6 foot screen in that setting, but I'm not going to center my floorplan around it, that's for sure. -Kevin | ||
| Kevin Allen, Nebus (91flyer)
Rating: N/A |
A little update on my project... I constructed the bottom portion of the chassis today. It's pretty darned big... I also discovered that there are several smaller 7" LCD's on eBay that would be well suited for this project too, but I wouldn't want to BUY a perfectly good working LCD to tear apart. I already had this one, and it didn't cost me anything... Anyway, I got everything hooked up and tacked onto the backer board and fired it up... man, that picture sure was pretty. I set it for the higher color temp, like 9300k or something and everything looked nice. The only thing is, the light from my projector is a little yellowish, so it was tinged yellow on the projection. Hard to even notice, but I was looking for color differences. Hopefully the new projector won't have that issue. The new projector was supposedly shipped today, so it should be here Thursday or Friday. I should have the LCD panel itself completed by then. This thing really is fairly big, compared to a "professional" built unit, but as an experiement, it's turned out better than I ever expected. It really is very crisp and clear. With adequate cooling, the LCD stays clear too. But that really is the key to this whole project, cooling. I'll take pics and get them up when I can. I found the most unique way to hold the LCD in place without glue, and without much chance of cracking the LCD panel in the process of securing it in place. I'm also working on a way to have a replaceable filter element to keep the dust, dirt and hair out of the unit too. Hopefully airflow will still be adequate once that's done. -Kevin | ||
| Brian Brown (Fishbowlbrian)
Rating: N/A |
As long as I@n allows these OT threads, I'll chime in... I've had a front projection home theater for about four years now, and have an aging NEC projector in my basement driven by a purpose-built PC, projecting onto a 10' screen. We use it to watch DVDs, TV, digital camera slideshows, home movies, and play PC games, etc. The DIY projectors (PJs) are really intriguing to me, because I have an old 1600x1200 laptop panel that could make a really outstanding, high- resolution PJ (my current one is XGA). Plus, I like to build stuff anyway. The best plans I've seen so far are the ones from Lumenlab (www.lumenlab.com), and seem to have quite a following. The plans aren't free, though ($20), so Tom's Hardware site's creation is interesting in an "open source" sort of way. BUT: Using an old overhead projector, which make use of lesser-quality optics, and its yellowish-colored bulb seem to be the biggest drawbacks. Also, since heat rises, the panel could get quite hot, short of using high-CFM cooling fans. I'd think that the contraption might throw off a lot of light in the back of the room. Kevin: that said, I admire your can-do DIY enthusiasm for this project. Your picture will be leaps and bounds above that of those big-box "big screen" TVs and flat-panels so popular now, and a much, much larger image. Keep us posted on your progress. Everyone else: Like Gary said, some of the newer DLPs are amazingly small... like a paperback book. Well suited for a bus, and easily used in a portable, non-permanent way (unless you're in your bus fulltime). A 6' wide screen right behind the driver's seat should be plenty big, and an antethesis to "roughing it". My $0.02, FBB | ||
| Gary McFarland (Gearheadgary)
Rating: N/A |
HP Laser printers use a replacable non-restrictive charcoal filter that is the same size as a small muffin fan. find a HP service center, they should have them on the shelf. gary | ||
| Kevin Allen, Nebus (91flyer)
Rating: N/A |
I might look into that filter you mentioned... In the meantime, here's a picture of my 95% completed panel. The only thing missing, is the air filter! http://www.skoolie.net/gallery/Odd_Projects/proj_panel?full=1 I spent more than most people would on this project, but I wanted something that looked nice, was functional, and had some sort of protection for the panel. I will most likely end up adding another sheet of lucite to the bottom to protect the panel from that side too, I just haven't gotten a "round tuit" yet. ;) By the way, the yellowish light I was experiencing was apparently from the wall I was originally projecting onto. I used a white fabric type material for curtains and the yellowish tint went away. White was white, black was black... It really is a breathtaking view when you're used to seeing the old type projection panels with washed out colors, bleedins, etc... With my dual fan setup and direced air flow path, the panel stays only slightly warm. It does not heat up to the point where the panel starts to discolor and quit working. I left it on for about an hour with absolutely no ill effects... When I turned the projector off, I immediately pulled the panel off the projector and felt it for heat... Only warm to the touch. A lot better than I expected, better than I hoped for, and I'm certainly NOT disappointed by the clarity. Even on dark scenes with my little projector, this thing outperforms anything I've seen for the price I've spent on it. The color spectrum and contrast are just... well, breathtaking! I can hardly wait for the new projector to arrive... at 2.5x the brightness, I'll be able to put up a MUCH larger screen.... Guerilla Drive-in, anyone? -Kevin | ||
| Kevin Allen, Nebus (91flyer)
Rating: N/A |
Alright. I said I'd get some pics taken when I got this thing up and running... Well, it's now up and running! Hope ya'll like it. It's definitely a very worthwhile project if you like to do things yourself.... And considering where I'm posting, I think that's a given for most of you... Visit the gallery to see the pics... http://www.skoolie.net/gallery/Odd_Projects You'll see three pictures. One of the LCD panel I made, and two photos showing the end results. The screen is relatively small because of the space I have available to watch this, but I will be making a MUCH larger screen (portable, of course) for outdoor viewing... Hope it's encouraging to those thinking about this. Again... I must state... The pictures are NOT altered in any way. They were taken with a Nikon Coolpix 3100 with the flash off and using a tripod. The pictures are VERY close to what you actually see in person. Good luck with it if you decide to take this project on. It is a lot of work to make the panel in such a way that it's both protected, and portable. -Kevin | ||
| Marc Bourget Rating: N/A |
Kevin, In quick summary: 1) it appears you used the face frame of the monitor as the "skeleton" for the assembly? 2) You added the fans to the back. 3) You formed a plenum to control and concentrate airflow with the acrylic on the back side which the fans blow into and thru. 4) Did you leave the original "face" to protect the LCD on the front side? 5) How do you go from bulb wattage to the "6000k" (whatever the terms and units associated with that phrase are, Lumens?) Very interesting thread, I thank you! Thanks, Marc | ||
| Kevin Allen, Nebus (91flyer)
Rating: N/A |
Marc, I left none of the original LCD monitor frame intact. The original frame was completely useless in terms of reusing it for this project, and in fact has made a new home in the trash bin. The frame is made of 3/16" oak plywood. The oak helps add rigidity and strength while allowing a thinner wood. Predrilling the holes for the screws is an absolute must with this thickness of wood. The fans are a requirement because of the heat generated by the projector unit itself. Without them, the LCD panel would overheat and fail permanently. You can tell if your unit is overheating by observing discoloration on the screen. If your unit starts to overheat, you can prevent damage by turning the projector off in time, but leave the fans running on your LCD to cool it off. If you don't catch it in time, you will be making a new LCD overlay panel... I also created a directed airflow to pull air across the panel, rather than push air across it. I did this because of my previous experience with these cooling fans. They tend to concentrate dust deposits on whatever they are blowing ON to, but don't seem to do it as much if they're used in a pull configuration. Since I don't yet have a dust filter in place, this will help until I do. Additionally, using a pull configuration allows for more even airflow. Most people use just a single fan, but I had two laying around, and I figured... why not? It couldn't hurt... and it just looks nicer. The bottom of the overlay panel is unprotected right now. I will be adding another sheet of acrylic on that side to protect it eventually, I just haven't had the time lately to do that. But it is unprotected. What's interesting to note here is the fact that LCD monitors leave the face unprotected to begin with... When you look at an LCD monitor, you are actually looking at the bare LCD itself... there's nothing there to protect it other than you being careful. The projector unit I used for the pictures is my older unit. The new unit has not yet come in. The one used for the pictures uses a type ENX bulb rated at 360 watts. The best specs I can find on it are 3000 lumens. I'm not sure why, but I originally thought this was a 2600 lumen projector. The output rating is not necessarily determined by the wattage of the bulb, it's the configuration of the projector itself. The projector I am currently using uses a reflected source, instead of direct. The new projector uses a direct source. So, there's less light loss in the projection. The new unit is a 3M Model 9800, which is rated for 6000 lumens. Twice the output of the one I currently have. What the lumens are AFTER it passes through the LCD? I don't know. I don't have a meter to get accurate results. But, it's been speculated that there's between a 60% to 80% loss going through the panel, so the brighter your light source, the better. Hope that answers your questions. -Kevin | ||
| Brian Brown (Fishbowlbrian)
Rating: N/A |
Bravo and kudos, Kevin! Your screenshots look awesome. Have you added up your total outlay in $? Also, what's a ballpark on your throw ratio (distance from screen vs. screen width) with your overhead projector setup? I'd love to compare your DIY projector to other LCDs available today. With LCD technology, black level/ contrast, and "screen door" are the weaknesses compared to DLP. For those that might think I'm smoking something, "screen door" is the visual equivelent of looking through one, and is caused by the tiny black lines between active pixels on a digital panel matrix being enlarged upon a screen. Since your panel size is so much larger than those on a typical LCD projector, I'd bet that your "screen door" is much less than an equivelent XGA LCD projector. Thanks for your post and info. And good luck on your 60' arty conversion. That's a lot of bus! FBB | ||
| Kevin Allen, Nebus (91flyer)
Rating: N/A |
This particular setup is pretty cheap. The projector being used is my original projector, which cost about $70. The LCD cost me nothing, but is a mid-range 15" LCD. If I were to have bought it new, he price would have been about $240 or so after shipping... The contrast ratio is 350:1, which seems to be higher than most low-budget LCD screens (think Wal-Mart). The key here is that you don't want to buy new. The new-to-me projector I have on the way is still priced at over $800 new... But again, I used eBay and got it used for $160 after shipping... Various parts and supplies were about $75. I already had all the tools for the job (I'm a DIY kind of guy to begin with. So, I only had to buy a hack saw blade since it was raining and I couldn't use my table saw... That ate up at least a days worth of time having to cut with that... heh. But I had time and patience.... So, overall, if you were to buy used what you can, and use the cheapest parts, you should be able to build it for under $300. If you step up to a mid-range LCD and a really bright projector, add another $200 to $300. You could even step up to an even bigger setup than I have... If you want to try to hit a 40 foot screen, check out Lumen Labs. They've got some really killer setups.... But for me, a max screen size of about 15 to 20 foot is more than enough. Especially considering I probably won't usually use it for anything larger than 10 foot, and my typical use will be the screen you see in the screenshots.... As for the "screen door" effect... It's really not present at the size screen I took a picture of. Especially standing/sitting back from the screen at a proper distance. The pix are small enough to not be able to distinguish them... In fact, I have to have an image on in order to focus it... I can't focus by the effect itself with this setup... which really pleases me... I used to focus my old system just by the pixelation, then slightly off-focus to get some "automated anti-aliasing"... No need to do that at all with this setup with the smaller screen at all. Next time I have it fired up I'll get a good focus and take a close snapshot of the screen so you can see for yourself. You'll be impressed, I promise. As for throw distance.... I'm not sure. I'll measure it out when I have it fired up again. It's pretty short though. Just rough guessing, the screen is about 54" square and the projector was approximately 7 feet back... As for the bus... yea... It's a big one. I'm looking forward to getting started on her... She's definitely going to be a LONG project (pun intended) -Kevin | ||
| Kevin Allen, Nebus (91flyer)
Rating: N/A |
Brian... I've added a couple more screen shots for you. I took a closeup of the screen, and a shot of a game (ATV Offroad Fury 3) running. The closeup is of the same image. It's not blown up, but an actual closeup of the screen taken about 12 inches away... As you can see, the effect you spoke of is at an absolute minimum... :D The projector lens is about 77" away from the screen, with about a 72" diagonal on this particular setup. It will be a little different with the new projector that's on the way... Cheers! -Kevin | ||
| Brian Brown (Fishbowlbrian)
Rating: N/A |
Thanks, Kevin. It really looks great. An acceptable "screen door" level is when pixel structure isn't visible 1 - 1.5x screen width away, and you've got that beat in spades. I suspect that the large panel side has a lot to do with it. I once cleaned the LCDs in my projector to remove dust blobs, and the things are just tiny... like 2" across. Dust would be much less of a show-stopper with a 15" panel. Your throw ratio at 1.0 or so is a bit short for what I'd need. Do the OH projectors "zoom" by lowering the head, or are they usually a fixed focal length? Also, what are you diving your PJ with? A PC? I've found them to be the best scalers short of a $25k Faroudja. I think that the Holy Grail of front projection would be to take one of those new 17" laptop panels with 1920x1200 resolution and make a projector around it. Higher than high-definition... about 3x the resolution of XGA. Thanks again for your detailed post of this most interesting project. FBB | ||
| Kevin Allen, Nebus (91flyer)
Rating: N/A |
I drive my panel with both, a PC (laptop, to be more accurate) and a "TV2PC" converter (NTSC -> XGA). The first shots where "Kingdom Hospital" is visible is done with the laptop at full resolution. The second, where "ATV Offroad Fury 3" is visible is done with the converter. Hi-res DVD viewing is far superior than using a converter, but to play video games and such, the converter is a necessity, since my laptop doesn't have that function built in. The NTSC->VGA converter was bought at Wal-Mart on clearance for $40 about a year ago. They've since discontinued the product since no one bought it. As for the 1:1 throw ratio, you have to realize that the panel is actually larger than the PJ's displayable area. The left and right sides of the LCD are cut off by about 1" each side. The projection area of the new projector allows for the full panel, minus about 1/8" each side, which is more acceptable. The further back you move *THIS* projector, the larger the screen gets exponentially. I'm just at the 1:1 ratio because of the screen size. Another two feet or so increases the diagonal by about 3.5 feet with this pj... Incidentally, the pj I'm using does have a "budget triplet" lens system, with a flip in zoom lens. The new pj has a triplet as well, but it's got various coatings to improve visual appeal, plus a zoom feature, plus a light dimming feature to cut brightness if necessary (smaller screen, for instance) and to save bulb life. And yea, I'd LOVE to get my hands on a 1920x1200 panel... but to go from a 15" to a 17" panel, going with a system like LumenLabs has is a definite must... as a 17" panel would definitely be bigger than the OH PJ would be capable of (the same limitation I have with my current PJ). But, since I had this panel laying around... and didn't have to buy it... :D And just in the little time I've had my projector in operation the past couple of days (playing games, no less!), there has been dust collect on the screen... I can see it when I have the PJ off and look at the panel... but it does not show *at all* on the screen. I'm very pleased! I'll post pics when the new PJ arrives. It will be here either today (hopeful, but not likely), or tomorrow (definitely if not today). I'll also post more pics when I get my new screen in and hung (twice the size of the current one, plus set up for 16:9 movies... ) I'll have that up elsewhere in the house, but it'll only get used maybe once every two weeks on "family movie night"... -Kevin | ||
| John that newguy Rating: N/A |
Best Buy has this on sale for $599. http://www.epinions.com/pr-NEC_VT47_Multimedia_Projector/display_~full_specs My concern remains with the short bulb life (3,000 hrs) and the expense of bulb replacement with all these projectors and I"m much too lazy to roll my own..... Is there a practical way to externally reduce power to the bulb on any of these units, to lengthen their life? | ||
| Gary McFarland (Gearheadgary)
Rating: N/A |
I have about three years on projector without changing bulbs. Monkeying with it is a sure way to turn it to junk. Gary | ||
| Kevin Allen, Nebus (91flyer)
Rating: N/A |
Well, 800x600 isn't bad... but my homebrew is 1024x768... for less than they're asking for theirs... But, mine's not anywhere near as small, nor pretty... But at $10 a bulb for 40 hours of viewing... I'm not going to complain. Especially with the actual use this thing will get. It's a "special occasion" contraption that'll get used maybe once a week or so... unless I continue using it for my PS2 game system... Which I've been doing... it's amazing how well this thing works with video games. -Kevin | ||
| Brian Brown (Fishbowlbrian)
Rating: N/A |
Kevin: keep us posted on the new OH PJ install. I'm curious how the extra brightness will affect your contrast ratio. Brighter is usually better! JTNG: 3,000 hours is a LOT of projector time. I've had mine going for almost four years and haven't gone through my first bulb. It's not my main TV, but even that is only on for a couple hours a day. If your needs are such that it's on for say, 15 hours a day (?!), you should consider a RPTV using good old CRTs... and consider turning that freaking noise box off occasionally. Some of the older PJs had a lower-power circuit to give more bulb life to the unit. In fact, that's what I'm running on mine, but it substantially reduces light output. I would NOT recommend doing something like this in a "bootstrap" way on the input side to try to get longer bulb life, or you'll run the risk of popping a very pricey bulb. Just plan on watching it less or buy into another technology. BTW, that's an amazing price for a PJ, even if it's SVGA. When I started out in this hobby, every digital projector was $3k or more. FBB |