I know there were quite a few fellow ATers that were considering doing the DIY projector thing. Well, I jumped in and after a lot of hard work, it actually paid off.
Yeah, I named it after one of my favorite autobots when I was a squirt in the 80s. Anyway, here are a few shots of my projector. I only have a 2mp Fuji, and it doesn't like night shots, so please bear with me.
Projector Parts:
CMV Ct-522a LCD
Ushio S400DD from AtlantaLightBulbs.com
EVC Tech Ballast from OceanEncounter.com
4' x 8' panel of 1/2" plywood from Lowe's cut for .25 a slice (not completely accurate cuts though)
Fresnels cut to 12.5 x 12.5 and 80mm Triplet from diylabs.org
Eagle Shield to protect the wood on lamp side
13" x 13" piece of IR Glass as heat shield
14" x 11" piece of Lexan XL10 for UV Shield
I'll start with the earliest shots before tweaking, and move to the last shot after a lot of adjustments were made. Remember, my camera doesn't do nightshots well--this thing is brighter in real life.
Oooooohh....the monitor works!!!
First Shot...the image was huge! Bigger than my Christmas tree to the right.
Halo 2 anyone? Hehe
Spiderman 2...it's hard to take action shots just pausing with Mplayer
A little Final Fantasy Pic to give an idea of the brightness
Here's a shot of the enclosure. As you can see, I'm not done with it, but you get the idea. I'll be sealing the back to block light with the grill and louvre later. Sorry again for the pics. Doh.
Setup
As you can see, the brightness, etc. improved as I moved things around. In the first shot, the image was so big (117" wide x 88" tall) that I had to aim at the opposite wall instead. My image is approximately 146" (12 feet) diagonal. Dimensions are 117" (9.75 feet) wide by 88" (~7 feet) tall. This is about a 10 foot throw. There's some minor keystoning since I have the projector's front raised about 4" off the table, but it's not a big deal. Text is sharp enough that I can surf the net with the pj. I'll try and get a shot of it during the day, and at night with the kitchen lights on.
I still need a proper reflector and a screen. The last piece of guts I'll add to the projector setup will be an additional card to my HTPC. Right now it has a PVR 250 in it with MCE 2005 as the OS. I want to add an HDTV card, but I've not made up my mind on which one: ATI TV Wonder or Fusion card.
Update: Went with the Fustion HDTV 3 card, and found a suitable reflector on Amazon. When this stuff arrives, I'll upload new pics of any improvements.
Edit: Update 2/5/05 --> Shrek 2 shots and Anandtech forums up-close text shot.
Hey folks. I've got a few new shots now that I've got my reflector and some other stuff in the projector. I'm still only using my little Fuji digicam, so I'm trying my best to hold my breath as I take the night shots--forgiveness please. Hehe.
Shrek Shots:
1
2
3
4
5
Shot of Anandtech text: this was the best one I could take--I have no camera stand, so again, I'm just holding my breath and trying to be as still as possible--shaking causes bluriness.
Anandtech forums text shot
Yeah, I named it after one of my favorite autobots when I was a squirt in the 80s. Anyway, here are a few shots of my projector. I only have a 2mp Fuji, and it doesn't like night shots, so please bear with me.
Projector Parts:
CMV Ct-522a LCD
Ushio S400DD from AtlantaLightBulbs.com
EVC Tech Ballast from OceanEncounter.com
4' x 8' panel of 1/2" plywood from Lowe's cut for .25 a slice (not completely accurate cuts though)
Fresnels cut to 12.5 x 12.5 and 80mm Triplet from diylabs.org
Eagle Shield to protect the wood on lamp side
13" x 13" piece of IR Glass as heat shield
14" x 11" piece of Lexan XL10 for UV Shield
I'll start with the earliest shots before tweaking, and move to the last shot after a lot of adjustments were made. Remember, my camera doesn't do nightshots well--this thing is brighter in real life.
Oooooohh....the monitor works!!!
First Shot...the image was huge! Bigger than my Christmas tree to the right.
Halo 2 anyone? Hehe
Spiderman 2...it's hard to take action shots just pausing with Mplayer
A little Final Fantasy Pic to give an idea of the brightness
Here's a shot of the enclosure. As you can see, I'm not done with it, but you get the idea. I'll be sealing the back to block light with the grill and louvre later. Sorry again for the pics. Doh.
Setup
As you can see, the brightness, etc. improved as I moved things around. In the first shot, the image was so big (117" wide x 88" tall) that I had to aim at the opposite wall instead. My image is approximately 146" (12 feet) diagonal. Dimensions are 117" (9.75 feet) wide by 88" (~7 feet) tall. This is about a 10 foot throw. There's some minor keystoning since I have the projector's front raised about 4" off the table, but it's not a big deal. Text is sharp enough that I can surf the net with the pj. I'll try and get a shot of it during the day, and at night with the kitchen lights on.
I still need a proper reflector and a screen. The last piece of guts I'll add to the projector setup will be an additional card to my HTPC. Right now it has a PVR 250 in it with MCE 2005 as the OS. I want to add an HDTV card, but I've not made up my mind on which one: ATI TV Wonder or Fusion card.
Update: Went with the Fustion HDTV 3 card, and found a suitable reflector on Amazon. When this stuff arrives, I'll upload new pics of any improvements.
Edit: Update 2/5/05 --> Shrek 2 shots and Anandtech forums up-close text shot.
Hey folks. I've got a few new shots now that I've got my reflector and some other stuff in the projector. I'm still only using my little Fuji digicam, so I'm trying my best to hold my breath as I take the night shots--forgiveness please. Hehe.
Shrek Shots:
1
2
3
4
5
Shot of Anandtech text: this was the best one I could take--I have no camera stand, so again, I'm just holding my breath and trying to be as still as possible--shaking causes bluriness.
Anandtech forums text shot