DIY Projection

[Violated]

Thought i would share for those who are like me and love to build things and just like to learn how things work. Well i have been in the process of building my own projector which can yield roughly 150" diagonal projected screen which at this point will just serve as my TV and i will use it to watch movies and such. If the native resolution of the 15" LCD is high enough ( which it should at a common 1024x786 ) this could actually double as my computer monitor. Biggest downfall to constant use is you would need to keep buying HID bulbs and the good kelvin rated ones are fairly pricey, a 6500K 400w bulb would run about $50each. Im sure noone wants to hear me ramble on.

If your interested in a project like this or just want to know how it works check out these forums
http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?act=idx

They also sell everything you would need except for the LCD at their store
http://www.lumenlab.com/estore/

[Maks]

Sounds nice
How's it going right now?

[Violated]

So far pretty good, just building up the parts right now. Got all the optics and a 5.1 surround sound system made by logitech ( which i already had ) list of needed parts is much longer though, total price ( to do it right ) will top about $500. For $500 you could buy a cheap professional projector but with some draw backs parts for Pro projectors is pretty expensive, i believe the bulbs run in the hundreds not to mention if the lcds ( pro projectors not all but most use 3 mini high res lcds one that only displays red one green and one blue ) so parts for my projector will be more reasonable when it comes to replacing parts. the $500 pro projectors usually will only have a native resolution of 800x600 compared to a 15" lcd with 1024x786, mine will also have about 4,000 lumens compared to about 1,500 lumens for the pro which will allow me to see it better in daylight and can also be further from the actual screen giving me a bigger image without losing the brightness. I can't actuall speak for the $500 Pro projectors cause i don't have anything to compare it to and i have never seen one in action i do know i need more lumens cause the 15" lcd will block more light. Not to ramble on but it will probably be 2 - 4 weeks before i will have all necessary parts to complete this project.

[zippy01]

i also like taking things apart but unfortunatly after my parents found i had taken apart the old tv[it didnt work anyways] they locked up the tool cabinet

[person]

AHAHAHHAH OWNED NOOK

[Violated]

I'll make this sort, it's working with lots of tweaking needed to improve the brightness. Here is a picture because of my cameras settings ( shutter speed, etc.. ) so this picture looks about 20% brighter than with the eye and all other light sources are blocked out and the projected image is roughly 6-7ft diagonal.

[Child-Of-Bodom]

dude that is such a sick game

[Violated]

Yeah the few games i have for PS2 and GameCube in my opinion are some of the most memorable games.

Shadow Of The Colossus
God Of War
Resident Evil 4
Ikaruga
Zelda: Twilight Princess

[FluffyKitty.deadm]

Looks cool VIO!!! Hard to tell, but are the colors correct? From the pic it looks like there is a lot of green in the image (like the tint is off). I don't know if its the camera, game, or projector.

I am also curious of how bright of a room it works in.

[Violated]

In that image i think i had the brightness and contrast up a bit so colors look a little washed out, the green tint you speak of is prob a combination of the game and the bulb. The bulb im using is a 400w MH with a kelvin rating of 6,500 which is a white spectrum ( close to the kelvin of the sun ) but it only has about 10hrs of use on it and the spec's of these bulbs are rated after 100 or 1,000 hours of use, so it's common for the color spectrum to be off a bit until the bulb gets broken in.

I finally hooked my PC up to it and im fairly pleased, still lots of tweaking to do to get the best image i can for example my spherical reflector is about 8-10mm off center (reports using a lux meter has shown it improves the brightness up to 25%) if positioned properly, i have blurred left and right edges, slightly darker corners, bulb isn't center to the rear fresnel lens, etc... What to mention here is that 25% increase is not as much as you think but it's still a significant increase, these DIY projectors only transmit about 5-10% of the light source you have compared to commercial projectors which have a higher percentage of transmitted light (i believe it's around the 50-70% range).

As to your question fluff as of right now before further tweaking i can have a 15w compact florescent with lampshade on and i am still able to manage a fairly usable image, i would assume with perfect adjustments i could have a 15w CF without lampshade on and be able to use it perfectly fine. Of course there are other ways to get a brighter image, such as a pre-condenser lens, higher wattage bulb or atleast one with a smaller arch as the rear fresnel lens works to take a point light source and transmit it as evenly as possible across a larger area, so the bulb i have now is probably only using 15% or so of the arc. As soon as i feel like messing with my cameras settings i'll take some better pictures and also some with the lights on.

Hope some day soon to jump on CS using the projector to see what the experience is like.