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A Practical Guide to DIY LCD Projectors
Compu486 writes "Inventgeek.com has a new article entitled
"A
practical guide to DIY Home Projection". The guide covers the basic theory
behind projection and provides a step by step guide for a "Practical"
DIY LCD Projector. Although this topic has been covered before, the perspective
they offer is refreshing."
In my day, we made our own movies using a light bulb and creative hand poses casting animal shaped shadows...
Now I can finally watch my reality TV shows on a bigger screen. This is truely a fantastic day.
Voice your opinion!
Go with LumenLab's plan, if I was to do this at all.
And they have real pictures too, instead of faked images on thier site.
I don't really get why one would want DIY here... Having a video-projector, say for home-cinema sake or gaming is mostly about quality of the picture. Apart from the sake of learning I'd rather buy one. Oh, and not a LCD one, at least a DSP. Although laser projection tech has been around for some time now, I'm really surprised that it's not used. Although sounds like a feasible DIY project.
\u262D = \u5350
Nah, my idea is better. Re-wire a retina scanner to output a DVD stream, and then you've got the BIGGEST picture of them all.
Although I did see Matrix 3 in the IMAX, and it was a little scary to see Morpheus's face. I mean, the dude had like 2-foot pores!
IGB: More fun than eating oatmeal!
http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20041113/index.h tml
+ Video
well... you could connect your notebook that is on the crappy ugly shelf to the ugly loud useless rack and then project all your porn in your new projector.
http://stoploudness.org/
Is today's Slashdot being brought to us by the DIY network or something?
Build a rack!
Build a shelf!
Build an LCD!
I admire the geek who homebrews hardware, but this is getting rediculous.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
> that'll cut our costs by at least 400%
Your calculator was a DIY project too, wasn't it?
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
As for the projector, I don't want to build this thing myself, I'm willing to spend the bucks. So I'll likely go for the Panasonic PT-AE700U, which I've seen reviewed here.
So that leaves me wondering what sort of PC or hi-def receiver to buy to power this thing, so that I can use cable, satellite, game console, DVD, PVR and the PC.
Any advice would be most appreciated.
Looking for political forums? Check out "The World Forum".
My wife will accept one in the living room.
Otherwise this is just another "Overhead projectors with LCD panels make big ugly projectors that you cannot use anywhere but a darkened room" story.
I anxiously await the first person to point out a spelling or usage error in my post--it's traditional.
a 1024x768 screen is going to look pretty damn pixelated blown up to 100" unless you sit quite a way back!
The author of the article keeps saying it's better to DIY than spend $5K on a commercial model. However, you can get a decent projector for $800(or less if you buy a refurb non-current model). Plus, the picture quality is a lot better(supports 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i), and is in an appealing form factor.
The other question is how noisy is the overhead projector? Remembering back to elementary school, those things were pretty loud.
When commenting on lenses, it says:
"Many lenses are coated to improve the optics of the lens. Products like Windex will severely damage these coatings resulting in pilling, fogging, or even etching of the actually glass. FYI, most CRT monitors are subject to the same conditions. Don't ever clean your CRT with Windex or similar products. Of course you would know this if you read the manual."
Didn't know that! :) It's nice to get immediately useful info from an article about something you don't have time for.
How is this a "do it yourself" project? You bought an overhead projector. You bought the LCD display that was made to go on overhead projectors. You bought a screen.
The only DIY here was "Make a box with a window in it" and that's not really a "Do it yourself LCD projector" now is it?
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
an LCD monitor actually has a backlight behind the LCD screen, so to get the picture, you actually cannibalize a monitor, and use the LCD screen itself with a bright light behind it, and Fresnel lenses to focus the image...check out http://lumenlab.com/ for more info...
I have to be honest, this screen is really worth it. It looks great in low light and no light situations and is very clear.
Projectors look really good in low light and no light situations, on a sheet or a wall, or on your little brother. The test of a screen is how it does in situations with higher amounts of ambiant light.
George II -- Spreading Freedom and American values, one bomb at a time.
All they did was take an LCD screen, designed to be used with overhead projectors, and put it onto an overhead projector. The only "DIY" was the case they built out of "partial board" and covered with black felt.
My department bought one of those transparent LCD screens in 1997, back when overhead projectors were still to be found in every lecture hall, laptops were $3000 and LCD projectors were $5000 and as big as a suitcase. The idea was to use this to go from the computer screen to the wall screen on the cheap. It was used every once in awhile, but if you weren't using a laptop, it was a pain to use, since you had to wheel in a cart with a desktop PC.
Once laptops got cheap enough so that they were commonplace, LCD projectors had gotten cheap enough that the department bought one and consigned the transparent LCD screen, with its terrible picture quality, to the back closet of the copier room. There, it collected dust, along with all of the other obsolete junk that no one wanted to use anymore, but had cost too much to just throw away.
The transparent LCD screen was an ugly kludge, a bridge technology to mate the old with the new. Let it die.
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain
Look at the cost of life of the bulbs in OHPs. Typically 50 hours and cost of about £30-50 here in the UK.
Bulb life in a projector is typically 2000 hours (4000 in mine) and cost about £250 for the bulb.
So using 2000 hours as an example:
Projector cost £599 will last 2000 hours so total cost for first 200 hours is £599.
Self made projector will cost about £200-300, for 2000 hours of use you'll need 40 bulbs at £30 a go which works out at £1200 for bulbs and £200-300 so grand total of £1400-1500 (for which you can get a good DLP).
You also end up with a big ugly box which you can't place anywhere easily, a projector with no analog inputs, no warranty, no adjustments to compensate for placement etc etc.
Just buy a projector, it'll be safer too, something you can leave for 30 minutes and know you aren't going to come back to a fire.
According to this link the Proxima Ovation 944+ is 8 grand new. Not that anyone would pay that, right? Well...
None are listed on eBay.
Finished auctions on eBay list at about 300. That's fine, but try to find one!
Kind of eliminates the ability to do this project, doesn't it?
I don't understand why all of these DIY projects have to use some amount of unobtainium. Why not price out some NEW parts, ones that are currently on the market? Leave it as an exercise for the reader to find used or discounted products.
Only then can you make a fair assessment of whether or not one of these projects is "do-able."
I would love to see some names / brands of recommended overhead projection panels - but unfortunately, THAT is left up to the reader. I thought making these recommendations was a key part of a DIY article. After all, look at Woodworking magazine or any other DIY magazine - they all list the parts, the specs of the parts, and typically, a price or two with each.
Video Game News, FAQs, etc
Why oh why would anyone bother?
:)
I recently purchased a very lovely DLP projector for business purposes. NEC, 1024x768, 5lbs. Composite, RGB, Component, S-Video inputs, a remote, etc. all for about $1,000CDN ($815USD). Similarly, you can get units like this from major retailers for $750-$1500 with spare bulbs, cables, etc. This project has a cost of "$200-800", but realistically, you're in the higher range if you want a decent LCD panel with good resolution, inputs, etc. and a bright enough projector.
So yes- this has the geek factor to it and all your friends will find it amusing that you were able to make a projector to fill your wall. These projects are intended to SAVE tons of money in DIY projects as well as add to the geek factor.
Instead, we have a big clunking machine, built on parts with low bulb life, not intended to go for hours on end, poor cooling, and far from optimal quality (usually splotchy projection comes from the overhead projectors).
Don't bother with this project. If you're going to spend this much, go out and buy a real projector. It'll be great for computers, home theatre, presentations, etc. and you'll be able to drag it over to a friend's house to have movies on a king sized bed sheet draped over his/her garage.
The costs of real projectors have come down! FOur to five years ago, a good portable projector was $3000-$5000. Nowdays it's $750-$1500- cheaper than most backlit projection TVs. Go buy a real projector.
-M
when you see the word 'Linux', drink!
I got a free, working overhead projector from the curb on one fine trash day, and later I was given a fairly decent laptop with a screen that had a broken backlight and was not economically feasible to repair. I combined the two to create an LCD projector just as you describe. Pictures can be seen here: Click (please be kind to this server!).
Advantages:
*Cheap (I did it for $0.00)
*Easy
*Totally ghetto-fabulous.
Disadvantages:
*Really, really crappy quality (only really could be used for video, and only if you weren't picky about quality)
*Edges got cut off because the LCD was larger than the projector
*Pretty dim
*Noisy
*In my case, could only work with the laptop who's screen I tore apart
So in summary, if you have the parts laying around and have some time to kill - go for it. Otherwise don't even bother.