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."

Comments

Thats nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

In my day, we made our own movies using a light bulb and creative hand poses casting animal shaped shadows...

I'd rather

[Evangelion]

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.

Not a good field for DIY

[Arthur B.]

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.

DIY Digital Projection

[LegendOfLink]

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!

Hmm?

[Sweetdelight]

http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20041113/index.h tml + Video

Re:Perfect timing!

[Living WTF]

> that'll cut our costs by at least 400%

Your calculator was a DIY project too, wasn't it?

Paint your own screen

[Drog]

I've been reading up on this recently as I'm planning to build myself a home theatre in my basement this summer. Rather than buying or building a screen, I'm simply going to paint it onto my wall using a new type of paint called "Screen Goo" (I read a review of it here). Supposedly, it gives excellent results.

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.

Re:Paint your own screen

[The-Bus]

Well, you will probably want to invest in a good DVD player. The decoding between players can have a big difference on image quality. I am not a videophile, but in my experience it's not so much the quality during slow, colorful scenes, but during very rapid sequences where you might see issues with playback. The Home Theater Forum is always a great start (they have a very nice moderated DIY section), and I am looking into possibly getting an Oppo Digital DVD which has been extremely well rated. As a plus, places like HK Flix sell it with updated firmware (so you can switch regions easily on the fly), although I've seen it for $50 less on Froogle.

As far as receivers, I can give you my analysis and feedback as a regular consumer (I wouldn't even call myself a "prosumer") of home theatre electronics. You definitely would do well in investing in a good receiver with as many inputs as possible, and don't get them from Circuit City / Best Buy / Fry's as they are usually $100 more than what you can find online. In reality, you will probably not need more than 3 or 4 component inputs (DVD + HDTV + Console + Other). Depending on the # of inputs on your TV/projector, this should put you in the $300-$500 range for receivers. Look for wattage ratings and buy from a well-known company (say, Harman-Kardon, Denon, Onkyo, Sony, Yamaha).

Once everything is set up, get a calibration DVD like Digital Video Essentials or Avia to tweak your settings. It can make a noticeable difference.

You don't need Monster Cables. If you have a friend at a store who can get you the discount (retailer markup is at least 100%), then they're fine. But you don't need to spend $300 on cables. Spend that money on better equipment.

Just do your research. It's possible that over the next few months older models will be discontinued and be heavily discounted. That can always save you some cash.

Call me when

[amcdiarmid]

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.

Hmmmm

[Phurd Phlegm]

I read one page--the one on "Theroy." I find it distracting when someone doesn't bother with even elementary proofreading. If the content is interesting enough, I can overlook it, but this didn't seem all that novel. Just so there'd be some discussion, I made a quick list of the first errors that sprang out at me in the "Theroy" page. Doesn't everyone know some pedantic jerk that will edit their stuff for them?

1. principals : principles
2. cheep : cheap
3. cellulous : celluloid?
4. threw : through
5. LCD's : LCDs
6. Simi-gloss : semi-gloss
7. portal : portable
8. Walmount : wall-mount
9. theroy : theory
10. togeather : together
11. its : it's
12. . : ?

    I anxiously await the first person to point out a spelling or usage error in my post--it's traditional.

DIY?

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

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?