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DIY Projector Plans Released
vroom writes "Lumenlab, a rapidly-growing website dedicated to the art of building LCD projectors, has just released its guide on how to build your own projector. The guide used to sell for $19.99, along with entrance to the "Premium Forums," where like-minded DIYers work together to constantly push this obsession forward. Not sure if building your own LCD projector is for you? Not a problem anymore. Just download the official torrent file of the guide and you're good to go. If you want to roam with the others in the Premium Forums, however, you'll still need to buy a membership."
I didn't see anything on their site that they were releasing it via torrent... are we sure this is truly an official release and not someone just tossing it up without permission?
I see a LumenLab banner at the top of Free2Code's site, but with a referrer link like they're an affiliate.
Maybe I'm just paranoid, but this doesn't feel legit.
"Minor carpentry and electrical skills are required for this project."
What do they mean by "minor?" Why can't there be a rating system?
MINOR (Carpentry/Electrical)
Drunken Redneck/Three Month Old Chimp
Middle-Age-Crisis-Ridden Father-in-Law/Community College Electrical Engineering Dropout
Bob Vila/Uncle Ben
Jesus/Ben Franklin
MAJOR (Carpentry/Electrical)
Here is the list of basic equipment
1. lcd
2. strong light source
3. lens
4. case
5. smoke
6. mirrors
7. done
8. profit
WhatMeWorry!!!
Are building these worth these worth it? What is the final cost/hours spent/usability/style/performance of the finished product? Compared to say a cheaper $600 finished projector?
For a 1-page article that's a lot of exclamation marks! Somebody count them! I counted 21 !'s ! That's lot when you take into consideration that the whole article is like 15 sentences ! Seriously it becomes annoying after a while ! Somebody should tell these marketing morons that .!=! !
My roommate and I actually are going with this route (although we are poor college kids, so obtaining the parts is a slow process). We know a few people on campus that have used this method as well. Coming from an engineering school something like this guide isnt much help to me, but access to those forums have been invaluable, there's just the little things that you just dont quite think of when you're building your projector that other people have done (i.e. keystoning and different methods of implementing it), and plus it's nice to have a big community to help you along with something like this. Stripping down a LCD may seem intimidating, but with some tips from the community, it's something that can be easily achieved.
/me puts on my flame suit for forking over the $20 some-odd bucks and prepares for a raping.
Now...
Hardly "Just released" ! My personal copy of the lumenlab guide
says "Copyright lumenlab.com 2003-2004".
BTW It is a good guide, but the same information can be collected elsewhere.
http://izzotek.com/index.php?lang=en
http://www.diyprojectorcompany.com/
http://www.diybeamer.ch/portal/index.php (German, Ahh es macht so gut..)
http://www.gadaffy.ch.vu/
http://www.gwidijanto.fcpages.com/index.htm
Yet buying the guide allows access to the forums, which by itself is worth the price.
No, nor do they have plans for vacuum cleaners, cyclotrons, gazebos, juicers, carousels, air-conditioning units or space shuttles.
These things (and more, including your scanner doohickey) fall under the very broad category of "things that have absolutely nothing to do with diy video projectors and, by extension, lumenlab".
Sorry.
Looks like the dupe posting was just replaced by more ad-ish articles. *shakes head*
Windows is like decaf - it tastes like the real thing, but it won't get you through the day.
how hard would it be to build one from a Slide projector? Bulb and some optics already in place, just the "LCD screen format" (35mm slides) somewhat too small :)
Any pointers/help?
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
It's a great tutorial on how to convert a laptop TFT screen and a regular overhead projector into a great big screen! A good read, practical and down to earth.
This looks like a fairly high quality guide to building a projector which is pretty amazing because most I have seen are next to and will result in nothing more than a pile of broken parts.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
Ok... this is one of those DIY projects that can be cool to do, but overall its not worth the effort unless you need a very custom looking projector. Quick cost breakdown: You have to buy all the parts - that can easily run over $300. Add $N if you need tools. We are already sitting at $300+N, not counting labor. This project does not appear to be something you can do in 30 minutes or less. And when you are done, you are without any kind of warrenty. Total price so far (best case) = $300 + N + (Hours * Hourly wage) - warrenty Total price so far (worst case) = $300 + N + (Hours * Hourly wage) + Hospital trip - warrenty Or you can go and buy a new cheapie projector for under $600. It is also safe to assume that an occasional projector will turn up at a computer scavenger or pawn shop. Of course, I'm waiting for the SCO corporate liquidation auction to pick up my projector...
Navicula hydraulica plena anguilarum est. Omnes castelli tuus nostri sunt. Ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta.
So the reason you're condemning this is because your *eight year old* OHP projection screen is, um, eight years old.
This isn't putting an OHP LCD on an OHP, it's converting a normal desktop LCD screen (you know, the ones that have gotten very, very cheap and very, very good in the past couple of years) into a projection system. The output can be great, and they are an order of magnitude cheaper to run than *any* commercial projector. Sure, you need to hook up a PC or a video-to-VGA converter to it, but so what? Laptops and HTPCs (and video-to-vga converters) are plentiful.
Where can somebody get that test image? Frankly, I just like it and think it would make a nice desktop picture. I refer to the image here:
http://lumenlab.com/brainchild/web_test1.jpg
TIA.
I wouldn't want it in my living room.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
The Tom's Hardware article was a great proof-of-concept, and is still useful if you have a spare LCD screen and an OHP floating around, but it's hardly elegant or robust or electrically safe. The Lumenlab style of PJ is a refinement of the idea - less duct-tape and more lounge-room appliance. Your wife would probably want the TH PJ thrown out :)
A bit off topic but regarding projectors, I always wondered why the lamps are so expensive (>$200). Are the filaments made of gold?? (joking). Seriously, I would like to know why manufacturing could not yield much cheaper lamps. Anybody got a clue?
Remember the year 2000? They promised us flying cars. They delivered the PT Cruiser...
Go home.
Place tablet on projector.
Plug in all cords into their correct sockets.
Enjoy!
There are many more guides about building your custom made LCD projector around. From my experience it can be difficult to find them with Google. But here is a starting point for more and free practical guides to do-it-yourself DIY LCD projectors. There are also guides for building projectors from old dia projectors and tutorials to build overhead projectors yourself. You may even use a display from an otherwise broken and unusable laptop.
Just click here: http://www.lumenlab.com/
It doesn't cost a thing, except for 3 seconds of your time. You may wish to try again at a later time.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Yup, pretty useless... except in the singular case where you want to make a diy video projector. They're pretty useful then.
:)
Good thing that's what I want to do.
A forum that discussed this very topic (may save the $20!)t =266277
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?
Some more links in there no doubt!
Not sure why the release of this particular set of plans is news, really. There are a ton of guides for DIY projectors, that go from simple fresnel based systems, through LCD + overhead projector, all the way to building the whole thing yourself.
FYI, see:
- Building a Home Theater (a guide and study of my own experience)
- Operation: Big Screen, using an OHP
- Inventgeek's guide
- Building an LCD projector from the ground up
And there are many more, just a g00gle away...I've looked seriously into the diy projector projects before, but one thing that always put me off was the 4:3 aspect ratio. Has anyone found a good screen and supplies with which to do a 16:9 projection?
I know that most of the newer non-diy projectors do that, but still the best price I can find on one that does xga is at least $1K.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Why would you want to buy a refridgerator when you could just buy an esky and dump some ice in it? Why would you want a TV when you could cut up some paper, draw images on each piece, then assemble them into a flipbook? :D
An OHP with an LCD on top is going to be ungainly, fragile and is going to dump a lot of waste light around it, washing out the image. DIY projectors aren't infinitely bright; controlling the ambient light is an important consideration.
I've been in the DIY projector scene for awhile, and I've never heard of lumenlab.com, or a "for sale" guide. This guide seems to be fairly in depth, but this is one of the more complicated designs. My favorite design is the most simple, and AFAIK the cheapest. Just grab a decent quality projection panel from Ebay, and then grab an overhead projector (just like th eones you used in school) also cheap and readily available on Ebay. You can get this setup for $200-300 and the replacement bulbs are cheap. Very simple to setup, just plugging in the power and video sources and you're good to go. The picture isn't the best, but it's not bad at all, I watch movies, play games, and sometimes just fart around and read slashdot on my bedroom wall. The darker you can get the room, the better the picture will be.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
-- .sig like home.
There's no
What the hell kind of question is, "not sure if it's for you"? Why is that even being asked on Slashdot. This is supposed to be the place where DIYers congregate and talk about technology. But I see that ever since the sheeple have been admitted things must have gone downhill. You wouldn't have seen this kind of thing on Slashdot in 1957. Back then it would have been a bunch of guys with nicknames like "Buzz", "Jupiter" and "Mousemeat" working on a project like this. And they would have been happy to share the info just for the sake of how cool it is to share instead of profit. And they would have all been members of the ARRL (American Radio Relay League to you greenies who don't know anything about REAL technology) who were excited about their QSL card collection. THAT was the REAL geek. None of this namby-pamby "for a fee you can join our club and get access to the good stuff" tack that these people are up to. Truly a sad day and age we live in. The 50s were much better. At least every kid knew how to build a crystal radio set and knew what a "cat whisker" was.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Sorry but I call BS. the colors are washed out horribly. my LCD commercial projector has 3 seperate lcd's that have very strong color filters to handle the high light intensity. a laptop screen can not give me decent contrast ratios or decent color saturations.
sorry. it's a red herring.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
If you are using third world child labor, don't count your time at all, and happen to have all the tools and most of the miscellaneous supplies just lying around ready to be put into the transhcan, I'm guessing you might break even.
Of coursem that's if you don't mind poor color rendition, and have an enormous space for your projector.
Don't be put off by lamp life. 2000 hours? My first PJ lasted more than 4 years on its original 1000 hour lamp (it had about 1700 when I sold the house, and still looked fine). 2000 hours - that's 8 hours a day, five days a week, 50 weeks a year, or 5.5 hours a day, every day, all year. Unless you plan on just leaving the thing on all the time, it should take you a good two years to go through a 2000 hour lamp, and several HT projectors are sporting 4000 hour lamps now. Heck, by then you'll want a new projector.
Officemax recently had a PJ on sale here for $499. 1100 lumens, 4000h lamp, 2000:1 contrast. That's going to be hard to beat with a DIY setup.
Spend a couple of hours searching for a bargain, instead of building your own. You'll probably be happier in the end, and if you're married, you'll definitely be happier with the WAF in the end.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Dude... this is someone who builds their own LCD projector. What wife?
Once you've gotten your spiffy projector built, you might as well attach it properly to the ceiling. I didn't build my own projector, but I did build my own projector mount. I have pictures and more details available. I've built the mount for a couple of different types of projectors, but the design can easily work for just about any projector. Total cost ended up being 2 or 3 bucks for the hardware. I had a couple of old pieces of wood lying around, so I didn't have to buy that.
http://www.WinWithRealEstate.com/
The users in the LumenLab member forum are the real reason to buy the plans. Their experience is invaluable and they are amazingly eager to help you.
Brain, the guy who operates LumenLab.com is highly accessible, both in forums and LL's IRC channel. He's an interesting character. He and his wife built a biodiesel car that runs on hemp oil, a DIY home CNC machine, among other things.
I highly recommend browsing the LumenLab free forum where users post pics of their finished projectors. Hundreds of success stories. Look for my friend PyrettaBlaze, his finished PJ is amazing.
The finished result with the LumenLab kit is siginificantly sharper and brighter than the overhead projector/LCD panel kludge - Approximately 1800-2000 ANSI lumens at 1024x768 with the ability to throw anything from your PC to the screen (or other sources through adapter box.) The LL guys are using quality optics and have a fanatical support community behind them.
Check it out.
THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
I know that many of you will belive this to be a scam just as I did when me and a friend found it about 2 years ago. I plunked down the 20 bux at the time and then started reading the protected forums looking at the different ideas. After a month or so of gathering a list of things that I should get( basically what was most popular with many of the other builders) I decided that I would give it a shot and see if I could actually make it work. The build process was not very hard at all. I took my time building and measuring everything in about 2 weeks. When I first turned the projector on, I was waiting for it to not work and me to look like a fool to my wife. Much to her and my surprise the first projected images of Shrek where absolutley jaw dropping. Now, when ever we have a party or gathering at the house, everyone always wants to check out the gaming/movie projector as I sit there with a smug look on my face saying "Yea I built that for under 500 bux" Anyhow, here is a link to my finished working projector that has been running for over 1.5 years and is still great. http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic =1576
If you truely want a home theater, do not just blow this off as a scam. Putting a TV in a cardboard box to get a 120" picture that is crystal clear and high definition is a scam. This is true science. And you will be very pleased with what you come up with after you are finished with your DIY projector.
The point of releasing the guide for free is to get exposure and to let people get a feel for if they have the time/ability to start a project like this. You're getting the same guide that I bought over a year ago, the forums is where the real value lies and it has always been that way. The guide not specific enough? Remember, its DIY (DO IT YOURSELF). Its about experimenting, learning, having fun, and, if all goes well, getting a kick ass projector out of it. I've taken a look at the new pro lens setup, and it makes a SPECTACULAR picture, for less than half what a commercial projector will cost. Operating costs are a fraction of commercial projectors. But if you're not ready to build something like this, then don't buy into it.
At least you get a good idea of what it will take now, since the guide is free, so you can make your own decision about if you have the ability or the want to do something like this. As opposed to those eBay auctions for "plans" that doesn't tell you anything about it, you just have to risk your (guide) money on it. And too often it will turn out to be some shit plan that doesn't work well if at all. These guys know their stuff, they get their own lenses, made specifically for them. Its all very professional and you get great results. If this is something you can do, then I highly recommend this site.
They are not washed out for me. Beautiful colors and nice sharp picture.
I know the idea is to get light emitting from a tiny point, hence the super expensive bulbs... but couldn't that be solved somehow, using a different configuration for the optics or focusing the light, etc.. It would be so much cheaper to just plug in maybe 6 100 watt regular household light bulbs. Possible?
Meh.
I read somewhere that the next generation of movie theater projects will be at 4096 * 2160. Would it be possible to get this resolution with a custom DIY projector? I want to know because I would like to experiment with developing games for this platform and I was wondering if I can hack one together. Hi-Res + Large Screen + Many Players = New Genre?
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/ 14/1751205&tid=222&tid=196
Looks like slashdot got scooped by... slashdot.
No wait, reading TFA, that projector is actually higher quality than this one. This one just a homemade system like an "opaque projector", a system that has been sold on eBay for like 4 years. Wow, the slashvertisements never end, do they? slashdot sucks.
Note to anyone who wants to make this, the image will be really really dim since it works on reflected light.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
It's always baffled me why super bright white LEDs aren't used in any DIY projectors I've seen online as a relatively small array of them is capable of some very impressive light output at a fraction of the running costs or temperature produced by filament bulbs. They're not even that expensive anymore (certainly when compared to commercial projector bulbs) and could provide a much longer lifespan than filament bulbs.
Sure, they may not be the 'perfect white' required by expensive commercial projectors but has anyone tried to use them in a DIY LCD projector.
Also, what about those flourescent 'low energy bulbs' that claim to offer the equivelant light of a 100W tungsten bulb whilst drawing only 25W of light? Wouldn't using a grid of them behind the LCD screen with a small reflector behind the lamps provide enough light?
For truly enjoying projected images, you will want really solid blacks in addition to the brightest whites - the contrast ratio of the panel will determine how "washed out" the image will look.
This is why most portable projectors these days use DLP/DMD "light mirrors" - because they can generate true black, and the DMD "light valves" can handle more heat than small LCD's that would otherwise be used in a portable projector.
The other thing to keep in mind is that cheaper LCD's have a slow pixel response time -- for really enjoyable high-motion video, you'll want a fast response time - a single frame at 75Hz refresh is about 13ms, so if you get a cheap 25ms response LCD, things will looky mushy/ghosty when the images are in motion.
If you're going through the time and hassle of building one of these, spend the money where it'll make the big difference -- and buy the LCD's with 500:1 or better contrast ratio, and 8ms or better response time.
The people do it because we want to do it. Not because we are obligated to do it. There are people that build them and they are gone after they finish. Others hang around helping people out and others work on new designs/improvments. You are not obligated to buy the guide and you can buy lenses at other places.
If you have access to other locations to get the same level of help then that is great. However if they were open to the public you would have every nay sayer in the world posting on how the projector does not work and that its a scam yada yada. Its a community and you pay to get in to the community. What you consider to be a scam is a huge mound of resources to the next guy.
So who exactly are they trying to scam? Are the scaming the people that pay for access or are they scamming the people that help the other people out? The people paying for access are getting what they paid for and that is help with their problems and a huge amount of detailed information on other peoples projector builds.
I have posted on other DIY community boards and I have recieve 0 responses in the past. So I guess those sources of information are a true bargin for the 0 dollars spent.
I was able to scrounge a little information last time lumenlabs made /.
That said, I wanted to wait a bit because the hiccups in trying to do this project with an LCD that could support 720p or 1080i were large enough for me to pass on it (not to mention I didn't know where to play the thing in the room I'd use it...plus heat generated by it was a concern)
Has any progress been made in this department? Last I knew was that there were problems with the picture getting blurry around the edges, hot spots, and general clarity issues.
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
There's a big "Document created under the Creative Commons License" at the top of the document (although this could be faked) but then on page 4 there are links to the "Premium Forums" and the more detailed "Lumen-Lab Pro" version of the guide, both of which one has to pay for.
I don't think the second part could be reasonably faked. Unless of course they H4x0r3d lumenlab.com...
Do you mean a projector panel LCD made for overheads? That's what I have, and it has served me well. But the color and contrast is pretty poor compared to anything you can buy new. I've been on the lookout for just the LCD element with VGA connectors but they don't seem to exist. I wouldn't mind stripping out a monitor if I knew it was going to be easy... but I've read plenty of horror stories of how they can be hard to disassemble. That, and most LCD screens are too big and tend to overlap the lighted area of your OHP.
Maybe I'll just go out and buy one.
Blender And Linux Fan
> Dude... this is someone who builds their own LCD projector. What wife? I have a wife and I'm going to build one when we get our house early next year. Of course, she told me not to waste my money and forbid me (almost) from doing it. That, my friends, is what the finished basement is for. She will have no say in what I can do or not do there. I'm going to heat our house in the winter not from oil, or gas, but from cpu exhaust. Of course you give up other things that that privilege - such as the rest of the house now belongs to her. :)
This project is pointless... add up all the time scrounging parts, building boxes, finding space to put this huge thing... for some people it's just not worth it.
I picked up an Optoma DLP projector for $999 that does native XGA and has every input under the sun. It's small enough to fit in a backpack, super quiet, and gives excellent performance.
The bulbs are expensive, yes... but with the purchase of an 3-yr warranty that costs less than a replacement bulb and still covers bulbs, I can leave the thing on 24/7 if I choose.
...but a number of the drawbacks relative to commercial projectors put me off after I really researched it in-depth. Assuming that you already know that size, noise and heat are inherently worse with an overhead projector, there are some other issues:
Throw distance / placement restrictions: most overhead projectors are designed to be used a presenter *at the front of the room*, while most people would prefer their front projection system to be located at the back. The el-cheapo overhead projectors have a single element lens with no ability to zoom- for a given screen size, the projector can only be put a specific, short distance from the screen. This is evident if you look at pictures of DIY projectors in action.
There are overheads with two- and three- element lenses, but they are less common (harder to find used) and significantly more expensive new. Even then, the adjustability is limited- you still will need the projector close to the screen. Which makes the noise / heat / size issue much more significant.
Uneven brightness: many overhead projectors have a significant "hot spot" in the center of the screen, and substantially dimmer edges. A three element lens will deal with this, but then again you're spending more than this kind of project justifies. Commercial projectors are much more consistent
Contrast: Black isn't very black- LCD panels designed for monitors don't block the extremely bright projector light source very effectively, so the best you will get is a dark gray, substantially degrading image quality compared with a commercial projector (resolution and contrast are the twin holy grails of projection and display quality).
Limited color gamut: I think one of the reasons overhead projector bulbs are so much cheaper is that they don't make pure white light. You can use color correction tools found in most video drivers to fix this to have more accurate color, but the side effect of such correction is to limit the range of color that can be displayed.
Don't get me wrong- I'm not some videophile snob, but if I'm going to put time and effort into something, I want it to be done right, and there's a limit to how good the results will be with a DIY projector that has nothing to do with your craftsmanship or skills. Rather than building one myself, I'm holding off until I can justify buying a commercial unit (which may be never).
But then again, I'm a professional with a family and a house. I would have been *all over* this in college- it's an awesome dorm room project.
-R
Your warranty will cover it's replacement 1 time. The amount of time that is used on my projector would have burned your $400 bulb by now and I would be on my replacement.
With that being said, each time you replace that bulb you could build another projector and have money left over to buy pizza and beer to watch movies on it.
To be a DIYer is someone that values their money and manages their time, their time is not 'worthless' which means the project is not 'pointless'. The point is to save money and give the chance for someone that does not have thousands of dollars to build their own home theater to enjoy with the added bonus of knowing they built it all on their own. That feeling is priceless not worthless....
Behold, The Warper...This once secret recipe for home projectors is now your for free and made possible with only a frensel lens, cardboard box and some duck tape. Warning - I made one years ago in my dorm room. You could only make out shapes but it did the create cool colors on the wall.
Anyone know how many of those LED's you would need to get enough light for a good projection?
Damn. Tomshardware had a REALLY good several page version of how to do this. That page has just recently been removed...I swear there has got to be a connection here. I can't even find it on the wayback machine. And google results are turning up negative. It used to be everywhere. I wonder if they fear lawsuit if they keep the page up when someone is trying to sell the same information? If you guys like this, try out www.makezine.com. It's a cool little magazine devoted to DIYers.
Why is this even news? Just use google and you come up with thousands of hits. Yes, some of those are even relevant. DIY+projector
a slut did tulsa
It's a bit more money, but there is atleast one custom lcd panel/controller which'll do WUXGA (1920x1200) with DVI input for native 1080p HDTV.
Actually, it's only a scam if they mislead you as to what you get for your money. If they're honest (and the LL folks are) then it can't be a scam. By definition.
:D ) It would be a scam if I said it was a "fully fledged home theatre system with a bonus xbox360."
Hell, I can put a piece of cardboard with a scribble on it up on ebay for $1000 and it wouldn't be a scam if I actually advertised it as "piece of cardboard with scribble on it." (Some artists do it all the time!
Sure, the $1000 cardboard would be a ripoff. But the Lumenlab forums have such a wealth of information that the $20 is well worth it.
I built one. My favorite reference, and probably the largest information collection and most active discussion, is at DIYAudio in the "Moving Images" section.
Here's two photos of my results:
http://lserve.homelinux.net:7780/PICT0056.jpg
http://lserve.homelinux.net:7780/PICT0141.jpg
The white bar on the lefthand side indicates one problem you'll have: the internal components of an LCD are very delicate. I can solder 0603 SMD resistors without breaking a sweat, or lift a 208-pin FPGA from a circuit board without damaging either, but I still managed to tear one of the mylar edge connector ribbons loose. Fortunately it was right along the edge and there's still plenty of usable viewing area. I do have another monitor I'll use to replace the broken one, but for now it works.
You do need a fairly dim room, but the image is definitely bright enough. I use a 400W metal halide, but I don't have a reflector so that's one possible way I could upgrade the projector another 30% in brightness. And the cheap lenses have a short focal length, there is no zoom control and to fill an entire 8-foot-high wall, the lens is only 10 feet away. Makes couch placement difficult. I ended up putting my couches in an angled arrangement with the projector in between. Kind of like this: \./ except a shallower angle.
Anyway I like it and it was definitely worth the pain, misfortune, and expense.
At least they're honest about their product not having marvellous image quality :) What they were using it for is about the most appropriate use for the single-fresnel-cardboard-box design.
I interviewed my friend Josh about his projector. He took a "I don't give a shit how it looks" approach and now has an 8' by 8' screen in his living room with 150 bucks in parts off eBay. Check out the pictures and crappy 320x240 videos!
http://paininthetech.com/build_your_own_projector
If I can make a projector at home I'm wondering when porn will be shot from three angles at once...
Get your Unix fortune now!
While commercial projectors tend to have superior contrast ratios than the average LCD monitor, you must take into account that this is usually at the expense of both the brightness and the consumer. Many projectors also employ lamps with lower color temperatures to prevent blacks from looking like milky grays, which sacrifices purity in whites.
Laptop LCD screens are also a horrible base of comparison, as they're commonly limited to contrast ratios below 350:1 and use back or side lighting with color temperatures that are too cold for projection.
Ideally, you would want a panel with at least a 450:1 ratio for use with a 400w metal halide bulb(33,000 lumens at 5200k), which isn't hard to find with newer panels hitting up to 1000:1 ratios. In addition, if you consider that with a larger panel, more light will collimate through it and thus more light will be projected, the brightness is unfathomable by any commercial projector.
Informative post gets buried.
Best Buy (yeah, I know... shitty place)... but:
Their extended warranty does in fact cover bulbs. I was so flabbergasted to hear this that I made the manager add it in writing with a signature on my service contract.
The bulb is considered an intergral part of the unit and is obviously essential to its operation. Thus, any failure of the bulb constitutes a failure of the unit.
The nice part is, if the unit fails for any reason more than three times, I get a brand new projector of equal or greater spec.
There are several other communities out there that openly discuss designs, and issues. For starters, theres:
www.diyaudio.com (under The Moving Image), and for parts, rather than buying from lumenlab, try www.diyprojectorcompany.com (they have a forum too, but it's not quite as much fun in my experience as diyaudio's.
I hope someone else takes the initiative to organize the wiki on diyaudio to classify the different designs and projects by cost, type, and difficulty, but it'll probably wait until I get around to it myself.
Oh Yeah, There's also www.diybuildergroup.com/forums
<Voice style="experience">
You realize this is just a temporary situation anyway? My "office" in the basement now contains filing cabinets, dishes in "storage", and canned goods.
(In the off-chance she runs across this someday: I love you, honey!)
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Sleep is just a poor substitute for caffeine, anyway. -Bob Lehmann