My bad, I probably should have stated my reason for going for the CS was to learn how to program computers. The classes they had set out for us to learn was cobolt, pascal, and i think basic. I asked "What about C++ or visual C++" etc and I was told that I would have to pay extra for those types of classes and that is what turned me off to it.
I do agree with the point about people getting hired into jobs that they are not qualified to run though. I see posts all the time looking for IT admins and MUST have a CS degree no acception. hehe oh well...
heheh, the exact reason I bailed on my CS degree. They teach crap compared to what you really need to learn. I have learned more just by working on my CCNA and getting certed by MS.
Thinking back when i was looking in to doing it, I thought i calculated over 1,000. But the final answer from many of the people in the know said they lack the intensity to carry the light the full projection distance.
In short 1. The TV/monitor is not bright enough to give you a watchable image. 2. The screen is curved and you wont have full focus even if you did try to live with the dark image. 3. If you do not invert your picture all the words will be backwards. 4. If you turn your TV upside down it will possibly even ruin it. 5. You will not be able to have every light in the room on much like these free big screen TV scam website show in their "actual" screen shots
I bought the guide about 2 years ago and spent some time researching the science behind it. After learning enough and getting the courage to just give it a shot I started buying the parts that I needed. The LCD I used was 300 bux but you can get one cheaper now aday. Total I would guess that I spent ~500 dollars.
I took my good sweet time when putting it together so I did not damage the LCD at all and making sure everything was aligned properly. After 2 weeks of building I started projecting my first images. That was 1.5 years ago! Now I am playing Quake 4, World of Warcraft, and no longer have the need to go to those noisey movie theaters anymore. I just wait for the movie to come out on DVD and watch it in the peace and quiet of my own home;-)
People will say "Yea well its bulky" but then I say "Yea well my wallet is bulky from saving money on replacement bulbs"
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....
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.
Yea, if they had the intensity there could be some really good posibilities there since you could remove the rear lens, have even lighting, and avoid the inverse square law.
Well my bulb has 39,000 lumens. So you would be looking a huge reduction in brightness. I have been keeping my eye out for these super bright LEDs that they are making now. I always wanted to try and create a huge array of these LEDs and use them as a light source. However, many people in the community belive they will not have the intensity to carry the distance from the projector to the screen. They are pretty bright and several hundred of them in an array would be extremely bright. But it would be more expensive.
Over at Lumenlab I know they were working on a new light engine design that would give 40% more brightness and probably allow the users to lower to a 250w lamp, but that is not finished yet and as a DIYer I would keep my 400w hehe more brighter is more gooder IMO;-)
You will not have even lighting and there is not enough lumens created to give a bright enough image. The LCD panel and each piece of glass that the light passes through eats the lumens up. My bulb has been in use for about 1.5 years now and the projector is on no less than 6 or 8 hrs a day longer on the weekends. So 50 bux for 2-3 years of use is pretty cheap. You would probably spend more on those household bulbs in that period of time even if it did work.
You can get the guide for free from someone/somewhere sure. But you are basically paying to get access to the forums. I do not know of any other place with a community that is willing to help its members out such as this one. So no it is not a scam. A scam would be trying to sell something that did not do what it was said to do. If they were selling a guide that did nothing more than send you through a hoops and ultimatly did not work then it would be a scam.
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.
Slashdot Mirror
University of Akron
My bad, I probably should have stated my reason for going for the CS was to learn how to program computers. The classes they had set out for us to learn was cobolt, pascal, and i think basic. I asked "What about C++ or visual C++" etc and I was told that I would have to pay extra for those types of classes and that is what turned me off to it. I do agree with the point about people getting hired into jobs that they are not qualified to run though. I see posts all the time looking for IT admins and MUST have a CS degree no acception. hehe oh well...
heheh, the exact reason I bailed on my CS degree. They teach crap compared to what you really need to learn. I have learned more just by working on my CCNA and getting certed by MS.
Thinking back when i was looking in to doing it, I thought i calculated over 1,000. But the final answer from many of the people in the know said they lack the intensity to carry the light the full projection distance.
I like these!
In short
1. The TV/monitor is not bright enough to give you a watchable image.
2. The screen is curved and you wont have full focus even if you did try to live with the dark image.
3. If you do not invert your picture all the words will be backwards.
4. If you turn your TV upside down it will possibly even ruin it.
5. You will not be able to have every light in the room on much like these free big screen TV scam website show in their "actual" screen shots
I have built one of the lumenlab projectors.
;-)
I bought the guide about 2 years ago and spent some time researching the science behind it. After learning enough and getting the courage to just give it a shot I started buying the parts that I needed. The LCD I used was 300 bux but you can get one cheaper now aday. Total I would guess that I spent ~500 dollars.
I took my good sweet time when putting it together so I did not damage the LCD at all and making sure everything was aligned properly. After 2 weeks of building I started projecting my first images. That was 1.5 years ago! Now I am playing Quake 4, World of Warcraft, and no longer have the need to go to those noisey movie theaters anymore. I just wait for the movie to come out on DVD and watch it in the peace and quiet of my own home
People will say "Yea well its bulky" but then I say "Yea well my wallet is bulky from saving money on replacement bulbs"
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....
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.
Yea, if they had the intensity there could be some really good posibilities there since you could remove the rear lens, have even lighting, and avoid the inverse square law.
Well my bulb has 39,000 lumens. So you would be looking a huge reduction in brightness. I have been keeping my eye out for these super bright LEDs that they are making now. I always wanted to try and create a huge array of these LEDs and use them as a light source. However, many people in the community belive they will not have the intensity to carry the distance from the projector to the screen. They are pretty bright and several hundred of them in an array would be extremely bright. But it would be more expensive.
;-)
Over at Lumenlab I know they were working on a new light engine design that would give 40% more brightness and probably allow the users to lower to a 250w lamp, but that is not finished yet and as a DIYer I would keep my 400w hehe more brighter is more gooder IMO
You will not have even lighting and there is not enough lumens created to give a bright enough image. The LCD panel and each piece of glass that the light passes through eats the lumens up. My bulb has been in use for about 1.5 years now and the projector is on no less than 6 or 8 hrs a day longer on the weekends. So 50 bux for 2-3 years of use is pretty cheap. You would probably spend more on those household bulbs in that period of time even if it did work.
You can get the guide for free from someone/somewhere sure. But you are basically paying to get access to the forums. I do not know of any other place with a community that is willing to help its members out such as this one. So no it is not a scam. A scam would be trying to sell something that did not do what it was said to do. If they were selling a guide that did nothing more than send you through a hoops and ultimatly did not work then it would be a scam.
They are not washed out for me. Beautiful colors and nice sharp picture.
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.