MustangC.

im sure some of you guys must know something about projectors. im looking to get something bigger then the 60" projection tv we have now because someone is always watching tv when i want to play ps3.

picture doesnt need to be amazing im only playing COD and ---- on it probably wont even be used to watch tv on. i figure it would be cheaper to get a projector and have a 80"+ screen then spend 2K on a 60"+ TV. what should i look for as far as specs go? id like to spend less then 1K preferably under 800 especially if i have to buy some kind of screen for it.

sunboost

everyone will probably point you lumenlab, and tell ya to make one.

MustangC.

make a projector?

no thanks my electronics skill is limited to chipping ecu's

Wank.a.lot

i have an infocus one. it needs a new bulb right now.
i had a 110" screen painted on my wall when it was setup.
pretty bad ***.
don't really know what you should get, but make sure the one you get is rated for how dark your room is.
if we had all of our blinds open it was hard to see the screen, but it was perfect with how we usually had our window coverings setup.

MustangC.

how was the picture with 110"?

i can have the room as dark or light as i want but dont like sitting around in the dark much.

Minor Threat

If you can chip and ECU and build a turbo kit,you can make a projector.

It's really just a matter of buying the parts and doing some basic electrical wiring with the lights, screen and fans.

Wank.a.lot

the picture quality doesn't get worse the bigger you go.
it looked great, especially in HD.
i could have made it look better by using a real screen, but i'm a cheap ***.
i got a screen sample from a company and went to homedepot and color matched the color and gloss. painted a big *** rectangle on my wall outlined by a black primer 3" line around the screen.

RedCavz

Did someone say ELECtronics?

Talk to Davin

Tom-Guy

Davin Keo is definitely the man.

Toysrme

yup, lumenlab, & some of the av/audio forums have plent of DIY projectorage. they're easy to make but you must understand that the typical 400w mhi bulb setups are maybe 1/3 the brightness of your typical 100-150w project. im going to start my third when i get the fresnels in from china.
the + sides to building are cheap HD 1080p & beyond (not that beyond matters at this point), sub $100usd bulbs that might last 5-,000+ hours in a projector VS $150-500 bulbs for commercial projectors that 4,000 hours max (before you want to ditch them if they're not blown yet)
like any type of tv/screen quality is a ratio of screen size VS viewing distance. the larger the screen, the farther back the optimal viewing distance is. as you get closer from there you can no longer watch the entire screen (huge problem with playing video games), and the more you see the size of the pixels in the screen - along with any visual artifacts of the projected image, and the source image itself.

Say you got a cable/sat/fiberoptic feed. You watch ESPN on a 36" tv at 4 feet. You cant see any compression artifacts the provider threw in for the low quality tv. Now watch a 52" 1080i feed of ESPN, you're going to see compression artifacts because you're too close to the screen. now imagine that with an 80-160" screen. the artifacts are going to be visible 10' away from the screen.







best way to get into projectors is to get a used 1280*1024 projector off ebay for $150-250. you're not in it for much money if it doesn't work out and you can recoupe all of it.