Jorsher

Yeah, personally I wouldn't bother with anything less than 1280 x (720 || 1024)

LCDs are cheap. The panel I'll eventually use is 1280x1024.

That 640x480 screen makes me laugh. My phone is close to that

MustangC.

so does the room really have to be unlit and dark to work? id hate to have to sit in the dark to play. but i really want to experience a 100" screen while playing CoD lol. toysrme do you have to play in the dark for yours to work right?

i wouldnt mind having a 73" TV for 2K but id much rather have a $1K projector setup and $1K worth of guns/ammo.

Jorsher

Like with any projector, the darker the better. A TV is emitting light at you. A projector is reflecting it at you. If you have other light sources, they'll beez reflektin also.

The more lumens it outputs, the better. The larger you have the screen, the less light. 2x the screen size is 1/2 the brightness.

Just get some decent blinds for your windows, and it'll be fine.

MustangC.

i have good blinds, im talking about lights. for example i have a lamp behind the couch where i sit, but no overhead lighting, will that really affect the view?

Jorsher

It depends on how bright the lamp is and how bright the projector is. If you want something to watch in the light, go with a big TV. DLPs are cheap, large, and have quality picture. Really can't say without knowing the projector, lamp, distance of the lamp and projector from the wall, etc. You should still be able to see the picture unless the lamp is really bright or the projector is really dim, but you'll always have the best experience with the light off.

Toysrme

You'll want blinds+ heavy curtains/drapes for EVERY window in the room.
For a DIY projector using car HID's, 100-250w ceramic, or up to 400w MHI bulbs from there you can *maybe* have two 60w lamps on in the room and still be able to "see" it. It will be very washed out and not conductive to an FPS game. commercial units have many times better optics. You STILL need the blinds+heavy curtains/drapes. But you can have on 2 100w lamps and not sweat seeing anything. (Tho it will take about 60 seconds to decide you want as dark as room as possible) light control with any projector is absolutely critical. In the studio where my projectors have always been (this room is giant) to light it at night I use a 20' long LED rope light (equiv 100w incandescent bulb) mounted 11' off the floor along a wall.
When the projector goes on, all lights go off. (Not really needed once a projector is on and warmed up)

You really want to eliminate 100% of any sunlight in the room on any kind of projector. Once you do that it's simply eleminating background light from other rooms.




I must warn you. If you want to be the most competative you can be playing on projectors is NOT good for FPS games. Even at the correct viewing distances you simply can not keep track of what is going on across the screen. I can tell you that from my own playing, everyone that comes over to play & some family that also have HDTV & projector setups. You can add about 25% your kill/death record when someone goes from my 165" image to my cousins 105" projector. Then add another 25% when you step from it to my 52" Samsung. Then add another 25% when you step down from it to either our 22" LCD monitor @ 1600*1050, or our 19" apature grill CRT monitor @ 1600*1050 sitting two feet infront of your face.

Like, some of these kids on my projector (using controllers not my XIM) go about 5:15 from not being able to see anything. Then it jumps to 20:15 on a close sitting monitor.

Projectors are great for driving games, flight sims (PC) & sports games. Not FPS.






Here's an example taken from lumenlabs. Note to take a picture of it you need to jack with camera settings and eliminate all light. None of these are even 75% of a representation of what Im trying to show you, but you get the drift:







3x 60w lamps








dark




lights







dark



lights















anywho... projectors + any light = fail. anytime you see someone talking about "oh ya i can have x lamps on in the room and still watch it" they're bullshitting you. you can have afew lamp bulbs on and make out a college football score. but you wont enjoy absolutely anything you watch because it will be so ------- washed out.

Wank.a.lot

i had a ceiling fan/light between where i sat and where the screen was. it was setup for 2 light bulbs, but i only used one in it. seemed like during the day if i had the light on it would be too much
i had the window right next to the screen and a little ray of light would come in through the blinds so we put curtains up.
we had a little nook in the wall opposite that is where you are supposed to put your tv, but we put our couch in there. i built a little shelf above for the projector and other a/v equipment.

also do a little research on projectors before you buy one. some of them are noisy. the fans are loud on a few i saw in bestbuy.
my setup before it was finished

Toysrme

yup, gunna need a good 5.1 surround system to drown out the fans, don't forget that either.

Jorsher

Do they use regular PC fans?

If so you should be able to easily "upgrade" them.

Toysrme

some, but the hotter the bulb the less time it lasts so.
commercial projectors can be LOUD. diy ones not normally nearly as much in my exp. (bulb life is so much more with bulbs designed to not have cooling that you can trade heat for very large slow fans.)