Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Some early advice on a first front proj.

Just curious if anyone here has heard of the DIY LCD projectors. You basically rip apart an LCD monitor, install it in a box, use a fresnel lens, and a halide bulb. Here is the link and I will warn you they charge for the directions. I am in no way affiliated with them, my friend found them and made his own pj. The results were REALLY nice and we watched some HD content and played Unreal Tourney 2k4. He did it all for under $600. Think of this as a cool science experiment, granted you have the time. I've been meaning to do this but haven't had much free time (read: lazy )

Since it is an LCD monitor there are no problems with 1080i or even 1080p! So check out the site and their forum members have many pics of their setups. This can be done REALLY cheap and [bold]might[/bold] have better or equivalent picture quality to the expensive pj's you guys are referring to. NoTE: I did say might...not trying to start a flamewar.

Let me know what ya guys think...

Hash

Well... not quite no problem with 1080. You'd have to have a HUGE panel that you're willing to tear apart to do that... 1900x1080. That's a 23" widescreen or above, which usually go for, oh, say, at least $1500. The 20" widescreens are (only-hah!) 1600x1024 or thereabouts. And that's still at least $500--if you get a good deal.

And having to build your own container for it, with a way of focusing the fresnel, and a light source that won't vignette, and keeping the whole thing cool and the fact that it wouldn't be CSA approved, meaning if your house burns down due to it, your insurance would be all but void...

There's a bunch of drawbacks in the first 3 seconds I thought of it.

Believe me, I'm pro-DIY projects (I built my own arcade cabinet) but... a projector out of a monitor... I dunno...

Bren R.

I agree with you Bren, for me a DIY screen, theater stage, elevated seating, oh yeah and a 12" Dobsonian telescope are one thing, but a projector? I've heard a lot of people on AVS talk about this skeem, and most of them have been very unhappy with the results. I'll guarantee ya they will never put out an image as nice as my Z2.

I have seen the 4805 and H31. IMO, the H31 is readily the better of the two. Colors and blacks are significantly better. I am currently saving for it and a 100" fixed screen.

My friend and I both eyed the H31 for some time and hoped for the day when one would be in our homes. Well, he beat me to the punch (as usual) and picked one up a few weeks ago. He paid $1200 for his H31 from a local dealer who agreed to match COSTCO's price (originally quoted $1400). By the way, if you don't have an Optoma dealer near you, but do have a COSTCO nearby; it might be something to consider. Even though you have to buy the H31 from COSTCO online; you can drop the unit off at any COSTCO retail store to arrange any warranty work etc. in the event something goes bad.

At $1200, the H31 is very hard to beat, IMO.

I have heard alot of good things about the H31 since I started this post. I noticed that the 4805 is available at Circuit City online for 999 after rebate. That is why it looked so good. I think I have narrowed it down to the H31 or even the H57. It is going to depend if I am able to sell my Hitachi and whether I decide to spend that much extra on my first projector.

Thanks for all the input, and I welcome even more!

if you can get a good deal on the h57 go for it. the h31 is good also but if the h57 is in your reach it would be the one to get.

Hi,

Just a modest correction here: DLP does not have "screen-door effects". The latter is intrinsic to LCD front and rear projection because the grid of wires that fire each LCD pixel runs between all the pixels on an LCD device. In other words, the LCD pixels cannot be placed as close together as a DLP because of the wire grid. The density of the pixels is inherently greater with the TI micro-mirror devices.

It depends on how sensitive you are (and how close you sit) as to whether the screen door effect bothers you. It always bothers me, but not everyone. No such grid exists with a DLP chip.

You can also sit too close to a DLP image and begin to see various artifacts, but it isn't a "screen-door effect".

All single-chip DLP devices except for the three-chip projectors (very expensive) will exhibit rainbow effects. For most viewers, including myself, they are only occasionally visible and a minor distraction in what otherwise can be a stunning image that has very satisfying "pop" and contrast with excellent blacks.

Other viewers who are sensitive to rainbow effects my find they simply cannot use a DLP projector.

I have to intentionally look for rainbow effects by quickly averting my gaze away from the screen and back to see them. I also see them after hours of viewing with pinpoint lights in an image.

Let me clarify, the term I should have used is "pixelation". Many in the front projection community, refer to screendoor/pixelation as meaning the same.

The screendoor effect is caused by the space between the pixels, known as the inter-pixel gap. In older LCD's from a few years ago, the screendoor effect and pixelation were much more of an issue.

However, in today's LCD projectors, the inter-pixel gaps on LCD panels have been reduced and physical resolution--the number of pixels on the screen--has been increased. Many of today's LCD widescreen format projectors use either 1280x720 or 1366x768 resolution displays. So, visible pixelation and the screendoor effect have been reduced dramatically. At these new pixel densities, visible pixelation is usually eliminated at normal viewing distances.

In addition, the Inter-Pixel gaps have also been reduced a lot in SVGA and above resolutions, so screendoor is not really an issue anymore. For my Sanyo Z2, with a 110" diag. screen, you have to get within 4ft. to even see a hint of screendoor, and I have 20/15 vision, not that that makes a difference.

DLP technology creates a pixel by reflecting light from a tiny mirror, its edge definition is softer and less well-defined than LCD. So for the most part, at any given resolution, DLP still holds a slight advantage over LCD in visible pixelation, however, LCD is narrowing the gap.

Sorry for any confusion.

oh, some good advice here, and some misleading advice as well.

projector central is a good "start". But, some of their views and opinions have been questionable. So like anything on the web, read it with an open mind.

www.avsforum.com is another good spot to read. Out of all the sections on that forum, I liked the under 3500 projector section the most. There is a lot of good people there that ccan help.

Now, personally, I got the infocus 4805. I started late December into looking to make a room dedicated to a front pj. I also work at a university in the tech dept so we do all of the projector work on campus. So, I have had a chance to use quite a few projectors over the years as we go through quite a few of them. But, home theater is a different beats, and there is a lot to take into account that I have learned over the last few months since. I'm still learning.

Support is something you need to take into consideration. Projectors can be reliable, but can also be a nightmare, and getting prompt service done is critical.

Panasonic makes the ae700. I almost bought this. It is an LCD. It's a good 720p pj, but more importantly, it's lens can be used in a wide variety of rooms and is very easy to setup. Because of this, you have more options as to where you can mount it...up close to the screen, far away and so on. But Panasonic Canada is worthless. They are known for their pathetic customer support. they just don't seem to care. And their pricing in canada is nuts. that being said,the ae700 has dropped in price lately, and if you can find one, take a look as it's a highly regarded pj. It has a problem with dust spots though, something you might want to read up on.

The LCD vs DLP debate is way overblown. So is the vertical banding and rainbow debate. I've yet to have anyone in my house that can see rainbow on my 4805. We use mostly all LCD's at work, and vertical banding is also a non issue. These are things that video enthusiast tend to blow out of proportion. It's not that they don't exist, but not to the degree that some make them out to be. Personally, I was used to seeing LCD's. But, when I seen the 4805, the colors were without a doubt much better. Blacks were also clearly better. We have dozens of infocus pj's, and they are reliable, and the service in Canada is great. the infocus screenplay 5000 is also a great LCD pj, with 720p support, and brighter then the ae700. It's often overlooked though for some reason, shame because it is a nice pj for a bit less $$$

Also don't buy a business projector to watch movies. The colors are just horrible in comparison. only reason why you should go with a business one is if your playing games on it that use 4:3, or using a computer through it. Keep in mind all the new consoles will be 16:9 anyways. And most xbox games already support 16:9.

This is a very very lengthy topic, and has no clear answer. You really need to start reading up on stuff. I was overwhelmed with which one to buy and I was used to picking out pj for work.

fyi, I have a 4805, 11x17 room, 110 inch screen. I don't like to use Zoom unless I have to,so the pj is 17' back. Seating is 16' and 12'. But, I am using high gain M2500 screen. The 4805 is bright, actually brighter then the ae700, but at that distance I like to use a high gain screen as I like images have that extra pop. The 4805 isn't technically a HDTV pj, which is why I almost got the AE700/5000 instead, but I plan to upgrade wo 1080i anyways so I saved some money to get some axioms and got the 4805 instead. Surprisingly, the 4805 does an amazing job of scaling down 1080/720 to 480p and I challenge anyone to see a major difference in it compared to a lcd at 720p.

How much light in the room is there? Look at replacement bulb costs. The infocus lasts 3000-4000 hours, and cost about $380 for another bulb.

anyways, I got to go.