A Practical Guide to DIY LCD Projectors 217
Compu486 writes "Inventgeek.com has a new article entitled
"A
practical guide to DIY Home Projection". The guide covers the basic theory
behind projection and provides a step by step guide for a "Practical"
DIY LCD Projector. Although this topic has been covered before, the perspective
they offer is refreshing."
Thats nothing (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Thats nothing (Score:4, Funny)
Now I will say this on the note of the fabric store types: Not Geeks! These are the types of people that never get out and experience the world.
Pot, kettle. Kettle, pot. Hey, you're black too!
Finally (Score:3, Funny)
I'd rather (Score:4, Informative)
Go with LumenLab [lumenlab.com]'s plan, if I was to do this at all.
And they have real pictures too, instead of faked images on thier site.
Re:I'd rather (Score:2)
Re:I'd rather (Score:2)
Re:I'd rather (Score:2)
Re:I'd rather (Score:2)
Are they purposefully trying to fool people into thinking it will even come close to the quality of a real front-projection system?
N.
Re:I'd rather (Score:2)
Not a good field for DIY (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not a good field for DIY (Score:2)
Cost savings, and the fun of doing it, I guess.
I've never seen one of these homebrew things in operation, but I share your doubts about the picture quality. Every overhead projector I've ever used has had pretty crappy geometry, and uneven illumination. They're also noisy and run pretty hot. (I know that's what the enclosure is for, but simultaneously getting rid of heat and noise is tricky).
BTW, I think you mean DLP, no DSP.
Re:Not a good field for DIY (Score:2)
No, what you don't understand is why someone would want an LCD projector. Whether it's homebrew or commercial, the picture quality will be basically the same. In fact, because of the larger form-factor of most home-brew projectors, you have the possibility of using a much, much higher-res LCD panel for your projector.
Re:Not a good field for DIY (Score:3, Informative)
Last time I looked into it green lasers were prohibitively expensive and blue lasers were completely untenably expensive.
Re:Not a good field for DIY (Score:4, Interesting)
LaserPower (now defunct) used to make a laser projection display with microlasers. And there's a company that projects displays directly onto the retina (microvision) with microlaser and diode-laser sources. (i don't know that I'd want to point even a low power laser device INTO my eye...
and then there's the problem with the lack of persistence for viewing the images.
Re:Not a good field for DIY (Score:3, Interesting)
(I do holography)
Re:Not a good field for DIY (Score:2)
Re:Not a good field for DIY (Score:2)
Sony / GLV / World Expo 2005 (Score:2)
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/GxL/ [sony.net]
Be sure to have a look at their tech explanation [sony.net] too. They went with the Grating Light Valve design, using MEMS.
Re:Not a good field for DIY (Score:2)
When I first went to university in the early-mid 1990s, they used the *same* method to project a computer display; a transparent LCD device (designed for the purpose) placed on an OHP.
It was *horrible*. The OHPs gave (just about) passable performance under most conditions when used for their intended purpose. However, the optics were no better than they
Re:Not a good field for DIY (Score:2)
Very possibly, but the laws of physics likely haven't.
Now, unless you can demonstrate that LCDs have undergone a fundamental change in design (not quality) since then, they're still going to have to block the light twice. Slap that on top of a not-particularly-bright OHP and you're still going to end up with something fairly dim.
Why on earth do you think projectors require such intense (and expensive) bulbs?
There's also this inve
Re:Not a good field for DIY (Score:2)
A few weeks back was the project where 2 projectors + cameras were turned into a realtime 2D fighter (it was called "kick ass kung fu" or something like that). Now if you have to pay $1500 per projector something like that is quite hard to afford, but if you "roll your own" it
Re:Not a good field for DIY (Score:2, Informative)
Laser projection is just getting started out at the very high end of the market (theater projection).
Sony is currently demoing their Laser Theatre Dream Display at the World Expo in Aichi, Japan. What they are showing is actually three displays with a slight overlap (which actually works reasonably well except for blacks). Each display consists of many red diode lasers, blue diode lasers, and gr
Re:Not a good field for DIY (Score:2)
In my research in low-medium end projectors (up to about $4000), LCD is better than DLP (which is what I assume you mean by "DSP.") Sharper, brighter, better colour, and no danger of the "rainbow effect" which plagues DLP projects and distracts or even give viewers headaches.
DLP still wins in contrast, but you'll rarely notice the difference and newer LCDs are getting pretty good (2000:1 for the AE700U). The only drawback of LCD I've seen is the greater likelihood of dead pixels.
Re:Not a good field for DIY (Score:2)
Re:Not a good field for DIY (Score:2)
Re:Not a good field for DIY (Score:2)
Re:Not a good field for DIY (Score:2)
Because in a laser system you would have 3 lasers scanning to produce each pixel. So the pixel size would only be limited by the width of the laser beam. And you would have a single high speed mirror for each laser. So, the limit on resolution would be how fast the mirror can turn between projecting 2 discrete pixels. The mirrors could be whatever size you want, 1" x 1"
Re:Not a good field for DIY (Score:2)
Most triple-DLP projectors are in the $20k+ range, so it would be nice to see if someone could hack-up something similar with 3 projectors in the $1,500 range.
(of course, just having them manufacture them cheaper would be nice too).
N.
DIY Digital Projection (Score:5, Funny)
Although I did see Matrix 3 in the IMAX, and it was a little scary to see Morpheus's face. I mean, the dude had like 2-foot pores!
Hmm? (Score:5, Informative)
DIY day? (Score:3, Interesting)
Build a rack!
Build a shelf!
Build an LCD!
I admire the geek who homebrews hardware, but this is getting rediculous.
Re:DIY day? (Score:3, Interesting)
However I must admit that I'm more inclined to do this than the version where you tear the lcd apart. I talked to our hardware guy at work and asked him if he'd feel comfortable disassembling and lcd for a project like this. His response was something like, "as long as it wasn't mine."
Paint your own screen (Score:5, Interesting)
As for the projector, I don't want to build this thing myself, I'm willing to spend the bucks. So I'll likely go for the Panasonic PT-AE700U, which I've seen reviewed here [projectorpeople.com].
So that leaves me wondering what sort of PC or hi-def receiver to buy to power this thing, so that I can use cable, satellite, game console, DVD, PVR and the PC.
Any advice would be most appreciated.
Re:Paint your own screen (Score:2)
Re:Paint your own screen (Score:5, Informative)
As far as receivers, I can give you my analysis and feedback as a regular consumer (I wouldn't even call myself a "prosumer") of home theatre electronics. You definitely would do well in investing in a good receiver with as many inputs as possible, and don't get them from Circuit City / Best Buy / Fry's as they are usually $100 more than what you can find online. In reality, you will probably not need more than 3 or 4 component inputs (DVD + HDTV + Console + Other). Depending on the # of inputs on your TV/projector, this should put you in the $300-$500 range for receivers. Look for wattage ratings and buy from a well-known company (say, Harman-Kardon, Denon, Onkyo, Sony, Yamaha).
Once everything is set up, get a calibration DVD like Digital Video Essentials [amazon.com] or Avia [amazon.com] to tweak your settings. It can make a noticeable difference.
You don't need Monster Cables. If you have a friend at a store who can get you the discount (retailer markup is at least 100%), then they're fine. But you don't need to spend $300 on cables. Spend that money on better equipment.
Just do your research. It's possible that over the next few months older models will be discontinued and be heavily discounted. That can always save you some cash.
Thanks! (Score:2)
Re:Paint your own screen (Score:2)
Look for wattage ratings and buy from a well-known company
Wattage can be misleading though, there are three different ways of listing the power, and each is 2x the previous one. Just make sure all five channels are the same wattage, and buy the same set of speakers for them all.
Also, different amps sound different, and none of them are "correct". Maybe not so important for movies, but if you plan to use the same setup for music, you should try and a
Re:Paint your own screen (Score:2)
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthrea
Less expensive than buying the screen paint, and from the sounds of it, both more effective and a nicer looking finished solution on your wall.
Heh heh (Score:2)
Call me when (Score:5, Insightful)
Otherwise this is just another "Overhead projectors with LCD panels make big ugly projectors that you cannot use anywhere but a darkened room" story.
Hmmmm (Score:5, Funny)
I anxiously await the first person to point out a spelling or usage error in my post--it's traditional.
Re:Hmmmm (Score:3, Funny)
I anxiously await the first person to point out a spelling or usage error in my post--it's traditional.
Dude! You misspelt "fuc... oh, forget it.
;-)
Re:Hmmmm (Score:2)
Also, isn't a jerk a person? So should it be "a pedantic jerk who"?
Re:Hmmmm (Score:2)
This would read better as:
I find it distracting when someone doesn't even bother with elementary proofreading.
Otherwise you may be referring to 'even elementary proofreading' which does not happen to be bothered with. It could also read:
I find it distracting when someone doesn't bother with even the most elementary of proofreading.
This gives that sort of sophisticated, British-accent sort of grammar that we all kn
Re:Hmmmm (Score:3, Funny)
Actually, Simi-gloss is a brand name. Each can comes with its own painter-monkey.
spend the same on a widescreen CRT but sit closer (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:spend the same on a widescreen CRT but sit clos (Score:2)
It's Not Worth It (Score:4, Insightful)
The other question is how noisy is the overhead projector? Remembering back to elementary school, those things were pretty loud.
Re:It's Not Worth It (Score:2)
Re:It's Not Worth It (Score:2)
Your $800 refurb projector will be an 800x600 with no DVI support and $300 bulb replacements twice a year. Good luck repairing it cheaply if something else breaks.
Re:It's Not Worth It (Score:2)
In a test done by GTE/Sylvania on 10 ENX lamps, the range of life was 34.3 hours to 76 hours. The average lamp life for this batch was 68.7 hours, higher than the published average of 65 hours. However, the lamp that lasted only 34.3 hours is not considered to be defective.
Okay, so those lamps will run you $6/ea in quantity. I'll
Re:It's Not Worth It (Score:2)
Re:It's Not Worth It (Score:2)
Your $800 refurb projector will be an 800x600 with no DVI support and $300 bulb replacements twice a year. Good luck repairing it cheaply if something else breaks.
Don't forget noise - much noisier, and a much larger form-factor with the overhead projec
Re:It's Not Worth It (Score:2)
Re:It's Not Worth It (Score:2)
Point me to an $800 projector that can handle 1080i (1920x1080).
It's easy to replace the fan.
Seconded! (Score:3, Informative)
Bulb life in a projector is typically 2000 hours (4000 in mine) and cost about £250 for the bulb.
So using 2000 hours as an example:
Projector cost £599 will last 2000 hours so total cost for first 200 hours is £599.
Self made projector will cost about £200-300, for 2000 hours of use you'll need 40 bulbs at £30 a go which works out at £1200 for bulbs and
Interesting tidbit from the article (Score:3, Informative)
When commenting on lenses, it says:
"Many lenses are coated to improve the optics of the lens. Products like Windex will severely damage these coatings resulting in pilling, fogging, or even etching of the actually glass. FYI, most CRT monitors are subject to the same conditions. Don't ever clean your CRT with Windex or similar products. Of course you would know this if you read the manual."
Didn't know that! :) It's nice to get immediately useful info from an article about something you don't have time for.
Light passes through? (Score:2)
Re:Light passes through? (Score:2)
He explains that he uses a proxima ovation lcd panel for this project which light can pass through
Here's a pic of it [inventgeek.com]
Re:Light passes through? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Light passes through? (Score:2)
Re:Light passes through? (Score:2)
Silly if your goal is to have a projector (Score:2)
I bought mine on ebay for 600 dollars, and it has a remote control, will mount to the ceiling, and does NOT sound like a vacuum cleaner. Not to begruge anyone their project, bu
Re:Silly if your goal is to have a projector (Score:2)
The noise can be easily fixed by replacing the fan.
The main issue that concerns me was addressed in the article. Commercial projectors tend to use very expensive bulbs, for no good reason. Your $600 projector may have a bulb that will need to be replaced several times a year, which costs $100+ each time...
Point me to a $600 projector that uses a $10 bulb... Haven't
Re:Silly if your goal is to have a projector (Score:2)
Build a proper enclosure based on a car headlight and reflective backing with some kind of focusing mechanism, and you'd get something smaller, quieter, using less voltage, and so on. I mean, sheesh.
Re:Silly if your goal is to have a projector (Score:2)
A heavy-duty AC/DC adapter would be more expensive. When you're running on 120v AC, you really should use a 120v AC bulb for many reasons.
However, there certainly ARE 120v projector bulbs that only cost $10 or so.
In my experience, car headlights don't last all that long, and they don't come close to being as bright as most projector bulbs.
DIY? (Score:5, Insightful)
The only DIY here was "Make a box with a window in it" and that's not really a "Do it yourself LCD projector" now is it?
Re:DIY? (Score:2)
Re:DIY? (Score:2)
For a perspective, I've owned a projector for about three years now and only used about 1400 hours on it. I made a nifty (IMO) ceiling mount for it,
fixed link (Score:2)
My mistake for not checking the link.
Re:Ouch (Score:2)
Low light v. High light (Score:3, Informative)
Projectors look really good in low light and no light situations, on a sheet or a wall, or on your little brother. The test of a screen is how it does in situations with higher amounts of ambiant light.
Geeks in fabric stores (Score:2)
We will be using some felt that we acquired at the local fabric store. Now I will say this on the note of the fabric store types: Not Geeks! These are the types of people that never get out and experience the world. And their idea of creative or innovative thinking is using a slightly-different-than-recommended shade of embroidery floss for their "There's No Place Like Home" wall hanging or pillow. So don't be surprised if you feel really uncomfortable in a fabric store. I sure as hell did! And people make
DIY? Where? (Score:4, Interesting)
My department bought one of those transparent LCD screens in 1997, back when overhead projectors were still to be found in every lecture hall, laptops were $3000 and LCD projectors were $5000 and as big as a suitcase. The idea was to use this to go from the computer screen to the wall screen on the cheap. It was used every once in awhile, but if you weren't using a laptop, it was a pain to use, since you had to wheel in a cart with a desktop PC.
Once laptops got cheap enough so that they were commonplace, LCD projectors had gotten cheap enough that the department bought one and consigned the transparent LCD screen, with its terrible picture quality, to the back closet of the copier room. There, it collected dust, along with all of the other obsolete junk that no one wanted to use anymore, but had cost too much to just throw away.
The transparent LCD screen was an ugly kludge, a bridge technology to mate the old with the new. Let it die.
My only question about this... (Score:2)
Now overhead projector technology may have come a long way (hehe) since then but isn't this an issue? At
Re:My only question about this... (Score:2)
What my question is is that these LCD projectors for Overhead projectors (as is used in the article) are only made to be used for short periods at a time due to the heat from the overhead's bulb causing the LCD part to begin to distort. If you haven't please read the article and you will see it
Proxima 944+? Unobtanium. (Score:4, Informative)
None are listed on eBay.
Finished auctions on eBay list at about 300. [ebay.com] That's fine, but try to find one!
Kind of eliminates the ability to do this project, doesn't it?
I don't understand why all of these DIY projects have to use some amount of unobtainium. Why not price out some NEW parts, ones that are currently on the market? Leave it as an exercise for the reader to find used or discounted products.
Only then can you make a fair assessment of whether or not one of these projects is "do-able."
I would love to see some names / brands of recommended overhead projection panels - but unfortunately, THAT is left up to the reader. I thought making these recommendations was a key part of a DIY article. After all, look at Woodworking magazine or any other DIY magazine - they all list the parts, the specs of the parts, and typically, a price or two with each.
Re:Proxima 944+? Unobtanium. (Score:2)
But that was counting you could easily get all the parts for cheap (those 50% rebates on LCDs in big names stores I've never seen - or broken ones on ebay that sell for cheap - which never seems to happen either).
Plus, most places selling plans for them also try to sell you some of the parts (lenses, reflectors, etc), and not for cheap either.
When you add the REAL prices of all the parts, the plans, the wood (some
Re: (Score:2)
Is this the death of zombie Slashdot? (Score:2)
I used a 17" 1280x768 flat panel monitor, a 250 watt metal halide bulb, a pair of 220mm focal length fresnels and a triplet lens out of a 3M 9200 projector.
All you people bitching about how a DIY projector looks sitting in your living room should be ashamed of yourself. If you canno
Why Would You Bother? (Score:3, Informative)
I recently purchased a very lovely DLP projector for business purposes. NEC, 1024x768, 5lbs. Composite, RGB, Component, S-Video inputs, a remote, etc. all for about $1,000CDN ($815USD). Similarly, you can get units like this from major retailers for $750-$1500 with spare bulbs, cables, etc. This project has a cost of "$200-800", but realistically, you're in the higher range if you want a decent LCD panel with good resolution, inputs, etc. and a bright enough projector.
So yes- this has the geek factor to it and all your friends will find it amusing that you were able to make a projector to fill your wall. These projects are intended to SAVE tons of money in DIY projects as well as add to the geek factor.
Instead, we have a big clunking machine, built on parts with low bulb life, not intended to go for hours on end, poor cooling, and far from optimal quality (usually splotchy projection comes from the overhead projectors).
Don't bother with this project. If you're going to spend this much, go out and buy a real projector. It'll be great for computers, home theatre, presentations, etc. and you'll be able to drag it over to a friend's house to have movies on a king sized bed sheet draped over his/her garage.
The costs of real projectors have come down! FOur to five years ago, a good portable projector was $3000-$5000. Nowdays it's $750-$1500- cheaper than most backlit projection TVs. Go buy a real projector.
-M
$300 vs $40 lamps (Score:2)
If you were really into DIY you'd homebrew an arc lamp power supply, but it's tricky, you can't just plug th
lcd? (Score:2)
Totally bogus. Lumenlab tons better but still.. (Score:2)
1. I don't want a small room that would love
Re:Totally bogus. Lumenlab tons better but still.. (Score:2)
Re:On the Heat Issue (Score:2)
I am planning to build a projector... (Score:2)
Currently, I have most of the parts I need - mainly, I just need the proper fresnels and wood to make the case. I have the LCD, the projection
Re:Lamp Issues (Score:2)
Re:Argh! Enough already (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Argh! Enough already (Score:2)
Re:Nice, but... (Score:2)
Anyways, it'll get people thinking a little, and let them get a bit more edumacated (W.) about what these things can actually do.
I'll stick to my Sharp for work. Love the thing. It nearly burns the ceiling tiles when it kicks off, but looks ultra sweet.
Re:Nice, but... (Score:2)
But seriously, the spelling is horrendous. The guy couldn't even be bothered to spellcheck the document -- what kind of quality do you think this projector will have?
Re:Perfect timing! (Score:5, Funny)
Your calculator was a DIY project too, wasn't it?
Re:Faster & about the same price (Score:2)
Just remember to put a spacer in between the LCD and the projecor, with a fan pushing air between the two, or you will scorch your LCD panel.
Re:Faster & about the same price (Score:2)
One way to find out for sure: Try it (-:
Re:Faster & about the same price (Score:2)
This is the problem with LCD, it degrades over time. DLP is superior, it's just at the low end DLP has its quirks (single chip rainbow effect).
Done that... (Score:4, Interesting)
Advantages:
*Cheap (I did it for $0.00)
*Easy
*Totally ghetto-fabulous.
Disadvantages:
*Really, really crappy quality (only really could be used for video, and only if you weren't picky about quality)
*Edges got cut off because the LCD was larger than the projector
*Pretty dim
*Noisy
*In my case, could only work with the laptop who's screen I tore apart
So in summary, if you have the parts laying around and have some time to kill - go for it. Otherwise don't even bother.
Re:Faster & about the same price (Score:2)
Re:What a crock. (Score:2)
Re:What a crock. (Score:2)