High res projector

Shadeslayer · Post by **Shadeslayer** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 7:50 pm

Anyone ever heard of this and this
What do you think? legit?

Post by **bicostp** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 8:29 pm

It's basically a magnifying lens you put near your TV, so you get the distortion of a couple lenses, with all the fun of lining them up properly, garnished with dark edges, topped with the crappy resolution of your regular TV. I doubt the picture stands out from the ambient glow of the CRT very well. I've done this with a couple old overhead projector lenses, and it's a complete waste of time if you want to actually watch something.

A real projector will give you a great picture, and even an older one can handle 720p. You can probably pick one up off eBay. We have a couple older ones the company my father works for threw away, and they work just fine. Even the suitcase-size Sony one is more than enough for DVDs, and you can probably find one of them really cheap.

Honestly I stopped reading as soon as I spotted the dumb spelling errors on the page like "powerfull" and "!!!!!!Well now you can with this GRATE deal !!!!!!" (should be "great"). Their site looks like the "stereotypical eBay store", with rampant clip art and sentences that look like they took a trip through the Cuisinart.

Also, note that their website doesn't have pictures of the image quality or scale, so for all we know that's just a 3" picture projected onto a piece of cardboard.

If you do get a projector, go to the thrift store and look for a projector screen. The really good ones have tons of little glass beads on the surface. Ours is actually a slide projector screen, but it's easy to get the equivelant of a 40" 4:3 screen on it.

Shadeslayer · Post by **Shadeslayer** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 10:23 pm

Well the one on ebay has pictures.
HERE

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 10:39 pm

Shadeslayer wrote:Well the one on ebay has pictures.
HERE

Notice that none of those pictures show the projector? I could easily walk into my cousin's theater room, pop in some movies, take pictures of the screen, and say that I just slapped a couple lenses on the front of a TV, when in reality it was a nice projector making those images. Even if it does work, the room will probably have to be completely dark to see the screen, even most real projectors are hard to see with any good amount of light.

Post by **bicostp** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 10:44 pm

Well, the images there that aren't just frame grabs are of a completely unrelated LCD screen and some pictures of a movie projected onto a professional screen. The pictured setup looks like a professional job, which probably cost a couple grand to assemble, so they would have no reason to cheap out and use a TV as a projector. The pictures of screens look like they were done with a real projector.

Plus, if they're standing dead center in front of the screen, the source of the image would have to be a ceiling mounted unit. I don't know about you but I haven't seen many ceiling mounted TVs.

Also note that there are no images of the actual item they're selling.

I'm not saying these won't produce an image; I'm saying you'll be much happier with a real projector. trust me, they're worth it.

http://www.practical-home-theater-guide ... on-tv.html
^ An article about these things.

If you want a relatively cheap projector you could slap an LCD onto an overhead... That would work.

Shadeslayer · Post by **Shadeslayer** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 10:52 pm

thanks thats helps a lot

Post by **Triton** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 11:29 pm

personally i like my projectors, sony VPH-1272Q CRT projectors, got em at the community college anual auction for 20$ for 2 of them, their huge but the picture quality is fantastic, max 1600x1200 resolution, i keep it at around 1024x768 or 800x600 most of the time because thats the best quality picture at those resolutions, eventually ill get it mounted from the ceiling and set up proper, on friday i might go to this years auction and see if they have any good sized projection screens or any other cool stuff

dudex77 · Post by **dudex77** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:01 am

Triton, Could you take some pics of your projector and the picture? I Couldn't imagine a projector with such an awesome resolution without being enormous.

Post by **bicostp** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:35 am

He pretty much just said they're huge.

Triton wrote:got em at the community college annual auction

Our primary one is an InFocus LP330. It goes up to 1024x768, but it's about the size of a dictionary (8x10x3). It really gets the job done.

(And apparently it's a DLP unit, too.)

The old one is some Sony thing, I forget the model. Imagine your mid-tower PC case with a lens in the front, that's how big it is.

We donated a really crappy old one to my old high school. It was even bigger (the size of an ATX tower and a couple inches wider) and had a big lens tunnel jutting out of the front. It only supported 640x480.

The picture wasn't bad, though. Of course some idiot thought it was broken because they didn't take the lens cap off...

hailrazer · Post by **hailrazer** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:44 pm

You can build a very good Diy projector but it will cost hundreds of dollars and LOTS of time/energy.

Here are the one I have built :

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.ph ... opic=15796

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.ph ... opic=20278

Post by **Triton** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:22 am

huge is an understatement, makes bics sound small in compairison, their the big ole 3 tube RGB crt projectors, with the ceiling mount hardware they top in at probably better than 150LBS!

keep in mind it hasnt been calibrated in this pic and it also is just shooting at a regular white latex based paint wall, will get a proper screen eventually

Post by **bicostp** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:16 am

I tried using the frensel lens with my TV last night, and managed to get a 3' wide recognizable upside-down Stewie projected on my wall. However, around the edges the image got really blurry and dark(er). I had to have all the lights off and the curtains drawn to see anything at all. It did work, but doesn't hold a candle to a proper projector.

@hailrazer: Sweet.

If you're going to go the DIY approach, that's how you do it.

@Triton: Holy crap that thing's huge! But I bet its picture is better than some of the really early LCD models like mine...

dudex77 · Post by **dudex77** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:35 am

WOW! That is a beast! See Bic that's why I wanted to see pictures.

Post by **Triton** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:36 pm

@Triton: Holy crap that thing's huge! But I bet its picture is better than some of the really early LCD models like mine...

the picture is freaking fantastic, i would rank it up there with lower end new ~720p lcd and dlp projectors! also that second pic would look better but our camera was horrible lol.

dragon · Post by **dragon** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 3:22 pm

I have a panasonic lcd projecter its about xbox 360 size. Its great for playing Halo 3 and cod 4 on an 8 foot screen

. Im just useing a white wall for the background but the picture is still good.