jarred has no TV

ecarr said:
i now how you feel. the headlight bulb went out on my truck, so i said screw it and bought a new truck.
That's nothing. The bulb in my bedroom blew last month so I just moved into an entirely new house.
 
ha ha.. yeah on the way back from best buy picking up the projector the street lamp went out on my road so i bought a new city.

cheeze.
 
got the Optoma DLP.. I cant believe how much more accurate the color is compared to my old LCD projector.
 
I built a "lumenlab" projector using a 15" lcd monitor , a $15 used high bay lamp, the type used in supermarkets and stadiums. The thing is big, so its not for field use, but it projects a fairly decent 100" image. And the metal halide bulbs last for around 20,000 hours for $40 CDN. The bulbs are designed to run 24 hours a day. There are several websites that offer free info on how to build these.

Some diy-fers have modified their commercial DLP projectors to use inexpensive bulbs at diyaudio.com
 
jleo said:
I built a "lumenlab" projector using a 15" lcd monitor , a $15 used high bay lamp, the type used in supermarkets and stadiums. The thing is big, so its not for field use, but it projects a fairly decent 100" image. And the metal halide bulbs last for around 20,000 hours for $40 CDN. The bulbs are designed to run 24 hours a day. There are several websites that offer free info on how to build these.

Some diy-fers have modified their commercial DLP projectors to use inexpensive bulbs at diyaudio.com
Man, I saw that a while ago...I was so close to doing it...It actually works?? I was afraid I'd mess it up...How much would you charge to make another?
 
Quote: Man, I saw that a while ago...I was so close to doing it...It actually works?? I was afraid I'd mess it up...How much would you charge to make another?

The projector took a few weeks to build, but making modifications took a few months: waiting for parts and tweaking the optics and light source. This is based on a Benq 15" LCD and a surplus Xerox photocopier lens. The total cost was around $350-400 US including experimental parts that were discarded. 15" lcds are cheap now, so some people can build these for a couple hundred bucks!! I use a Viewsonic N4 ($30 US) to get cable TV and input DVD and computer. I wouldn't use this projector for any professional applications, but if you want to have CNN or CBC Newsworld on all day, the bulb is designed to be on around the clock. And DVD's look better than broadcast TV.

So far, I have no plans to build another! It was tricky! Some people sell them and build upgraded versions with better LCDs, lens and lights.

Here are some pics. Projector is in the foreground. The screen is 100" across and made of silver polyurethane used for skating costumes because it reflects light from follow spots! The white at the sides of the image are the edges of the lcd which have not been masked off yet, The camera was crummy but it gives you the idea. There are better examples in the lumenlab forums.

http://www.geocities.com/gord2us/lumen2.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/gord2us/lumen1.jpg
 
jleo
I had also bought the lumenlabs pdf, haven't gotten around to building it yet but the pix on the site of some of the DIY's look amazing.
 
...a few yearsback I built one of the "Big Screen TV" thingies for making a little 13" tv project onto the wall at about 100" you can also find instructions under 100" tv .. but i mad my own little instrutional picture that has everything you need to know to make one if anyone wantsme to post it here.. it actually works pretty well.. its not nearly as clear or sharp or bright as the lcd projector versions, but it was fun to do and play with .. and cost under 5.00 to make
 
Taylor Moore said:
jleo
I had also bought the lumenlabs pdf, haven't gotten around to building it yet but the pix on the site of some of the DIY's look amazing.
If I built it now it would be much cheaper. Last Christmas 15" lcd's were $300 CDN. Now you can get them for $99 or so. If you can find an LCD monitor that works but with a broken backlight, they can be had for free or next to nothing. Some folks have found used overhead projectors and overhead LCD projection panels and made a projector for $40 and 5 minutes of work!!

When I first built it, I was disappointed but after a period of tweaking on the optics, I'm surprised how good the picture is. Obviously it's not a good as a DLP with 2000:1 contrast ratio and 2000 lumens, but without a side by side comparison it's great for the price.

Some low end DLP's have dropped to around $499 or less now, so that is also an option now.
 
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So, Jarred, what you are saying is that you bought a display solution that costs $4 per hour? (2000 hours / $500 new bulb)?
 
dude time to go back math school. If you sign up, i will join you next door at spelling 101.

2000 hours at $500 a bulb works out to 25 cents an hour.
 
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