Jonjandran's 15.4" Wuxga 1080p Projector, (Lumenlab Hall of Fame) Options

[jonjandran]

This is how it all started , as a basic 15" Projector.

September 24, 2005

My parts list :

HP L1530 LCD Monitor
Slusher Box from slusher357
Light kit from LL (Ushio S400DD, Eballast, Base Mogul)
Lens Kit from LL (Fresnels and Triplett)
2 - 120m fans from Radio Shack
Lexan XL10 from Home Depot
400watt Light from Home Depot ( more on that later)

And lot's of wires, switches , screws, wood , etc from Radio Shack and Home Depot.


Well here's a pic of most of it :



And here's the box from slusher357



Heres some pics of the LCD before and after stripping :





This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 08:52 PM

[jonjandran]

September 24, 2005

Here's the inside of the box with some assembly done:







And here's a shot of the back of the box :



And here's a picture of what this baby can do :




Need to learn how to keep the camera stll so it will stay focused.

This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 08:53 PM

[jonjandran]

And then it all changed

October 7, 2005

Well I was trying to straighten up the LCD and Fresnels and I tightened a screw too far and cracked the LCD. :angry:

But that just made it that much easier to buy the Sharp 15.4" WUXGA Screen and a Controller Kit. Here's the thread describing the 15.4" Wuxga and where to buy it . 15.4" Wuxga Thread





I also ordered the larger fresnels from 3DLens and a reflector for my Venture light. So ina bout a month I should have a HD Projector.

Also I decided to finish one of my downstairs rooms. So now I have a 16'*22' Theater Room.

I'll post pics when I get the Drop Ceiling put in and the Theater Chairs installed.

This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 08:53 PM

[jonjandran]

Well here's a much needed update.

January 15, 2006

I have the 15.4" Wuxga installed. I'm just using the standard LL triplet and fresnels until the Pro Lens kit comes in. I'm projecting at 720p from a Samsung Dvd player. The screen is 2 pieces of Parkland Plastic side by side (hence the line down the middle). The size is around 120-130" diagonal.

I also upgraded to the Ushio PS T15 lamp.

Here's a few of the standard LL pics These were taken with a Sony Mavica (older one). With the standard Night setting. These haven't been enhanced or changed other than re-sizing.









This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 08:54 PM

[jonjandran]

January 15, 2006





This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 08:54 PM

[jonjandran]

January 20, 2006

Upgraded to the Pro Reflector . I really didn't notice a huge difference in brightness at first. But then I turned on the lights and WOW. The projector is actually Very watchable with 6- 40 watt flourescent lights on in the room.

Here's a before and after photo.





Hard to tell with that photo huh. Let me try a Johnny Depp photo.






*edit* added this pic with the Pro lens installed and fresnels adjusted. Projector is now at the rear of the room 20' away. Same projected diagonal size.



This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 08:55 PM

[jonjandran]

January 20, 2006

Oh and here's a Xbox 360 Perfect Dark pic for you.



And here's a Halo shot:



This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 08:56 PM

[jonjandran]

January 20, 2006

Here's a few pics of how I mounted my Pro Reflector.









This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 08:56 PM

[jonjandran]

January 21, 2006

Upgraded to the Pro Lens and Fresnels.

Here's a look at how I extended my Slusher box to fit the Pro lens:





And yes those are screws sticking out of the Pro Lens mounting holes. I didn't have the right size screws and I was tired of going to the store so I figured I'll replace them tomorrow.

This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 08:57 PM

[jonjandran]

January 23, 2006

Here's a few of the inside and outside.

Still have to re-do the wiring a bit.











This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 08:57 PM

[jonjandran]

January 30, 2006

Finally got a good screen.

It's a Da-Lite High Power 105"*144"

It is BEAUTIFUL !!! What a difference it makes. Much brighter and better colors and contrast. White is really white now.




My room is about 17' by 24' . With the projector all the way against he back wall it doesn't quite fill up the whole screen left to right (about 8" on each side) but it does fill it up top to bottom (8' 4" ceiling).

The corners might seem a little darker but it's REALLY hard to notice. I think with a screen this big the eye and head has to pan from the corner to the middle so our eyes compensate for the brightness difference.

Also there is no difference in brightness on different parts of the screen. And with the screen being almost as wide as the room there is no "viewing cone" that I can see. No matter where I sit or stand there is the same brightness everywhere. Even when sitting on the floor.

I think with the Pro Lens and the projector at the back of the room it really helps to eliminate "viewing cone" and keystone problems.

I highly recommend this screen to EVERYONE.

This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 08:58 PM

[jonjandran]

January 31, 2006

Here's a before and after pic. Movies are totally watchable with 6-40 watt flourescent lights on.

Some before and after with Lilu :

Before :


After:


Before:


After:


Pefect Dark Zero at 1080i ------ 175" Diagonal.



This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 08:58 PM

[jonjandran]

January 31, 2006

Well I made afew adjustments.

I moved the fresnels closer to the Lcd but further apart from each other. That helped to even out the light and eliminate some of the dark corners.

Then I cut off some of my focus box. It was 6" long , now it's 4" long. I wanted to make sure it wasn't blocking any light from the Pro Lens.

I then took the Lexan heat shield out.
Then I ran the projector for 7 hours while monitoring the heat. It stayed at around 105-110 degrees at the rear fresnel on the light side. On the Lcd side of the rear fresnel it stayed at 88 degrees. The rear fresnel never bowed or warped. And the Lcd stayed at 78-80 degrees.

So I guess my cooling is sufficient to run this projector without the heat shield.

And it made quite a bit of difference. I would say about 15% better brightness. And the colors seem better also. Don't know why but they do.

So that's all for now. More pics tomorrow maybe.

This post has been edited by jonjandran: Dec 26 2006, 02:22 AM

[jonjandran]

Febuary 2, 2006

Got the new meter in and did the Lux/Lumen test.

247 Lumens. This is with the 175" diagonal screen with the projector 22' from the screen.

I had it as high as 310 Lumens but it had slightly dim corners. Nowthe corners are very even and the entire screen is well lit.

And on daytime scenes it's a little bright. I need my new Lcd controller in so I can turn down the brightness a little.

Well my theater room is almost complete so I thought I'd share a pic or two.

I need 2 longer cables to my box and then I can run the cables in the ceiling and hide them. And I have to clean up my "spare parts" .

I put in 18 theater chairs that I got from a flea market for $100 . It took me and the family 3 hours to clean them , and then another 3 hours to cut paint and mount the bases for them. And then 1 hour to clean the paint of my boys.

Well here's the pics.





This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 08:59 PM

[jonjandran]

Febuary 9, 2006

I just purchased and received a NeuNeo HVD-2085 -- 1080p upconverting Dvd Player.

It is HDCP free and upconvertsto 1080p through component or HDMI !!!

With a 175" Diagonal image you tend to notice any lack of sharpness and jaggies on the edge of objects in the movie you are watching, and with my Samsung 850 at 1080i I did notice that. Especially on movies that were recorded in lower resolutions.

But with this Dvd player at 1080p .... WOW !!!!

There is no blurring or edge jaggies. Everything is amazingly sharp and well focused. It's really incredible.

I did not know for sure that the 15.4" Wuxga panel could do 1080p , but I'm sooooo glad I gave it a shot.
I'm enjoying this projector so much now I've almost lost the urge to tinker with it, well almost.

Some Star Wars Episode III ... at 1080P







This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 09:00 PM

[jonjandran]

Febuary 10, 2006

I wish I had a better camera, but I'm trying to capture the resolution and detail that I see at 1080p. The camera always makes it look less focused though.

Well here's some Gladiator.





This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 09:00 PM

[jonjandran]

March 2, 2006

Well my 5" 457 lens came in today.

I noticed that I wasn't capturing the whole lamp arc with the Pro triplett, and since the 457 is almost an inch wider I decided to try it.

I built a new focus box for it and slid it in and was quite happy with it.

The image before was about 6" shy of filling my whole 180" screen. Now it completely fills it edge to edge. Also the lux increased overall about 15% . And now my corners aren't as dim , and I can still get excellent corner to corner focus.

The lens was 5.5" outside diameter. 6" long and huge !!!

Here was the description given to me :

The 457mm triplets come from Opaque Projector. They are 5 inches in diameter and 157mm long.

Pics as compared to the Pro lens :





This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 09:00 PM

[jonjandran]

Perfect Dark Zero :



Fantastic 4 :





Into the Blue :

FOR THE LADIES :



FOR THE MEN :




This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 09:01 PM

[jonjandran]

June 27, 2006


Total build cost for this projector was :
15.4" Wuxga LCD - $250 --- Ebay
15.4" Controller - $375 --- Minoten
LL Light Kit - $180 --- LL
LL Pro lens kit - $260 ---- LL Have since switched to an 18"-$45
LL Pro Reflector $20 --- LL
Slusher Box - $110 --- Slusher
Fans - $40 --- Radio Shack
Misc parts - $100 --- Lowes

Total - $1335

Then if you want to add more:

Dalite Screen - $650 --- www.finalclick.com
1080p Dvd Player - $200 --- www.neodigits.com
Xbox 360 / Accssories - $650
Theater Room - $1800
Klipsch/Yamaha 5.1 Surround - $1800 --- Ebay
Xbox 360 HD-DVD - $199


Here's 2 pics from the Count Of Monte Christo:





This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 09:03 PM

[jonjandran]

November 16, 2006

I bought the Xbox 360 HD-DVD and hooked it up to the projector.

All I have is King Kong but here's some pics at true 1080p :









All I can say is I'm stunned. True 1080p looks so awesme. No blurring, no jaggies, and awesome clarity and detail.
Time to upgrade all my DVD's .

And here's a Gears of War at 1080p :



This post has been edited by jonjandran: Oct 6 2007, 09:04 PM

[jonjandran]

And there you go.

That's the story of my build.

It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed every minute of it.

This post has been edited by jonjandran: Dec 26 2006, 02:26 AM

[nwalker77]

very nice results....great build!!!

[Ma2T]

ammmmazzzing!, very impressive indeed! Very well done!

I shall be looking over your plog again I think lol.

Showing the 360 HD-DVD really shows off the HD power, and to think, it's that clear and much detail on a projected screen! whoah.

[iwantaprojector]

Thanks for the new pics jonjordan! I can see the detail of 1080p with the hd-dvd. I'm going to settle with a 15.4 like you now.

[Tbird1234]

....speechless. Awesome dood!