Alrighty, I've completed a projector, but I'm having a few problems with the light...

Now, let me preface this with saying "I made some bad decisions when first wiring my ballast/bulb"

These "Bad Decisions" led to some smoke, and a flash of light. So I'm not going to rule out faulty components yet =P, but I'd like to see if theres anything else I'm missing.

First off, components:
MAG 15" LCD
Ballast + Bulb from Ebay (450w MH)
15" Lens kit from Lumenlab.

Its a standard shaped box, nothing fancy.

I'm getting some spots that are darker/lighter than others, the top edge of the screen is weaker than the middle, and the bottom edge is the weakest. To give a good idea of the brightness, when its _dark_ in the room (night time with lights off), everything is quite sharp, and easily watchable/usable, however, during the daytime, (up until around 9pm), with lights off/blinds up, its not usable at all. You can make out things if you look closely, but its a strain, and in no way enjoyable.

But being that school started up again, and in some of my classes, profs use the projector, looking at the commercial ones, even in a brightly lit room, they are _easily_ viewable, and perfectly fine to use.

I've tried leaving the inside of the box plain... Coating it in sheet metal (I know the whole non-point source problem, but testing) to see if I could at least get _more_ light out, and twisting the bulb differently...

None of these seemed to help.

With the cover off of the box, it _easily_ illuminates the room (with a good amount of light), so I'm wondering if there is any way to see where that light is going, or any tips from anyone?

very few people here are able to watch their DIY projectors with ambient light.. especially with the blinds up! One thing to look at for brightness issue with ambient light is the screen. If you were to get a high gain screen from da-lite, or even a pb maxx paint mix which you can spray on the wall, or on your current screen, you would probably be amazed at the gain.

Second, methods internal to the PJ to increase brightness:

upgrade your reflector. people have seen up to 50% gain in brightness when using the pro reflector compared to no reflector, so this goes to show how important a good reflector is. I don't know the shape of your bulb or your current reflector, but this is a definite area to concentrate on.

The reason for dark edges could be because some of your light isn't passing through the triplet. it may be 'splashing' next to it. look inside the pj while its running and make sure you don't see a lot of light splash around the triplet. Also, you bulb position in relation to the rear fresnel has a great deal to do with light distribution in the final projection. if the bulb is too close, you will see the center brighter than the edges. try moving the bulb 1" further from the rear fresnel. This should even out the light distribution, although, it will be detremental to your quest for brightness as it will decrease overall across the board. good luck!

Whats the difference between commercial PJs and DIY ones? (Theres no viewing problem during bright day with commercial)

Bulb is fairly large...
Looks Like:
http://cgi.ebay.com/400W-Metal-Halide-Bulb...1QQcmdZViewItem

Would a pro-reflector work there? Or would I need a different bulb?

People can usually see DIY PJ's during the day with the blinds closed, correct?

I helped setup a dell 3000 lumen projector at a campground. The projector was under a picnic shead with all sides open except directly behind the screen where thin black curtins were hung,on either side. On a cloudy day, a 60 inch screen was watchable not very good colors or contrast. at max brightness.

I'll grab the model number from class tomorrow, but in a classroom, windows open, lights on, 20ish foot screen was brightly lit, and extremely easy to see...

Any idea if the larger bulb would work with a pro-reflector?

commercial projectors are much more efficient... small bulb, optimal reflector, very small LCD allow for maximum light to pass through the LCD and then be projected onto the wall.