Well I finally got a sec to strip my Dell 1702FP that I bought for my next HDTV projector. This panel is listed as a 500:1 but was independently tested at 892:1 by PCWorld. Another nice feature is the tight pixel pitch, .26. The panel has a single 20pin .5mm FFC that is easy to extend. I will be using this panel in a very innovative design not yet featured on the boards here. This will be the smallest possible form factor and will look very attractive ceiling mounted.

To the best of my knowledge this will be the highest contrast DIY projector made to date. You can imagine my excitement.

Built like a TANK!

Input board.

Glorious.

Which FFC do you have to extend? its it the one on the side of the lcd?

i hate you for having such an awsome lcd.. those specs are great. LOL

Me wants one!!

The fcc is on the left side. It plugs into the red circle.

Where are the emoticons for slobber and drool? I can't seem to find them! Brain, once again, you are the man.

How much was the lcd? When can we see a pic/drawing of this new ceiling moutable design?

lot of 30 1702fp's for sale on ebay drools at those specs of that mon

I paid $400 for a guaranteed 'no dead pixel' display. I see them selling for $300 often. For the drawings, I expect to have something hammered out this weekend. I am a bit shakey on one part of the projector which will make or break this project for me. I have to hit the books and do a bit of research/drawing to ascertain whether it can work or not.

I forgot to mention that this panel also has full digital support (DVI).

Brain, if you were going to kick us while we were down, you could have let us move our faces out of the drool spot first Good luck with the new design. Don't work too hard, try to enjoy the holiday a little bit. I thought that my only hard decision was which bulb to get, then 15" vs 17"+, now I've got folded designs and rear projection. To quote a famous Brooklyn scholar, "I'm so confused".

I think that listing is just for the cables and CDs. But I do understand your zeal.

This guy is selling two 1702s

brain
does the 1702fp have a ffc problem? looks like it does from the pics
peter

sorry
my question about ffc was answered in your first post
peter

what are the outside measurements of the metal frame? i wonder if this would fit in my projector.
peter

900:1

WOW!



what is mine again??!! 200:1 :angry:

Im very intregued by this as i was planning on going with a 17" pj myself, all i have to do now is start sourcing some parts and by then mabey there will be some more detail on your box layout/design (most probable), in which i could modify for my situation

15" x 12"

So what is this new design going to look like? I would really like to ceiling mount mine again, since the first attempt did not work. I was thinking of making a vertical box and putting it between the floor joists. It would onlu stick down 12 inches, but I an not sure about getting all the angles right. What is you design going to look like?

It's going to be as small as possible. Still have one problem to tackle though...We're hoping for something like 8 x 17 x 18.

Reminder to those who use American Express you can use your MR points to get Dell gift certificates . The 1703fp is at 425.00 on dell.com
John

0o0o nice size ! this i cant wait to see

well done and good luck overcomming the last hurdle Brainchild

Now that is welcome news, Brain. I'd appreciate seeing the plans for that one before you ship my components after the Sept 23rd arrival date.

I'm highly interested as well, because I want to go full-on HDTV.

Hey Brains... this looks like an awesome idea! Can't wait to see it.

I second that motion.

My first post, but ceiling mounted, small profile, HDTV is DEFINATELY what I am looking for.
BTW, is this monitor the same as some I see listed as 172, or is the 1702 different?? (1702, 1703 i think same just diff years??)
Thanks, can't wait to see what you came up with.

I'm curious about the 1703 too. Can't seem to find many 1702's online anymore. I'd like something that I can buy more of if I decide to whip up several of these PJs for friends and family.

The 172 & 1702 are different models. The 1703 & 1704 are newer versions, but have somewhat different specs. The 1702 had been tested independently and found to have nearly a 900:1 contrast ratio. I dont know if the 1703 or 1704 would be the same.

Yes I sought out the 1702FP based mostly on tested contrast. The 1703 might not exhibit the phenomenon.

Thanks. I didn't realize the 1702FP was a few years old. Found this quote from a (very happy) 1702FP owner dated Feb 19, 2003, "It is important to remember that this LCD is nearly 2 years old so the ones for sale are usually refurbished, let me just say that mine looked NEW... not one dent, scratch, blotch, spot- not even ONE dead pixel."

Hi Brain,

1) How would you move HD (3 x component) signal for input in the DVI-D connector on the 1703FP ?

2) Do you need an external box or an adaptor ?


Thanks for the prompt answer.


Cheers

To bring in Component on DVI you'll need a box of some sort. Component Video is an analog signal, whereas DVI is digital.

where can you find a scaler that will output DVI??
I have seen some on ebay that will do vga that look pretty good at about 50, or was it 100, either way, nothing with DVI!!! :angry:

it'd be easier just to take everything into a pc and output it over DVI that way.

well i would just like to say i am typing this using my freshly delivered 1702fp
w00t!
AUS$475 (~US$330)
no dead pixels, looking nice with auto adjust, had to turn the brightness way down
fast text scrolling seems a little smudgy compared to my previous CRT which was a Dell rebadged Sony Trinitron but we'll see with video
plan on calibrating with Video Essentials as soon as i get a chance
guess i'm going to have to get me one of them there ffc extenders

... that's why I'm having so much difficulty... :angry: :angry: :angry:

I'm getting my hands on this baby (I need a drool emoticon...)... In summary, it takes almost every kind of video input and passes it to (or converts it) to component out... having one box controlling DVD, Satellite HD or Not, Cable, PC, etc. IT DOESN'T OUTPUT TO DVI-I or D.

Anyone have my problem ? It seems everyone's getting a 200-300 box to get around this. Sounds odd to me that HD and DVI is incompatible. Remember I'm still a newbie

Thanks to any help you can provide.

PS: OH did I mention it also is a true 7.1, THX, 2 zones, etc... that also plugs on your LAN and fetches your MP3s from your PC... drool drool...

bring it in what way??
like with an ATI AIW, or something like that?? that only allows composit/svideo, right, not component?!
what exactly do you mean
Thanks

ricoks, what would you want to bring in over component? You'd use a dvd drive in CPU for DVD, you could use a kvm to switch between your PC and HDTV box, analog is analog....

I'm sure this will help a little:

My research indicates that

DVI-D is DIGITAL ONLY :angry:
DVI-I is DIGITAL & RGB

This means that if you get an LCD with a DVI-I input you should be able to go from COMPONENT to DVI-I.

This is what we need WITHOUT an external box.

I will find some LCDs that will satisfy my (our ?) needs.


TTYL

If you look at a DVI-I connector it looks just like the DVI-D except on the side with the "key pin" (the sideways flat pin) there's 4 extra connectors. This is your RGB with sync info section. Essentially, DVI-I is 2 connectors in one. The RGB portion is no different than a component video signal. You'd have better quality if you could bring your sources in via DVI-D.

You're right but I'd rather have the flexibility (in case I have another RGB input) of the DVI-I connector and I STLL bring my sources via DVI-D.

Hi< I'm a newbie and wanted to know if the Dell 1702fp and the dell e1702fp are the same monitor and also does that monitor have a protective screen/glass in front of the lcd? I've seen soon listed refurb's with scratches on the screen. good or bad idea?
thanks

You definitely don't want the scratched ones. Don't know what the e means

Well, I just won my eBay auction for a NEW Dell 1703fp for only $285 (+ $49 shipping :angry: ). It is listed as 600:1, so hopefully, even if not the near 900:1 of the 1702, 600 is till VERY good! Brain, any news on the new design with the dell?? I am looking at a folding design for ceiling mount. My ceiling has two large wooden log beams that I would like to not distract from (wife!), and still have a large screen.

BTW, my room is L shaped, and will fit an 8' wide 16:9 (8'x4.5' right), but my question is, what is the best height??
how far off the ground should the middle of the picture be? My couch is only about 12" off the ground where you sit/lounge. Would it be bad if it were high, like 4.5' off the ground?? (the bottom would be 4.5' off the ground, not the middle of the screen, make sense.....??)

Anyway, looking forward to you experience and designing with the Dell Brain, I am excited to receive mine and get started

Ryan

If you have the ceiling height it will work good at a higher level. Your seating will be far enough back so you wouldnt have neck strain, and small children or animals wont walk in front of the screen and block the view. Just my opinion.

lmao, I almost died when i saw this topic/thread.

I've always dreamed of making a lumenlab projecter but never had a good LCD laying around or the cash to get one. Then one day my friend says her brother is getting rid of his "old" LCD for a new one. My friend gave the projector to me for free. This projector being a Dell 1702FP

*drools and waits in anticipation for the final design.*

brainchild

I got a Dell 2001fp in anticipation of building a 1600x1200 projector. That monitor has a DB15 VGA input, a composite video input, an s-video input and a dvi-d input. Thursday, the Dish Network guy came and installed a 8111 HD satellite receiver. The receiver includes a dvi-d output so I tried hooking up the Dell to the receiver's dvi-d output and was able to check out the same program on both a regular channel and a HD channel. I could easily see the differnce in the two channels. Then I discovered that the receiver was set to 480p. I had to dig into the receiver manual to find where the menu was hidden to change the setting to 720p. WOW!!! Then I got out the Viewsonic N6 out and hooked it up to the component outputs of the satellite receiver and set the N6 to 1280x1024 and hooked it up via the vga input of the monitor. So I had the monitor hooked up direct from the receiver by dvi-d (1600x1200) and by vga via N6 (1280x1024). Both pictures (720p) looked equally good.

Pictures will have to wait until I get the projector far enough along to take pictures when I start testing it. My projector PLOG starts tomorrow. btw, the Dell is staying with my regular PC. I'm stripping a Samsung 913V, it has a spec'd contrast of 800:1 but only has a vga input. Given my experiments with the dvi-d and vga inputs on the Dell, I'm hoping that the vga output to the Samsung will look just as good as if it had a dvi-d input. Anyway, I shall see. This will also show how the pro lens kit works with a 19" monitor. I'm designing the box so that it will be large enough to put a 20" monitor in if I become convinced that it will make a difference.

If you're still wondering...

The "e" class of LCD's from Dell pretty much stands for "economy".

They don't have DVI inputs, no USB on the bezel, and the base doesn't allow the screen to slide up and down.

I think that the LCD's themselves are identical however, but you might want to doublecheck that, I think perhaps in the past, the lcd's were of slightly lower grade as well, but i don' tthink the new line is like that.

in any case, from what i gather, they're all ultrasharp, but from what i've been reading, not very fast actually, 25ms or so... note that they will rarely give you the speed of any of their lcd's online, for a reason....