I am going to do a presentation in the morning, and I was able to bring a Proxima x540 UltraLight LCD/DLP XGA projector home from work. This cost about $4,000 about a year and a half ago when it was current. It is discontinued now, but if you find it in stock you can get it for around $2,000-$3,000.

It is rated at 1100 ANSI Lumens, and has a contrast ratio of 400:1. I fired it up and did a direct comparison between it and my $250 DIY pj.

Important note -- I am currently using a 13" LCD with a contrast ratio of 150:1 that is BELOW LumenLab spec. I do have a better monitor on order, but unfortunately had to take advantage of this situation now. That is why this comparison is unfair.

Out of courtesy to Brainchild for providing this site, I am posting this comparison in a protected forum. It really isn't a fair comparison unless I was following his specs.

Attached is a shot from my DIY pj. It combines color, light and dark.

This is the same scene from the proxima. My impression is that the x540 is much brighter, with much whiter light. Colors are richer and closer to what I see on a CRT television.

Now for a direct comparison. Due to the difference in brightness levels, I cannot compare details by taking a picture of both screens simultaneously. One is always either overexposed or underexposed.

This shot is adjusted manually to give an idea of the difference in brightness that I see in person.

The proxima is the top screen. It is so much brighter that it reflects off the white walls, lights up the room, and creates enough ambiant light that it floods out the DIY pj.

In my public gallery, I have a photo of what my pj looks like in actual operation. This is that same shot with ambient light levels when the x504 is working.

As you can see, the room is not dark.

This is a difficult shot that I thought showed the contrast limitations of my pj. It has light and dark together. This shot also has a split screen between use of a grey screen (right) that improves contrast, and an antique white wall (left).

This is the same shot on the x504. I am shooting it against the antique white background.

The bulbs run $350 a pop, and are rated for 2,000 hours.

I will rerun some of the screenshots when I get my new monitor in.

It is possible that my brightness levels are due to the type of coating on my monitor. The difference in color is due to my below-spec contrast level.

This may have been a mistake to bring it home. My wife is now saying, "That's what I'm talking about!" If I got her that commercial pj, she'd put it in the living room. :angry:

...Unless, of course, I bought her something else with the $3,750 (+ ~$150/yr in bulbs) we saved...

maybe it's your camera but the expensive one looks way way too green. the lumen labs just looked muddy.

I agree with strider and it's a well known fact that DLP projections are far too green intensive. I like the DIY projection much better, it might not be brighter but it gives a better color picture.

To the naked eye, the x504 has better or truer color. At least, it matches what shows up on a CRT and gives me what I expect. White light looks very white. I chalked it up to the better contrast ratio. I'm hoping to get color like that when my monitor is upgraded (the new monitor has a similar or better contrast ratio to the x504).

The x504 is actually too bright at night, when all the lights are out. It lights up the room and provides too much light reflecting off of walls and ceilings. I would like the lumenlab pj to be a little brighter, but not THAT bright.

When I'm watching the DIY pj, it feels like watching a real movie. The room is dark, but I can see detail on the screen.

I had a lot of time to synch up my camera with the DIY pj shots, but pretty much used default settings on the x504 photos. It looks fine on the little LCD, but doesn't come out as well on a monitor.

There have been guesses as to the lumen rating of the Lumenlab pj. The x504 is rated at 1100 lumens, and clearly overpowers mine. I'm guessing I'm getting maybe half that or less.

Do you have any additional lexan? Its been shows that the more glass/lexan you have the dimmer the pic will be. Just curious if you have more than one.

Can you take a pic of the light hitting the triplet?


Scott

You should be able to get much more light through your system.

you don't have kids do you? ;-)

Nope, just the one piece of Lexan.

I'll be working on the brightness when the new monitor comes in. I'm hoping that my problem was that the initial monitor I used had a very dark filter that blocked more light than everyone else's. I was very careful with my measurements, so if it's not the monitor, I'm not sure what it is.

Most of the light hitting the triplet does go into the triplet. I actually placed the triplet by verifying where the focal point was visually, then centering the lens there.



Don't know what you mean by this. Is that a question? Or sarcasm? Or a comment on the untidiness of the room?

I have a daughter, but she doesn't yet get a vote. She just said her first word yesterday (and that word wasn't "Lumenlab.")

Food for thought : When one of the PJ"s has a problem , who dose the fix .??

I don't think painting a livingroom black would be an option to any female . ( to give the movie effect )

Having 40 and parting with it , is much easier than 350 ( especially if you get a defect ) Not to mention parting with the 1000's just to start off .. Yikes ! Call me a tightwad I guess ..

And lastly , what real pride of accomplishment do you have ? ( Like , anybody can just spend $$ )

Things that make you go Hmmmmmmmmmm .. Hahahahaaa!!

Sorry , I just had to put in my "2" ( tight wad ) cents ..

Trooper

I agree with Trooper, anybody can spend the money, but I really enjoy watching the look on my friends faces when they see mine and konw that I built this one. it works great and cost under a grand! and I had alot of fun doing it myself! (even the wife likes it)

More details... I got a 15" LiquidVideo monitor in the mail yesterday. Man, is that a beautiful picture! Colors are richer and contrast is better than an IBM Thinkpad's LCD (which was my old "best LCD monitor I've seen.")

I tried to take a picture of each of the three monitors, so that there was a visual record of the difference contrast makes. The idea was to take pictures of the monitors without modification, to be an apples-to-apples comparison. That way, nothing was left to my skill in turning them into projectors.

Unfortunately, I discovered that it's been really hard to take a picture of a bright screen. I haven't been able to manually set my camera to capture what I see in person. In fact, that's what was happening with the first pictures of the x540. The settings are slightly off.

That photo of the jets under the ID4 alien ship is nearly impossible to get my camera to capture correctly. The difference between bright and dark just give it conniptions.

My brightness issue is due to a very dark filter on the front of my monitor. It is not removable.

I'm really looking forward to getting that LiquidVideo in the pj and then re-running the comparison.

I stepped through the scene frame-by-frame and discovered that it wasn't the camera. The light saber pulsates, and he actually looks that green. I just froze the scene at the wrong second.

Sorry, wasn't trying to be vague about the kids thing. I have a 13 month old that if she walked into that room, would have sprayed herself with the cleaner, pulled on all the wires, yanked the folding table off the chair and done everything to kill herself.

Just being funny! I figured with that deathtrap you didn't have kids.

anyway, if the bulb isn't in proper focus with the fresnel, you can have a lot of light loss. It should be much brighter!

I replaced the LCD monitor in my pj with a 15" LiquidVideo. For reference, here is the picture from that.

The problem was indeed my original LCD. The anti-glare screen was very dark.

By replacing the monitor, the brightness has at least doubled. I can now see a picture during daytime.

It is still no where near the brightness of the x504, but that was ultimately too bright. Movies still feel like movies right now.

I no longer have the x504 for a direct comparison, but I would say that the LiquidVideo colors are the same or better than the more expensive pj.

Yes, yes, <sigh>. My daughter is 8 months old, and just starting to be mobile. (Walking before crawling). We're now in the middle of cleaning everything up. I wanted to get that new monitor in there and be in a good stopping point for the pj, because I don't know what I'll be able to do later.

I'd have to say that looks beautiful!! I'm currently building my Pj... Same monitor...LiquidVideo... Hope mine looks as nice as yours...

Ron

The new 15 inch LCD looks very good. The color seems more muted than the expensive pj but much more cinema-like to my eyes. too much color can be a distraction in my opinion. Also, I wonder if the commercial pj might have had the contrast set too high. This tends to bring out the extreme range of colors at the sacrifice of the subtler colors. anyway, I'd much rather watch your new projector than the commercial one - even your first DIY looked better

Your LiquidVideo PJ has better results than your commercial PJ. Did you notice the pictures on LiquidVideo PJ left side bottom you can see the floor design, you cant see that area in your commercial PJ its darker there.

I think your commercial PJ needs calibrating colors. producing more green that's why it seems like more bright but its not.
try this website for calibration http://www.displaycalibration.com/