Well here we go, round two. I started building my first projector about three years ago. It has performed flawlessly, but is getting a little outdated. So, this one gets a new panel, better optics, better resolution, DVI, keystoning, built in HTPC, smaller footprint (vertical as opposed to the old traditional horizontal 15"), quieter fans, etc.

I've been reading through Durachko's PLOG, looking for a little inspiration on a few things. There's some neat ideas to pick up on in there, but also a lot of off topic discussion that makes for a long entertaining read. I still need to find and read SIMUL8R's plog. I know I'll find some good stuff in there. Anyone have any other good links to vertical folded 17" PJ's?

Here I'll keep an updated list of parts.

PROJECTOR
Panel: Acer AL1717b
Triplet: Lumenlab Pro Lens
Reflector: Lumenlab Pro Reflector
Fresnels: F550 and F220 from www.3dlens.com
Bulb: Ushio T15 400W Metal Halide

HTPC
Motherboard: Asus M2NPV-VM
Processor: Dual Core AMD 64 5600+
Memory: 1GB Buffalo Dual Channel DDR2 800 PC2 6400
Video: Onboard GeForce 6150 chipset
Hard Drive: 500GB Western Digital SATA 3Gb/s
DVD Drive: Lite On SATA Dual Layer 20x DVD+/-R with light scribe

It's about time.. you never did post any pictures of your 15" because you couldnt get your camera to realistically capture the picture I'm planning on building a 15" for myself too, since i killed my EVO. What ballast did you you use for your first one? I know you probably went the cheapest route, and im looking to do that also
Edit : I found the link to it... nvm

Ok, so it's been a while. The story goes, I got sent abroad on an odd temp job for over three months. I had just ordered the parts for my HTPC, and never got to put it together. And of course, it was all outdated by the time I returned, oh well. I ended up assembling the HTPC in October (if you call piling up the parts on a piece of scrap wood and hooking them together "assembling"). It's been sitting on the living room floor running my old 15" ever since. I'm really liking it, so I think I'll go ahead and build a PJ that's worthy of this HTPC.

I got my fresnels ordered from 3dlens. I also built the enclosure for the PJ. It's a monstrosity standing at 49", but I won't be screwing around trying to arrange things so they'll fit like last time. I tried to make the last PJ somewhat portable, but I've come to realize that I don't care about that, as it just becomes a permanent fixture in the living room anyway. So this one's big, and should be tall enough to shoot over the back of a couch, should I ever get a couch. Maybe I'll put casters on it, then I could call it "portable".

Well I did the anti glare removal many weeks ago, and the panel has been wrapped up in a t-shirt ever since, in a somewhat safe place. It's gotten bumped around a couple times, hard enough to give me a scare. Today, I finally cut out the back of the original panel framing, and got the panel reframed the way it should be. It's a relief to have it protected once again. I hooked the panel back up, and it works just fine.