I'm so glad that it's much easier to build a True 1080p projector thanks to this thread Official 15.4" 1080p projector thread .

But what bothers me is that the G2A controllers don't support HDCP and is very expensive. Also considering that HDCP disabling Blu-ray or HD-dvd player won't be available for a long time and cable/satelite channels also require HDCP. It seems HDCP is necessary in order to be able to enjoy HD content on a true HD projector.

So there's the cheaper and HDCP enabled MST controller. The only problem is that it stretches 1920 x 1080 to 1920 x 1200. So the MST controller will stretch the image vertically by about 11%.

What I was wondering is if it's possible to fix it simply by adding a lens that will shrink the image vertically by roughly 11%?

Probably the number 1 problem will be finding a cheap, quality, correctly sized lens to use. But will it have any other problems like jaggles due to stretching from the controller?

Also if a lens doesn't work, what about a folded design using curved mirrors? A curved mirror would be much cheaper to produce but would create the correct image size.

Any help or thoughts would be great.



* Side Note : Also if you have an HDMI output source like say a PS3. If you connect your PS3 to the MST controller via HDMI, where can the audio output come from? Or will I need some sort of receiver (that hopefully also upconverts) that works like PS3 connects to receiver via HDMI, receiver splits into a HDMI video source and audio output?

But then if I use a receiver will the video output still be HDCP?

If I need a receiver, does anyone know of a good thread to look at or good website that has ratings or reviews different receiver?

You fool, Pixels are actual physical little dots. Even if you get some kind of a lens to shrink the image to 16:9 instead of 16:10 the image will still have artifacts and just look plain ugly. The only real way to display 1080p is its full beauty is to have it running at 1080p not stretched to 1200 then some lens squashing the square pixels to rectangles. Sorry mate this won't work.

Lol you sound like the evil lord from a video game-

Anyway, you are mostly right. The SDE effect would not benefit immensely from this, the pixels are already hardly viewable, especially vertically. Whether I would do this really depends on the scaling quality of the controller, and if it's good, but won't do 1:1(like the Realtek based or MST), this would be a good solution to get a 16:9 screen.

lets hold on here. (calling someone a fool is not a good way to start a response to someone) This has been done. It does work, and some would argue it's actually better due to the improved resolution in the vertical direction (1200 vs. 1080) which does aid in reducing SDE.

Your arguement about artifacts is somewhat valid, but to say that it'd be "ugly" is certainly far from true. Keep in mind that there are plenty of LCD and Plasma HDTV's out there that still use a 1366x768 pixel format, and they look great being sent 720p, 1080i and 1080p signals. (ie. all those signals are being scaled to meet the native 1366x768 LCD resolution) The point is, and Nin mentions this also, is that artifacts due to scaling are a function of the quality of the scaler, it's not automatically "ugly" just because it's being scaled. The good thing is that the MST has shown to be very good with it's scaling from 1080 to 1200 pixels.

The lens required is called an anamorphic lens, and this type of lens can be used to "squish" or "stretch" the picture, depending on how to want to setup your screen. This thread, http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18311 , talks about DIY anamorphic lenses and how to make them. Now certainly any lens you build and put in the imaging path will effect the quality of the projection, so you'd certainly want to be sure to build/buy one with the best quality you could afford. Of course by the time you're done building one of these, it might be cheaper to buy the G2A controller and a HDFury for handling any HDCP issues.

Pixels are not just simply "little dots". They are a matrix of Red, Green and Blue subpixels. LCD subpixels typically have three vertical rectangular shaped areas ( R,G,B ), while there is a little "dark" area for the control circuitry.

gs