I'm happy to announce that my project is finally finished (sort of, we all know it's NEVER finished )!!! I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to help, support, and generally take interest; there's no way this project could go from a crazy idea to completion without your help.

Here is the Bill of Materials, take a look!
Final Projector BOM

And now on to the pictures!!

First off, the completed projector:
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And now for inside the enclosure!
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More interior shots!
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On to the REAL results!! Now some of these will be blurry because I can't pause games without the menu coming up, so the environment/player movements make it look blurry, but I swear it's crystal clear! The gaming shots are all in 1080p on my Xbox 360 via VGA.

The picture is about 96"x60" with a 113" diagonal, about 12 1/2 foot throw.

All pictures are taking in Manual mode on my Canon A710 IS. Settings: ISO80, Shutter Speed 1.6" F5.0

Halo 3
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More Halo 3!!
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That fan next to the LCD is pulling air into the enclosure over the LCD and Fresnels, while to two in the back are pulling that air out. I think all the fans are rated at like 110-130 CFM, and the LCD never really gets over room temperature . A very cool (temperature and style wise ) box, and it's loud, but not that loud.

Even more Halo 3!!!
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Now onto Bioshock:

More Bioshock:
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Even more Bioshock
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Now onto Oblivion:

More Oblivion:
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Xbox 360 Dashboard:
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Onto movies. These are taken on my modded Xbox via XBMC at 1080i through component. Once again, they might be a little blurry due to pausing during motion.

Hot Fuzz
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Gladiator



Kung Pow (You know you love it! )

Sin City
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The Office


And the last one for now, a picture from Interfacelift:



If anybody wants to see a particular game or movie, I'm taking requests! Thanks for taking a look!!

How about 5th element?

And can you hold a laptop or desktop screen (turned on) next to the projection so we can see how bright it is?

Nice job, Oblivion looks like a picture from real life in some of those pics!

This comparison is pretty much spot on to the difference I'm seeing between my projection and laptop.

F5.0, Shutter Speed 1/5", ISO80

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From my PLOG:

Wow that's a pretty low transmissivity, I thought these panels were supposed to be like 6-10% or so?

Good comparison though, thanks!

So does your actual projection image look like the darker screen on that picture? Cause I thought the halo3 pictures looked great though.

This is really (well maybe not) nitpicking but ya know how you can turn your brightness up and down on the laptop screen? Where was it set for those comparison pics? I know when I'm in a totally dark room if my laptop is cranked up to the max it really is way too bright for comfort.

How did you deal with the keystone issue?

Regards,
Traynor

No, it's just that when I calibrated it for the correct brightness of the projection, the laptop picture was too blurry and over exposed to get a decent comparison.




I agree, my laptop is currently set at the highest brightness setting and it does get fatiguing after a while using it in the dark. I'm really happy where the brightness is on my projector; I think that if it were as bright as my laptop, it would be much more strenuous and fatiguing on my eyes while gaming than it already is.





I mounted the screen on the ceiling away from the wall, and pulled the bottom back toward the wall.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best solution. <Insert your favorite saying here.>

Glad you've achieved nirvana - a working, finished, DIY WUXGA projector.

Great job! What material are you using for a screen?

I believe he bought a Da-Lite screen.

Yup, Da-Lite High Power screen.

Are you happy with the brightness and contrast? I saw you mentioned that the contrast isn't that good in your other thread.

Well the contrast and color saturation are good, it's just not as good as my LCD TV. The colors aren't as deep and vivid, but still very very good. If you take a look (You most likely already have) at jonjandran's DIY vs commercial comparisons, it pretty much shows exactly what I'm seeing as far as the difference between my projector and LCD TV. The sharpness of the projector picture is light years ahead of the LCD TV though. I defiantly notice that my TV looks much softer compared to the projection, which I love so much.

On the other hand, I'm defiantly happy with the brightness now. It's so much easier on my eyes than my laptop or TV, though there is a trade off. I find myself going back to my LCD TV when playing video games competitively because the projector screen is so big that I find that there is too much to look at, at one time. So if I'm going to play some Halo 3 or Half-Live 2 (Orange Box comes out today for the Xbox 360!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) on Xbox Live, I'll usually just hook it up to my TV because I don't have to pan my eyes across the screen to take in everything, which takes away from my reaction time.


If anyone wants more pictures of anything, let me know! Though I don't have The Fifth Element .

Why are you running 1080i on component... do you not have VGA available in your PJ to run xbox360 through it?

I'm only running 1080i on my Xbox. The Xbox doesn't support 1080p. I'm running 1080p on my Xbox 360 via component. I tried the Xbox 360 at 1080p via VGA, but honestly it looked terrible (pixelated, and the colors weren't as good), and the whole image didn't fit on the screen.

That box looks beautifully built! It's nice that it works out as a table as well!

Nice build looks very nice, i got a quick question. I see that your bulb is vertical, do you think this helps out your brightness or does it matter if its vertical or horizontal.

nice build but do you have to lift one side of the coffee table or something to project onto the wall
or is the front lense on an angle or something?

can you post a pic of the projector pointing at the wall

If I remember right, at one time he said he raised one side to project on the screen, but of course that would cause a keystone issue, so he pulled the screen back on the bottom, or something like that to get a correct picture.