First off ... I'm soooo happy that Paypal and my bank fiinally decided to finish the whole process so I could get the guide and access to the restricted forums! Some of the stuff in here is just amazing!! Now I can't decide on which one to start with ... but am leaning toward the RPTV ... but then I got thinking about it ....

.... I got comparing a diy rear projection and what some of the differences would be. Then I thought of split screen (two tv shows on one screen, etc). Anyone see where i'm going? How about putting two projectors inside of one rptv? maybe make the screens somewhat smaller (don't know how easy this is, still doing LOTS of reading in here). You'll have a semi-widescreen setup. You could be working away on one projector with your computer (I plan on using my PC as the base to this whole setup), and tv/dvd/vhs/camcorder/whatever running on the other projector. Then if you wanna watch a movie, you just expand your dvd program to full screen and (hopefully) it'll spread it across both "monitors" (projectors). Would essentially be the same as running two monitors in windows (or linux). Anything think that this might be doable??

My PC is as follows so I'm thinking it'll do it

P4 2.8GHz (800 bus)
1 GB ram
1 -160GB HDD (dvd's, tv episodes, mp3's)
1 - 250GB HDD (dvd's, tv episodes, mp3's)
2 - 120GB SATA HDD (RAID, system runs here)
ASUS Video Card based on nvidia fx5600 (dual dvi) plus composite in/out and s-video in/out
dvd-rom
dvd+/- r/rw
Hauppage pvr-250
SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum
Logitech Z-5300 speakers

I thought you might even get the computer mounted inside of the case with the dvd drivers somehow coming out the front or side out of the light path. Thought the front speakers (l, r, center) could be mounted directly to the sides and top of the tv case somehow.

Sound doable or am I just dreaming and way to excited over this whole diy projector/rptv??

Bruce

well when i play movies on a dual monitor system it does not play or show on the second monitor, the movie is blacked out, but this might just be my not doing it right I have not messed with it much, but could work, However you will have to consider the focal length of your projector lens and fresnels, for a smaller image.

There are basically two ways of implementing dual head on a video card with dual RAMDACs:

1. Independent screens with separate framebuffers.
2. "Big desktop" with one framebuffer, with each RAMDAC showing part of the framebuffer.

Some drivers support both modes. You might have better luck with the second method, since it doesn't require any special tricks on the hardware level to render the desktop, fullscreen games or video overlays across both screens. Whether or not the drivers have artificial limitations is another matter...

Also note that some video cards (like Radeon 8x00) have a maximum 3D acceleration context size that is smaller than the maximum dual head desktop resolution, so you may not be able to cover the whole area with 3D games and applications that are restricted to a single context. (Most games are, and most applications are, unless you use multiple views.) IIRC, the limit is 2048x2048 for Radeon 8x00 cards and 2560x2560 for 9x00 based cards. nVidia chips have similar restrictions, but I don't remember any figures...

save the effort.. and the cost... build it with 1 lcd projector... run it with a pc.. there is software out there that can do picture in picture... but needs 2 or more tuner cards... ( unless your playing a movie / dvd / divx / recorded tv or time shifted tv.. and a tv show from one tunercard)

one i know of is called Digivision HTPC, its australian made

http://users.bigpond.net.au/renura/digivisionhtpc.htm

i use is with digital TV tuner card... using SD and HDTV works a charm can can be controled easly with a remote or a cordless mouse or trackball

is has Supports up to 3 VisionPlus DVB cards of any type (i.e. DVB-t, DVB-s or DVB-c) which allow viewing of HDTV, SDTV and Digital Pay TV.

cheers hope this saved you some money and lots of work

I had a happage wintv tuner usb on my laptop when I was in texas and that did PIP.. I think you should just build one projector and then go with the pip way

Thanks everyone ...

I've got a Hauppage 250 in the box right now, and have got a VisionPlus DVB-S card on order to get the FTA satellite signals.

Now I just need to decide between the RPTV and a plain old projector!