hey guys im very new to the forum but have read through many of the project logs etc and have decided to build my own i am a student in the uk and therefore also a pauper.. so my project will be on a tight budget! i think i will probably build a psone style projector as these seem to be the cheapest and as im a beginner i think its best to start small..

my questions are basically regarding the lcd.. now i have read that ebay was the best place to buy old ps1 screens from and being a frequent ebayer i assumed this would be so.. i was wrong.. there are not that many around and so i decided to look around a bit more then i found these

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B...ef=ord_cart_shr

annnnnd

http://www.play.com/Games/PlayStation2/4-/...+Monitor)+(PS2)

now in my completely ignorant state i would say that the xbox screen would be better as it is bigger? it seems to have good reviews from this site and a couple of others as well...

any advice would be great

Rob

not xbox.. ps2.....

I've read to stay away from anything but the Sony branded screens as the image quality is lacking in anything but. I've also read that the Zenith screen for PS2 is identical in screen and controller. I just picked up a Zenith on ebay, new-in-box for $40USD. I got it a few days ago and ran a DVD on it and I'm pretty pleased. Obviously its not a screen for high image quality but for my purposes gets the job done on the cheap. Haven't stripped it yet, may attempt that today.

yeah i have heard that if you go for the psone screen it is advised to go for the official one.. i will keep looking.. i wonder if anyone else has used the 7.2 inch ps2 screen..

cheers for the quick response

I stripped mine last night. The Zenith is as identical as I can see. It even has the same serial number on the board for the LCD. I took a look at the circuits and it appears that everything is line for the brightness mod and quite possibly the VGA mod, though that seems to be as much a function of the video card used to drive the output. As for size, I think image quality is based more on resolution than actual LCD size and the 7.2" and 5" should be the same low res quality. Not too much an issue if you aren't looking to push a screen bigger than about 60" using composite video.

Saw you mentioned limited budget and thought i'd add my 2p. I too am a student and have managed to build a projector for about £15 using an old overhead projector from my school (Being thrown away as new digital projectors are taking over) and an old laptop (also being thrown away as they become outdated so soon.

This means that I already have the light source and lenses all setup for projection and I just place the LCD on the OHP. £5 was spent on some CPU fans to blow air between the LCD and OHP and the other £10 on bits an peices to fabricate a proper mounting for the LCD to set on rather than cardboard strips.

The only disadvantage of this system is the size, of both the OHP and having to have the laptop base near the projector to feed data to the screen. However if you could find an old LCD that was on its way out because of some minor fault then this would reduce the footprint of the projector greatly and allow you to plug any source in, rather than having to stream t thorugh the laptop.

Anyway, just my story.
Hope it might be of some help.

Excellent. Moreover, and just off the top of my head, I have to wonder if 15 UK pounds/$30 US (out of pocket) might not even be a "record." *

[* In any case, it has to be within about 15 UK pounds/$30 US of the record.... Unless someone I don't know about is actually getting PAID to experiment with all this stuff?]

I suspect seeing even an actual "proof of concept with my own two eyes...(Re: DIY projection)...will cost me a lot more than this.

In fact, if I think about it, it already has.


k

thanks for all the advice guys

i have bought a psone and screen (sony) off ebay for £35 and so il sell the psone for like five or ten rips and that will hopefully be the biggest expense of my project, individually anyway.

i am now looking into making the rest of my projector up.. so much to know and learn!

i like the look of the folded design projectors as they seem to have a smaller footprint than the straight through ones... but is there a loss of image quality in the use of a mirror.. and also does anyone have recommendations for what i will be looking for in terms of fresnals and triplets as the delta one that everyone else seems to use is not available anymore..? if i get an old ohp will the lenses/fresnals be of a good enough quality?

so many questions... the forums are very helpful but a lot of the posts are very old and i dont think there would be much point in asking people about the projects concerned as they are from like a year or two ago...

as before... any advice will be well recieved

cheers