I had completed my 17" SGI 1600sw pro configuration some time in early 2005. I had been using it harshly pretty much daily for as long as 8-14 hours per day. I had to replace the bulb once late last year. The image had degraded somewhat over time due to the heat warping my fresnels, but it wasn't so bad that I felt I had to do a rebuild. However earlier this year some screen artifacts began to appear in increasing volume. I figured my lcd was succumbing to the heat also. So I bit the bullet and started planning.
I bought some pine boards (because I didn't want the weight of MDF or plywood), found a pair of replacement SGI monitors locally for cheap, and then started taking things apart. First thing I discovered was that the artifacting was not due to damage of the lcd. In fact, it was in fantastic shape and I didn't need to replace it at all. The problem was in the digital output of my video card. My solution was to just switch to the analogue output. Second thing I discovered was that the fresnels were significantly warped, but could be pressed back to shape if held within a proper frame. I did have some new fresnels from 3DLens leftover from before but I decided to only use them as a last resort if the originals couldn't be salvaged.
So in essence, I re-used almost everything that was in my last projector. I simply rebuilt the housing and made better mounting frames for everything.
The picture is once again very good. But my corners are darker than they used to be and the center is much brighter. Previously the lighting was more even. Focus is much better than it was also, mostly due to better positioning of the projector relative to my screen and my fresnels being flatter. In any case, I am unlikely to do any more work on this thing for now. As most of us know, it looks better in person than in a still image. It's working well enough for us to be happy with it.
