Hey, I just ordered the kit and can't wait to get started. But...

My question is concerning the fact that I only have a 17inch LCD but don't really want to pay the extra $180 for the pro lens kit.

Basically I got an awesome deal on this 17inch($50) and want to know what draw backs I would run into with just purchasing the standard lens. And what exactly would I have to do to use it. I was thinking that I would just have to mask off a boarder on the screen for the un-used portion.

But wouldn't I then run into problems with viewing window's start/task bar and such. My friend is willing(more like wanting) to trade me his 15inch and $50 for my 17 inch. Which do you think is the better of choices? My 17 with higher resolution and lose of edges. Or the 15 with lower resolution yet all of the video?

Also, what happens to dead pixels? As I know my friends LCD has atleast one. I don't want the trade, set everything up, then have a dead pixel creating some weird quarter sized spot on the screen.

Any suggestions on either would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Kevin

I'm not sure how much distortion you'd get, but I think the sides would certainly be distorted. If you're watching movies letterboxed, maybe they'd be okay vertically. Seems to me one dead pixel would be far more tolerable than a distorted screen, though. What do plan to use the projector for? If you're watching a movie, you might get away with it by not using your player in full-screen mode and centering the player on your desktop but this seems to defeat the purpose. You might consider selling the 17 inch on ebay and finding a better 15 inch with whatever you make on it. Otherwise, occasionally dead-pixels can be "massaged" back into working order. I believe I saw a thread somewhere on the site here about that.

Just searched through the forum about dead pixel massaging. I think I'm gonna go ahead and trade my friend and go from there. I plan on using the pj hooked to a N6 with lots of tv, movies, and xbox. So distorted picture will not work, as all basic tv and xbox is full screen. Not to mention I won't be running it through a computer at all, so resizing the player won't work.

Do you guys think x-box would look better run composite to my dvd player, then component to the n6. Composite to the N6 only. Or S-video to the N6?

Thanks for all the help,
Kevin

I would think s-video straight to your n6 would be the way to go.

Composite to dvd to component to the n6 will still only give you composite quality.

The only drawback to using the regular lenses with a 17" monitor is that you will not be able to fully utilize your entire screen....obviously some of it will be cut off.

Nope, can't use it. Height wouldn't really be an issue since most are only interested in 16:9, but S15 is not only not tall enough, but not wide enough as well.

A 17" LCD panel is 338mm wide and 270mm tall. The S15's dimensions are 319mm x 252mm. You will have distortion in at least 72 pixels horizontally since those 72 pixels will fall outside of the fresnel. Not only will you have distortion, but the sides of the projected image will be dim.