I just finished my pj, and the results look good so far. The brightness of the picture appears to be pretty even, and I do not have any spillage around the lens. However, the overall brightness needs to be improved. I still have to install my reflector and seal the light leakage in the pj, espcially around the LCD, as there is leakage on the top and bottom of the LCD frame. Besides these things, what else can be done to improve overall brightness?

1. Seal all light leakages
2. Install reflector
3. Make sure the room is completely dark, no ambient light hitting the screen
4. Install a black matte border around your screen
5. I tried this and it worked. Try covering up any areas of your room that have white surfaces: carpet, walls, etc. I notice alot of light bounces off my white walls & ceilings and my cream tile floor in the basement. I guess thats why the theatera has dark carpet and walls in order to minimize the amount of light bouncing around which effects the brightness of the image. Common sense i guess

The following items will directly impact brightness:
- Adding a reflector.
- Using a different bulb.
- Using a different monitor (some monitors have a different antiglare coating on front, which can reduce brightness).
- Reducing the number of sheets of glass/lexan that are in the design.
- Adjusting the spacing of the bulb to the fresnels, the fresnels to the monitor, and the focal point to the projection lens.
- Making adjustments to the projected image, by adjusting contrast of the monitor, tweaking your N6 (if you're using that), or tweaking settings in your HTPC (if you're using that).

The following items will improve picture quality by reducing off-axis light:
- Sealing light leaks.
- Getting rid of ambient light in the room.
- Using a projection screen (may introduce hot spots).
- Avoiding reflection from bright surfaces (white walls and ceilings, etc.)

The following items will improve perceived picture quality:
- Having a felt black border.

There is a point at which things are bright enough. Commercial LCD data projectors are too bright, and detract from the movie experience. Note that commercial projectors designed for movies are not as bright as the projectors designed for powerpoint presentations. (So if you're using an office projector you've seen as the standard you're aiming for, you're aiming too high.)

There is a point at which things are bright enough. Commercial LCD data projectors are too bright, and detract from the movie experience. Note that commercial projectors designed for movies are not as bright as the projectors designed for powerpoint presentations. (So if you're using an office projector you've seen as the standard you're aiming for, you're aiming too high.)

very interesting comment that I havent heard before. I think you are absolutly right though! the problem is I think our projectors are a little to dark still. not much but a better reflector set up could certanly do the trick. there was supposidly one in the works but I havent seen much done on this site now for months , there was another site saying the same thing and again nothing for 2 months at least. wish there were some more people working on this stuff, hell I would have been willing to test stuff if I could get my hands on the parts but it seems to be a big seceret or something. I am not that good of a builder either though so...