anybody from Canada ?

if you are a canadian, avoid buying stuff from abroad using UPS. They will suck you real good! Except if you buy from BenQ because if you add up all the charges, you will still end up paying less.

I AM CANADIAN!

Cheers,
Lee

Hey,

Count me in!

I am Canadian As well! booyeah... and I already got screwed with UPS charges with the balast.

But I have found away around it when getting my LCD from BenQ

I work at a company with a couple branches up in Canada and one in the US. I will get the monitor shipped to the US location (no charges) and then have them ship it up in the next shipment for no extra cost to anyone (because the shipments are already a couple thousand dollars and a few hundred pounds, a small LCD wont be noticed).

Take that UPS!

for signal converters, you can buy AverMedia TV Box 9 from TigerDirect.ca. FREE SHIPPING for Canadians! The product works like Viewsonic with almost the same feature except for 480i. But this product is cheaper.

hey fellow Canadians. Where is everybody getting their monitors from? I can't seem to find a good place to order from that meet the project requirements! Also, anybody from the Ottawa, ON area got a projector up and running....would really love to see one. thanks Jeff

the best deal if from this: http://store.yahoo.com/benqshopper/15relcdmo.html
I choose BenQ 567s V2. Nice color and good features.

Howdy... From Winnipeg here... Just got smoked with 25 cm of snow!! Ack.. would give me plenty ot time to start on the project but all my peices are sitting at my cousin down south going to get them next on may long... Only way I thought of to avoid all the custom charges.

Hey Mondjef!
There's an awesome pc place on Carling (I think) I'll get you the addy when I get home!

Hey Cathy, if I can buy local and avoid shipping/duty I will. That addy would be appreciated. Any idea on what LCD you will be using?

I have already scoped around for parts and most of them can be found at Home Depot for a reasonable price. The fan I am still researching as I want it as quick as possible.

Hey Mondjef!
PCcyber computer, 1200 wellington St. unit b&c 224-9995. Last year when I was there, there was a Pizza Pizza across the street from them. www.pccyber.ca. They were really nice to deal with, you can also check out www.pricenetwork.ca this will give you a list of places where you can buy monitors and it will find the cheapest prices. We are using a BenQ567S

Cheers!

Just a friendly reminder to everyone: DO NOT put your LCD into the box until the final stages. This way you can avoid doing hard such as scratches and broken FFC. A black and white shadow is enough to calibrate the lenses, lighting and focus.

hey Cathy, that is actually the same monitor I was planning on using. Where did you find yours at? Price? Let me know how the strip goes...

Mondjef
www.pricenetwork.ca found a place in Vancouver called anitec http://www.anitec.ca 399.00 it's version 2

for screen ideas, you can buy from your local wallmart or any mall that carries "Duplex Shade" window shade in white made by Newell Company 1-800-342-4126. size: 72 in width X 66 in length. This works like a blackout cloth. Total light blocking so your projected image will not be defused. No hotspots. Price is $60+ tax. If wringled, it would normally go away in a week if hanged.

Awesome tip Nolz! thanks a million!

hey fellow Canadians, sorry for not contributing much to the forums yet....still in the learning stages. Cathy, great idea to post a list of Canadian suppliers as it seems to be a major obstacle for us. Just wondering, has anybody order a monitor from Benq's refurbished site (http://store.yahoo.com/benqshopper/15relcdmo.html) and if so how was the shipping charges and was there any duty fees etc? I am thinking of ordering from there as it looks so far with the exchange rate it will be cheaper then any place here in Canada. Thanks. Jeff

Hey Mondjef!
I placed an order with them on the 21st (last friday) I called them on Wed wondering what was going on seeing how my order was not yet processed, well many calls and voice mails later, I got a call back from a lady wo claimed she had to talk to accounting to have the order "released" so as it stands, it's Thursday am, still don't know if I *CAN* get the monitor. I'm not sure how much they will charge me for shipping, I heard someone paid 85$ in duty. So if I were you I think I'd give them a call first. Their number is 909-569-0700 try extension 7756 first as the lady incharge, Melissa Brown is away from the office until June first (7768)

good luck

hey Cathy, the most unlucky thing happened to me last night :angry: I went to place an order for one those refurbs from Benq and I decided to refresh the page before ordering to make sure the monitor was still available and the next thing I notice is all the prices are now jacked up.....a considerable amount too. Not having the best of luck this week. I think once I find a good price on good monitor the rest should not be a problem.

I hope you eventually get your monitor from them, sooner the better of course. .

Jeff

well FINALLY I heard back from BenQ, I can get the monitor for 259$ It ships out today or tomorrow yeah BenQ jacked up their prices last night... at that price you might want to order the new one for 400 in Vancouver (aniteck)

hey mondjef, i ordered mine from benq twice having the first one literally distroyed by my carelessness. anyway , they wont charge you for shipping if you choose canada "...." if forgot the term. but choose the cheapest one. duty charge is only around 40 dollars canadian (paid GST only) plus UPS brokerage fee for having them to pay the duty at the border. in total the charge will cost you 90 dollars canadian and my monitor (567 v2)was $370 canadian.

tigerdirect.ca quot me for $490 canadian plus tax of course. so i have to choose from the lesser evil.

Hi I just joined on June 1st 2004. I am from Saskatchewan and like everybody else will be looking for Cdn sources in order to avoid the cross border expenses and UPS.

Dwight

welcome among us Dwight!
Norlander and I live in BC, our tempered glass was "shipped" in from Sask so you might have a source very close to you. Where in sask do you live? We'll let you know as soon as we've tracked down some black out cloth... the Norpro bowls are hard to get our hands on... we've found one place in Calgary I listed it in the Cdn suppliers list We'll keep on looking!

A local glass place here said they would get me a piece of 1/8" tempered glass 15" x 12" for $20 Cdn + GST.

I can get the eye lamp for $29.70 Cdn + Tx and the ballast for $55.90 Cdn + Tx.

I will shop around Saskatoon this summer to see if any of the stores there stock the Norpro line, otherwise I will keep your Calgary source in mind. I am only at the window shopping stage so far. Not ready to start the project yet.

dstamand,

That EYE lamp, it is the M400SX/BT28/HOR??? Can you do me a favor and give me the name, number, and website of the place you found that bulb?

Make sure it is in fact that very bulb; they may be talking about the standard EYE... The standard universal is not the same bulb.

If in fact you can get the BT28 for that price, you are way cheaper then even the cheapest place in the states.

Kewl

Cheers,
Lee

i second that, hell send one to me in texas... lol

Ack! You're right, the price is for a different lamp. I will ask again and make sure they quote for that exact one.

Dwight

dstamand,

Ya, that sounded like the wrong price, let us know what you find out.

Cheers,
Lee

Lamp prices I have so far are:

$89.00 Cdn for one (1) Eye M400SX/BT28/HOR from Eecol, and for a case of 12 the price per each would be $78.57.

$86.00 Cdn for one (1) Eye M400SX/BT28/HOR from Wesco.

Then of course there would be GST and PST.

Hi to all fellow Canadians.

Well I have ordered my lens and bulbs through Lumenlab and yes I expect to get screwed by UPS :angry:

I have spent the last week browsing all the forums gathering info and plan to build my PJ using a laptop and the lcd. Usually only watch DVD's anyway so this will work for me. Also look at it as a challange as it appears no one has done it.

I have some cool ideas and will keep you up to date. Like to see some of those Canadian PJ pics.

Hi RJ!
Welcome among us! We wish you all the best of luck, anything we can do to give you a hnad let us know. IRC is also a great place to get "instant" help as there is almost always ppl in there chatting it up Let us know how things go with your PJ Norlander should be posting more pics of his PJ in the project gallary, keep an eye on that

Have fun!

here's a sample for the curious...
Benq 567 v2, lenses from lumenlab, sylvania lamp (old specs) and ballast bought locally, no reflector, AverMedia and Poineer dvd. Screen is a window shade from Walmart.

I am canadian too!

Nolz Looks good. Has anyone found a canadian site for supplies lamps etc..?
I'm still looking for canadian suppliers.

Later

Jay

What area are you in Jay? And welcome to the group

Thanks for the welcome Cath.

I'm in the eastcost Atlantic provinces NB.

Jay

Jay, what I did was call electrical contractors, working for a resort that was easy to find but I am certain that you should have a few listed in the yellow pages. If not I am certain you can get some from TO or Montreal

Ok! thanks cath.
I'll probably be in Toronto for a couple days in a few weeks.
So, I might be able to track something down.

Thanks again

Jay

Hey guys, another Canadian here. Been a member for a few weeks now. I'm from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia... I don't have my projector together yet, but have everything on the way.

Ordered my lenses from Lumenlab! Didn't get hit with any duties/taxes!
Ordered my 15" Liquidvideo from EBAY (Waiting on this)
Ordered Ballast/Lamp from EBAY (Got the Lamp, still waiting for the ballast)
Ordered KWorld TV Box from EBAY (Got this)

I'm anxious to get going on this. I don't want to start the box until I have all the pieces. I don't want to make a wrong sized box! I'd like to get the tempered glass ordered, but again I'm concerned about the size.

Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself. I'll be around.
Dave

The Big Show

Welcome! aboard...

Welcome aboard Dave.

I recieved my ballast from LumenLab and guess what not brokerage fees through Fedex It also appears my lens are here so I will be starting the LumenLab journey soon. I have a few case design modes I will be incorporating, should be fun!!

Thanks to everyone for the tips.

I'm in T.O, and still planning my PJ.

I will get started this summer, and wish to have mine finished by Spetember. I am not all decided on parts of the design (keystone adj., focus box, etc...)

good luck neda. im pretty sure you will get a lot of local sources in toronto.

Wow...I was just wondering if there were any Canadians here! I just found this site a couple of days ago. I have been wanting to try making a projector for some time now ever since finding DIY Labs a long time ago, but after finding Lumenlabs, I was blown away by the pictures and the idea of using an LCD monitor instead of a limited resolution projector panel. So, I had to jump in. My old tv just died the other day, so it was the right time!

I'm in Toronto, btw. I'm still shopping for the monitor and a place to get my glass. I ordered the lenses, and the electronic ballast from Lumenlab, the lamp and the reflector from Lighting Unlimited. Waiting for an ebay Liquidvideo screen to end. I already have a multi tuner HTPC setup. At this point for me is what to use for a screen. There seem to be so many options. But I figure that once I get all the projector parts I can start measuring and assembling then decide on a screen later.

Bouclairs (sp?) had a sale on last weekend i believe... Got there on the last day of the sale and picked up some blackout cloth from them. I got it for 50% off. Ended up costing me $20 for 3meters.

Fabric land and bouclairs are always having sales on and off. I suggest watching for a sale (or even not) and picking up some of the blackout cloth there.

Its cheap, the results look good (mine is not yet complete, but others do look good), and you can pick it up from around the corner.


BTW: I am from Toronto as well.

Dangerboy...Yeah, thanks. I was planning on having a look at a near by Fabricland today.

Do you already have a projector constructed? If so, do you have details posted here somewhere?

ALMOST done.... I am just waiting for my bulb... everything is pretty much done. The bulb was lost in the mail and had to be resent. So as soon as it gets in, I will be posting some pics of the entire setup.

Just to let you know:

Ballast: old style
standard lenses
BenQ 567 v2
1/2" MDF box

all of this will be run off a media pc I contructed


I will let you know

Cool. I grabbed the new ballast myself, but I'm still waiting for everything to arrive. I figure if I can't get the LiquidVideo panel off ebay, I may splurge for the BenQ 567s also.

I wanted to ask tho, what kind of fan did you use?

I'd like to hear the specs of your media pc too.

I suppose I should PM you for that tho to keep this thread about projectors.

I will just throw everything in this because it has somewhat to do with projectors as well.

I got my BenQ from the refurb site, but I found a way to pay no taxes or duties. I work at a company who has a location in Buffalo. I had BenQ ship it there, and then Buffalo shipped it up here in their regular shipment. Saved over $50.

If you have any way of doing the same, I suggest you do so.

As for the fan: Thats the other thing i dont have. I havent been able to find one yet. I got tones of 12V computer fans, but i would like to get a 120V for my case. Dont know exactly where to get one locally (radioshack doesnt carry them).

My media PC:

it used to be a car pc running a program I developed to play mp3's, videos, maps, and even games on in the car run from a remote, but I have since changed cars twice and have no desire to reinstall it. So I am using that PC.

Its a duron 750 with 256mb ram (nothin special), 30gig HD, ATI all in wonder card, DVD player, and IRMAN (remote control reciever). I will probably develope a new prog for it again, but that is when I have some free time....

You may think these specs are too low, but it runs DVD's, MP3's, and DiVx movies without any hickups. Both PC and projector will be built into a coffee table.

Thats about all for now I guess.... Lots of work ahead.

Jon