I want a big hi-def screen. I don’t want to pay an insane amount of money for a TV. To me, anything over five or six hundred dollars is an insane amount of money to spend on a TV. Since there aren’t any big-screens in my price range, I’m building one.
I saw blog posts showing geeks putting together their own big-screens using a standard overhead projector and a budget LCD display panel designed for overheads, whole thing costing $200 or less. So what would happen if I threw in a little more money on better parts? We’re going to find out.
Bought a 3M 9550 off eBay. This projector was chosen because of it’s high output (4000 lumens), acceptable bulb price ($10-$15 ea), and triplex lens head (more/better glass, for sharper images). It shipped with two dead bulbs, so it’s been sitting idle in my house for about a week. Tonight I got working bulbs, fired it up and did some testing.
I picked up a Sharp QA-1500 for cheap (also from eBay). It was one of those $5 winning bids. If the gamble paid off, I’d have a standard-definition projection screen TV right away to use while working on the better model. The gamble did not pay off.
So I cut out a mask that is the exact size of the 10.1″ LCD panel I plan to order, to get an idea of picture size and brightness:
That’s juuuuust shy of a 90″ picture, and that’s a lit room. Final video picture will be quite a bit darker, because you lose light to the LCD panel. But this is a plenty good start. Now, off to the lab to build the housing that will hold the panel in place, and cool the projector bed. More later. Total investment so far: $105.