Updates & Progress (April 18, 2007) - Man, its been forever since I updated this site. Sorry for being a slacker. I've added some more results at the bottom of the results page, the ones without dates are within the last 2 years. Also, on a sad note, I donated my setup to a Christian student group on campus about 2 years ago when I had to move and the new place didn't have a single good wall for projector magic :( Still, I'm really glad the group could enjoy the big screen fun. (July 19, 2004) - 2 Updates: 1) Beware of fraudulent ads on Ebay and other sites that have stolen my results images and claim their products produced the images. Thanks to anonymous people who often email me about these violations. 2) Thanks for all your results sent in for the past year. I have not added these to the site but for the most part they are the same components already listed in the results section. When I get some time I will update the list. (December 23, 2002) - Just added some more results and some more links. Merry Christmas! (October 16, 2002) - Added a few more projector setups to the Results Page. Meanwhile, we continue to enjoy watching a tv show here, a movie there, especially when the screen is 8 feet wide. Plus its cooler now, so the overhead helps warm the room. (September 16, 2002) - Another great projector setup from Karl Mueuller on the Results Page. His DVD has no macrovision and he's got some nice pictures of the projector and the screen (how did you take that picture in the dark so well?). Check out his Specs and his Website. (September 11, 2002) - Added two submissions from sucessful projects on the Pooled Information Page. And posted some new links on the Links Page with a FAQ and some of the best looking screenshots I've seen. As for myself, my bulb ran out today and I ordered new ones. Now I have to watch regular TV, yuck. (June 27, 2002) - Okay, not much to add. Added more links and decided to go for the same thing Undream and Marklar have done. Will order parts and list here tomorrow. (June 21, 2002) - Now it's even easier to build your own BIG SCREEN! We've just added the How To Guide with more updates to come soon! (June 21, 2002) - Here's more on screens. As mentioned before, we scoured the "screens" thread at the AV Science Forum looking for screen ideas. Turns out a lot of people are using either PLAS-TEX panels or Blackout Cloth. Several people on the forum were having trouble keeping the PLAS-TEX panels from buckling, so we went with the somewhat cheaper cloth alternative. From a local fabric store you can ask for "blackout drapery" and pick up a piece. It comes in 54" by 60 yard rolls, so we just picked up 3 yards for $16. Add a dowel rod and stitch a "rod pocket", add a 1 inch black felt border and hang! We'll post pics when we finish ours. (June 20, 2002) - The results are great. If we cover the windows and kill the lights, the picture is great. Some dark scenes in movies take critical adjustments to see. Motion is fast, colors are bright and if it weren't for the macrovision (on dvds only) everything would be alright. Best of all, we took pictures! These are in a semi-lit room, but you can still see the images fine, though a little washed out. I can't photo them in the dark with the digi-cam but they look good. (June-19-2002) - Setup the projector, overhauled the living room, watched movies, played Mario Kart on the N64 (June-17-2002) - While we awaited the projector, we read avforum.com and found that "blackout cloth" was all the rage. We headed to a local fabric store and just asked for "blackout cloth" and they knew what we meant. Rolcon is the manufacturer. We bought 9x4.5 ft ($16), some felt, and dowel rods. We'll see what happens. (June-14-2002) - Tried an assortment of overheads on campus. 2000-3000 Lumen projectors are okay for completely dark rooms, but eventually we located a Dukane 4003 (4000 Lumens, portable) that worked well even with some ambient light, plus its compact. So we called up Inventory Solutions again and ordered an ELMO HP4KDX which is basically the same setup as the Dukane 4003, for $72 bucks. (June-14-2002) - Nview Z115 Panel arrives from Inventory Solutions (www.invsol-inc.com). Runs great, all cables and remote included. (June-12-2002) - Formed a battle plan: Phase 1: a. Order LCD Panel (Nview Z115, $115) b. research and order basic (4000 Lumen) overhead projector c. setup and evaluate d. begin screen construction, if necessary Phase 2: a. order larger overhead projector (cheap, but large) b. retrofit with Metal Hallide bulbs and active cooling Phase 3: a. no phase 3, just watching movies! (June-11-2002) - Won an auction on E-bay for an Nview Spectra C, but unfortunately didn't meet the reserve price. (June-10-2002) - Operation Big Screen initiated. Read DIYaudio.com, Undreams' project site, Zarks page and searched E-bay. With what we had learned from the forums, and more importantly Undream's page, we really knew what we were doing, although sifting through the forum for information was painful. Nonetheless, we were definitely impressed with Undream's setup and Cowanrq's project results and pictures and decided it was time to throw down some cash.