Ultimate LAN-Party: DLP vs. LCD [Split Screens & Dual View]

[PaulH_1980]

freeupyermind - That's the plan... I deffinitly want to get some good shots comparing the various types of projectors. From what I saw as far as picture quality even my ghetto DIY projector I have right now is decent compared to these. And that's with using a Dukane 4003 with the stock bulb, and a 3M 6400 panel [640x480] The biggest difference in picture quality was the amount of light these put off compared to mine, and I will be judgeing the difference again once I get my new bulb. [The resolution was also much higher but I have yet to upgrade my panel/LCD to one from a monitor, with higher res. I think they both were doing 1024x768] I'll put up some comparison pics with the stock FXL bulb and the new MH bulb. Thanks for the input...

ND - Hey man if you bring all that over, I'll hook it up and take pictures. *hehe* Yeah, where in New York are you, I used to go out the City about once a year, and out to Long Island. Yeah it's too bad the contrast ratio on LCD monitors is not quite that high yet, but I would probably be happy with 300:1 - 400:1 for now. That'd be good for the second projector on my list.
Seisouhen OAV is the final OAV, doh! Big spoilers in that one. The series went:

Original OAV - Volumes 1,2,3,4 [Each was 45min long - Story of Kenshin as a child [Shinta] becoming the Hitokiri Battousai. Really good OAV !!!]

TV Series - Episodes 1-95 [Story of Rurouni Kenshin, the wandering samurai.]

Kenshin Movie ["Requiem for the Restoration Royalists" 90mins - Movie would take place sometime during the TV series or possibly right after.]

Seisouhen OAV [Final installment of the Kenshin series, reflects on the rest of the series, and shows who Enishi has become. This was meant to be the final episode of the TV series more or less as you can tell by watching the last episode they tried to cram way to much into a 23min episode.]

Yeah Kenshin is deffinitly one of my favorite animes ever. My friends are really into anime also so they are always giving me more stuff than I ever have time to watch. They are pretty current on all the fansubs that are coming out of Japan. They're so obsessed they freak out on wednesday when the new episode of Naruto comes out in Japan, and then pace until friday when it is subbed and released to the torrent sites in english. *hehe* Hope some of the kenshin info helps. Later

-Paul-

[Negative Design]

Ahhh I see, I undestand now! lol I saw the 4 OAV but I havent seen seisouhen but i HAVE it on my pc

yeah the 4 OAv are perfect. the imagery looks amazing on my last projector (QA 1200) Im not watching the rest till i have another.
yeah I have the movie too, my version is called "Samurai X"

hey! dont mention enishi! your ruining it for me! lol

ohhh so ThaT where my friend gets his naruto! lol

oh yeah im in Brooklyn NY, I dont know If I'll still have my CRT by the time you get here...I dont have anywere to place it...
(feel free to email me you other favorite animes ..so I can begin downloading em )

ND-

[PaulH_1980]

Just a couple more pictures of the setup. Two really good shots of each individual screen this time also.



Joe by projection.



Good clear shot of LCD projector.



Good clear shot of DLP projector.



Screen door effect on Dan's CRT monitor... and on Dan himself.



Another shot of the projectors in a well lit room.



Epson PowerLight 7300 in action.



Whoops my flash was on. Projections still look good though.



More split screen movie watching.



Colors do look better on the LCD projector in this one.



Split desktop with Nvidia dual view.

Well that's it for the pictures from this LAN party. I do have more but they are mainly off topic drinking/keg pictures... hehe Hopefully next time I will be able to get a good comparison, with projectors people have mentioned. DLP, CRT, LCD, DIY etc, etc... Please let me know if you have any other ideas of what would make a comparison. I'm very excited to get my DIY projector up to par for the next LAN Party so I have something very comparable to those, shy of the contrast ratio. Let me know what you think.

-Paul H.-

[pizzi]

PAULh

Did you ask how much did they cost their owners? These are older units so I was wondering how much they paid. And another thing the compaq is lower in lumens by alot but in the picture they look the same?

The rgb thing you said is known as the rainbow effect one of the downside of dlp.

[Mr.Kh]

Is this dual video/monitor thing only possilbe on nVidia cards? Or do parehelia and radeon's also have similar programs? Also is that just mediplayer?

[MovLab]

Originally posted by Mr.Kh
Is this dual video/monitor thing only possilbe on nVidia cards? Or do parehelia and radeon's also have similar programs? Also is that just mediplayer?

Hi Mr.Kh:
http://mitglied.lycos.de/stereo3d/
This Will output dual Video.
This Is Many Ways.
I Have A Dual output Card. (5200).
I Don't know if other Cards have dual Output..
Just a little input here...
Cheers,
MovLab

[PaulH_1980]

Pizzi - I did ask about the prices on the projectors. For the Compaq MP2800 apparently it belongs to the guys father, and is for "work use" only. [Which I would say the LAN Party qualifies as. ] But he said he uses it every now and then for special things like this, and watching "good" movies on it. From what he told me the bulb life is about half way gone now and the bulb itself costs about $500.00, doh! [BTW I think it is a 1000 hour bulb.]

The Epson PowerLight 7300 cost my friend less than 200 dollars because he works at a place where they recycle old computer equipment. Every now and then companies send in stuff that still works fine. His bulb was also at about it's half life when he got it, and I think this bulb may cost about $300 - $500. I'm not sure how long it lasts though.

Yeah I wasn't aware of the difference in Lumens either by just looking at it. The Compaq was also on it's lowest light setting to conserve to bulb more. It may have been the ambient light from both projectors in the room, or the Epson may have been turned down also. I'll try and ask and find out about that.

The rainbow effect ? I knew I wasn't just drunk that night. Thanks...


Mr.Kh - The dualview feature is available through the drivers of the nVidia card once it is installed. I have looked online and it appears ATI also has similar support for their cards.

Google - "ATI Dual Display"

I'm not sure about the other card, but several people have asked me about the ATI cards and whether or not they can do this. I cannot personally verify this though as I do not own an ATI card that can.

Yes we were just playing DivX movies through media player. Another reason the picture doesn't look quite as good as it was. I think we should have used a DVD for a good example but those guys were too lazy. [Also I have compressed the images quite a bit and they do not show the full quality of the images].

Hope this helps...

-Paul-

[Negative Design]

Yeah ATi's can do it actually we had it before Nvidisuck did I think its called Dualvision or something like that..lol

most new cards(ATi) Have one VGA and one DVI port and some other ports.I use my LCDs on my VGA-to-DVI ...me like

oh yeah its called HyDraVision!(cool huh )

Paul, I signed up to that site you told me about...I saw ur id..dang 2 weeks!? thats too long I'll search on kazza.

ND

[LOOie]

Great pics.. games on projectors are fantastic!!!!

re: multi-monitor..

I have a GeForceFX 5600(Nvidia) 128MB and Radeon9800XT(ATI) 256MB. The 9800XT is currently the fastest consumer 3D graphics card on planet for games. The only thing that comes close on the Nvidia side is the GeforceFX5950. I've replaced my GeForceFX with the faster ATI so I've had a chance to play with both on multi-monitor and on the projector.

I should mention that ATI driver support for multi-montor SERIOUSLY SUCKS at this point in time. Hydravision!! hahahaha.. are you serious?..

This is because Nvidia's driver nView driver can emulate two monitor outputs as a single large screen, e.g. 2048x768 (or 2 monitors @1024x768 ). To software, it's just another weird resolution. Developers can take advantage of this without having to change thier code very much. The Matrox
Parhelia also does this with its 3 monitor output (though the Perhelia's 3D performance leaves a lot to be desired). Quite a few games support this feature. i.e.
http://www.matrox.com/mga/3d_gaming/surrgame.cfm

On some games like X2, I could have the projector displaying the main screen on the wall and the second desktop showing status and other views. e.g. 1+4 http://www.egosoft.com/x2/info/patch11info/

Since I got the ATI I lost just about all these features

This is because ATI choose to implement thier Windows drivers the officially correct "right way" as dictated by Microsoft and instead of "faking" it like Nvidia/Matrox.

ATI drivers emulate a second PCI video card in the drivers. Same way you can stick another PCI video card in your PC to get multi-monitor windows. This works great with Windows desktop applications but a huge pain the *** for games and videos.
(btw- I managed to get 5 monitors going once, 1 dualview AGP + 3 PCI )
Dont get me wrong, I still love the ATI card, it kicks Nvidia butt on just about everything 3D games wise at the moment. But I miss nView's features like easy multi-monitor games, desktop arranging and video overlay output on second monitor for DVDs.

p.s. just got informed of a rumor (finders crossed!..) that Catalyst 4.0 drivers for ATI will support this emulated span mode.

[Mr.Kh]

Yeah I saw something on HardOCP a little while ago it was a QA with an ATI rep, and someone asked about a span mode, and the answer was something along the lines of - it's something we're looking into.