quality of DIY LCD project vs commercial ones?

[deskmate88]

Hi,

I have seen various screen shoots of DIY LCD projectors, however, if my memeory serves me right, those result are NOT comparable to my friend's Panasonic AE100 LCD project.

http://www.nationalprojector.com/PANASONIC/AE100/ae100.htm

Of course the AE100 is more expensive (~$1000).

Does anyone have done any direct comparsion between a DIY one and a decent commercial one? Or have a better memeory recollection than me?

Thanks.

 

[Lifter]

It all depends on what you consider "better". There's quite a few factors. Brightness, contrast ratio, resolution, spherical abberrations, chromatic abberations, bulb light, size of the projector, fan noise, etc., etc. The list goes on.

"Wide Color Reproduction Area"

I don't know what that is. That description ain't a description.

"Digital Keystone Correction"

There's software that does this, so DIY projectors can acomplish this. It's not preferred anyways. Your better off re-positioning the projector to adjust keystone problems.

"16:9 Aspect Ratio LCD Panel"

There are widescreen LCD's, there are LCD controllers that can display in 16x9, and there are anamorphic lenses being made to switch to and from 16x9. So DIY has many solutions for this.

"Video and PC Input Terminals"

Just about all DIY projectors have this. Some just PC, but don't need video because they have video inputs (capture card or TV tuner card) on their PC. DVD-Roms are better than DVD-Players anyways.

"500:1 Contrast Ratio"

Got us beat there. The most ambitious projects underway (like mine) are going for a 400:1 panel. Not a huge difference, but still better.

"Short-Throw Lens"

My OHP's focal length creates a HUGE image at a short distance. Almost too big for my tastes.

"Low-Noise Cooling Fan"

That's cool. No pun intended.

"Long-Life Lamp"

Ok, but I'm sure it's a fortune to replace once it does go out.

"700 ANSI Lumens Brightness"

My 575W MH OHP puts out 11,000 lumens, which after it passes through the LCD, should be around 1,100.


The one thing it does not mention is resolution. I'm sure that's because it's bad. I'm guessing 640x480 or 800x600. If it were higher, they'd list that as a feature. The panel I'm looking at is 1600x1200. Twice as sharp.

 

[deskmate88]

Thanks for the reply.

Actually I am more concern about the "actual" image quality, not the spec.

Say compare the AE100's image quality with a LCD panel on top of a common commercial (not DIY) 4000 lumen overhead projector (as this is the easiest DIY solution for all of us).

Thanks.

 

[Henry Braithwai]

Well, I found some old images about how the image looked like when my old Sony VPL-SC50 was in still it's standard setup.
Specs were 500 ANSI lumens, resolution 800x600. Images were taken at evening with some curtains on windows.

I attached one of images, two more can be seen at http://tweaknmod-av.tk.

Regards
HB

 

[ywh]

Hi,

I have seen various screen shoots of DIY LCD projectors, however, if my memeory serves me right, those result are NOT comparable to my friend's Panasonic AE100 LCD project.

http://www.nationalprojector.com/PANASONIC/AE100/ae100.htm

Of course the AE100 is more expensive (~$1000).

Does anyone have done any direct comparsion between a DIY one and a decent commercial one? Or have a better memeory recollection than me?

Thanks.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8517&highlight=sony

 

[tahustvedt]

Screenshots are totally useless for comparing picture quality. Screenshots can make a bad projector look like a king, and also a good projector look like crap! The only thing screenshots are useful for is for demonstrating artifacts like banding, screendoor and alike - or picture flaws like dead pixels or convergence errors.

I haven't seen a DIY-projector, but I have seen OHP-units for PCs, and they don't come close to a commercial one, not even by a long shot! I doubt the picture quality of DIY-units is as good as a commercial unit, but it may be better for the money. And It must be damn fun to make! 🙂

The best video-source for most commercial projectors is a PC (HTPC) so if the display used in DIY-units have a DVI- or RGBHV-input that would be best.

The price of a 5000 HRS PT-AE100 bulb is $400-500

My $0.02


Tor Arne

 

[Henry Braithwai]

Screenshots are totally useless for comparing picture quality. Screenshots can make a bad projector look like a king, and also a good projector look like crap! The only thing screenshots are useful for is for demonstrating artifacts like banding, screendoor and alike - or picture flaws like dead pixels or convergence errors.

That's absotely correct. I agree. I think there is only one good way to have images that may be used for comparing brightness, contrast and such aspects betweem two projection devices with camera, and that is to put them in same room, project to the same surface with both of them and then take the photo.

Even photos taken in same place are usually not well usable.
Good example of that is what I did today. I just took few images of the same setup that I took images at later hour last night. These images taken of the image on the wall at noon/dusk seem to have much better brightness and image quality then the images I took last night when it was darker in the room! I may be posting examples of this "phenomenon" later on this evening, if someone is interested. The images are taken from exactly same place with exactly same setup.

Regards
HB

 

[SkinnyBoy]

I haven't seen a DIY-projector, but I have seen OHP-units for PCs, and they don't come close to a commercial one, not even by a long shot! I doubt the picture quality of DIY-units is as good as a commercial unit, but it may be better for the money. And It must be damn fun to make! 🙂
Tor Arne

I dunno, the video projector I borrowed was pretty bad... a cheap one, but still, I thought you would be able to adjust the keystone.... 😛 AND IT GOT HOT! The buttons were hard to press, and when you did press them it moved the whole picture.. also, everything seemed green.. I watched Lord Of The Rings, and a swear, the ring was made from green gold, not yellow.. 😛 lol

 

[tahustvedt]

That doesn't sound good, Skinnyboy. 🙂

BTW. I have never used keystone correction. I'd hate losing resolution, and get scaling artifacts just because I'm too lazy to position the projector correctly. 🙂


Tor Arne

 

[ds21]

I agree about the picture thing, but looking at ywh's shots is the best comparison I've seen.
But untill you've seen you own you'll never know how good they can actually be, I'd say mine is comparable with a sharp from about 7 years ago which is actually pretty good.

 

[verbose mustafa]

Thanks for the reply.

Actually I am more concern about the "actual" image quality, not the spec.

Say compare the AE100's image quality with a LCD panel on top of a common commercial (not DIY) 4000 lumen overhead projector (as this is the easiest DIY solution for all of us).

Thanks.

Keep in mind, that when you talk of your freind projector brightness, you are talking about ANSI lumens (the brightness of the light after it passes through the lcd screen. So a 4000 lumen overhead will only be about 400 (probably less) ANSI lumens after the the light passes through the lcd screen. 400 is not a bad number for an ok size picture, but most $1000 range lcd projectors are about 1000 ANSI lumens.

 

[Lifter]

Thanks for the reply.

Actually I am more concern about the "actual" image quality, not the spec.

Say compare the AE100's image quality with a LCD panel on top of a common commercial (not DIY) 4000 lumen overhead projector (as this is the easiest DIY solution for all of us).

Thanks.

It's pretty hard to compare because people's cameras give different results. The type of screen the person is using makes a huge difference. Brightness is almost impossible to judge from a photo. And of course, your seeing a still image vs. a moving image.

 

[Lifter]

I haven't seen a DIY-projector, but I have seen OHP-units for PCs, and they don't come close to a commercial one, not even by a long shot! I doubt the picture quality of DIY-units is as good as a commercial unit, but it may be better for the money. And It must be damn fun to make! 🙂

Tor Arne

That's quite a generalization. For all we know, you could have seen a 250W Halogen OHP w/ an Nview Spectrah C or worse. Obviously it's going to look worse than a commercial projector.

What about someone w/ a 575W MH OHP w/ a Sharp QA-2500? That'd be an interesting comparison.

 

[Henry Braithwai]

I put few images about my setup taken at different kinds of ambient light to be seen at my site. It's a good example how useless it is to try to compare projectors with photos. Images I toke at night seem to be very bad, and even so that the image taken later at night seems to be the worst. And then, the one taken at morning looks like the 150w halogen is quite ok light source for this setup (well, it almost is, so its the night images that "lie" more about the truth in this case).

Well, you may check it out yourself at http://tweaknmod-av.tk

Regards
HB