New Pictures added for my 113 inch Video Game Screen!

[Anthony1]

Ok, guys, you asked for the pictures, and Brett D. offered to put them on a webpage for me temporarily, so that they can be seen by you guys.


Now, I would like to explain the pictures that you are about to see. The first picture is me standing in front of my screen, holding my 15 month old baby boy Trevor. The reason I wanted to put this picture in there, is just to give you a reference to the actual size of the screen. I'm 6 foot 2 inches tall, so that may give you some idea on what the size of the screen is. Technically, the screen isn't 120 inches. It's actually 113 inches diagonally. It's a 16:9 widescreen. It's 55.399 inches high and 98.488 inches wide. It's actually a little over 8 feet wide!

here is that first pic of me in front of the screen with my baby

http://www.consolegames.org/bigtv3.jpg


The next pic is a picture from just behind my projector, looking towards the screen. My projector is like 19 feet from the screen. This is just another pic to give you an idea of what the screen area looks like, and the projector distance.

http://www.consolegames.org/bigtv4.jpg


The next picture is the first picture of my Home Theater in action. It's a picture of MVP Baseball 2004 for the XBOX by E.A. Sports. The game is actually in 720P mode, being displayed by my projector on the screen. I must also say that the picture doesn't even come close to capturing just how clear and crisp it really is. It seems that there was a little movement during the picture, which made it a little fuzzy. But you should get the idea.

http://www.consolegames.org/bigtv1.jpg

The last picture is a picture of Super Ghouls and Ghosts for the Super Nintendo. It's actually running on a emulator on my XBOX. The emulator is set on 720P output, so the projector is actually displaying this game as 720p. Again, the picture just doesn't do this justice. The game looks absolutely amazing on this huge screen, but the picture didn't really capture it properly.

http://www.consolegames.org/bigtv2.jpg


I tried to take some pics of Need For Speed: Underground for XBOX, because that is the most amazing looking game of all the games that I've played on this setup, but the pictures always come out really blurry. So I didn't include any of those pictures.

Anyways, tell me what you think, and if you guys have any other questions. I probably should have taken a couple of pictures of some DVD movies like Finding Nemo on this. Finding Nemo looks like an absolute dream on this thing. I could pause the DVD player properly to probably get a decent pic. But this is a Video Game Forum, so I thought that maybe I shouldn't be showing pics of movies on this.

Also, a big thanks to Brett for agreeing to put these pictures on his webpage for me. Thanks alot man.

[Daria]

I'm 6 foot 2 inches tall

The screen really dwarfs you. Before reading I clicked the first link and had to pegged as 5' something. :P

Looks pretty cool though.

[Lemmy Kilmister]

The last picture is a picture of Super Ghouls and Ghosts for the Super Nintendo. It's actually running on a emulator on my XBOX. The emulator is set on 720P output, so the projector is actually displaying this game as 720p. Again, the picture just doesn't do this justice. The game looks absolutely amazing on this huge screen, but the picture didn't really capture it properly.

http://www.consolegames.org/bigtv2.jpg

Now that awesome.

[Kejoriv]

WOW. I want

[Anthony1]

WOW. I want

Well, anybody can do this, you just need a wall that you can use as a screen, and you need to be able to have the projector at least 10 feet away to get a decent sized picture. Of course you also need to control ambient light, and you need about a grand to put it all together.

Luckily, I had all the requirements, but I definitely understand that there are lots and lots of people that simply cannot do this, because they don't have the right type of room to put it in.

I didn't have the right type of room either. At least not in my actual house. That is why I had to do it in the Garage. But the Garage is actually a good spot to do one of these types of theaters. For one, Garages usually don't have many windows. So you can have the room nice and dark, to get the best possible picture. The other thing is that Garages usually have walls that aren't textured. Which is good for painting the right paint on, and having a screen for $40.

[Quintracker]

Excuse me while I go to the bathroom and clean the mess I made in my pants

....

That is awesome! I must build one when i get my own house

[Jasoco]

That look SOO much better than I was picturing. And clearer. How dark does it have to be to see the screen?

I really would love that.

[Hovoc]

can we also get a link to the original thread?

there was a discussion about different projectors in it

[Jasoco]

What's the cheapest a projector can go to do this? Too bad my room is only 10 feet. So a picture there would be a waste. I'd be better off spending the money on a big screen TV.

Still, even though you say those pictures don't do it justice, my first impression, especially on the Baseball game, was "WOW! That is god damn crisp and bright." Really. If that's how good it looks on a photo, I'd kill to see it in person...

...

..I'll be over in an hour.

*knock knock*

[-hellvin-]

That really does looks awesome in the dark. Just awesome. We've been displaying these at best buy for a while and I thought they always looked like shit, but I guess that's because there's too much light. Hmm, too bad I don't have 900 bucks =D. Oh, and an open wall. Too closed in here =\.

[Hovoc]

original topic, has a discussion about a few different projectors


http://www.digitpress.com/forum/view...063&highlight=

[musical]

Me want. Must work overtime and buy projector.

[Predatorxs]

Sweet! Jesus! that is nice!! Ok me thinks i need to start lookin for a projector!, Well after i buy a car!

But i'm thinkin projectors are the way forward!!

PS. Maria Sharapova is super Hot! the eye's, those legs, that smile, ohhhweeee what a hot little (well 6ft little) tennis bunny. N' she the new Wimbeldon champ!

..XS

[Raedon]

HOLY SHAMOLY!!!

[HellStar]

OMG...thats awesome

[Anthony1]

Yeah, it really is an amazing thing. Everytime I turn the thing on, I almost have to pinch myself to make sure it really is real. The amazing thing is that the cost is nowhere near as high as you might expect it to be. People will pay $1499.99 all the time for a 50 inch widescreen HDTV, but they don't have any idea that for a grand you can have a screen over 100 inches big, and it can be just as clear and crisp, if not actually even better.

The projector that I'm using is an Infocus X1 DLP projector. It retails for $999.99 at alot of places like Best Buy and Circuit City. I was able to get mine from Amazon.com for $949.04. I got free shipping and no tax. Plus Infocus had a $100 rebate going, but the rebate ended on June 30th. I was able to buy my projector during the rebate period, so once I actually get that $100 rebate check it will actually be a cost of $849.04. Not too bad if you ask me for a crystal clear picture at 113 inches diagonal.

Here were the major costs for my setup:

1. Infocus X1 DLP Projector ---------------------------------- $849.04 (after rebate)
2. Ceiling mount for X1 off of Ebay------------------------- $58.99
3. Handyman labor to have it installed correctly--------- $50.00
4. Paint from Home Depot to make screen and background----- $43.08
5. Component to VGA cable so I could hook up 480p stuff------ $12.95


Basically, those were the main things that I needed. I went ahead and paid a Handyman guy $50 to hook it up properly. I tried to do it myself, but my cheapo $50 power drill just wasn't doing the trick. This guy had like a $400 power drill that did it in about 5 minutes. But he did a great job of working with me to determine the perfect distance to have it back, and to also mount the power cable and VGA cable to the ceiling. So it was well worth the $50. Of course if you are good with stuff like that, then you don't need to pay anybody to help you do it. I paid about $44 for the paint to do the screen. If you have a smooth wall that doesn't have texture on it, then it's a great way to go. I would suggest using Behr Ultra Pure White Interior Flat Matte for the screen itself. It's good to paint all the background areas with a dark paint. I went ahead and used Behr Beluga 770F-7 Black Interior Flat Matte. That worked very well for the perimiter of the screen and surround areas. Of course, there is another way to go with getting a screen that is even cheaper. You can go to Home Depot and get a particular polywall panel that is in a size of 4 x 8. It's only like 18 bucks. You cut about 11.5 inches off the width, and you have a perfect 98 inch 16:9 screen. I originally was going to do that, but I wanted my screen to be a little bigger than 98".


You definitely need the component to VGA cable so that you can hook up your stuff in the best possible way to the projector for the best picture possible. The XBOX was made for stuff like this. GameCube would work great too. The few 480p games that are avail on the PS2 would look good as well. HDTV looks absolutely awesome on this thing too. And if you have an above average progressive scan DVD player, then hook this up this way as well. I use a cheap $14.99 Mad Catz Component HDTV system selector thing to have all that stuff hooked up via the one VGA input.


However, after saying all of this, there are some definite downsides to front projection. Like......


1. This is not a TV replacement. You are not going to want to use this to watch Judge Judy and Cops. Projectors just don't do that good with regular old crappy TV signals. Now, as to watching HDTV and stuff like that, then it's absolutely fantastic. But for regular everyday TV viewing, forget about it. This is more like a secondary Theater for special occasions. Like watching Movies, HDTV and Video Games. Regular TV stuff should still be watched on a TV. You aren't supposed to run these things all day long. Your supposed to use them for about 2 to 5 hours or so at a time. Not all the time. More for special occasions and when you want to blow somebody away.

2. You need a pretty damn dark room. You don't need total darkness, but it has to be pretty damn dark. I have to admit that my screen looks best at night when there really isn't any ambient light coming in. So if you put this thing in a living room or family room, you pretty much would only be able to use it at night, unless there is some way to control all the light that's coming into that room. Most Wives and Girlfriends aren't too happy about turning their houses into Dungeons. This might actually be the hardest thing to overcome.

3. You need a pretty decent distance, in terms of from the lens on the front of the projector to your screen. Anything less than say 10 feet or so, would probably diminish the "WOW" factor quite considerably. Some people actually use these in Apartments and smaller bedrooms, and they have their screen size at about 70 or 80 inches, which is still pretty damn big, but it's not like the movie theater experience of having a 100 inch or bigger screen. Also, with this particular projector you don't want to go any bigger than the 113 inches that I have it at. You start to loose detail and brightness as you get bigger and bigger. Plus you have to sit further and further away to avoid something called "the screen door effect".

4. It's best to ceiling mount the projector, and you need to have a ceiling with a decent height. It's best to mount the projector on the ceiling, because these projectors do make quite a bit of noise. But when they are up on the ceiling, you don't really hear the noise from the fan. Only when you are watching a movie and it's a really quiet part of the movie. Also, you need to have a ceiling of a decent height, because there is this thing about projectors called "offset". It's kinda complicated, but the bottom line is that my screen is about 8 inches lower than I would have preferred it to be, and that is because my ceiling is only 8 feet 2.5 inches high. So the lower your ceiling, the closer the bottom of the screen will be to the ground.

[Jasoco]

Just to satisfy our curiosity, could you actually take some pics of some movies? And I don't know if you have the means, but examples of regular TV vs HDTV.

[PitBullNYC]

NICE screen! But serioiusly, white tube socks and black sandals?

[PitBullNYC]

NICE screen! But serioiusly, white tube socks and black sandals?

[PitBullNYC]

NICE screen! But serioiusly, white tube socks and black sandals?