Hi, I stumbled across this article... http://www.denguru.com/2004/11/13/supersize_your_tv_for_/ and decided why not. I was hoping somebody could recommend a good place/model to buy a decent projector for this project for under $100. This is for my college apartment, so nothing too fancy is required, but I would prefer a projector with a long bulb life (50 hours won't cut it - we play that much halo in 2 weeks) and also bright (3000-4000 ANSI lumens). If anyone else has built their own projector and been satisfied with their results, please share your experience with me. FYI, I will be using a 15" LCD NEC monitor for the display. I have XBMC on my xbox, so I will probably be using the xbox as the only source of video and never hook this DIY Projector up to my computer. I know this is a noob question, but how can I go about changing the LCD monitors (VGA?) adaptor into something I can plug my xbox cables into (RCA or component)? Again, I'm a broke college student so the cheaper the better! Thank you!
I built one for a mate, well worth the effort! Ebay in the UK is ace for picing up OHP's and also we have auctions from when office's or companies have gone bankrupt, they have loads of that sort of thing there! I personally have an HDTV projector unit but am considering building another for the bedroom later. go to www.lik-sang.com (http://www.lik-sang.com/list.php?nav=left_sub&category=222&) they sell VGA convertors for all consoles ($50) I bet yo can get them cheaper from your US type electronics store... try to steer clear of composite connections (single rca) go for s-video minimum or if possible component (3 rca in red, green and blue) depending on the resolution etc of the monitor, if you get the xbox hd cable set, and a tft with component or dvi(with a component to dvi convertor) the difference in quality will be increadible. I dont think there are many games on the xbox which display more than 480p so the monitors resolution doesnt have to be massive. when you choose your OHP find the cost of the bulbs... its better to go for one slightly less bright and you find the price of a bulb halves! one other thing... if you have XBMC (on the chipped box) then you can upgrade it to the latest version, if you have the HD av pack (xbox official or copy cable) and get a component connection to the monitor (through component or DVI) then you can convert the XBMC to 1080i full HDTV resolution! (although technically your flat screen would need 1900x1080 resolution to support this but you could always go for 720) the difference in quality is amazing! and when you play hdtv avi files you get true HDTV. I have this set running on my hitachi projector at 70" screen 16:9 format and its amazing. halo 4 player in HD is like having a TV screen each!
