This may well be an idea that has already occurred to most of you, but I hadn’t heard it before. Ingredients: a laptop with a DVD-drive, a data projector of the sort widely used for PowerPoint presentations, a large flat white wall. Yes with just these three items (and connecting cables) you can project your favourite movie in a rather more stylish manner than on a wide-screen TV.
I hope this link works
http://www.abcaz.com/2_0_4_1811-Home_Cinema_and_Data_Projectors
they start about £700.
The problem with that set-up is finding a wall thats suitably large and uncluttered enough to project movies at decent resolutions … unless you were showing the movies in the basement or something
You also need a stereo for the sound system. A great idea, regardless, especially for those who can get access to projectors.
The url above points to the Digital Projectors under $3500 thread in AVSforum.com. That’s what turned me on to my projector, a $1400 Panasonic, (which has since been superseded by cheaper projectors.)
I noticed in Costco that they were selling packages of an infocus projector and 72” pull down screen for $1150.
I use a 92” wide screen and love it. Watching movies on a small projector is great…you can really enjoy the cinematography when you have a big screen in your home.
Sorry, here’s a link to the avsforum.com
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=68
For fans of video games, there’s nothing better than plugging in one’s PS2 and projecting Tekken 3 onto a big white wall. Life size controlable fighting. huzzah.
Just curious djohnson, but how often do you have to replace the projector bulb? (And how much does it cost?)
I know someone who refuses to use his business projector for home theatre stuff on cost grounds, is all.
Are we that desperate for “entertainment?”
Is this the place to ask a question? Is there a way that I can easily convert a PAL Region 1 or 0 DVD to NSTC video by playing it on my computer through PowerDVD and recording it on an NSTC VCR? Would doing so be legal if I could? (I would do it for family use only, and would be recording DVDs that I own, so that my kids could watch them on a TV rather than on my computer). Somebody here might know.
We did this every week for “film night” way back when I was a graduate student. Welcome to the 1990s!
(We also used to hang a couple of sewn-together sheets on a complex system of ropes above the pond in the middle of the quad, set-up the data projector in someone’s room, and have outdoor cinema in the summer. Happy days.)
Harry, you should probably just buy a region-free DVD player with a built-in PAL-to-NTSC converter, which will let you watch PAL DVDs with no extra effort. There’s a bunch here: http://www.dvdoverseas.com/store/index.html?catalog86_0.html. Some of them are a little pricy, but the cheapest one is only $110. (I have a JVC, and it works well.)
There’s an added problem in the copying-DVD-to-video stakes, which is that the inventors of DVDs decided the evil region coding system wasn’t enough to prevent widespread Jolly Rogering.
They also run the analogue signal (before the DVD is mastered) through a converter that doesn’t (significantly) affect the output you see but confuses VCRs. So if you try and record a DVD straight to VCR, all you get is (visual) noise.
[thinks] although I don’t know anyone who’s ever tried it… maybe it’s just the content industry’s propaganda…
A slight modification — if you’re a grad student, try to “borrow” the projector from your department over the weekend to “practice your presentation.” That way you don’t have to buy one, keeping your stipend free for beer and chips.
I have a friend who does this with an old-fashioned overhead projector. She has one of those panels that go over the top of the overhead projector.
Damn electrical engineers! Always so far ahead!
the only problem with doing this for video games is the motion sickness, there is a point at which the picture is just too big!
john b:
I would presume that Harry already has a VCR, so all that needs to be done is play the DVD on to the TV using a region-free DVD player and record off the TV using a regular VCR.
harry:
If your computer has a TV output option then recording the DVD from your computer to the VCR would go as follows. Connect the output from your computer as the incoming signal for your VCR; then play your DVD fullscreen and have the VCR record it. This is slow (as you have to watch the entire movie to copy it), but I’m not sure of any other way.
Finally! My large, white, barren walls pay off! Go me for being too lazy to hang anything on them!
Finally! My large, white, barren walls pay off! Go me for being too lazy to hang anything on them!
my cheap 50 dollar apex does pal to ntsc. i did have to do a bios trick to make the player regionless, so a little research is in order before a purchase
At my old job, we used to watch the X-Files in the conference room with this setup.
This trend has led to a fairly large increase in the theft of LCD projectors from university classrooms as well. I’m going to cement in them in the walls next.
I think the cost for a replacement bulb is about $200-$250 dollars. I use the projector for watching dvds, it seldom gets used for more than 2hrs every other night.
LCD rptvs (rear projector televisons) have become increasingly popular due to their slim profiles. They also use bulbs that max out at about $2500 hours.
Hehe- we did that at university. I had keys to the giant lecture hall with integrated a/v. We’d play atari games at 40’. It’s too big for the more complicated (playstation) games, though… takes too long to shift your attention over the screen!
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