Projector

[Hifeno]

Can anyone tell me if this would be any good.

http://www.kohls.com/kohlsStore/electro ... jector.jsp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Staples is gonna have them for $69.99 on black Friday and I was thinking of picking one up for my new work shop/game room instead of a expensive 36 inch TV.

Any comment would be nice especially if you own one and can vouch for it.

[dragonhead]

terrible piece of crap. low resolution, low contrast, etc. looks like its 480i only.

youre better off finding a used projector on ebay for about the same price. it'll have a dead bulb but you can retrofit something in there.

[Hifeno]

Yes I was reading reviews on amazon and they all say the same thing. I am looking for a good one possibly with VGA or Component for around or less than $100 so if anyone sees or has one let me know.

[Metallica Man X]

I have a friend who's getting rid of one of his sometime soon, and it's got all those fancy connectors (we were using it for playing xbox and what not).

Only thing wrong with it is that it's hard to find bulbs for it. I'm pretty sure he'll let it go for a decent price (he got it for free in the first place, lol). I'll talk to him and see how much he'd let it go for and get back to ya.

[dragonhead]

ive been looking for a cheap HD projector with a dead bulb so i can retrofit a car HID system into it. bout 30$ for a ballast and bulb on ebay.

feed it 12v, and trick the projector into thinking a good bulb is in there, and you suddenly have a very cheap, very bright light source for your projector.

[khaag]

I'm thinking not...

[jdmlight]

Want another DIY hobby? Build your own projector!

http://lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showforum=6

[vskid]

On the subject of terrible projectors and black friday, I saw an ad last year that had kids playing a Wii on the projector. In front of the projector. With their shadows on the screen. With the image visible in the shadows. If you're going to shop a picture, at least obey physics.

I would personally get an LCD. You should be able to get one for pretty cheap on black friday. Projectors are sweet, but you need a good setup for them to produce a good image. I wouldn't expect to pay under $500 for a new projector worth buying.

[hailrazer]

ive been looking for a cheap HD projector with a dead bulb so i can retrofit a car HID system into it. bout 30$ for a ballast and bulb on ebay.

feed it 12v, and trick the projector into thinking a good bulb is in there, and you suddenly have a very cheap, very bright light source for your projector.

No not really. You can't just retrofit a HID into a commercial projector and get a "bright" light source. The typical results after retrofitting a commercial projector with a HID is around 30 lumens on the screen, which is about 10% of what an average commercial bulb will do.

[dragonhead]

ive been looking for a cheap HD projector with a dead bulb so i can retrofit a car HID system into it. bout 30$ for a ballast and bulb on ebay.

feed it 12v, and trick the projector into thinking a good bulb is in there, and you suddenly have a very cheap, very bright light source for your projector.

No not really. You can't just retrofit a HID into a commercial projector and get a "bright" light source. The typical results after retrofitting a commercial projector with a HID is around 30 lumens on the screen, which is about 10% of what an average commercial bulb will do.

its still watchable. i build a projector with a 1000 lumen halogen bulb and it was plenty watchable at 100" diag. average 5000k HIDs are usually between 2500 and 3500 lumens. and according to projectorpeople.com, you can have a watchable 119" projection with as little as 1300 lumens. seems to be a pretty good light source to me.

[hailrazer]

its still watchable. i build a projector with a 1000 lumen halogen bulb and it was plenty watchable at 100" diag. average 5000k HIDs are usually between 2500 and 3500 lumens. and according to projectorpeople.com, you can have a watchable 119" projection with as little as 1300 lumens. seems to be a pretty good light source to me.

You're getting on screen lumens confused with lamp lumens. In my projector I used a 40,000 lumen 400 watt MH lamp. The onscren lumens was 250. And I had one of the best built most efficient HD projector made. With a 3500 lumens Hid you will have MAYBE 20 lumens on screen. With your 1000 lumen halogen you had 8-10 lumens top.

That's not watchable. Not even close.

Projectorpeople are talking about the onscreen lumens claimed by the projector makers, not lamp lumens.

It will be less quality and lumens than the cheapest projector on the market, less that even the cheap 100 dollar toy projectors.

I started building projectors in 2005 and have built over 10 of them. I have used every light source known to man (almost).

Here's a few of mine :
http://lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15796" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.ph ... opic=20278" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[dragonhead]

its still watchable. i build a projector with a 1000 lumen halogen bulb and it was plenty watchable at 100" diag. average 5000k HIDs are usually between 2500 and 3500 lumens. and according to projectorpeople.com, you can have a watchable 119" projection with as little as 1300 lumens. seems to be a pretty good light source to me.

You're getting on screen lumens confused with lamp lumens. In my projector I used a 40,000 lumen 400 watt MH lamp. The onscren lumens was 250. And I had one of the best built most efficient HD projector made. With a 3500 lumens Hid you will have MAYBE 20 lumens on screen. With your 1000 lumen halogen you had 8-10 lumens top.

That's not watchable. Not even close.

Projectorpeople are talking about the onscreen lumens claimed by the projector makers, not lamp lumens.

It will be less quality and lumens than the cheapest projector on the market, less that even the cheap 100 dollar toy projectors.

I started building projectors in 2005 and have built over 10 of them. I have used every light source known to man (almost).

Here's a few of mine :
http://lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15796" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.ph ... opic=20278" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

alright man, chill. i got it. you got me on this one.

[bicostp]

You're better off finding a used DLP projector that needs a new bulb and/or has a light tube that needs to be reglued.

[marshallh]

You're better off finding a used projector with some life left on the bulb, then throw out the projector or sell it for scrap on ebay once the bulb burns out.

A pretty good used projector runs about $200, sell for $50 when the bulb goes out. Way cheaper than buying a new bulb which could be from $300 to 600

[bicostp]

Depends on how much life is left in the bulb. If you can find one that only has a few hundred hours on it, and only plan on using it for the occasional movie, it will last years. It all depends on how much time you get out of each questionable projector; a new $300 bulb could last as long as three $200 projectors...

I lucked out with one we found for free. One side of the light tube fell apart so half the image was dark, so they tried to fix it by replacing the bulb. When that didn't work they chucked the whole thing, brand new bulb and all.