So far I have the sound system sorted and a now trying to concentrate on getting the picture right.

The problem so far centres around the screen, its format and size.

I would like a 6ft screen with a nice clear picture with the minimum of pixel structure visible. This of course has an undesirable affect on budget. 

Projectors

I have managed to borrow on a number of occasions (Most Weekends) an Infocus 750 projector from work. This is great for plugging the Playstation 2 into, and playing SSX. Usually I have to balance it on the back of the settee and shine it onto the wall.

As for films, we started to watch films from DVD by plugging the s-video connectors together on the DVD and the projector, then shining it on the wall again. The picture measured at least 8ft, but the noise the projector made with its cooling fans was very distracting.

Screens

Whilst walking through Ashton Market on a Saturday afternoon, I noticed a stall selling window blinds. The Wife wanted some blinds for the house so we stopped and gave our details. The man from the blind company came around (the blind man) and measured up. While the Wife was looking through the material book, something struck me... I had been reading on the Home Cinema Choice web site forum about people using ordinary white or grey blinds for viewing home cinema.

I chose some material and got a price (£90) for a 6ft x 5ft white heavy PVC roller blind. This was in comparison to a £450 manual screen from the hi-fi shop. 

I had to wait 3 weeks while they got their act together, but eventually it came and was fitted.

Projector Shelf.

We currently have a large picture on the wall that I want to place the projector. Actually I want to put a hole in the wall with a piece of glass in it and maybe place the projector on the other side and shine it through the hole. That way all the noise is in the other room and you can watch the film in peace. But my wife won't let us bang a hole in the wall just yet...

 So I went out to B&Q and spent £20 on some bits for a shelf. I had to get something that could be disassembled so that the picture could be put back when the equipment wasn't in use. 

I ended up getting some shelving where you screw the metal batons to the wall and then you clip in the shelving. This seemed to work and got the seal of approval, because you couldn't tell it was there when the picture was back up.

The first Screening...

We managed to persuade some friends to stay and watch a movie on the new setup. But things didn't go particularly well !

Firstly you couldn't hear the speech in the film, this was partly because I put the centre speaker on the floor and as a general rule people don't have ears in their feet. So I raised it up on a small coffee table and this improved things. I did try just turning it up, but when the action scenes came on it was really loud...

Secondly it was difficult to hear anything over the fan of the InFocus LP 750 projector. It was really going for it !! So much so that we gave up in the end, and it was getting late.

Picture Quality

Large amounts of dust were showing on the screen which were not apparent when the image was projected onto a magnolia wall. I didn't want to take it apart an attempt to clean it because it didn't belong to me.

The picture quality from the InFocus LP725 was ok, but you could see the picture structure.(pixels). The other problem with it was the amount of detail show in dark scenes, everything seem ed to be black at certain parts of the film. Admittedly I hadn't tuned the picture brightness and contrast etc...

I I were to buy a projector I would be looking for something a lot quieter and a little more picture quality.     

The New Projector

Well this is the new projector, the Sony VPL-VW10HT. Its got a superb picture and the machine is fairly quiet in comparison to the InFocus 725.

The only problem so far is that dust tends to get into the optical system and can be seen on the screen as a blurred blob. That said there are plenty of FAQ's on the net that tell you how to clean the system out.

Links