Glazedham42

I was looking around on E-bay and I found this sleazy looking auction about some kind of miracle lens that can project a 13" TV and make a 100 inch screen. Yeah right I thought. So I went to Yahoo and typed in 100 inch TV plans, hoping to find the plans for free, just for curiosity. I found this 300 page message board about people who went to Office Max and bought a "fresnel" lens, which is basically a page magnifier. Some of the people say it works, and others say it doesn't.

I can't find any actual pictures of the plans, but I figured we've got some smart people on the message board here and maybe some of you guys have heard of this or maybe even done it...

Anyone have any help or suggestions to help solve the mystery of the 100 Inch TV??? I want to try this really bad, but I don't want to spend much money, because it doesn't look too reliable, considering it involves cardboard, duct tape, and a page magnifier.....

Travis

Well, like most things of this sort, Its not gonna look too good, but if the finished product does show 100" perfect then why not? Worth a try

Makaveli

Don should know........

don668

Thanks Makaveli,

Dont use a fresnel lenz, they dont work worth ****. These plans have been around since I was a kid.

In order to project a 100" image, you need a lot of light output. "Minimum" of 450 Ansi lumens, preferably something like 800-1500. There is NO way what your talking about will work. Also when you blow up an image to that size, pixels will be blown up too, that means any noise in the picture, any distortion in the lens, any flaw becomes huge. You need good quality optics.

If you want big... you'll need to spend a little money. Runco just released a DLP projector CL-500 which is $10k cnd. Cheaper? Dream Vision has an LCD (DV-LC5)@ $5000 cnd. and it is amazing! Bright, HDTV compatible, looks great! http://www.dreamvision.net/index_uk.htm
Then you'll need a screen. $300cnd. Only drawback is you need complete light control (dark room), BUT the gains are... more like film, way more 3D like, never obsolete, and you can shoot up to a 150" diagonal picture.

Hope this helped, don't waste your money. You can get a Dream Vision projector for the same price as a Toshiba 65" wide screen tv.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Don

Glazedham42

Wow!! That's awesome! Thanks for keeping me from wasting more time. Believe it or not, we actually got a respectable picture just screwing around with it. However, like you mentioned, it is not good and I defintely wouldn't want to watch an entire movie with quality like that. The sheer size that we obtained by projecting it onto my bedroom wall was impressive however. Maybe I'll look into getting one of these projectors someday, when I graduate from College and have a real job, haha!

I'm glad someone with some knowhow finally told me that this isn't possible! I appreciate someone being honest with me, after bumbling around on these 100" TV conspiracy websites for the last two hours....

don668

Glad I could help.

Don

Glazedham42

Just out of curiosity Don, How did you know so much about this subject matter?? I'm quite impressed with your knowledge...

don668

I work for a company called Smart Home Systems www.smarthomesystems.com we specialize in home theater, projectors, and automation. One store but we do work all over the world, from Japan, China, Australia, UK, and the US. Right now were doing the automation for the New York Times building.

We do from pretty basic affordable (Panasonic TV's, Nad receivers, etc) to the extreme. Our main theater in our showroom right now has a Runco DTV-1200, Bryson Power, B&W Nautilus speakers, Velodyne HGS subwoofers, and AMX automation, a total of 12000 watts, and its only $250,000 canadian! (measured a mere 154db)

Great place to work, check out the website. Major update on that in the next few weeks, more job photos (my other job in the company), new products, etc.

Always here for questions,

Don

don668

Where did you get one to try?

Don

sandman

Sweet! Next time i'm Calgary, I'll have to check it out!

Have you played with the PlusPiano DLP? From the reviews I've read and the article I read in Audio Video Interiors, it looks like a pretty sweet projector. On the Plus website it's listed at 4700 CDN. http://www.plushometheater.com/

Makaveli

Don, what projection TV would you suggest for a tad under $2k CDN....

My dad is looking into one..... and I don't think that anything bigger then 43" will fit......

thanks

don668

Hi Jason,

Haven't seen it personally, but a few things make me nervous. First its only SVGA (848x600 pixels) thats half of what you need for HDTV. HDTV IS comming so unless you want to replace it in the next few years.... plus the bigger the screen, bigger the pixels and @ that resolution possible grain. 2nd, is only 450 ANSI Lumens so it wont be too bright, probably poor black levels.
But on the good side its cheap. Hard when you can't look at it to compare, but never fully trust reviews. Too many factors, advertising, etc. You got to see it.

Makaveli, I'd probably look at the Sony KP43T90, its probably the only 43" rear projection that works well, (Toshiba has a focus problem on their 43) It should be in your price range. $2299 on their website. http://www.sonystyle.ca/webapp/comme...2053&parent=TV If you can, look at the KP43HT20. HD ready, progressive scan, not a whole bunch more money. Should be a better tv, but shop around... lots of Sony dealers.

Don

sandman

True dat! The resolution issue was one of the major complaints in the reviews I read too. You're definitely right, if you want to have full HDTV it would probably be best to wait for Piano v2, or look at a different projector altogether. As for lumens strength, the reviews mentioned that too - they said that because the bulb wasn't as bright as some other bulbs, you basically needed to be in a very low lit room to see the image properly. But, if you were, it had better color (and black) reproduction than projectors more than twice its value.

Well, by the time I actually have enough saved up to buy a projector, I figure that Plus should have a new projector out with the HDTV and ANSI strength fixed or there should be a lot more projectors available to choose from...

Thanks for your reply!