Hey Dudes and Dudettes,
Let me tell you a little story!!!
At the beginning of September 2005, my Sagem Axium 50" HDTV developed black patches on the inside of the screen. I contacted Comet, who after checking it for about a month decided to replace or refund my money. I took the refund.
A this point, I must stress if you do not wish to go loggerheads with the wife/partner, stop reading!!!
After I got my refund, I started to look around for another TV, but found that all the current models were either out of my price range, or were not worth paying around £2500. Now your thinking, this is a crt forum, so why is he telling us all this, just read on, you'll understand!!!
After two or three days of searching, I decided to buy the Samsung 50" DLP Rear Projection from Costco for just under £2000. As a last bid attempt to find something cheaper I did a search on e-bay for this tv and instead typed, projector instead of rear projection by mistake. It changed my view about Visuals for ever.
My search resulted in finding a Barco 801s Crt Projector. I knew what it was and after having seen people attempt installs like these, I was a little apprehensive, but the price of this projector was just too good to refuse. It had about 1500 hrs run time and was owned by a Barco engineer, who was emigrating to Australia. I emailed, we swapped tel no.s, and two days later I went to see this projector.
After first comprehnding the size of this sheer monsterous beast, I purchased it for £350, yes £350!!!.
I live in a modest semi in Bham, and the room I put it in is 15.4 x 11.4. I didnt realise the size of this thing in relation to the room. It almost dwarfed my single seater sofa, not to mention the thing weighs about 70 kgs. I soon realised that there was no way I could place it on the floor and would have to ceiling mount it, more about that later.
The first thing I did was connect my xbox to it via component, and got a green picture, **** **** **** !!!!! was my reaction, Ive been sold a duff, it doesnt work. However after a few hours on the net, I realised it doesnt accept component, which was no good at all, as I was connected to it either via DVI/HDMI or Component.
So I decided to go back to the net. A few more searches and a few more hours later, I came across the DVDO Iscan HD+, We all know what it is and what it does, and the fact that it costs about £1500. This threw my whole budget out of the window. However I persevered and managed to secure one from a company in Kent for £699.
I also purchased an Owl 6ft Screen for £360. Which failed to turn up on the installation date, and after an hour's conversation of me screaming, ranting and raving as to why it didnt turn up, the company I bought it from upgraded it to a 7ft screen and delivered it in three hours via a specialst delivery company.
Now back to mounting the pj on the ceiling,
I have a very good neighbour, who also happens to be a builder. I went to see him about my little problem, and after a couple a drinks, a promise of a homemade curry, and a screening of The Godfather, he mounted the projector onto my ceiling and reinforced the joists free of charge!!! Thanks Chris.
Let me just inform you that from the time I purchased this PJ to ceiling installation, about 10 days had passed and I had'nt been to work, or left my home, hence the very irate wife.
Anyway, after it was all up and ready to go, I started to fiddle about with the convergence and setup of the PJ. It was all up and ready and firing on all cylinders, when I decided that the picture in the corner was not focused properly, so I decided to take a ratchet to the scheimpflug, and guess what ? Yes, I totally broke the mechanism and rendered the blue tube inoperable. **** !!!
So after yet more searches, and a lot of hours later, I found a CRT installer, whom I must say is probably, the cleverest and not to mention the politest man I have ever met. At 6 hours notice he drove about 100 miles on a Sunday morning, having returned from Europe the night before, and only charged me £250 to fix it. Thanks J.
After about 14 days of mess, angush and excitement, I have managed to get my room ready for it's screening of The Godfather.
My total cost came to
£350 for Barco 801s Graphics
£699 for Iscan HD+
£360 for Owl 7ft Screen
£250 for Installation
£20 for The Godfather DVD Box Set from Fopp
£100 for miscellaneous eg Speaker wire, drinks etc etc.
A grand total of £1779, I have a cinema room which is not the best in the world, but certainly better than a Samsung 50" DLP (£2000-£2500). I get HDTV pictures upto 1080p, Scalers just rock!!!!. Two kids that think I am the best dad in the world, and a wife that doesn't talk to me anymore!!. Which is no bad thing really, after seeing the HD pictures, I don't know which brings a bigger smile to my face, the wife;s feeble attempts in bed or the cinema room, kinda appropriate because I have to sleep in it for a couple of days !!!!! LOL
Yours most dramatically
Harry M