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View Full Version : My free 300" monitor!



J-Roc
01-17-2008, 01:47 AM
Ok, i was long awaiting cash to buy myself a new monitor. Thies old 17" crt monitors just aint cuttin the butter anymore. I had a plan to pick one up in a few months when the cash flow was better.

Thats when my friend/co-worker droped by so he could fix his truck in my carport. That went well. I glanced in his back seat and he had a pile of crap back there. So i asked him whats with the stock pile of garbage. He said he was working at a university doing some prep work there and the school was throwing away massive amounts of school equipment. Most of it was old but in perfectly good condition. They he says to me, "hey check this out" and he pulled out a projector. Turns out he had grabed 2 of them. Obviously with me being me, i wanted to hook it up. Worked perfect! So he says "yeah, you cant have that." What? you've got two man.. He tells me i can have the second one because it has a propriatary power cord which he couldnt find at the school. Sweet Jebus! I pop'd that sucker open and wired a cord to the power leads. Took just under 20min for the whole operation.

Now i have a kick arse projector! I do need some things to get it working properly. The tv out on my video card degrades the signal so its not going to work that way for everyday use. I'll have to use the vga input but for that i'll need a 30 ft length of vga cable so i can mount it on the wall behind me. I'll also have to make a shelf or somthing that i can suspend the projector from. I cant sit it on a shelf because the image is inverted and i dont think it can be fliped. So there are just a few problems i have to over come but it sure is a lot cheaper than buying a new flat panel.

Friends are the greatest!

Luke122
01-17-2008, 02:42 AM
Nice find!

If you need a long VGA run, you can get away with up to 25' @ 1024x768.. after that you'll get ghosting. Look for a cheap vga signal amplifier, or check out the vga over cat5 solutions. :)

Cannibal23
01-17-2008, 11:40 AM
remember the bulbs for those projectors have limited life. i would not reccomend using this for day to day opperations. maybe for when your watching a movie or something. bulbs are an added expense that can add up.

jdbnsn
01-17-2008, 06:56 PM
I've owned 4 projectors for home theaters, there is no comparison for a true movie buff as it just has the silver screen feel to it. However, like Luke pointed out, replacement bulbs for decent projectors range around $400USD and if the projector doesn't have at least 1200 ANSI lumens in brightness you won't be able to see much at all unless you are in a pitch black room. I hope it works out for you because there is nothing cooler than lying on a bean bag 15 feet from your entire wall and playing some xbox ( I played the entire Halo 1 on the wall) and it was heaven. The best one I owned was 2000 lumens with HD 720p (I think) and it was a jaw dropper, even in a lit room. However, I couldn't afford to keep it. I miss it so. Good luck man, sounds like fun!

OvRiDe
01-18-2008, 03:22 AM
I'll have to use the vga input but for that i'll need a 30 ft length of vga cable so i can mount it on the wall behind me. I'll also have to make a shelf or somthing that i can suspend the projector from. I cant sit it on a shelf because the image is inverted and i dont think it can be fliped.

Another option is to mount it flat against the wall and fire it up into a front side mirror.

Also I believe there is software available to flip the image.. I believe it is called "Powerstrip" it will also let you tweak the image quite a bit as well.

AND.....

:pics:

sorry .. couldn't resist!!

Zephik
01-19-2008, 03:06 AM
THIS! IS! MY MONITOR! *kicks into pit*

J-Roc
01-19-2008, 08:10 PM
ok so its pics you want? Then pics you'll get. This isnt its final resting place, its just the best i can do with the short cords i have.

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h258/Cana-Balistic/100_2244.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h258/Cana-Balistic/100_2242.jpg