My overnight Rear Projection Test

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[victor-eyd]

I was bored and everyone was asleep so I tried this out. This was bought at Home Depot for about $20 bucks. Although the package says "clear", in actuality it is rather opaque, which makes it a candidate for rear projection. Ideally, you'd want to have it more opaque since at 6 mil, you will see the bulb itself, but more on this later...



The garage opening measures 16 ft x 8ft high, so its rather large for an opening (blame it on my architect). Most garage openings are about a foot lower. The projector is my trusty $10.00 NEC. DVD player is a Sungale $10.00 portable, which I now suspect cannot play multiple titles like my demo dvds.

inside garage (yes- I tried Star Wars, it looked okay actually)


The throw was about 17ft from lens to screen. The screen itself was suspended via electrical tape and held down by planks and bricks (it was a little breezy outside). Overall the screen size measured up to be about 135" 4x3 or 124" 16x9. Its smaller than I would like but if you were using a single car garage opening I would probably be perfect. You could also mask around the image for a more finished look.

This is what I found:
Overall, the image was rather pleasing, if a bit distracting since the screen was too thin to hide the bulb, see image below


In actuality, you end up forgetting about the bulb image and more or less concentrate on the movie itself.

However, since I had full light control (garage-no lights on), I did not have to worry about exterior lights to illuminate the viewing area since it would not affect the image.

and another, although blurry


Victor

[hiredpower]

This just goes to show that almost anything will work and doesn't have to be expensive.

Chalk another one up for Victor!

My first screen was two bed sheets sewn together back to back. The image was quite impressive, I might add.

[cheftom]

What would happen to the image if you doubled up the plastic, making it 12 ml?

it looks decent but the bulb would be distracting.

[rfisk]

Cool!

I've see a couple setups like this using thicker plastic or visqueen with good success.   Ceiling mount the projector or set it down on the floor?  And, at the risk of sounding like a Trapeze salesman, the stuff works great for rear projection too and would be easy to snap/hook to the door opening.

Could be increased licensing/public showing problems for some folks, though.  Just a mention of that.

Nice work Victor!  (Who is probably sleeping-in this morning...)

Randy

[victor-eyd]

The projector was simply propped on a table I dragged inside the garage.

I'm haven't tried yet how to add a 2nd 6mil sheet. Perhaps a small one in front of the pj might be enough. In any case, it's a very affordable possibility for those who don't have a good sized backyard (getting more common with these new homes in the Bay Area) but have a regular driveway.

All that legal mumbo jumbo could be a problem, I agree, but ya got's ta do what ya got's ta do!

Thanks for having this really cool forum and thanks everyone for the compliments

Victor

[Pass_The_Off]

Now that's a neat Ideal

[BrainGrenade]

I'm not sure how well of a keystone feature your projector has but try using that to your advantage. mount it off to the side or as previously mentioned on the ceiling. That would get the bulb out of the way and use the keystone to straighten out the image. Not sure if that would work or not as I'm still new to the whole projector game. I don't even own one... YET!

[victor-eyd]

Success!

I tried the setup again and this time, I taped a small section of the plastic over the screen, effectively making a double thickness

Voila! The bulb glare has greatly reduced down to a diffuse haze and the image is definitely more watchable than before. Its not as bright, perhaps 10% down, but still way more than watchable. Even a low lumen crt or diy should have no problem with this setup.







So in short, if you are to attempt this setup, fold over the plastic to make double the thickness, and you will have a workable rear projection system for around $20.00

I already finished my outdoor theater so this concept is primarily for those who will use their driveway for viewing, whether its movies or scary clips for halloween

Have fun!

Victor

[redhawk]

I'm new here, but I had the same idea of creating a giant rear projection system on the cheap out of my garage.  We have one of those small backyards, so the garage is the best bet.  If I can make it a rear-project, even better.  But of course I have some questions since I currently do not own a projector.  I'd buy (or make one) if this idea is feasable.

One unanswered question is on whether or not putting the projector on the floor, or off to one side and keystoning would eliminate the bright spot.  Has anyone tried that?

Also, approximatly what sort of power (lumens) would be necessary to rear-project an image that is about 8-10' in width that is watchable with some low level street lamp light noise?

Thanks.

[victor-eyd]

Keystoning would probably help. Lens shift even more so but since my pj had neither, table mounting is the only option.

As to lumen power, the lower the better. I high lumen business pj will probably over come the haze and you're back to a hotspot on the screen. I'd recommend either crt or diy or an older pj for this project.

Victor

[redhawk]

Wow, quick response.

So lower lumens would be better.... hmmmm.  Since I do not have a projector yet, that helps a lot. 

I've been thinking of building my own projector based on some parts I have laying around if I can not find one on craigslist that I can repair on the cheap.  I live in Nor Cal also, but near Sacramento.  Building my own would allow me to automatically build in a reversed screen and keystone setup.  I have an LCD panel from an 7" semi-broken portable DVD player, though I may find the resolution lacking.  All I need is a cheap projection lens, some fresnels, a light source and a little build time.  Old slide projector or overhead might be perfect to salvage.

Or who knows, maybe I'll find a cheap projector in the meantime. 

Thanks for confirming the screen concept though, I think I'll run with that for now.

[Mike the Movie Guy]

 I'm setting up a rear projection haunt in my front yard this Hallowe'en. I'm using a translucent shower curtain liner I picked up at Wal-Mart for $2.50 as my screen. It looks much better than you might guess, plus, it'll distract the trick-or-treaters enough for me to sneak up on 'em!  

[mine2be]

There is an Infocus projector at this site but it is mixed in with some computers.

http://www.govdeals.com/eas/itmDisplay.cfm?itemID=506&acctID=551

This rear projection display project is a great idea.  I'm going to give it a shot for our youth room at church.

[BobH]

Just a quick thought. I just got my pj a couple of days ago and hung up a white sheet. Got every thing going and realized that the image on the backside was just as good as the front.  Great for movie's, but not so great for sports where there are scores and other graphics.

[victor-eyd]

So I tried a new setup last night. Well sorta new. I utilized my Walmart rp screen and my standard fp cardboard screen for comparison purposes and here's what I found.

For starters, any new pj business or ht, will overpower the walmart rp screen. Even with my crappy 3m  8640 I was still hotspotting and I had to turn down contrast and brightness severely just to get anywhere near an acceptable image. See pix below to show you what I mean. So for my opinion, those using 3 gun crt projectors or lumenlab/diy projectors which are inherently lower on the lumen ratings will pair up nicely with the walmart frosted screen. Also the walmart screen is prone to wrinkling, so have a hot air gun or blowdryer with you to remove most of the wrinkles.

As to the front projection, if anyone's desire really. You've probably heard a lot of people turn down brightness  because their pj somewhat overpower the image and after trying out almost 1/2 dozen projectors a lower lumen projector will be just as effective as a newer high power powered one, unless you have a lot of ambient light in the area, and by that I mean porch lights, campfire lights or you're relatively near street lights.

anyways, here are some pictures to show you what I mean...

Movie is either Spiderman 2.1 or Ironman. Videogame is Gamecube's Super Monkeyball. Front projection is 165" 16:9 diagonal and Rear projection is 100" 4:3.








Victor