March 11th, 2008
Building the 200 inch 1080p HDTV
Yesterday I helped my friend build his 200 inch 1080p HDTV for his entertainment room and it was a beast of a task. But when it was all said and done, I think he was quite happy. Pictured above and below is me standing in front of the display. [See gallery for larger images.]
In the photo above, you can see how I’m dwarfed by the characters on the screen by the life-like images from the movie “300″ (HD DVD format).
Using the $2700 street price Panasonic PT-AE2000U 1920×1080 projector, we worked hard to mount it on to the ceiling. Pictured above is the projector with the mount installed on the bottom. [Update 3/14/2008 - Note that the special paint used for the reflective wall and the undercoating used cost around 300 Euros. I would imagine that the prices in the US are a little cheaper though. I should also point out that the universal projector mount costs around $150.]
Pictured above is our handy work in mounting the thing. It wasn’t easy but we got it done. Drilling through that solid concrete material destroyed 2 drill bits and it wasn’t easy until we got higher quality drill bits and a powerful drill.
This is the front of the projector hanging upside down from the ceiling. You can use software control to flip the image upside down so it’s right side up.
On top of the projector (or below in this case) are two optical lens shift dials that allow you to optically shift left/right 40% and up/down 100% without any keystoning effects or resorting to ugly digital keystone adjustments.
Here’s the back of the unit with just the power cord and HDMI 1.3 cable plugged in. We purchased a good 30 foot long HDMI 1.3 cable off a Google search for $50 and it works quite wonderfully. Remember, digital is digital is digital so long as it works. Too many people spend $150 on even shorter cables and it’s a big scam.
George Ou is Technical Director of ZDNet. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
