OT - CRT projectors

My Draper permanently tensioned screen that Curt recommended arrived yesterday. Now the fun begins: installing the screen in front of the TV and the projector to the back wall. When all is said and done I promise to watch Casablanca.
 
From the description on the Draper site - matte white, gain of 1.0 - that screen should be very similar to my painted one and work great.
 
Today is projector mounting day. I had an l shaped support to attach to the back wall and to hang the projector from it. Unfortunately we went overboard and the base weighs almost as much as the projector. I was ready to abort as i was affraid the six expansion screws could not be safe enough but one of the helping guys had an awesome idea, to use threaded steel bars. The wall is a double one, bricks, space and concrete. I have some amazing stainless steel bars from a diy audio rack project. Two will support the structure. Absolutely safe. Pics and more to follow.
 
That looks great, beefy as heck. Are you going to hang the projector underneath the shelf or put it on top? If you put it underneath, I will make a suggestion based upon my experience in hanging my G70. Even though my measurements are "perfect" with respect to the projector and the screen being perpendicular I wish I had just a little bit more side to side and front to back adjustment. My mount had slots in it, and even with those I ran out of the last tiny little bit of twist I seem to need to get the focus perfect across the screen.

The used Panasonic player I bought ended up having a worn out blue laser, apparently very common on this model. Luckily the seller immediately refunded my money. I'm holding back on doing it right and buying an Oppo player to finish the system as we just bought a new bed to replace our 18 year old one (holy crap! beds are expensive), and we have been offered a sweet deal on a friend's car that we are looking at Monday. So I spent the afternoon on yet another projector tuning session while I daydreamed about the new player. Center raster, flap, center focus, edge focus, EM focus, mechanical convergence, center raster, size, linearity, skew, bow, key, pin, bias, gain, all times 3. AAAAHHHHHHHH! But each time I get the image a little tighter and the color a little better.

You are so gonna love that setup.
 
I should also mention that as much as I love the new screen painted with the the Glidden white paint I realized that I was having to burn the CRTs pretty hard to get a decent lumen level. So I have ordered a sheet of Wilsonart designer white laminate, that darling of the DIY screen community. It's supposed to be very close color-wise and has a higher gain of around 1.25 without much hotspotting, which should let me turn the wick down a bit on the light cannons.
 
We ran out of time today. I'm very happy as it will end up being very safe which is my priority. Unfortunately not much chance to play with position.  I'll save that for whenever we build the new room. It'll hang from underneath and the holes are all set. Hope I can set it up goodly enough.

My draper screen also has 1.3 gain: "Draper Pure White XT1300V offers a 30% boost in brightness over a traditional matt white surface while still maintaining an extremely wide viewing cone, with half gain angle over 90 degrees. No color shift at any angle, excellent white field uniformity. Available with black backing and without".

One additional week to wait!

 
Just leave yourself a little room to play with the screen position and you should be fine. That Draper should be just the ticket.
 
Woo hoo! The Oppo BDP-103D (thanks to the buyer of my personal Stereomour for financing the purchase) and the sheet of Wilsonart laminate for the new screen both arrived today. Can you say "movie weekend"?
 
I'm a little envious of you two! Being in the military with moves every two to three years keeps me from trying something similar.
 
I have four people scheduled tomorrow at 8:00am to finish mounting the projector and screen. And Monday is a holiday. So I can indeed say movie (long) weekend.
 
I have one person scheduled. I hope I show up on time. Here's reason for the tight budget on the project lately. We just commited to buy one of these for Eileen -

2002-Mercedes-Benz-C-Class-C230-Coupe-1.jpg


That will be the new car, 'new' meaning the only one we have that is less than 20 years old.
 
Yeah, another one. We are loaning Kate the 94 C220 for school, and my 88 300CE is coming together very slowly. So this 02 C230 coupe will be the corporate hauler for taking packages to the post office, getting supplies and such. It's supercharged, but being a Benz it's heavy for its size. They called it a "sport coupe". I would call it a hatchback with heart. It's not a rush like my friend's Hayabusa powered MR2, but it can definitely get out of its own way and the six speed manual is pretty fun. It will actually be Benz #4 in the family as Colin has a 93 190E 2.6.

Back on the off-topic - the first play of the Oppo is very positive. Great sound, and the Darbee video processing when used with moderation helps counteract the softness of the CRT image in a subtle way.
 
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