Home Cinema Photos (More)

I fired up the projector last night with the sole intention of getting some nice screen shots taken from various DVDs to show off the quality of my budget set-up. First DVD up was "Training Day" but as I hadn't seen it in a while I soon forgot about taking pictures and lay back to enjoy the show. I did get one shot off which you can see below (click on image to enlarge). "BOOM, Dawg!"


For maximum quality the DVD is hooked up through Component Video with Progressive Scan. Pretty good, eh? Remember that image is a 72" diagonal. Now, to get the picture I had to switch off the flash, which gives a false sense of the darkness of the room. Even in the bedroom, at night, and the curtains drawn the projector throws out a fearsome amount of light which illuminates the room to a certain extent. To prolong the life of the projector bulb I'm running it in "Low" mode but as you can see the picture is still very well lit. I do want to redecorate the room with darker walls and ceiling to minimise light reflection, add new curtains with proper blackout material, tape up all the LEDs and maybe go for a light grey colour paint for the screen to improve the blacks. Its important to bear this in mind when viewing screen shots from projectors as they won't show the true light in the room at the time.

The following screen shots were taken yesterday afternoon (curtains drawn, overcast day) with the Freeview box hooked up to the projector through a RGB SCART cable. Again, with the flash off you get a false sense of the darkness in the room. I need to adjust the colour profile for the projector when running through the Freeview as the colours (particularly the reds are bit too much). Obviously, I can't pause the TV, so a lot of smearing from motion will be evident which you don't get when viewing.


All in all a fantastic picture for the cost of the set-up. Roll on the World Cup... woof!

Update: Actually, having looked at Denzil on a couple of different monitors I have to say this is actually a pretty fair representation of the quality we see live in the room. My main computer monitor must be set a bit too dark. Best thing to do, pop in and see it in the flesh if you're in the area :)