extreme novice (1 Viewer)

[Lynn Bean]

I've purchased a sharp front projector(PG-C30XU) for next to nothing and am interested in making a home theater system for a few hundred bucks. The projector only has 150 hours on the bulb and the picture looks good. I want the best picture I can get and there are three inputs that look like I could use: a single RCA jack, an S video and a RS-232C. What little research I've done tells me the RCA won't work in HD. The specs say it'll run 1080i. Does that work only thru the computer input? Help!

Also, what's a good, cheap Home theater system. We're not perfectionists, just want decent video and sound.

Last, I've been looking at screen "goo", to paint a screen, is this any good? Any good alternatives? I've got a great room for this, 20' x 30' and I want to put the screen above the fireplace. The ceiling is slightly raised(9 feet) so there's plenty of room for the mount.

 

[Jim Mcc]

Is the RS-232 jack the same as VGA? If so, that's what you would use for HD. Either a VGA on each end of cable, or VGA on one end and component cable on other end. I wouldn't use Goo, it's overpriced paint. There are plenty of great DIY screen solutions at Avsforum.com. I painted a sheet of 1/2" MDF for my screen.

 

[Allan Jayne]

You will want a 4:3 to 16:9 anamorphic lens to put over the projector lens. The projector itself is 4:3 aspect ratio with a 1024x768 pixel resolution. Without the anamorphic lens you have to adjust the vertical size setting in the projector to get a 16:9 picture, which will cut the resolution to 1024x576, no longer qualifying as HDTV.

Like the yellow RCA jack, the S-video jack is also limited to 480i (SDTV) video signals.

 

[Chididdy123]

ive read review on screen goo and it seems to be ok. i would personally by a real screen though. wall imperfections might get annoyiing to you when haveing the wall as a screen