Ok, well winter break has finally arrived and I finally got around to some things I have been putting off.

Equipment

I built a screen, using 2x4s and black out cloth, and it looks great (screen shots will follow). The whole think didnt cost $40. I had heard that People noted a big improvement simply by adding a black border. So I decided to give it a try. I made a frame out of 1x3 poplar and painted it a matte black. I am very impressed with the impact of that little touch, I would definatly suggest giving it a try.

I also mounted the x1 on the ceiling. Quite possibly the simplest mount ever made. I just took a piece of lexan, drilled three holes to mount it to the projector and than drilled four more holes around the perimiter to mount it to the ceiling. The base of the projector is not touching the lexan, I left a little gap for air to pass.

When I mounted the x1 to the ceiling, I ran some conduit, in addition to the cableing for the PJ I aslo ran the speaker wire to the wh2s, no more wires running accross the floor. 8D

My DVDs (and the kitties playing)

(those wires are no longer runnig accross the floor)

We had to get yet another rack to hold our expanding DVD collection.

The absolute best part about this whole little renovation is that I have my coffe table back!

Here are some screen shots, although very few came out very well, I assure you the actuall image is far better than the pictures suggest. For some reason the pics come out looking far more "washed out" than the actual image. I use MS photo editer to resize each photo to 55% of its original size, the full res pics do look a little better.

These are screen shots with the new screen. Compared side by side to the old foam board, the image is fairly equivalent, but for some reason I am having and even tougher time getting screen shots to come out.

These are older screen shots, taken using office max foam board as a screen.

Here is a direct comparison of the Foam Board v. the blackout cloth.

Foam Board

Blackout Cloth

Here is my HT thread at DVDfile