1. Watching DVDs on the right monitor while tinkering on the left detracts from the quality of both activities.
2. Seems pointless to buy a TV of a size that will give a reduced experience from what I’m used to.
3. CRT TVs at 30″+ are very heavy, and I don’t have a car or much space.
4. A TV box using non-CRT technologies (LCD, plasma, rear projection) is very expensive.
5. A front projector costs less per inch of screen than non-CRTs at 30″+.
6. Found a projector that comes with a built-in DVD player, built-in speakers, and rave reviews.
7. The visuals are good, but the speakers lack punch.
8. Surprise one-day online sale on speakers. Entry-level prosumer speakers are heavily discounted. The “quantity remaining” slowly counts down, and ten minutes left before an appointment.
9. Speakers are more high-end than I’ve ever had. Each speaker needs its own input signal, so I need a receiver.
10. Receiver’s nice, but how do I put the speakers at the right height? Need to get some stands.
11. Speakers placement is okay, but the speaker wire it came with isn’t long enough. Time to buy some overpriced speaker cable.
12. Oh right, I need to send the audio from the projector’s DVD player to the receiver. Go back for an overpriced optical cable.
13. Four hours to measure distances, cut and strip cable, read the user manuals, and concoct protection for the high-priced cables from a certain feline terrorist.

Yay! It sounds great, it looks great, everything is pretty much secure and tucked away neatly. I’m very happy with the final result.

Although… a well-stuffed leather couch would make movie and video game marathons more comfortable…

Saw this via digg while programming. Exciting, although of questionable sense.

My poor cats… with the introduction of my new projector, all the fixtures of their world (i.e. my furniture) moved about considerably. I came home today to find them calling out to me in hunger, circling the barren space where their food dishes used to be.

Update: I stopped feeling sorry for my cats. The troublesome one figured out that if she applies enough pressure, the wooden pole that “bars” the kitchen door from opening will flex enough to let her slip in. <sigh> I guess if I was locked in the apartment all day with certain areas always forbidden to me, I’d spend my days thinking about how to get in, too.

Happily, UPS not only delivered the Optoma DV10 I ordered just before the long weekend, I somehow didn’t get charged any customs taxes.  I don’t know what’s going on and I’m not going to ask!  If you need a projector or tv, you should give VisualApex a browse.  Not only did they have by far the most comments (and the most positive comments) at ProjectorCentral, I attest to their responsiveness over email and the speed at which my order became a shipment.

I’m happy with this projector.  I won’t rehash any information from the detailed review I referred to in my previous post.  I’ll try to add some more information of interest instead.

The sound is lacking in bass.  I really noticed while playing DDR.

You need the remote to work the projector.  There are buttons on the projector, but only the basics.

Power cord is a regular computer power supply cord.  That’s great for me,  in case my cat does in yet another cable.

Having such a large screen really shows any artifacts in the video.  It’s probably less noticeable with non-animated, modern movies, but my test animes (all I had on hand) were older, showing compression artifacts over the the many patches of solid colours.  It showed up as a distracting kind of “shimmer”… if I paused, I could see compression “splotches”.  Other, more modern DVDs (also anime) were fine.

It plays VCDs.  I found this useful for playing downloaded videos, instead of hooking up my video card and sound card.  Of course, the quality wasn’t that great, but it was tolerable.

The closes you can watch is at a distance that’s equal to or greater than the projector.  Much closer and you can see the distinct pixels.  Motion sickness is also likely having such a huge picture moving swiftly.

The Optoma DV10 comes with a very nice carrying case:

The projector needs to be set low to the ground.  At a distance of 8′ and height of 3″, it shoots a picture about 80″ diagonal (4:3) that starts 3′ off the ground.

The following pictures are 4:3.  I didn’t have any wide screen sources on hand.  These pictures were shot at night, so just a little bit of ambient downtown light.  The large black swath at the bottom of each picture is the area of wall that wasn’t used.

For reference, I took a picture with a significant amount of light (equivalent to a couple 60 watt incandescent bulbs).  Later tests confirmed the point - the projector can’t be until around dusk.  It doesn’t have to be pitch black, but at least “evening”.

If there was an unexpected downside, it would be a space organization concern.  While a large television would take up far space, I am somewhat constrained in the placement of my furniture in order to get sufficient throw distance, and keeping clutter clear.  i.e. with a television, I could have it in the middle of the room, and have something behind or holding it, like a shelf.

The sensitivity to ambient light wasn’t surprising, and my current curtains are pretty thin.  It even has the additional benefit of encouraging me to run errands and get things done instead of watching during the day.

As stated before, it’d be nice if the audio had punch, but I don’t think much else could be done given the size of the unit.

The Optoma DV10 is a very good projector, particularly for the price (U$1k).  A traditional television for an image half the size would be far more expensive.  It shoots very well even on a plain wall; using a proper projector screen would make it even better from the screen’s gain properties.  As a portable projector to entertain while visiting, it fits the bill admirably.  It’s far less dominating of the room than if I’d gotten a large television, although I admit to some creative furniture arrangement to keep the part of the room in front of the projector totally clear.  If you’re willing to consider alternatives to traditional box television, this is a very good one.

I’m not a car person.  I appreciate a nice ride, and being in an expensive car is mildly interesting, but I barely know how combustion engines work, much less model numbers, designs, etc.

It’s an unfair coincidence then that my former employer once gave me the opportunity to see his impressive car collection while I was vacationing in his home city.  The following pictures are from his garage from that visit awhile ago.  I hope it’s not inappropriate for me to post them.  I’d forgotten about them, but it came up in conversation recently. Since it’s mostly friends and acquaintances that visit this blog, some of whom appreciate cars, I’ll post a few.

Some kind of Ferrari (I told you I don’t appreciate cars).

Readers will have to recognize this one on their own.  I wonder if this was the one that he told me ran on some strange fuel blend… alcohol or something like that?  Some of these cars were decades old yet went at speeds that would put many modern sports cars to shame.

An Aston Martin.  Being cautioned not to lean on the aluminium (?) chassis, because it dented easily, is probably why I remember it better.  The owner was kind enough to “pop the hood” (carefully removing a metal sheet) for a picture of the engine.

I think this is the guts of one of the older Ferrari models.  I was impressed by how unusual (for my experience) it was designed, e.g. engine in the back.

Another older Ferrari of some sort.

The “cockpit” of of one of the Ferrari race cars.  I got to sit in this one; it was incredibly difficult to get in and out, particularly with my boots - the inch of rubber heel caught on the edges of the tiny “doorway” (more of a chute).  The funny thing is that I was told these were considered “two seaters” (condition for the classification of cars being raced), yet you could only fit a baby or perhaps small child in the makeshift “passenger” seat.

Yet another Ferrari (notice a pattern?).  I thought this one looked particularly nice, but I’m biased by my limited experience seeing only modern race cars while channel flipping.

You can see all the pictures I took at Flickr, under “nicecars”.  Ignore the last one of the car on the street - that was just some random car.