Click the button below and use PayPal to buy me a cup of coffee or pint of beer.

uring the winter of 2004, I decided I needed a new tv because my 32 inch was getting old. I thought about getting a new rear projection one because the prices had come down to about a grand for a 50 inch one. A co-worker suggested I check out front projectors because the technology was better and not too much more in terms of price.

I spent a whole weekend researching the different brands\models and decided on the BenQ DX650. For the amount of money and resolution, it was the best deal. The problem was that no one in the area had one for display. In fact, only one dealer in the area had any front projections to demo. I decided to go check them out and see how it looked. I liked the picture but the salesmen wanted $3500 for the cheap one (supposed half off!) and $8000 for the "sweet spot" one. Biting the bullet, I decided to go for the one unseen through the net. Luckily, I got an extra bulb for free, which cost around $300. The bulbs are one of the "gotchas" with projectors. These bulbs are rated at 1500 hours.

When I first set it up, I used a wall. The wall wasn't very good because the surface was uneve. Next, I tried an old Draper screen from a garage sale which I didn't like either because of the size was limited to 6 foot wide. Unsatisfied and broke, I decided on a king sized white sheet from Walmart. I used this until Fall 2005 at which time I decided to knock down the wall I was projecting onto and rebuild it with new drywall. I painted the new surface with a base coat of Behr's silver metallic paint and then 2 top coats of a grey shade with Behr opalescent paint mixed in.

Use the Buttons Above to View Other Pages