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Building the 200 inch 1080p HDTV

Yesterday I helped my friend build his 200 inch 1080p HDTV for his entertainment room and it was a beast of a task. But when it was all said and done, I think he was quite happy.
Written by George Ou, Contributor

Yesterday I helped my friend build his 200 inch 1080p HDTV for his entertainment room and it was a beast of a task. But when it was all said and done, I think he was quite happy. Pictured above and below is me standing in front of the display. [See gallery for larger images.]

In the photo above, you can see how I'm dwarfed by the characters on the screen by the life-like images from the movie "300" (HD DVD format).

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Using the $2700 street price Panasonic PT-AE2000U 1920x1080 projector, we worked hard to mount it on to the ceiling. Pictured above is the projector with the mount installed on the bottom.  [Update 3/14/2008 - Note that the special paint used for the reflective wall and the undercoating used cost around 300 Euros.  I would imagine that the prices in the US are a little cheaper though.  I should also point out that the universal projector mount costs around $150.]

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Pictured above is our handy work in mounting the thing. It wasn't easy but we got it done. Drilling through that solid concrete material destroyed 2 drill bits and it wasn't easy until we got higher quality drill bits and a powerful drill.

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This is the front of the projector hanging upside down from the ceiling. You can use software control to flip the image upside down so it's right side up.

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On top of the projector (or below in this case) are two optical lens shift dials that allow you to optically shift left/right 40% and up/down 100% without any keystoning effects or resorting to ugly digital keystone adjustments.

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Here's the back of the unit with just the power cord and HDMI 1.3 cable plugged in. We purchased a good 30 foot long HDMI 1.3 cable off a Google search for $50 and it works quite wonderfully. Remember, digital is digital is digital so long as it works. Too many people spend $150 on even shorter cables and it's a big scam.

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