I'd say vacation but there hasn't been much of a vacation this year. Too many program reviews...
The toys:
I got my Panamorph today.
I also bought a Showstopper over the weekend.
The panamorph:
It comes with some description, not much instruction, but playing with it, there is pretty much only a few degrees of freedom in setting it up.
I'm using it in the table top mode.
A quicky review with my NEC MT1040. Adjustment is not sensitive to detail which is good because the adjustment mechanisms seem coarse and difficult to reproduce. Fitting it to a fixed screen is doable but tricky. A washer or something should be on the adjustment screws for a more secure fit. Its basically a slide adjustment with 4 degrees of freedom,i.e. x,y,and two angles of rotation.
The focus is softer than with the projector, but still good enough for XGA. The net effect is almost no screen door with my LCD. It will probably cause some loss of resolution with text on a DILA from a computer but it still provides full horizontal and vertical XGA resolution. SXGA will also be affected, but the level of the effect is .1-.2 pixels.
Uniformity is sensitive to adjustment and as previously mentioned precision adjustment is evasive. Once appropriately adjusted I don't see any objectionable uniformity loss.
Brightness is better but I'm not sure how much so.
The lens has been cleaned but there is some residue. It isn't apparent in the image. It should be noted that the scattered light from all optics is always visible at the lens but not commonly meaningful from most projectors since it commonly doesn't affect the image.
Its a dust magnet.
Its worth it for the screen door reduction. Not so sure that the brightness is improved enough to justify it. It should be great with high power LCDs that permit aspect ratio control. My NEC is being driven by a DTC100 and a VHDC300. It works great but not all LCDs are capable of this. The XP21N for example doesn't permit this with component input.
The Showstopper:
Of course, Replay's server is down. I at least have some time to return it of it's not up and working properly within a couple of days.
------------------
Ken Elliott
[This message has been edited by kelliot (edited 08-15-2001).]
The toys:
I got my Panamorph today.
I also bought a Showstopper over the weekend.
The panamorph:
It comes with some description, not much instruction, but playing with it, there is pretty much only a few degrees of freedom in setting it up.
I'm using it in the table top mode.
A quicky review with my NEC MT1040. Adjustment is not sensitive to detail which is good because the adjustment mechanisms seem coarse and difficult to reproduce. Fitting it to a fixed screen is doable but tricky. A washer or something should be on the adjustment screws for a more secure fit. Its basically a slide adjustment with 4 degrees of freedom,i.e. x,y,and two angles of rotation.
The focus is softer than with the projector, but still good enough for XGA. The net effect is almost no screen door with my LCD. It will probably cause some loss of resolution with text on a DILA from a computer but it still provides full horizontal and vertical XGA resolution. SXGA will also be affected, but the level of the effect is .1-.2 pixels.
Uniformity is sensitive to adjustment and as previously mentioned precision adjustment is evasive. Once appropriately adjusted I don't see any objectionable uniformity loss.
Brightness is better but I'm not sure how much so.
The lens has been cleaned but there is some residue. It isn't apparent in the image. It should be noted that the scattered light from all optics is always visible at the lens but not commonly meaningful from most projectors since it commonly doesn't affect the image.
Its a dust magnet.
Its worth it for the screen door reduction. Not so sure that the brightness is improved enough to justify it. It should be great with high power LCDs that permit aspect ratio control. My NEC is being driven by a DTC100 and a VHDC300. It works great but not all LCDs are capable of this. The XP21N for example doesn't permit this with component input.
The Showstopper:
Of course, Replay's server is down. I at least have some time to return it of it's not up and working properly within a couple of days.
------------------
Ken Elliott
[This message has been edited by kelliot (edited 08-15-2001).]
