Hey guys,

Let me preface this thread by telling you all what I have and why I want to mod it.

I recently found a great piece of old equipment that I would love use in a mod of some sort (this is where you all come in). The piece is an old (mid 90s) LCD Projection Panel. Basically it's an transparent LCD screen that you'd put on top of an overhead projector, so that you could project your computer screen (this was made before projectors became affordable). http://img.zdnet.com/techDirectory/LCDPANEL.GIFThe thing is awesome! To see the picture all you need is to add a back light, I've used just a regular lightbulb, and to place the screen in front of a white background.

I would love to use the screen in a mod of some sort but have so far, after many hours, come up with no ideas that would really be useful/usable.

Here's some of my previous thoughts and reasons not to do them.

1) Build a little DVD/LCD unit: The idea was to build a custom housing to hold the the backlight LCD screen and a dvd player. The problem is, why would I ever use it? I have a TV and DVD player that would allow for a much better viewing experience. So while I might make it... I'd never use it.

2) Build a complete LCD/Computer: Same idea as above but instead of just a DVD player I'd house the LCD with a small computer. But again, I have a laptop already... so why use a tiny screen in a huge housing.

3) Build the LCD and a computer into a coffee table: I haven't completely shot this idea down but I'm close Again, I could build the computer into the a coffee table so that I could check the internet while watching TV... but why not just use my laptop.

Some things to consider.
1) The screen needs a backlight and a white screen behind it to see anything. Or at least a bright light behind it, I've watched the screen with sunlight but you can see everything behind the screen which can be annoying. Cool looking though.
2) I've actually watched a movie with it The thing takes PC (VGA), S-video and standard video cable (the yellow cable)
3) The screen has a resolution of 640x480. If anyone could help me here, how can I force my resolution lower? Right now the lowest I can go is 800x600, so I'm not sure if the PC connection is broken or if it's because I'm not sending it the correct resolution.


So with all that in mind, does anyone have a fun mod idea that I could do? The screen is really really cool looking, because you just don't see anything like it anymore.

Thanks for any ideas!

An idea I just had would be the mod a plug 'n play with the LCD into a case that you could sit on your lap. Pacman anyone?

One hurdle that comes to mind would be whether I could create a power supply to power the plug 'n play so that I didn't have to replace 4 AA batteries. I imagine that it's a fairly easy thing to do, but I've certainly never read/attempted it.