Meant to be Seen

Basically, I'm not sure what I should go with; probably the H5360 with a converter for consoles and movies, but I need to know if I'll be able to span one 16:9 image across three projectors and if it's safe to use the projectors in portrait.

Although 3DVS in portrait is not supported for monitors, it is for projectors. I would like to build a projector setup in which I can use 3D Vision Surround in portrait for PC gaming, but also play console games, so is there a way I could get the three projectors to act as one for console gaming, spanning the game across the portrait setup? I found a forum where someone said something about using an HDMI capture card to do this, but I don't know what he meant. Are there any options available to do this? Or would I have to continually flip the middle projector? Would that cause alignment issues?

I want to do this on a curved screen with a manual treadmill in front, so I guess I'll have to have the projectors mounted somewhere overhead, which I'm not sure how I'll accomplish, since I'll be in a dorm and can't ceiling mount. Bhawthorne said somewhere that projectors often can't be mounted vertically, and can even burn out immediately if that is tried, but an Nvidia rep on the official forums said he'd done just that for a tradeshow and didn't have any problems.

I also want to watch Blu-ray movies, so I suppose I'll need a converter. The Acer H5360 is the model I'm leaning toward, because it's gotten great reviews and is only $500, so $1500 for 3DVS. The H5360BD is more expensive and doesn't support 3DVS, only 3DTV Play (why not both!?). The Qumi Q2 has longer bulblife and is quieter, and probably safer for portrait, but is 300 lumens enough, even in a completely dark room? I imagine that 2000-3000 lumens would make a substantial difference. And there's also the Optoma HD66 and the ViewSonic PJD6531w.

For playing console games you could probably get a video capture card (needs to be HD, HDMI, which is more expensive). I don't know too much about this, so I can't recommend a specific card, but I know it can be done.

Do you think this will work? And do you know if 300 lumens is enough for 3D in perfect darkness? I don't think it is, but I don't anything about projectors.

That should work. Also, try actually listing the name of the product you are talking about (AVerMedia AVerTV HD DVR MTVHDDVRR) instead of just saying "this". Otherwise people cannot search for it on the forum, and if the link breaks in the future no one will know what you are talking about.

I don't really know too much about projectors, but 300 lumens sounds on the low end. I mean if you are talking about pico-projectors than that is great, but for full-size units it is not that much at all. I would only get it if you needed a mobile/portable solution for some reason. If this is for a home theater setup, then get a real projector.

The Qumi Q2 is in between pico and fullsize. It fits in the palm of the hand, barely. I was considering it because it's quieter and I'd never need to replace the bulb - 30,000 hours. 300 lumens does sound too low, though.

You might also want to look at the X1261P. It's the 1024x768 version of the H5360. It's $390 at Newegg. 3 of those would be a bit wider than 16:9 (2.25:1 vs 1.77:1, or with 3 5360's 1.68:1.)

Practicality using projectors in portrait is an issue though. The built in shift of the lens of the 1261 throws the image up a bit (or down if you have it hanging from the ceiling.) On it's side, this will obviously throw the image a bit to the side, but there will be no vertical shift, so the projectors will need to be right in front of the screen. Also there is the issue of cooling, I have heard a lot of projectors eat lamps when used on their sides.

An issue with multi-projector setups in general is edge blending (or lack thereof.) You will never get a good matchup between edges of images from one projector to the next without some way to blend the edges.

The last issue is of course getting 3d video from your console onto the computer then onto the screen. aver3d capture3d claims to do so, but there may be pretty nasty lag.