Superman's virtual santa setup

Superman

I Have C.L.A.P and its very infectious
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Hi All,
This is a post for anyone who would like to know how I do my virtual Santa. This guy is by far the most popular thing in the whole display. I use a Epson eh-tw5900 home theater projector, DVD player and a screen made from a wooden frame with white plastic table cloth as the screen and vinyl as a filler. This setup works in my house but every setup is dependent on the size of the window and the zoom level and offset capabilities of the projector.
This is the view from outside
2013-12-27%2012.31.19%20%28Small%29.jpg


This is the view from where my projector sits

2013-12-27%2012.30.08%20%28Small%29.jpg


As I have mentioned the screen is a frame made from pine to fit the inside of my window. I only project to the top window so I block the bottom out with a red piece of vinyl with some bricks painted on it. The top section of the screen is currently stretched Lycra, works ok but is very transparent when the show turns off and I’m inside watching the TV. I will be changing this back to white plastic table cloth I picked up at Spotlight.


As I have lights on the windows I also shield them from the screen with some "L" channel
2013-12-27%2012.31.38%20%28Small%29.jpg


My projector has many settings so I can put it wherever I like this is definitely a good thing to have. I have it offset to the screen and on the floor shooting up to the window so visitors don’t see the light shining out of the projector lens, some very cheap mini projectors won’t allow any skew adjustment at all as a minimum I would want vertical adjustment so I could have the projector square to the screen on the floor shooting up at the window.

VS_SETUP.jpg





He can be seen in my display video but it's not the best with my camera.


2013 Display

virtual santa
 

Benslights

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thanks for all that info steve what projectors would you recommend at entry level that would be worth getting for this??

as the wife loves the idea of having santa around each night
 

Superman

I Have C.L.A.P and its very infectious
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the makers of virtual Santa have projectors that dont look too bad
http://www.christmaslightshow.com/christmas-light-show-video-projector.html

The key things to get are
Keystone. that allows you to offset the projector
Lumens. mine is 2000 I think with light around your window 1300 would be a minimum
screen ratio 4:3 or 16:9(wide screen)

the one on ther site looks pretty good as a minimum.
 

AlexB

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Nov 2, 2012
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South of Brisbane
This is my second year running Virtual Santa, and (although there is no animation in my display) he is still easily the most popular thing in it.


We run ours from our upstairs window, which is good if you don't want to mess around with keystoning to prevent the glare from the projector itself - you can have the projector lined up dead centre as no one sees the flare in a second story window.


as has been discussed in chat recently, the trouble with the projectors is they generally need to be controlled manually.


I have a DVD player that runs my show which automatically plays the disc when it is powered on. My Projector is the same - it switches on whenever it is plugged in. In the past, our DVD player didn't auto-play, so we just plugged it into a different socket and let it run on loop 24/7.


We then just plug the projector into an ordinary timer and it comes on at 6:55pm each night (to give the projector time to warm up).


Having Santa in the upstairs window also keeps the kids from discovering the 'trick' if they got too close to it.


Here's how ours looks from outside... inside pictures are much the same as Superman... and we use white plastic tablecloth also - i've found it gives the best effect.

1424528_10201995865511114_299710093_n.jpg
 

Bird

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I did not get time to set virtual Santa up this year in the new house, but the past 2 years he got more cheers than the lights did. But that's OK, for kids, Santa is the MAN. :)
 

smeighan

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This was first year for virtual Santa for me. I also think it got more compliments than the lights.

My setup
Raspberry pi as the video player
Video out to Epson projector.
Screen was frosted plastic paint drop cloth stretched over upstairs bedroom. I was surprised how bright it was.
 

MarcD

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Heathwood Qld
It depends on the projector and how much control it gives you over USB playback. I bought a cheap ($30) DVD player from K-Mart. I burnt the Virtual Santa video to DVD and used the option to play it on loop. I leave the disc in the DVD player and all I need to do is turn on the power to it and the projector each night and it starts playing automatically.


roo said:
mean via the projector. the file is on a usb stick
 

logandc99

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Jul 13, 2012
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Second year running virtual Santa and the kids ( and adults) are fascinated by it. We use a white bed sheet stretched over a wooden frame and have an outer layer of black see through voil to help make the window look nice and black and remove any background brightness from the projector. Use a DVD player on loop repeat hooked up to the projector.
 
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