Some time ago, I mentioned that I had one of these in-house and that I hoped to give it a go as soon as possible. Unfortunately, I still don't have the time to do it any justice. I also mentioned that I wouldn't be averse to lending it out to others for calibration purposes. I was thinking about it again today as my eyes chanced on it lying idle in my office. I'm not sure whether it's a good idea, for a number of reasons, or whether anyone would even want to bother with it. But I noticed venkman's post about calibration this morning, and the subject does come up regularly. AVMASTER, I think, was trying to become a Spyder dealer. Robert, I think, wanted to know if it would work with front projectors. Out of the box, no, but I haven't studied it enough to know whether it can be adapted.

At any rate, if I were to send it out, at least three criteria would have to be met:

(1) The person would have to be recognizable to me from this forum, say, with a minimum of posts (to be determined) and an address plainly on view for me to see. This strategy would be protection against someone joining the group just to run away with the Spyder system.

(2) I'd have to charge a small rental fee as further, even if inadequate, protection against theft or damage. No offense to anyone in the abstract, but the likelihood of anything in circulation surviving forever is pretty small. I'm thinking of a fee equivalent to DVE's lowest cost, possibly payable via PayPal as a cash transaction, which would also help to protect me. Obviously, shipping costs would also be the recipient's responsibility. I have a FedEx express (not ground) account, which I could use for those who'd like to work fast, or I could do a regular USPS parcel post. The total cost would be far less than the Spyder's $200 purchase price.

(3) Whoever uses it would be on their own. I don't have the time to do a tutorial. But the documentation and software are very comprehensive. The Spyder seems extremely easy to deploy. You just need a laptop or a desktop PC near your TV. If you don't have either, fuhgetaboutit.

What do you think about this idea? Does it have any value? Sir TT, what do you think about it? Wooch, Kexo, Topspeed, etc. ? If this kind of offer isn't appropriate to the forum in the first place, by all means have it retracted.

Ed