I am trying to find a way to use my G70 in my new setup. The room only has about 7 feet of headroom, so I really don't want to mount it on the ceiling. Does anyone have any advice and photos of/about floor mounting a CRT? I am thinking of building an enclosure that looks and functions as a coffee table between my theater chairs. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

IMO the best way to set it up would be bolt it to the ceiling and put the seats under it. My ceiling is only seven feet and my G70 never gets in the way.

However if you do need to floor mount I would do a setup with five seats, put two in the front row with the G70 mounted inside a high coffee table between the seats. Then do a row of three seats behind those on a riser.

Erik

I considered bolting it to the ceiling. However, it is not a dedicated theater room and it would obstruct the view of the rest of the room hanging down. Very, very low WAF. There will only be 2 seats and a coffee table like setup would fit between them nicely.

hi, here's some pics of my "humble" set up. for my purposes it works fine and the picture looks great. i never considered hanging it because of the height of my ceiling. basically i have lounge seating/bed around the CRT and a couch directly behind it and since it is a long room i have theater seating in the one side of the back with an additional sofa and bed on the other side. Also, i've never had any issues of anyone hitting/bumping/finger prints on the lenses since i don't have any kids/pets to worry about. -jose

Mine is similar to the one above, but it will soon be mounted on the ceiling. This will allow me to move my main seating area about 2ft closer to the screen.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2174/2160857060_911c953368_b.jpg

Brodgers -

I built a coffee table to hide my Sony 12xx in ( and still use with my Marquee). I am attaching a drawing of it. If you ever are comming through Chattanooga and want to see it, let me know. The height is fine as a coffee table, and does not sit too high for use in front of our reclining couch. the design could be easily modified for other projectors.

I appreciate everyones input. It looks like I am not the only one who has considered this. When designing the housing, I am assuming that the two main considerations are stability (so you don't lose focus) and keeping the lens' clean and smudge free. What else should I be prioritizing? Has anyone considered bolting it down to the concrete slab?

brodgers, i think bolting it down is overkill. I had a 1271 on the floor for a while before getting the ht set up... it was on thick foam pad sitting on - drumroll - a large cerwin vega subwoofer.

it worked fine, except during huge bass sequences when the magnetic field made the image wave around! The mass was so big that the pj itself didn't vibrate at all though.

Yeah, bolting it down to the floor might be overkill. THese things already weigh a ton and are dificult to move. I had thought of bolting mine to my stand (my daughter has bumped it and moved it out of alignment before), but I have since decided to ceiling mount mine.

I concede that it is best to put the projector on the ceiling if at all possible.
However, for me in the three homes I've lived in with CRTs - its never been feasible.

Here's my G90 under its table:
http://www.vidya.com/G90/G90_Table_04.jpg

And here was the D50 we had in the previous house:
http://www.vidya.com/D50/D50_table.jpg

I wish I had pictures of the 1020Q we used to have - it was under a glass table that was suspended on one side by wires that went up to the ceiling and chrome L shaped legs for the other side. It projected onto a screen that we pulled across what was normally a hallway out of the living room. It was a VERY small house.

Here's the view from my chair in our current theater:
http://www.vidya.com/G90/Office_Pan_05a.jpg

Some more pics and stuff here:
http://www.vidya.com/G90

Kris

Looks like you had to upgrade your projector when you got a bigger coffee table... :D

Do I spy some fancy leg extensions on the G90 coffee table ;)

Umm honey since we're getting a new coffee table I'm just going to go ahead and get that new projector OK, and I think we need a slot machine too.....whadaya mean NO, Kris has one!:mad:

In other news, here's the new coffee table I have on delivery:

http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/53041814.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF19390335F8FA9CA92A6239B4DC3A212EB4FFF3FE21171 7AB081

Yeah, when I measured the table I knew it was going to be tight. I figured I could remove the front beam above where the lenses would be, but when I actually got it home I discovered that the way it was constructed that wouldn't really work without a lot more modification than I was interested in. But the legs were supposed to have two bolts holding them in, and putting the bottom bolt in the top slot extended them an inch or so which was just enough to make it fit. In the picture, the flash shows the gap much more prominently than it normally looks. It actually adds sort of an art deco bit of styling. :-)

And we actually have several slot machines - my dad was a little crazy when we were growing up and every year for xmas the family would get another one. That one in my office is my favorite. Its a dime machine, and was built when there was some question of the legality of 'games of chance' where it was made. So it has a row of buttons on the top to let you stop the reels, making it a 'game of skill'... Bring your dimes!

Kris - How was the background sound with the unit that close to your seating position? Did the fan bother you?

The noise from the projector is not bad. In a G90 there is a smalle 85mm fan up in the front that pulls air through the power supply - that is the one that makes the most noise. In the back there are four larger 120mm fans that do produce sound, but its a lower frequency. There are some fan mods that I experimented with, but in the end I stuck with the stock fans.

I have a little digital projector on a shelf above where I sit, and that makes louder higher pitch noise that I personally find much more distracting.

Another option that I haven't seen mentioned is mounting the pj behind the couch. One member here mounted his vertically behind the couch and shot the image off of a mirror. It is quite an elegant solution.

You're idea of a coffee table works fine. Think of putting in a roller system under the pj. then you can easily move it if you have to adjust your distance etc.
And you can make a nice soundproof enclosure to.

Ground set up has advantages over a ceiling mount.





I am trying to find a way to use my G70 in my new setup. The room only has about 7 feet of headroom, so I really don't want to mount it on the ceiling. Does anyone have any advice and photos of/about floor mounting a CRT? I am thinking of building an enclosure that looks and functions as a coffee table between my theater chairs. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

I have had a 1270, G70 and now a 1292 in a table I built, would not go to a ceiling mount. I can't tell you how many times I have had to get inside and if it was up top , ouch!!! I built it for the 1270 and it had a front that covered the whole PJ. I had to switch to a longer PJ and now it sticks out more than the original design. So leave lots of room. Top lifts off, good feature IMOP
Here are some pics

Think of putting in a roller system under the pj. then you can easily move it if you have to adjust your distance etc.


I use an inexpensive dolly with casters from Home Depot. I think it cost me about $30 bucks. It's about 4 inches off the floor. Just sat the projector on it and moved it around into position. Piece of cake. Saved hours of time when I moved into my current place, since I was able to use all my old settings from my previous floor installation. All I really had to do was level it and move it around for a couple of minutes.

Here is a pic of the table I made for floor mounting my PJ. The top is removable to allow for adjustments. I had to elevate some since I had some cabinets under my screen.
Dan

Drice -
That's more along the lines of what I was planning on. You don't have any issues with it getting knocked out of alignment? I guess it's at least 200 lbs which won't move too easily.

If you are putting it over a carpeted floor, you can always install the larger speaker spikes on the feet and that will securely plant it. It is one of those rare times that speaker spikes actually perform a useful function. I used them under the legs of my foosball table on carpet and it worked great - no movement at all.

I have not had an issue with it moving around and that is with a 5 year old playing Wii near it all of the time. I am working on getting a 1209 working right now which will facilitate the need to build another table. The 1209 is quite a bit larger so I am going to try to lower the table to make up for it going wider. Because my screen is 2 1/2' off of the ground I am going to try to angle the projector up and the top of the screen down a little to keep them aligned.
Dan

your table setups look great. I use a rear projection g90 and I must say it makes you feel better to not have 185 lbs over your head. The g90 table should be able to have the sides covered but watch the ends (thats where the fans are). PICREE on the forum just set up an 808 with the wii on the floor great pictue and kids love the games

take a look

Hear is A couple of shots of my un finished home theater to help give you some ideas on floor mounting A projector....

Is there anybody in Australia who *hasn't* got a G90? :)

Is there anybody in Australia who *hasn't* got a G90? :)
Me? :o;)

Me? :o;)

Oh, yeah, sure... you have my sympathy; you must be suffering! :rolleyes:

Another great advantage with mounting a bit above the floor is that the PJ is now closer to eye level and allows the use a retro-reflective screen like Da-Lite's HighPower screen (if you are so inclined). With that screen, you get great pop and can back off the contrast/brightness to save on the wear and tear. If my memory serves me, we metered near 25+ FL at 56 contrast with my G70- which shocked everyone but all agreed it throws a VERY nice image.

Here's my friend's 1252 I bought and refurbished for him. This was a super low-budget HT. He spent approximately $5000 on everything, including equipment, carpet, furnitre and all room finish materials. That was from completely unfinished masonry basement walls to finished multi-use HT, kids' play room, etc.

He built a nice little table for the projector to sit in between two couches, with a removable lid for equipment to sit on. It's much, much quieter than my 1271 was hanging on the ceiling.

On G70's, a LOT of the noise comes from the rear where the three big 120mm fans are. Some sort of coffee table mount would help with noise immensely, as long as it was properly ventilated.

1252 in custom oak table:
http://www.ecrabb.com/crtforum/russ/russ1.jpg

85.33 x 48 painted drywall screen:
http://www.ecrabb.com/crtforum/russ/russ2.jpg

Screen and lighted poster:
http://www.ecrabb.com/crtforum/russ/russ3.jpg

SC

That looks fantastic... I wish I had a big budget like that to work with. ;)

Thanks! I was the lead consultant on the project. ;)

OK, on talking to my bud about his room, I was wrong about the amount. The $2500 amount was one amount he threw out for two things: Carpet and furniture ($2500), and the room finish and equipment ($2500). So, the total was $5000 - which I still think is awesome.

SC

Mine's probably going to come in under $1k. Nothing like salvation army couches, $35 craigslist rugs...

I'm hoping that if I count the money I can make back from selling the plasmas I bought on craigslist and fixed (one's going in the HT) that I can get back down close to $0! :D