Hi well in my home currently I have a theater room with an Mitsubishi HC4000 at 150", which I love, but the other day I went and saw Beowulf in Imax and was amazed at the screen size and quality. After speaking with my father he was interested in making a replica IMAX for our home being built in Tampa, so here are the quetions.

The Imax I went to was 6 times the size of a regular large movie theater screen. Working with a budget of $2 Million for the hardware in the theater, is there a projector that can do anything remotely that size for that price. Also the room or I should say auditorum has not been built yet and how much distance would I need from the projector to the immense screen. So is there a projector that can display that large of an image to make a home IMAX theater? I would greatly appreciate all input and I will post plenty of pictures when its finished.

The answer is yes.

All you need to do is figure out what your viewing angle would be then build the stadium seating. All the projectors will do it...it just a matter of quality.

Once you get over the non practical idea of trying to do this at home you will probably settle on a more practical Home Theater design that essentially does the same thing but with more elegance and comfort.

IMAX film frames are about 70 megapixels. You might have to suffer quite a loss in resolution using today's PJs....

Sounds like a cool project! The Christie projectors would be a starting point. Will you have industrial power available?

One problem that I think you will find is getting media that looks good at that size.

The real resolution from IMAX would also depend on the original capture. I doubt you can get access to IMAX 15 perf prints.
My suggestion is to go for a state of the art 3D digital cinema setup and it will be cheaper than your budget.

What about very high end 1080p projector that would be playing blu-rays? Will this look good even with such a large image? But just a question, how many lumans, contrast, and resolution would a standard movie theater have? I would assume its between 5000 to 8000 lumens? Still I plan to have this be a VERY large room so I would like the biggest image possible with the best resolution with enough lumans. To answer the other question the room with have plenty of power due to my sound project, which is a totally different subject. Please let me know and I plan to have the seating so that the image would still take up the majority of your view.

Anybody looking to go really huge at home would probably do well to try to learn from W.Mayer's experiences. I know he had a screen close to 20' wide at one point and I think he is about there now. He has a thread here about his latest stuff:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13775249#post13775249

Given where we are and where things seem to be going, it seems to me that 3D should be considered for big projects like this, much like W.Mayer is into.

--Darin

Yep Wolfgang is the guy to ask. Over 20' wide with 40fL ! Here he is with a 3D example.

http://gallery.avsforum.com/data/509/IMG_2530.JPG

Art

Yes but I still need larger, Im going for an immense screen that is used for mainly movie watching and a few games here and there, and I need it big, REAL big, I was hoping for the 50 foot range.

what about something like this?

http://www.christiedigital.com/AMEN/Products/christieCP2000XB.htm

Well yes it can still be done using the projector used in that picture . With 18,000 lumens.

Using a 50' wide 1.78:1 AR screen ,at 1.0 gain, you get 12.9 fL perfect really.


Art

with that projector[christiedigital]
the gismo's spinning in your electric meter might need a husebox.:D
That is a beast of a projector!

wow, why aren't we in teh 20K forum?

wow, why aren't we in teh 20K forum?

Elmo,

What happened to your thread with your HT in the new house you just got built? It was with some fancy SIM2 wasn't it? I wanted to see those pics!

Lets get past the 35mm with our dpj then worry about IMax.:)

lol I've been utilizign the theater and painting it. I have no real camera right now (only iphone) and that really sucks.

I can tell you 1080p content on it is amazing. I host movies every Friday. It's throwing 140" 1.78 on a wall.

alright but what about 40 to 60 feet, what kind of projector would do that kind of job.

Art so what ure saying is the projector I posted would do the job for about 50ft diagonal or more?

alright but what about 40 to 60 feet, what kind of projector would do that kind of job.

Look at that Christie link above. 30,000 lumens.

http://www.christiedigital.com/Christie/Tools/AMEN/DigitalCinemaConfigurator.aspx

This is a calculator to help you figure out what they can offer for you.
Don't forget to figure in lamp cost too. I think these suckers cost a lot per hour to run.

Art so what ure saying is the projector I posted would do the job for about 50ft diagonal or more?

Why not ?

Actually, there is a forum for this topic. How many fL of reflected light do you need ?

Art

Should a project like this really be in the hands of a professional commercial theater design and construction team?:confused:

Should a project like this really be in the hands of a professional commercial theater design and construction team?:confused:
Shouldn't it ? IMO ,yes. This is a project that is in the 250K plus range so yes I believe this is the wrong place to ask for input.

Art

250K range, I actually thought it would be a lot more, no but I would like to get a basis for what I should be asking and im meeting with two different theater creaters to see which would be best suited for my needs. Ill keep everyone updated but this project will take over a year sadly. But as long as a blu-ray movie still has decent quality projected at that size them Im going to get started. I really appreciate all your guys input, you people know your stuff when it comes to home theaters. thanks and please post anymore suggestions.

Blu Ray probably has good image quality depending on how far back from the image you are. I'm not sure if it would be that great sitting as close as you would at an IMAX, but I could be wrong.

Now the video game side.... I imagine at that size, Halo 3 would make me puke in less than 30 seconds. :)

FieldGog1: P.M. Art and ask him for some directions to the right people. He is in the higher end stuff to begin with and knows some top people.:)