midgetspy
09-08-08, 04:41 PM
Hey all,
I just moved from an apartment into a house and now have a dedicated home theatre room, so I'm looking into getting a projector. I have 100% lighting control in the room (no windows) and the walls are painted a fairly dark brown while the ceiling is white. The room is very oblong (11' by 20+') with a low ceiling, though, which is pretty terrible for a projector setup. I currently have couches along one of the long walls viewing a 42" TV across the short way. At the center the viewing distance is about 10', and the seating extends about 8' in each direction (45° viewing angle at the extremes). Ceiling mounting the projector would be pretty inconvinient - the ceiling is low and there is absolutely no way to run cables in it. I think I'm restricted to having the projector/screen set up in the same place my TV is - which means 10' throw distance with the projector wall-mounted. My main issues are:
Screen size: Having only 10' throw it seems the biggest screen I'll be able to project is about 100". From my research this seems to be a decent screen size for a 10' viewing distance, but I don't want to go much smaller than that so I'm looking into projectors with decent zoom ratios that'll keep my screen about 100" at 10'.
Noise: The projector will be mounted on the same wall that the seating is on, directly above the viewer's head. This means I need a projector that's quiet enough not to be intrusive from 4' away.
I'm only interested in spending max $2k (including a screen) so I'm looking at low end projectors around $1000-$1300. Do any projectors have an option to allow them to project from a sideways/horizontal angle and straighten the picture out to be square? This would allow me to mount the projector off to the side a few feet instead of directly above my head.
For projectors around my price range I've been reading about the Panasonic PT-AX200U, BenQ W500, Optoma HD71, and Sony Bravia VPL-AW10. Of those, the Panasonic seems to be the best option so far (although I haven't found one in Canada yet, heh). The Sony will give me the biggest picture at 104" (compared to 90", 92", and 98" from the Optoma, BenQ, and Panasonic respectively) but I've read its PQ is fairly weak so that's really unfortunate. Then again, with a pitch black room and a proper 1.3 gain screen, maybe the Sony would be acceptable? I've also lookad at the Mistubishi HC1500 but it will only give me a max screen size of 76" which is far too small. Given my price range and constraints (screen size/noise) do you guys have any other suggestions for me?
Thanks,
Nic
I just moved from an apartment into a house and now have a dedicated home theatre room, so I'm looking into getting a projector. I have 100% lighting control in the room (no windows) and the walls are painted a fairly dark brown while the ceiling is white. The room is very oblong (11' by 20+') with a low ceiling, though, which is pretty terrible for a projector setup. I currently have couches along one of the long walls viewing a 42" TV across the short way. At the center the viewing distance is about 10', and the seating extends about 8' in each direction (45° viewing angle at the extremes). Ceiling mounting the projector would be pretty inconvinient - the ceiling is low and there is absolutely no way to run cables in it. I think I'm restricted to having the projector/screen set up in the same place my TV is - which means 10' throw distance with the projector wall-mounted. My main issues are:
Screen size: Having only 10' throw it seems the biggest screen I'll be able to project is about 100". From my research this seems to be a decent screen size for a 10' viewing distance, but I don't want to go much smaller than that so I'm looking into projectors with decent zoom ratios that'll keep my screen about 100" at 10'.
Noise: The projector will be mounted on the same wall that the seating is on, directly above the viewer's head. This means I need a projector that's quiet enough not to be intrusive from 4' away.
I'm only interested in spending max $2k (including a screen) so I'm looking at low end projectors around $1000-$1300. Do any projectors have an option to allow them to project from a sideways/horizontal angle and straighten the picture out to be square? This would allow me to mount the projector off to the side a few feet instead of directly above my head.
For projectors around my price range I've been reading about the Panasonic PT-AX200U, BenQ W500, Optoma HD71, and Sony Bravia VPL-AW10. Of those, the Panasonic seems to be the best option so far (although I haven't found one in Canada yet, heh). The Sony will give me the biggest picture at 104" (compared to 90", 92", and 98" from the Optoma, BenQ, and Panasonic respectively) but I've read its PQ is fairly weak so that's really unfortunate. Then again, with a pitch black room and a proper 1.3 gain screen, maybe the Sony would be acceptable? I've also lookad at the Mistubishi HC1500 but it will only give me a max screen size of 76" which is far too small. Given my price range and constraints (screen size/noise) do you guys have any other suggestions for me?
Thanks,
Nic