I am putting in my first home theater on a very limited budget. I started with a bare room in the basement and now I have a framed in 17 foot by 22 foot area with no windows. I am running the wiring now. How do I know where to mount the projector on the ceiling to get the correct size picture? Where do I put the outlet on the ceiling in other words (the electrical outlet, HDMI outlet, and the componant video cable outlet)? I am looking at getting the optpma HD65 projector for $688. It fits in my budget.

Can I get it to project on anysize screen? I mean can I make the screen 144inches diagonal?

I know nothing about projectors and I am doing all of my research on line, but now I need to know where to place everything.

Thanks all

Greg

Use a projection calculator:
http://www.projectorcentral.com/Optoma-HD65-projection-calculator-pro.htm

The calculator helps you determine how high from the floor and far from the screen you should mount the pj.

Horizontally the pj lense should be at the center of the screen. Place the outlet 12" to 18" behind the pj.

OK - this is a loaded question and I have a little knowledge only, but...
I was going to put the projector almost at the ceiling for head room. Can I do this or will the picture be distorted?

It depends on your ceiling height and how high the screen is to be mounted. If you want to shoot a rectangular picture without tilting the projector, the middle of the pj lense needs to be around 17" above the top of the screen. See if that will work.

If you have to tilt the pj you need to use the keystone feature to square up the picture. (You will lose use of some pixels when using keystone.) Alternately choose a projector with lense shift feature to make placement more flexible.

Thank you.

That is awesome advice - and I got it figured out now. One less problem. I do not think I need to worry about lens shift - the projector will be straight on and about the right height.

Thanks for this thread. Planing my placements for projector now. Thanks for link