First, I want to watch football with friends during the day, Second high quality home theatre at night. I have a 55x25/30 basement room with a dedicated wall capable of a 110 inch wide screen. Ceilings are 7 ft, ready to be my new single man/woman cave. (actually it's going to be my man/woman house since I got it in the divorce). I can shut light out of the first 30 feet of the room (from the screen) with blinds, but would like to leave sliding glass doors at that 30 ft point open for access to grilling/outside. Back of the house faces East so it does get darker as the day goes on.
Would like to know about lumens and what projector that could illuminate the screen correctly during the day in my lighting.
Not into sports bar projectors that look great at night but struggle during the day. Yet I am a vidiophile who cares about picture quality and loves movies. Can I even do this in the $3k projector market or should I just buy a big TV? Or, should I spend more and be able to do both?

It's kind of hard to get both. High definition + high contrast. It's like saying you want a luxury sedan with the combination of a exotic sports car. Sure you can end up getting for example: Merc. S65 AMG, but it's still going to be a half ass of both worlds. A Large Flat screen may be a better choice.

But then again it really depends on your picki-ness and what you'd be able to settle with.

I have a close friend who had the exact same predicament such as yourself and ended up buying the BenQ SP831 because of it's higher lumens capability of 4000 ANSI, and it's wide screen aspect ratio of 15:9, which is close to 16:10, or close to 16:9 (full HD) as well. I frequently go to his place to watch the games or movies with some groups of friends as he has the biggest projection via his projector. I've never had any bad comment about the quality it projected. I thought that the image thrown, was really clear, and it was definately better than some flat screen tv's I've seen out in the market.

It definately is an awesome feeling to come back from work and watch a movie or the game on your 100+ inch screen. I envy my friend SO MUCH!

Anyway, I hope you found that useful! You can do a little research about the BenQ SP831, but I'd definately recommend it from the experience that I've had with it!

I find if you control the lighting in the room right you can watch a lower power projector just fine.

I think the best thing is the studio lights that project a more narrow beam of light around the seating area then darken more twards the screen.

Get a projector!
You might want to shrink the screen a little or pay a little more for a projector. Also the type of screen you choose will help with ambient light rejection. you need a good custom installer to help you with these decisions. Go to www.avscience.com and talk to them.

X2 for PJ! (Hey, you're in one of the PJ forums, whaddaya expect?)

Look at the ones that have decent lumens output, probably >1,500, although some of the X10 users might say 1K is adequate...

If the PJ has great contrast, you can bump up the brightness by getting a high power screen. Otherwise, you'll probably want a gray screen.

What rez and throw distance are you looking at? DLP or LCD?

As long as you can keep direct sunlight off the screen, you should be fine. You can use different screen materials to help with ambient light as well. Here's a couple of pics from my HD70 which is rated at 1,000 lumens maximum.

This is a painted screen:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q139/johnsbin/HD70/NFLHD-EF06-Ambient.jpg


This is a high gain retractable screen:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q139/johnsbin/HD70/ambientLight.jpg

Thanks for the inputs guys. The pics from reconlabtech and all of you are helping me to refine this. I can black out the first 30 feet of the room. The room was designed with the for a ceiling mounted pj @ about 15 feet from the wall. With the side of the basement not finished I have the ability to push wiring/pj mount out to about 25 feet from the screen. So, I guess a short throw pj is needed one way or another. That said, the pj and screen can be in a dark environment. Its the ambient back of the room lighting that perturbs me. The bar is at the lit end of the room and even then its not even that lit cause there is a deck over the basement sliding glass doors.

As for the sug Benq lumen cannon, HDMI input is a requirement for whole house switching.

I would post pics of my delema but the place is stacked with ex wife boxes moving at the end of the month. So I gusss then I'll post pics. ..

Thanks all
Flyboy

As long as you can keep direct sunlight off the screen, you should be fine. You can use different screen materials to help with ambient light as well. Here's a couple of pics from my HD70 which is rated at 1,000 lumens maximum.

This is a painted screen:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q139/johnsbin/HD70/NFLHD-EF06-Ambient.jpg


This is a high gain retractable screen:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q139/johnsbin/HD70/ambientLight.jpg

That looks stellar even with some side ambient light. Are you happy with your black levels? day/night?

That looks stellar even with some side ambient light. Are you happy with your black levels? day/night?

Well lit sports look great day or night. I need some darkness in order to get excellent black levels for darker movies and shows so those wait until evening/night to watch.

Wow... those are some really nice results!

That looks spectacular. I guess home theater projector will work then!