Finishing up a 15' x 20' with 8' ceiling room, that the wife is allowing to have projector in. Room has space for 106"-120" (16x9)screen and light will be controlled by heavy duty darkening curtains (think movie theater curtains x 2). I will mainly be using for movies and some sports. Seating will be 2 recliners in front with theater style couch as back row. Any help would be appreciated.

you might want to go to the 2.35 area of the forum there is a sticky there with pictures of home theaters. There is some really great rooms to get ideas from.

Spend some time here:

http://www.projectorreviews.com/

and here:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/home.cfm

and spend some time reading reviews. You'll start to get an idea of what you want or need for your room.

How much do you want to spend? What you are asking is equivalent for asking for recommendations for an SUV without giving a price range.

In addition to cost, how far from the screen will your seating rows be? Will you ever hold any events in the room that will require the lights to be on, such as sporting events?

Joel

I am looking to spend between $3000 and $5000 on a projector with $1000 to $1500 on fixed screen. The room is for watching movies and housing my arcade collection. As for the projector I really am trying to decide if it should be ceiling mounted or mounted on the rear wall. The rear wall is 19'6" and was thinking of placing first seats at 9-10' mark with second at aroun 13-14'. The outside wall is a 18' sliding glass door which will be totally black out by large theater curtains on opposite wall has a pass through. I have read alot of reviews on the web, but not quite sure how the mounting of the projector affects the image. Again thanks for any input.

You should post in the over $3K forum.

You will almost certainly need to go with a ceiling mount unit if you want to keep the screen size down to 120". A ceiling mount will also allow you to get more light out of the projector by zooming it out as much as possible. Depending on the unit that you pick you should probably plan to mount it about 12'-15' back.

That's a nice budget you have to work with, so you should be able to find something that works well. Look for a unit that has good contrast and has a quiet noise rating (since it will be right above your heads).

Not necessarily wanting to spend entire budget on the projector, that figure is just my top end, not my must spend. I thought to post in this forum as to learn if what I need is within or out of my range.

Based on the information you've provided I would say a huge range of projectors could meet your needs. Do you have any specific desires regarding quality?

I would suggest that you read some reviews at the sites that convexion mentioned. Get a feel for how "high-end" you think you want, then start narrowing down models that will fit your needs and desires.

If all you want is a decent projector that will be bright enough and have a crisp picture then I would just spend $1500-$2000 on it and spend the rest of the money elsewhere.

Joel