Hello Everyone,

My names David and I was directed to this board from my local Audio Visual Board here in Aussie :-)

I've got a rare kind of projector for Australia and was todl that maybe someone here would have the experience to help me out.

Whats it going to be used for ?
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I've had this projector going on 7 years now, i bought it with 500 hours use, its had 700 all up now.

Its been a waste so far because although its got potential my innitial setup with it was lacking.

Here are 2 pictures of the room now, it has great potential as it is 9.4 x 4.4 x 2.4 meters in size.

http://users.bigpond.net.au/davidols/room2.jpg
http://users.bigpond.net.au/davidols/room1.jpg


What i need help with
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I want a 19:6 screen, however i'm unsure about the calculations i have made

http://users.bigpond.net.au/davidols/hometheater.JPG

The yellow is the screen, its 400 x 225 cm (458.9cm accross) its on a 4.4x2.4m wall.

The Blue is the projector, its 526.5792 cm away

The red is where the optimal viewing area is, at 6-8m, i've elivated the rear 1.5m of it, as i think maybe i could put in a platform.

I'm thinking maybe putting some kind of tabble over where the projector woudl be as it would be between the front two chairs.

Here is an AutoCAD 2006 drawing that i did on the Uni computers (sorry that its kinda bad, but i havent dont graphics since year 9 :-P and only 2 weeks of 2 years was on a computer.

http://users.bigpond.net.au/davidols/HomeTheater.dwg

Here is the manual for the projector (9megs) http://www.projectorspecifications.com/documentation/sony/manuals/sony_1272_im.zip

Page 31 deals with screens where the width is greater,

It says Screensize = width (mm) x 5/4 / 25.4

So since the width of this screen is 4000 mm i ended up with 196 inches (say 200).

Now on page 8 it has the required distances from the wall etc.

so for 200 inches it says 5.334M from lens to screen (5.265792 M for 196inch)

Then it says that the distance from the base of the projector to the middle of screen should be 1.653M, however on a 16:9 ratio screen like i'm planning this ends up not matching the middle of the screen.

I just wanted to know if this is right ?

Optimal viewing distance 6-8 meters so just behind the projector.

Regarding a screen, would something home made like http://www.projectorspecifications.com/diy_screen.php work ?

I have been told screen goo, but that wall has a window so i would need to make a new wall.

Thanks for all your help.

- David

Hello David

That’s a nice room for a home theater, but I see a few problems with your setup. I am by no means a pro at this stuff, but a few things I'll point out to get you started. First your screen size, if I am doing my conversions right is way to big for that projector. From my conversions that is almost a 180 inch diagonal screen, which is about twice the size that projector should do. Most people that I have talked to say that around 100 inches is best. I know the manual says you can do something like 250-300 inches, but in reality while the picture will go that big you will lose tons of detail and brightness. Realistically the bigger you go the worse the picture looks and the projector you have is considered entry level and even the best crt projectors are not used for screens that big.


Next for your dimensions, the manual uses formulas that are very conservative and if you use those measurements you will not be getting full use of your raster, which will give you less brightness and burn up your tubes faster. The best way I know of to set your distances, is to use the source you will be projecting with, put in some 16x9 material, max out the raster and project on the wall. Then move the projector back on the floor until it fills your screen size. If you don’t know how to set up your raster take a look at this link and go through each of the pages http://www.curtpalme.com/TubeRasterSetup.shtm This site has tons of information about crt projectors and you should really take some time and check it out. For starters you should read the CRT Primer which is found at http://www.curtpalme.com/CRTPrimer.shtm,but there is tons of other info there that really helped me out when I got started


Putting a coffee table over your projector will be fine, I did that with my first setup too, though you may have to have your projector up off the floor some to center your screen on the wall. As for screen material the link you provided is for black out material, which is a decent material that many people have used. There are several other options that are also available which may work better and are also not very expensive, though I am not sure of what all is available is Australia. You should check out the DIY screen section on this site, found here http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=110 or on the main index. I am rather impressed with the Designer White laminate option myself because of the added gain over the blackout cloth, larger sizes available and its durability, here’s a thread about it here http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=708240
Good luck with your project, that projector can throw a pretty good image once you get it set up right and this is definitely the best place to find knowledgeable people for advice on it. If you have anymore questions feel free to ask, and also in the future it can help to let people know what sources you plan on feeding it, such as what DVD player, scaler, high def receiver ect.. :)

Hello,

I have another question.


When i project onto a widescreen where should i have the edges of the picture ?

Like below in my diagram, the one on the left is sending a 4:3 picture on the widescreen and there is some light under and over the screen.

I think in this mode i would only be getting maybe 600 lines on the screen.

On the picture on the right, have projection only onto the screen.
Anyone know how to do this with this projector ?

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/6922/screenwz3.th.jpg (http://img183.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenwz3.jpg)

Also would you go with 16:9 or go for something closer to the movie formats ?

Thanks

- David

Whether you project a 16:9 or 4:3 picture the width of the picture displayed on the tubes will be the same only the vertical size will change, yes you will lose some resolution from the vertical size in 16:9 but that is the way it is, there is no getting around it.

I would stick with the screen that is shown in the first photo you posted.

Have you considered mounting the screen to the ceiling so it hangs down and is closer to the seats so you can see the picture better?
You could then mount the projector behind the seats so it is projecting from just above the height of the seats.
Or you could ceiling mount it, there are adjustments to flip the picture upside down as the projector would be mounted upside down.

I assume you have the setup remote control.

Where in Australia are you, if Adelaide maybe I can help in person, I am no expert but have been learning a lot from this and other forums?

You're probably also going to want to paint the ceiling and get a dark, cheap rug for the floor. Your current room will reflect light back onto the screen and make the blacks look dark grey.

Whether you project a 16:9 or 4:3 picture the width of the picture displayed on the tubes will be the same only the vertical size will change, yes you will lose some resolution from the vertical size in 16:9 but that is the way it is, there is no getting around it.

I would stick with the screen that is shown in the first photo you posted.

I assume you have the setup remote control.

Where in Australia are you, if Adelaide maybe I can help in person, I am no expert but have been learning a lot from this and other forums?

Thanks for the offer, but i'm in Brisbane unfortunately.

I tested it out today with my PC with some different aspects and settings.

I can change the size of the screen to include all 1200 lines onto the widescreen area. However i'm having a problem finding out how to extend the picture so that it is stretched (so that when i change the size to fit only on the screen it will end up looking normal).

I think this is what a line doubler is used for right ? to stretch the signal so that it takes advantage of all the lines, and then is squashed back down by the RGB size setting on the projector.



I haven't really thought about moving the existing screen, but wouldn't i also have to move the projector back too, so the seats wont be much closer.

Super Amart also have some nice theater seats for 1799, and i think if i pay cash i can get a few hundred off.

So i'll be most likely changing to them when i sort things out, and maybe a hushbox coffee table.


Light isn't much of problem in the room, i need to reapply silicone on the window edges some has split over the las few years.

thanks for your help, much appreciated

You're making this more complicated than it needs to be. You have the pj and you have a computer. Set up the computer for a 16:9 desktop at a suitable resolution for that projector (1080i, 720x480, but not too high like 1080p or 720p) then adjust the image width and center it on the tube faces so that it's maximized while still leaving a tiny bit (5mm to 10mm maybe) before the image goes off either side of the visible tube face.

That's it... Now that you have it set up optimally physically move the pj until you get a reasonable screen width on the wall. (no more than 100" diagonally (you do the conversion).

What I'm trying to say is forget the manyual it's not optimal anyway, forget the math you could make a mistake, just keep it simple and use what you already have. Once it looks good to you then you can make or buy a suitable sized screen.

To try to do it with the manual and a bunch of calculations will just be both confusing and less than optimal. (I know, this is contrary to what you would normally hear when folks always say RTFM but in this case the manuals are just wrong.)

Lastly you should seriously consider ceiling mounting that after you have determined the proper distance and screen size. There is nothing better than ceiling mounting it so that the pj is out of the way and doesn't take the best seat in the house. (which is always right where the pj is.)

Troy

In my experience it should be 1.3x width from a screen no bigger than 2.0m wide.

So 2.6m to the green lens. Troy is right, the manual is bollocks.

It just can't drive a screen bigger than that, it's not bright enough.


And yep a DIY screen will be fine - paint it with $20 worth of Artists Gesso and save your money.