I am building out a home theater and want to recess both the screen and the projector. There is seemingly tons of great info on ceiling recessed screens, but have found precious little guidance in searching this forum on projector lifts.

I have looked at lifts from both Chief (SL-150) and Draper (Aerolift 25). Does anyone have experience doing this? The Mrs. wants a switch on the wall and no "husband-created in his evil laboratory" solutions.

Anyone?

S.

Most lifts I have seen were for big, heavy, and bulky type pj's.....nothing for the small HT type room.

Most floor/ceiling joist have only about 14 1/2" of room to work with.....the depth of 11 1/2 on a floor joist is du able but the front to back width of most pj's will make it close on most setups and then theirs the problem of getting to the focus and zoom lens with the pj lying upside down on the drop down door. Making all this work motorized....manual or drop down safely in that small space would be a challenge for sure. :)

Perhaps you haven't seen LCD-type lifts, then.

FYI, they are typically designed so that the projector hangs above the bottom plate, it wouldn't be lying on it's top at all. So it's much like a ceiling mount when it's in the down position, just that it recesses into a closed space when it's in the up position.

The Chief I mentioned will fit within the clearance tolerance of 12", but requires about 2 feet in width. If need be, the contractor doing the job can work around these requirements, so this is not an issue, at least not in my case.

Also, the Aerolift 25 I mentioned is specifically designed to fit between 16" on center joists that are 12" deep.

Has anyone had experience with one of these two mounts or one similar?

In my experience, consumers are turned off more by the cost ($1500+) for a projector lift than anything else ...

If you are in this forum, I am assuming you are shopping for a AX100/Z5 type category. In my opinion, you'd be doing yourself a GRAVE disservice by spending that budget on a lift when it could be going into a 1080p projector upgrade.

My 2 cents.

Sure, I can appreciate this. (and secretly agree with you) However, in the screwy economics of marriage, sometimes one must spend large sums of money hiding technology in order to get sign-off on the whole idea.

Maybe I'll throw out a line in the 3K+ forum too. Anyone here have tried these lifts?

How is this a Home Theatre if you have to hide the Home Theatre equipment? I'd say let's put both up like 99.98% of the rest of the world and if after one month you don't like it, we will consider looking at options. If you can get that month, you won't need a lift.

I appreciate your guys' thoughts, but what I am really looking for is people that can help me with my question. So far, all I seem to be getting is people telling me that I should reconsider or that I'm wasting my money somehow.

The measure of a home theater isn't seeing the equipment. It's the movie experience. I can't see the projector at a theater where all I do is watch movies, so why should I want to see it in my home, where my kid plays and where I relax and read and entertain guests. This isn't a dedicated theater, it's a living room. I don't disagree with my wife, so if we could keep the topic at hand to--well--the topic at hand, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

S.

You might get better response from the Room Construction section.

I have the draper micro projector lift which is ideal for projector's weighing 25 lbs or less. I bought it to use with the RS-1 that I should have in a couple of weeks. I have a custom cherry wood hush box that houses my current projector that I'll modify to accept the lift. I plan on using the adjustable height control of the mpl to control the gain of a dalite hipower screen.

Rick