Long story short I have a 50" plasma in my living room now and an old 32" tube tv in my bedroom. I was thinking of getting another 42" or so plasma/lcd for bedroom. But the more I look at the projectors, I think I might just move my existing 50" plasma into bedroom. And put a new projector in the living room. I just have a couple of questions I hope you can help me with.

My living room is 12' wide and 16' deep with a ceiling fan directly in the middle that drops 10.5" from ceiling total. I was hoping to make screen around 72"-84". With bottom of screen around 28" from floor.

Is this possible to do with a ceiling mount or would I need to mount on back wall?

Will the picture quality be as good as my plasma for hd content and xbox 360 games?

If it is mounted above where I sit will I hear a constant fan noise?

Can you control the ambient light in the living room?
PJs really need good light control for a good image.

You can put the PJ on a shelf on the back wall and shoot right under the ceiling fan.

Only an 84 inch screen?

What the image might lack in pure blacks or PQ will be completely offset be the scope of the image size and the effect that has on the viewer.

Fan noise on the newset PJs is almost invisible and most PJs are not noticeable while wrapped up in your experience. Not to mention hidden by a good sound system.

The screen is small so the distance will be short in all likelyhood.
It will probably need to be in front of the cieling fan.


There will probably be some trade offs to your plasma, but overall I think it's better in general. You have to keep screen size in your thinking here as well.


The loudness of the fan is unique to each projector. There are a lot of projectors that I am very doubtfull you would hear even in the softest of passages.

Personally, I would hate to have a projector in my living room. The ambient lighting I'd prefer to have would make projecting the image difficult, and then there's the problem of where to put the screen. Plus, I don't like the idea of having a projector hanging down from the ceiling in my living room.

Hence, at my place I have a 42" LCD in my living room, and a projector in a separate room.

Mind you, I may be a little more anal about the aesthetics of my living room. I'm going to be putting my 42" LCD in a hutch, so I don't have to see it when I'm not watching it. :)

I had FP in my living room for a couple of years. Worked well, but I did tire of it eventually. Got the theater up and running now. Got an LCOS RP for the living room, I seem much happier. But then again, I have a dedicated theater now which is enough all on it's own to be happy about. :)

The ambient light is very little we keep the blinds closed all the time in most rooms to save on air conditioning cost here in the desert. It's not pitch black by any means but not bright.

Thats good to know about the fan noise. It would drive me nuts to hear it humming all the time.

Mounting options: From the edge of the ceiling fan blade to the wall I have about 70" is that to close to mount there? I don't mind it being on shelf on back wall behind couch either if it is quite. I just am looking for best location for optimal picture quality. Either way I need to go in attic to run cables.

Is it better to have it mounted closer to avoid interference with picture from people, dogs walking by and ceiling fan movement?

84" is as big as I think I should go with the layout of the room. Any bigger and it would be difficult to see all the screen from my couch on the side of the room.

84" is a good size. The throw distance (distance of projector to screen) is dependent on which projector you purchase.

This link should help you a lot here. Not the offset that some projector have, this has to be accounted for. As far as dogs (man that would have to be one big dog) and people walking in front of it? This is no different for me than direct view as they are still walking in front of the content. But FP is fun becuase you can make shadow animals. :)

http://www.projectorcentral.com/projection-calculator-pro.cfm

The ambient light is very little we keep the blinds closed all the time in most rooms to save on air conditioning cost here in the desert. It's not pitch black by any means but not bright.
It's hard to know what this means. Yes, some projectors matched with some screens can tolerate a fair amount of ambient light, but it could be annoying for you or your family if you're used to what you get out of your plasma in the same lighting.

Also, 70" is a VERY short throw. For most projectors, there's no way you could get an 84" screen out of that. Also remember that throw is usually measured from the lens not the middle of the projector. Thus, 70" might actually be 64".

I was looking at the Panasonic PT-AX200U and according to the projector calculator I wouldn't be able to get an 84" size sitting on a shelf in the back of a 16" room. It was showing it in the 70ish" range. Does this seem right to you guys

Also If I put it on shelf on back wall so it sits under the ceiling fan can I adjust the picture up and down so I can get picture at my desired height off floor or does this all depend on height of shelf it is sitting on?

Yes... I like to mount the Panasonics at shortest throw / max zoom. I do think the panasonic would have be best in front of your cieling fan. This is called lens shift, most all projectors that have it will most likely allow you to put the screen right where you want it.

From a shelf on the back wall your throw would be about 15 feet, maybe 14.5 feet. As an example, the Panasonic PT-AX200u will throw an image 74 to 148 inches in size at 15 feet, depending on how you set the zoom. 84 inches would be no problem. My setup is in a multipurpose room that has two floor to ceiling windows that I pull shades in if I project during the day. This is my lowly HD70 in that situation projecting onto a 92 inch screen. The room looks darker than it really is because the camera reduced the overall image brightness to catch the screen at the right brightness.
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q139/johnsbin/HD70/NFLHD-EF06-Ambient.jpg

Yes... I like to mount the Panaonics at shortest throw / max zoom. I do think the panasonic would have to be in front of your cieling fan. This is called lens shift, most all projectors that have it will most likely allow you to put the screen right where you want it.
Most ceiling fans are in the middle of the room. if you put the PJ in front of the fan, you have no throw. he will have to go shelf mount in the back.

I should work those numbers before I post for sure. :)
I always mount at shortest throw possible these days.

8'3" is the shortest for the 84" screen. 99" I really had never run the calc for that projector.

I have that projector. At a throw of 106" (8'10"), the max screen size I can get is 89".

With a throw distance of 70", you can get a screen size between 30" and 60".
With a throw distance of 16', you can get a screen size between 79" and 158".

Ie. 84" would work from a distance of 16', but not at a distance of 70". However, other issues might make mounting at the back of the room a bit difficult, depending on your setup.

I should work those numbers before I post for sure. :)
I always mount at shortest throw possible these days.
It's too bad this Toshiba ET20 doesn't come in a 720p model. 100" from 4 1/2 feet is pretty nice if you need short throw!

http://www.gottatoshiba.com/assets/Image/technology_explained/et10_20/ET20_large.jpg

Thanks for the fast help guys. That makes way more sense on the distance to me.

BuGsArEtAsTy: What do yo mean by - However, other issues might make mounting at the back of the room a bit difficult, depending on your setup.

My garage is right behind the back wall so running wires to anywhere on wall is no problem. For my speaker wire I just ran through attic and then down inside of my garage wall in pvc conduit before going back through wall for speakers.Wiring should be easy I'm just curios if you were thinking of some other problem I'm not aware of.

Are people going to be walking in front of the projector if it's mounted at the back of the room?

Where are the seats?

A picture or diagram might help.

Picture with flash:

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/8163/livingroom003bo4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


Picture normal lighting no flash:

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/3861/livingroom001mr3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


Picture back wall:

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/6017/livingroom004tr2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Where's the ceiling fan? :D

The fan is right above where I am standing.

Do you think the room is dark enough? If it is not I can easily get some thicker blinds/screens/curtains if needed.

The fan is right above where I am standing.

Do you think the room is dark enough? If it is not I can easily get some thicker blinds/screens/curtains if needed.

Looks plenty dark to me! Put it up on a shelf behind you about 6 feet up.

Looks like you might need to move your other equipment though or get a low and wide shelf unit just to tidy up the front wall.