Looking for a good value on a 1080p projector at about 200" dont want to spend more than $1500 is this possible? What are your thoughts?

No it is not possible.

The only way that is going to happen is if you buy a used high end 8" (Very well calibrated) or 9" (preferrable) CRT projector and built a giant high gain torus screen.

You would also need quite a bit of distance for a 200" screen. Hope you got the space.

720p yes, 1080p no.

Looking for a good value on a 1080p projector at about 200" dont want to spend more than $1500 is this possible? What are your thoughts?

Not yet.
Why 1080p? Why 200 inches?

Hey thanks for your responses.

Why 1080p I have a 1080p source and want to watch my movies / games in nativie format.

Why 200" bigger is always better. But I dont want to give up to much picture quality.

Actually I dont know if 200" will fit my room. The dimentions are 20'L by 18'W 8 foot celing. Is it even possible?

A 200 inch screen would be 8ft. 2in. tall, so it would not fit.

Hey thanks for your responses.

Why 1080p I have a 1080p source and want to watch my movies / games in nativie format.

Why 200" bigger is always better. But I dont want to give up to much picture quality.

Actually I dont know if 200" will fit my room. The dimentions are 20'L by 18'W 8 foot celing. Is it even possible?

200" with a 16:9 source with will be 14.5' wide & 8'2" tall. 2.35:1 sources will be the same length, but will be much shorter and displayed in the middle of the vertical image area. You can always use lens shift to make it how you like.

I would go 200" if I could. I don't have the distance, sadly. :mad:

Yeah I guess I'll have to go with 168" screen. Question for you guys. When looking for largest possible picutre what's the most important factor when selecting a projector? Would it be the lumes (Brightness) or some other factor. And what should I consider as a minimum requirment. I'm looking for size but not sure how to select a projector based on this criteria. I don't want to give up to much picture quality.
200" with a 16:9 source with will be 14.5' wide & 8'2" tall. 2.35:1 sources will be the same length, but will be much shorter and displayed in the middle of the vertical image area. You can always use lens shift to make it how you like.

I would go 200" if I could. I don't have the distance, sadly. :mad:

If want the largest possible picture brightness should be a primary factory as well as type of screen. Everybody wants the biggest screen they can get but consider some of the tradeoffs. Here is some factors I listed in another thread.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11728788#post11728788

Bob

20'? What are your seating distances going to be?

This seems unrealistic to me. Seriously, I think you are going to be much much better off sitting at around 120" 16:9 screen here.

You don't want the screen on the floor either.

Hey thanks for your responses.

Why 1080p I have a 1080p source and want to watch my movies / games in nativie format.

Why 200" bigger is always better. But I dont want to give up to much picture quality.

Actually I dont know if 200" will fit my room. The dimentions are 20'L by 18'W 8 foot celing. Is it even possible?

For your room size, 120" MAX!!! Don't know your sitting conditions but 14 feet is good.

For your room size, 120" MAX!!! Don't know your sitting conditions but 14 feet is good.

X10 here. I am wondering if the OP has ever seen a 10' 16:9 screen?

These are big enough to scare you even if your around this stuff all the time. :)

I have a 165" 16x9 screen that we sit about 13' from and love it. We've had lots of friends and neighbours come over for movies over the years, and no one has said they thought the screen was too big. This is in our basement batcave theatre. Strangely enough, we have a 92" screen in the livingroom that we use for HDTV / Sports. We sit the same 13' feet away, and some visitors ( including those who have watched movies in our basement theatre ) have commented that they thought the livingroom 92" was 'too big'. I think it's all context here. When you're in a dedicated theatre, it seems normal, when it's in a different surrounding, the size becomes apparent.

If you go with the AX200, you can go with a constant height setup and 2:35 screen if you don't want IMAX sized 1:77/1:85. The other advantage of the AX200 is smoothscreen, so you won't see any SDE on a huge screen.

Best advice is try out different picture sizes on a white wall, and see what suits your tastes.

Jonathan

Yeah I guess I'll have to go with 168" screen. Question for you guys. When looking for largest possible picutre what's the most important factor when selecting a projector? Would it be the lumes (Brightness) or some other factor. And what should I consider as a minimum requirment. I'm looking for size but not sure how to select a projector based on this criteria. I don't want to give up to much picture quality.

What you are looking to do is going to take far more money to be done right or its going to be a big terrible picture.

Dang... How tall is your cieling in your bat cave theater?

Well shoot. there you go. Go big..... I still suggest 120"....

What you are looking to do is going to take far more money to be done right or its going to be a big terrible picture.


Yes no 720p or current 1080p can do a pic that big.Even the ax200 with smooth screen would look like crap at that size.You would need a $15k or more to put out a 200in pic.I would shoot for 130in or 120.You will get a better pic that will not get old after a while.:)

Based on 8' ceiling, you need one foot on top and two on the bottom brings the totall hight available to about 60". That translate to a 106" wide screen. If you stretch everything 10' wide the largest screen yo can have in the room. That would be about 130" diagonal.
For that screen with total SQFT of 56x14 FT-L, you will need a pj that can output about 800 lumen after lamp settles down and d65 calibration which hard to come by in your price bracket unless you settle for hi gain screen with narrow cone meaning not every one in a row gets 14 ft-l.

Based on 8' ceiling, you need one foot on top and two on the bottom brings the totall hight available to about 60". That translate to a 106" wide screen. If you stretch everything 10' wide the largest screen yo can have in the room. That would be about 130" diagonal.
For that screen with total SQFT of 56x14 FT-L, you will need a pj that can output about 800 lumen after lamp settles down and d65 calibration which hard to come by in your price bracket unless you settle for hi gain screen with narrow cone meaning not every one in a row gets 14 ft-l.

Perfectly true so Sim2 HT3000e or HT380 both of which are over $10,000 retail not street. I would chose a quality image over a super big one so I might sound baised but 106" is the biggest I would go with a 720p or 1080p P.J. other than a Sim2. :eek:

My room is 14x22 and I run a 126" 16:9 screen. I agree with the others 120-130 Max. Not sure about your pj choice but you need to add a little more coin then go for the Panny 2000u or Epson HC 1080.

Well, I tend to disagree here. If you are willing to create a bat cave .. dark walls, ceiling, and floor, and use a medium gain screen surface like ScreenGoo CRT White, you can get a very watchable picture from one of the brighter ( calibrated ) budget 720's.

I watch a CRT projector on a screen that size and gain ( 165" 16x9, 1.6 gain ). I have tried my Epson 400, which we normally use in our livingroom setup for HDTV, down in the theatre, and I find the PQ and brightness in that enviornment quite acceptable.

It's amazing what creating the right enviornment can do when you're using a very large screen.

GSHTPC, I suggest you try it and judge for yourself. The one great benifit of FP is that you can choose and change your screen size.

Thanks for all the suggestions and observations. Wow I started out thinking I might be able to get away with a 200" picture now I'm down to 106" lol. I'm glad I asked. What do you guys think about painting the celing black? Carpet is dark. I was also thinking of putting dark drapes around the entire room. As you can tell I'm a real noob at this. Thanks again for all your thoughts and suggestions. The screen I have 80 inches left to right, 84 inches top to bottom, 118 inches diagonal. So I'll see how a 120" looks and possibly shrink down from there.

My concern now is the 2" clearance on the bottom. I was hoping on putting s mall stage underneath the screen. I have a lot of testing to do.

Let's not forget about speaker placement!

Slow down, take your time. Really envision your theater before you start throwing it together. 120" 16:9 screen is a very large screen. :)

For a room that size, a constant height setup would be very cool. But out of budget.

First, you have to get away from the idea that bigger is always better. That belief is going to skew your other decisions regarding scaling the dimensions of your room--and it is not at all true.

Bigger is only better to a certain point and then it is much, much worse. Once you get to the point where your eyes cannot view the majority of screen info without moving, you introduce eye strain. Don't discount this or you end up never wanting to watch long movies without an intermission. You will feel like watching movies wears you out or stresses you out and you cannot figure out why. Eye strain can be a serious issue, but you feel it in a subtle way.

Also, once you get over 120" your brightness and brightness uniformity becomes a real problem for many projectors--even in a bat cave HT.

My cousin has an HD70 throwing onto a homemade 170" screen in a totally dark room. Seating is at about 13-15 feet. It is very, very fatiguing to watch. I find myself getting up and walking around during the movie just to change perspective and to give my eyes a break.

Contrast: My in-laws have a $100,000+ full custom HT with 3 rows of Berkline seats, panneled walls, high-end Stewart Grayhawk screen, Anthem AV, Paradigm Signature, DVDO, ELAN, blah, blah, blah--all the nice stuff. Their screen is 106". No matter if you are in the front row or back, the screen is large enough for the movie theater experience but never fatiguing. And the colors just pop like my cousin's system can only hope to. Granted, they have a calibrated RS1, which blows away the HD70, but you never feel like the screen is too small--even for such an extravagant HT.

GsHTPC, my room dimensions are just about the same as yours. I am still in the "entry-level" phase - I haven't upgraded anything for about 4 years now. I've got a IF X1 paired with a Model B HCMW 106" 4:3 screen, and it's great at night time. (LOL, "...X1 paired with...", sounds like a fine red wine pairing with a specific cheese!). It could actually probably be a little bit smaller, but it's definitely do-able for your situation.

You can probably even get by with a 720p PJ as an entry-level device, then upgrade later on. There have been some posters here who have been saying that there's not too much of a difference between 720p and 1080p for the source material that they have tested - I guess it all depends on what gear you get (such as what will be doing the scaling, the de-interlacing (if needed), etc.).

If you go DLP, then get a high power screen. If you get a LCD PJ, get a high contrast matte white screen. You'll be fine, and I believe under budget too!

P.S. Welcome to the forums!

Since this is my first HT I've decided to really go cheap on the FP just to get a taste for it. I purchased a used Sharp XR-10X farily good projector for the money. I got it for $230 but needs a $300 bulb and it came with a heavy duty 80"L x 84"W rachet pull down screen and ceiling mount. Once I get the room setup and stop guessing I'll sell this stuff and upgrade the Projector and Screen. The screen is 118" Diagnol so to start I'm going to use this screen and perhaps frame it or put a border around it. The height of the wall in the room is preventing me from going any larger. The H is 94" If I take 36" from that 2' from bottom and 1' from the top it leaves me with 58" width on a screen size aproximately 118"

also for mounting and size calculations I prefer a one third below / two thirds above the site-line for screen placement. I think this also helps the wow effect by implicitly suggesting your viewers look up slighty which adds to the hugeness of it all. In my theater, with 3-tiered seating, that means I've got about a 2" clearance from the ceiling and more than three feet from the ground ( I used the middle row as my line of site for my 5ft high screen in a 10ft high room)- sacrifising potential hugeness for a very effective 123" screen.

get a cheapo 120" ws manual pulldown and leave it there - its cheap and gigantic...120" is WAYYY bigger than you think it is - also you dont want it too low - a 120" screen will be a foot from the ceiling down to your knees and almost to the edges of the wall.

I have one...with a 18x14x9 room and its as big as I can imagine putting in there without being too low to the ground. running a 1080p LCD and its very awesome...not as awesome as the 6k+ projectors...but pretty damn awesome...playing mass effect on it makes your heart beat nice and fast.