Hello, I have spent a lot of time reading these forums to try to help me get an idea for my basement. The room is 22 or 23 ft long by 14.5 ft wide by 7 ft high. At about 10-11 ft and at 19 ft there are enclosed pipes that run parallel with the wall that I would like to put the screen on. These enclosements drop the ceiling height by about a 1 ft.
I would also like to hide the projector behind some drywall at a height of about 66 inches or so. This would make the throw distance about 22 or 23 ft. Seating would then be about 14 or 15 ft away. Is this even possible? If so, are there any 720p projectors that you would recommend for this situation? I would like to keep my budget under $1500 and would like to be able to watch this with some lights on. Thanks in advance.

Hi rparody,

The AX200, Sanyo Z5, and Epson 810 would work for that throw and projector height. In their most telephoto position, they would throw about a 110" diagonal image. All 3 are within your budget. Check out the various threads on them here.

Jonathan

Thanks for the info. At that height, should I be concerned about the picture being cutoff by the enclosed pipe areas or the image being sent too low? I am concerned about someone sitting on a couch and blocking the image.

With the PJ at 22 feet away and 66" high, the seating at 14 feet away, and a ceiling height of only 7 feet at most, you are going to have problems getting the image past the seated viewers.

So should I consider putting it in front of the first pipe enclosement? This would be at about 11 ft back. If so, should this change my choice of projectors?

One choice at 11 feet would be the Optoma HD7100. It has lens shift and a short throw. The others would still work fine though. What size image are you looking for?

If the lens is 11 feet back, the image size will not be able to be larger than 109" diagonal. What size image did you want? Is the pipe soffit 11 feet back or 12 feet?

The front edge of the soffit closest to my screen wall is at 9ft 9in. The soffit itself is about 13 in, which makes the other end about 10 ft 10 in. Obviously, the bigger the screen the better, but I would like to get over 100 in if I could.

On a different note, for my situation, am I going to see that much of a difference with 1080p? I have a connection that might be able to get me a discount and I wanted to hear opinions. I see myself using this for gaming, movies and sports, so I was leaning toward the Pan PT-AX200U. I don't plan on getting BD or HD-DVD anytime soon (of course it is hard to pass up the deal on the HD-DVD player right now).

Thanks in advance.

bump

If you can mount Just behind the soffit so that the PJ shoots the image just under the soffit, then you will be able to have your larger screen. That does put the PJ pretty low though, what about 6 feet? Of course, when you are sitting down that will be 2 or 3 feet over your heads but you really don't have much for other choices.

Is there anything that I can do at that distance with lens zoom without compromising picture quality? If something like that wouldn't work, will I be able to get a 92'' screen at that distance? If so, can you recommend any pj's that will do this.

Since the front of your soffit is 9'9" from the screen wall, if you mount in front of that you will only have about 8,5 feet to the screen. At that distance, the largest screen you can get with wide zoom is 86". You might want to consider putting a shelving unit of some kind behind your seating and putting the PJ on that to give you some distance and allow a larger screen.

If I have my seating at about 14' from the screen, about how far behind the seating should I put the shelving? Say I want to install a 92', 100' or 106' screen with my height restrictions.

Thanks

Right behind your seating would be good. Maybe 5 or 6 feet up. You will be able to project the 92" to 106" image from there no problem.

reconlabtech,

Thanks for all of the great info. I think that we are going to go with an electronic screen and move it 4 to 5 feet from the back wall. This would make my throw distance somewhere around 16' or 17'. Any ideas just how much room I have to play with in terms of setting up seating pertaining to the projector itself? Also, when I say seating I mean sectional and recliner. I am wondering because the wife doesn't want to put the furniture right under the projector. I would like to have at least a 92'' screen, but would prefer 100'' or 106''.

BTY, I saw in a different thread that you know how to calculate how far the screen should be from the floor. Could you educate me on that? Thanks

I think you are referring to the calculations for image offset. DLP pjs like the HD70 or the HC1500 have an offset and no way to adjust for it so you need to be able to calculate how it will affect your setup.

The AX200 has no offset, the center of the lens is the center of the screen, but it also has lens shift. Most of the LCD pjs do. How high or how low you place the AX200 will determine how much lens shift you use to move the image lower or higher. Your primary concern would be to make sure the PJ is high enough to avoid people but low enough that you don't need a lot of lens shift. I can affect the image at the extreme ends of the shift.

For seating, you want your seating to be about 1.5x the screen width away from the screen. If you are sitting 12 feet from the screen, 92 to 106 inches should be fine. In the end, you may like sitting closer or farther away. Think about whee you like to sit in the theater. I like 2/3rds of the way back, one seat left of center. At home, I sit about 10 feet from a 92" screen.