I'm in a bad situation now. I want to achieve atleast 100" image.

My problem is I only have 15ft to work with at max. My question is what is the best budget projector under $900 that will achieve atleast 100" screen size and has HDMI inputs.

I just bough a Panasoni PT-AE900u projector but now I don't think its going to work :(

I'm new to projectors. I own 2 DLP tv's but this is my 1st time setting up a projector.

Any advice would be great!

Mitsubishi HC1500 will fill 100" from 12' to 14.5'

The panny should work just fine, use your zoom dial to go wider on the image.

The panny should work just fine, use your zoom dial to go wider on the image.

thanks! thats a relief. I just read that by going through threads. Hopefully using the zoom won't destroy the quality....

Do you by chance have a screen you would recommmend? I'm looking for atleast 100" and either a manual pull down or electric. The screen is going to mount right above and in front of my Mitsubishi 65" dlp.

Need to get screen ordered today or tomorrow to have in time for superbowl.

Should I go with 100" or will the zoom at 13ft be enough to produce a good 110" or 120" even?

Take a look at the manual screens over at projectorpeople.com, there are some very affordable prices. You could also paint a screen if you were so inclined, there are some formulas in the DIY Screen section.

You could go as large as 120" at 13 feet from lens to screen. I would tape off the area on the wall to see if you want a screen that big.

Zoom should not affect picture quality, but the larger the image the less bright it will be.

I got a 100" Focupix Hdvio electric screen with a 1.3 gain for under $300. I've had mine for about 5 months with no problems. Check out the thread on Focupix in the Screens section of AVS.

I have the panny 700, the 900 has pretty much the same range, I'm filling up a 92" screen at 10ft 2". You are going to be fine at 15 feet. The panasonic has amazing flexability in placement.

DIY will work for a screen

A tensioned electric is sweet but expensive
I have a tensioned draper electric with a matte white surface, it is expensive.

I have used and seen an elite 92" electric tensioned screen for 1/3 the price of the draper at projector people .com and it looked fine to me. There was a difference in quality build, but hey I thought it was a great value!

I recommend a white surface rather than a gray screen. More pop and truer colors IMO.