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First projector - need some advice

848 views 27 replies 10 participants last post by  drodavich 
#1 · (Edited)
So I'm planning on upgrading my "man cave" to a projector. I would like to keep the projector price in the $600ish range as my first projector with thoughts to upgrade some years down the road when 4k becomes cheaper and more commonplace.

The room is completely void of light when the door is closed (interior basement room). All of the equipment is in a nearby equipment closet, so the only thing that will be in that room besides the furniture is the already installed Energy Take 5 speaker system and the new screen and projector. All wires will be going from projector up through ceiling and over to the equipment closet.

I am attaching a diagram my daughter helped me draw in a room planning program. Here are some dimensions I measured:

Width of room: 12'7"
Length of room: 17' (this is the dimension we are projecting)
Height of drop-down ceiling: 7'6"
Distance from screen to viewing seats: 15'
Maximum possible screen size would be 10'4" across and if mounted at very top of ceiling, I could go 6' in height of screen without obstructing the view from the end of the couch.

I could mount the projector either by some kind of mount that goes through a drop-down tile ceiling or at the back of the room above our heads.

I believe the maximum screen size I could go would be 135" that would fit in that space. (had my eye on the STR-169135 Silver Ticket)

Here are some items of concern:
1) Can the projector screen be mounted so the top of it is basically the top of that wall? Or does there have to be margin from the top? (that could affect the max screen size I can install).
2) I was thinking of something like the new Optoma HD142X but am getting utterly confused if that would work in those dimensions or if there is a better option around that same price.
3) If $600ish is too cheap and a higher price model is recommended, I'm OK with that, it would just take me some more months to save up for the difference. (Been saving up for this upgrade and have about $800-900 in total saved up for both projector and screen.

All advice is appreciated! I hate to just guess and end up having saved up the money and it not working out at all.

Thank you :)
 

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#2 ·
I cant help on the projector pick since I have never used projectors in that price range, But I can say the Silver Ticket screens are quite good. I have used Carada and others higher price screens and the Silver Ticket I got is just as nice. Cant go wrong their. Sounds like you have a nice room. Myself I would get the biggest screen possible for your space.
 
#3 ·
So I'm planning on upgrading my "man cave" to a projector. I would like to keep the projector price in the $600ish range as my first projector with thoughts to upgrade some years down the road when 4k becomes cheaper and more commonplace.
Be very careful that's exactly what I said. And $3000 later here I am. I haven't been following the newer budget projectors, if there are any, and would recommend the BenQ 2050 which I got over the summer and did like it. But I was not happy with it's throw range and wanted a projector which could shoot behind a false wall and got a Sony.
 
#6 ·
So using this calculator for that Optoma I was thinking about, shows I need around 11" from top of the ceiling for a 135" screen which would then obstruct the bottom right corner from viewing. I may have to go down to a 120" screen in order to make it fit with that extra height from ceiling I didn't take into account.
 
#5 ·
I deal with a soffit and go to the top of the wall which puts the screen at about the height you are talking about. My seating distance is also 15 feet so the angle is not a problem. If the wall is smooth, painting a screen/wall might work to let you dial in the size for your family.

I would suggest making sure at least a few feet of your ceiling around the screen is dark/black and consider replacing the front LCR Energy speakers on down the road. I have/had the 5.1 set and just replacing the center made a world of difference. Good speakers for a small room but at 15 feet you might want more on down the road.



 
#7 ·
If the wall is smooth, painting a screen/wall might work to let you dial in the size for your family.

I would suggest making sure at least a few feet of your ceiling around the screen is dark/black and consider replacing the front LCR Energy speakers on down the road. I have/had the 5.1 set and just replacing the center made a world of difference. Good speakers for a small room but at 15 feet you might want more on down the road.
The "wall" where the screen is going is currently a draped-over double-pane window (used to be a sound room for a voice actor from a previous owner). So I need to install a screen that will essentially permanently cover this internal window.

I see what you mean from your pics about the bleed onto the ceiling. Currently the drop-down ceiling tiles are off-white, so that could be an issue with reflection for sure.

Hope to upgrade speakers down the road also lol :) Saving up a bit at a time. This is our first real system as a married couple.
 
#9 ·
I am attaching a diagram my daughter helped me draw in a room planning program. Here are some dimensions I measured:

Width of room: 12'7"
Length of room: 17' (this is the dimension we are projecting)
Height of drop-down ceiling: 7'6"
Distance from screen to viewing seats: 15'
Maximum possible screen size would be 10'4" across and if mounted at very top of ceiling, I could go 6' in height of screen without obstructing the view from the end of the couch.

I could mount the projector either by some kind of mount that goes through a drop-down tile ceiling or at the back of the room above our heads.

I believe the maximum screen size I could go would be 135" that would fit in that space. (had my eye on the STR-169135 Silver Ticket)

Here are some items of concern:
1) Can the projector screen be mounted so the top of it is basically the top of that wall? Or does there have to be margin from the top? (that could affect the max screen size I can install).
2) I was thinking of something like the new Optoma HD142X but am getting utterly confused if that would work in those dimensions or if there is a better option around that same price.
3) If $600ish is too cheap and a higher price model is recommended, I'm OK with that, it would just take me some more months to save up for the difference. (Been saving up for this upgrade and have about $800-900 in total saved up for both projector and screen.

All advice is appreciated! I hate to just guess and end up having saved up the money and it not working out at all.

Thank you :)
I wonder whether your sectional is to scale in your drawing. It shows the long side as being about 13' which seems huge to me. Are you sure you couldn't rotate it so the short side is on the long wall without the door and the long side runs across the room ? I suggest this because 15' seats are too far away for the size screen you are contemplating. A 135" image is appropriate for 10' seats. At 15' it will not be very cinematic.

I can save you $200 on a screen. Simply sand the wall smooth and paint it with a light neutral flat gray paint. That will expand your projector budget to the Benq HT2050 which is much better than the Optoma. Using an entire wall painted without a frame or border allows you the freedom to use a projector's zoom lens to zoom larger for cinemascope movies and smaller for TV or gaming. The lack of a border means you can zoom out all the way to the mounts for the Take 5 front L&R speakers, achieving a 145" image when you want it. Remember that the ceiling and other walls should be painted a flat dark color to avoid reflecting light from the screen all over the room.

You didn't say how high off the floor the center channel is mounted, but you may very well need to lower it if it is more than 12" off the floor -- but maybe not if you only zoom really wide for cinemascope movies where only the lower black bar in the movie will hit the speaker. You can mount any projector and tilt it enough to begin the image at the ceiling, but it is not ideal. You will end up with the bottom of the image wider than the top and need to use keystone correction to square it up. That throws away the 1:1 pixel mapping from the source and rescales everything with sometimes objectionable artifacts. The HT2050 could be flush mounted to the ceiling and have the image begin about 8" from the ceiling without needing to use keystone correction to square up the image. Mounted with the lens 13' away from the wall you can zoom as small as 120" image and as large as 150" image (11' wide).

If you really want to stick to your $600 budget, you could go with a refurb unit of the W1070 which is very similar to the HT2050 but slightly louder. It would also need to mount in the same spot. Of you wanted to mount further behind you at the back wall, you could go with a Benq HC1200 and use its longer zoom lens to project anything from 105" to 150" but the larger image would begin 14" down from the ceiling and even the 105" image would begin 11" down.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BenQ-W1070-...223483?hash=item542feb9e3b:g:xYIAAOSwgmJXxI5F
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BenQ-HC1200...751610?hash=item4d40ce6bba:g:Y0EAAOSwEeFVJ-GU

BenqDirect.com has these both from time to time fr even less, but is currently out of stock.
 
#12 ·
I wonder whether your sectional is to scale in your drawing. It shows the long side as being about 13' which seems huge to me. Are you sure you couldn't rotate it so the short side is on the long wall without the door and the long side runs across the room ? I suggest this because 15' seats are too far away for the size screen you are contemplating. A 135" image is appropriate for 10' seats. At 15' it will not be very cinematic.
The current sectional is about 11.5' so perhaps off in scale on the drawing - I hadn't really thought about the projector going the other direction, but I suppose that would be a possibility. That would drop viewing distance to about 10-11' and also since that is a wall and not a window, I could do the paint job instead of buying a screen as you suggested.

The only downside would be having to rewire some of the surround sound as everything is mounted for facing the original direction.

This would also allow me to go even bigger on the 16:9 screen, to about 150" as I wouldn't be limited by some furniture blocking the view. Although going even bigger would push the center channel mount even closer to the floor (not sure ideal distance from floor)

I would probably need to just repaint the entire room - currently the walls are like an eggshell light gray. And sounds like I should go flat, and a bit darker. Not sure what to do about the ceiling tiles however, as those are a PIA to paint well - they are an off-white.

Thanks so much for the suggestions - this gives me some additional perspective.
 
#15 ·
I am a painter and paint tiles all the time' My basement had ceiling tiles. Just take then out and paint them. I used my airless outside' but they can be rolled with a 3/4in nap or inch. Just make sure they dry real good before putting back in. I would not wrap them with any fabric' way to expensive and tiles fit tight and the fabric would make them not fit back in. Use flat paint on walls and tiles.
 
#17 ·
So I'm planning on upgrading my "man cave" to a projector. I would like to keep the projector price in the $600ish range as my first projector with thoughts to upgrade some years down the road when 4k becomes cheaper and more commonplace.

Two things I'd like to address.


First, there is a widespread misconception or "mis-expectation" regarding cheaper 4K projectors. For this amount of resolution there remains one crucial, physical bottleneck - which is the quality of the projection lens optics and such optics remain elaborate and expensive.


Second, there is the question whether you want Motion or Frame Interpolation (FI) to reduce motion blur, which otherwise becomes even more noticable on a big projection screen compared to a smaller flat screen.


Before prematurely limiting your options by settling for a 600 $ front projector, I'd recommend you check out a front projector with FI first and then decide whether the motion blur reduction is worth the double price (e.g. Optoma HD 50).


Also check out the parallel thread "Frame Interpolation". ;)
 
#20 ·
I am the only one who suffered from this on the Optoma, the rest of my family did not even notice the RBE. The did notice the Sony 40 ES when I ran my first movie after installing it. they all said" Dad, did you get a new projector? It looks so much better".

Many years ago my ex-wife had invited her friends from Seattle. We watched the second Lord of the Rings on my old Sharp DLP (7 people) but ultimately the mother of her friend "confessed" she saw strange colors in the picture.


But your family has good eyes regardless, as they obviously noticed the improvement when you upgraded from LCD (Epson) to SXRD (Sony). ;)
 
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#24 ·
Frank714, I don't see any conflict between the Wikipedia explanation and what I wrote. They just left out the part about the image processing that goes on in the brain. Two sets of identical eyes can view the same image but they can be perceived by two different people quite differently due to the processing that goes on in the brain. There are many scientific articles about human vision that go far beyond Wikipedia. For a really brief overview of the complexity of image processing that goes on in the human brain, see the article below:

Vision: Processing Information
 
#25 ·
Frank714, I don't see any conflict between the Wikipedia explanation and what I wrote.

Well, our brain just interprets the data forwarded by our eyes.


If it turns out that people whose eyes actually saw the RainBow Effect but didn't originally mind it, until they were asked and guided to pay attention to its effects, then it's either a case of "cognitive dissonance" (blending out uncomfortable facts) or lack of problem awareweness (they didn't consider it a problem until they were made aware of it).


In my close circle of friends and guests which do have a front projector or access to it on a regular basis, only 1 out of 8 guys can objectively notice the RBE (which is why he is using a JVC, among other considerations) - and the intensity of which also depends on the color wheel segmentation in use.
 
#27 ·
Pulled the trigger yesterday on a Black Friday deal on the BenQ HT2050 for $639.99! Thanks for the all the recommendations.

I picked up the drop ceiling mount and cabling I'll need. Just need to save up for the Silver Ticket screen. May grab some cheapo cloth from Michaels to hold me over a month or two.
 
#28 · (Edited)
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