New House, New Theater, Need Advise!

Projectors
Infocus SP8602
JVC HD250
Sony VPL-VWPro1
Vivitek H5080
Epson 8700

Screens? take your pick!
http://www.monoprice.com/products/su...08&cp_id=10829

I agree with Joesyah on projectors, but I think I would get a gray screen if you have much ambient light.

The fireplace ruins the sound, so you did not do it right the first time. Get the very narrow Triton II Tower or the wall mount Def Tech Mythos.
The room has way to many windows, blackout or not. I would get a plasma for daytime.
For evening and night consider the 120-120" Dalite High Power. If you want 3D too, get the Sharp 17000, if not then then get a Mitsubishi 4000.

I think he is going to ceiling mount the projector. If he gets a High Power, then he is going to have to get a drop mount (if ceiling mounted) and mount the projector right above the back of the couch to get gain out of the screen. That would block the view of the screen from the nook or kitchen area. As long as that is not a problem, then it would work well.

Your idea of doing it right may not be his idea of doing it right. My idea of doing it right (sound wise) involves speakers that have directivity, high sensitivity and high power handling. 99% of the time speakers with dome tweeters can't meet these requirements.

Out of those three choices, I'd scratch the Epson 8700ub off that list, it is the weakest of those three.

If we go by reviews, the Infocus sp8602 is going to have slightly more realistic skin tone handling than the JVC HD250, the JVC is going to have better black levels. The Infocus is going to have more POP and a slightly sharper image for HTPC.

Pick your poison, for dark movie watching, it's a hard call without actually seeing them both in a shootout comparison, basically an impossible call.

So you may want to look at some other factors that may help your decision, like does the JVC work better for you, do you prefer the automated zoom and auto-len shfit, will you be using a 2.35:1 screen, etc...

I don't know how the Infocus does on those points I just mentioned, but Joesyah owns one and may be able to add to it.

A valid argument can easily be made for the Infocus sp8602 over the JVC HD250 for bright scene POP.

The big, empty, hollow fireplace cannot be a plus in any design. He only has 15' width with the fireplace included. Ok maybe ceiling mounted speakers!

I actually did it right the first time by having a house built and wired from the ground up. ** No fireplace here! **
The large foil roof blocks most external EMI/RFI in addition to solar radiation. This results in better picture and sound quality, a fact which even professional designers are clueless too.

Your post is ironic since I wrote extensively over in the speaker forum trashing dome tweeters, whose cousin is a resonating bell. So like what kind of tweeters does the Triton II use? Are you using neodymium magnets?

I can assume you will have quite a bit of ambient light so for that reason, i'd consider the brighter projector of the three. We can spend hours going into details as to which projector is best but for your specific application, brightness will be the main factor. That is unless you can block out most if not all light and get that room as dark as possible.

For screens, definitely go grey and consider the HP material if you can get the projector where needed.

Benito

Agreed, do not think he can go wrong with either the JVC or the Infocus.
Both their BEST modes are exceedinly bright, with the Infocus being about 50% brighter in BEST mode by my memory (could be off a little).

As far as PQ, it's going to be more of a personal preference, some people swear by black levels, others swear by DLP POP, some want an average of everything, a more all-around projector.

Either way, at this level the image is pretty much superb I think for either projector.

Never seen either one, but I trust people in the forums like DaGamePimp and JoesYah who rated the sp8602 as one of his favorites if I recall correctly. Many of them have seen the Mits hc4000, Benq w6000, and the SP8602, they all agreed the sp8602 does have an advantage in PQ to other DLP's they saw.

I would also highly recommmend Art's reviews:
http://www.projectorreviews.com/info...8602/index.php

He isn't perfect, just like all of us he has some BIAS's. What I find interesting though, is he favors the Infocus sp8602 over most other projectors even for black levels!
He pretty much says the infocus is an exceedingly well balanced, yet VERY VERY bright projector with some of the best skin tones ever.

Like I said, his reviews aren't all perfect, but it's impossible to be a perfect projector reviewer. God knows I made too many mistakes in my initial reviews and comparisons, but I learned my lesson that it takes a bit of eye training to truely see what you think you are seeing. The projectors these days are just that close at times.

Either the JVC or Infocus will work on a 120" screen, but with any ambient light or backwash light (reflective surfaces), the Infocus will look better. You are right, it is a light cannon.

A lot of us argue about different projectors, some of us even insult a projector on occassion, but most of us just hit a sour note a few times because of a particular issue we ran into.
At times all of us have probaly gone back and forth trying to decide a BEST projector, because most of these projectors all produce such fabulous images that the differences are somewhat minimal to any untrained eye, that's why we can't always give a clear choice to people.

I actually had some QC problems on almost all the different projectors I tried, that's why I have owned so many different projectors. I guess after owning a few, I just decided why stop now, mise well see a few more.

If you get a broken projector on your first purhcase, don't be like me and gripe about the brand name though, they all have QC issues it appears. Even the Mits hc4000 I had was broken (figures), checkerboard of death.

Just do a return or an RMA and don't look back once you get a replacement. Generally most projectors work fine after they are RMA'd, even if you have problems on the first unit.
One advantage to DLP is you don't get convergence issues.

Again though, black levels vs. DLP POP, well it's such a hard choice, that no-one can tell you what you prefer, only you will know that in the end. That said, the infocus sp8602 does pretty darn good black levels.

High Power is a specific screen made by DaLite. It only comes in white and it has a maximum gain of 2.4. But to get the max gain from this screen the projector has to be mounted near eye level. So you would need to mount the projector 5' or 6' above finished floor height. In other words it would hang down from your ceiling 3 or 4 feet. My brother has this type of set up in his theater and it works very well, but he does not have anything going on in the area behind the projector.

Out of the three projectors that you have it narrowed down to, I would look at the Sp8602. It is very bright and has enough lens shift that you could mount it near the ceiling. Also it has an odd characteristic, most projectors get dimmer as you increase the offset (mount higher), but the SP8602 gets brighter.

If that was my room, I would go with a 120" acoustically transparent screen since you do not have much wall width to work with. Probably go with a tab tensioned drop down. That way the speakers could be placed behind the screen and the sound would match the action. Space wise this would cost you 2" plus the depth of the speakers that you purchase. For a screen I would look at Seymour AV's Center Stage screens.

This would improve the sound, but a gray screen would improve the black levels with ambient lighting. You have to pick your poison.

Triton II's use ribbon tweeters. I would not recommend those either for HT use. I use compression drivers, JTR T8's and JBL Pro 8340's.

When you go to a good commercial movie theater, notice how the sound from the speakers has not just volume, but suddenness and impact? That is dynamics and what you should be looking for in an HT speaker. 99% of the time, you are not going to find that in a speaker that does not use compression drivers unless your listening distance is less than eight feet.

Sorry to the OPer for getting off track. I am into HT audio just as much as I am into video. With the size of the OPer's room I would be looking at multiple subs also.

He was also asking about audio so it's on track enough.

My opinion, either get really cheap speakers like POLKS or go ALL out and buy the good stuff.

Don't make the mistake I did and think middle-end speakers like Infinity are the best choice if the good HT specific stuff is slightly over-budget.
MJG is correct, NON-HT speakers don't have the range.

For HT, if you are planning on getting NON-HT speakers, cheap polks work just about as well as any of the lower-end speakers for HT use. Otherwise, you'll need to spend some good amount of cash to get that BIG THEATER SOUND, but either CHEAP out completely or DONT CHEAP OUT at all, there is hardly a middleground with HT AUDIO like projectors (sad to say).

Well there is a middleground, it just isn't as cheap as it first appears. Like I figured a $1200 full set of 5.1 Infinity's would be great (going by various recommendations on this forum), but turned out they need more range, something is missing from the sound.

Cheapest good HT speaker that I know of is the DIY Econowaves. Great HT speaker for the price. There are several different versions, price wise and so many have been built, that design is not a problem. In a bought speaker, on the low side I would look at Chase Home Theater SHO-10's. This speaker uses a horn loaded compression driver and a 10" pro woofer. Like most good HT specific speakers, they are designed to be used with sub/subs. On the high end, look at Seaton Sound Catalyst.

I am going to be moving soon I hope (maybe this month), back to a house for me.
Debating on doing something with audio, but have to get my PJ issues worked out first.

Might have to see a hypnotist to fix my PJ issues

"You don't see the flaws, you see blissful perfect images"
"You don't see the flaws, you see blissful perfect images"
....

That is the worst part about comparing so many projectors, you train your eyes only to see flaws, you have to do some untraining.

I don't think I'd try a ceiling mount and a HP with 9' ceilings. Your going to need a long telescopic extension and it's going to wobble. Your left most seating is going to be almost looking at the screen from an angle as well which may put those viewers out of the HP's sweetspot. If you are going HP, I'd consider setting up a table or piece of decorative furniture just behind your seating and laying the PJ on that. This will keep the PJ very close to eye level and get the most gain. I've also seen guys put tables in front of their seating and place the PJ down low aiming up at screen accomplishing the same thing or move two of your seats futher apart and place the PJ there on a table in between (just be careful of spilled drinks). See the HP and screen area for some idea's.

There's a pic over in the screen section that would explain this so easy.....I must find....

Except being that the sp8602's best mode is over 1000 lumens, his concern probably won't be lumens with this projector at all.
Even if he mounts the projector at 8' (about 1.2 to 1.5 gain depending on seating height and pos), he's going to be getting an equivalent best mode almost three times brighter than what most projectors can do.

I'd certainly not even try to mount the projector at center point for an HP 2.4 gain screen, that's just way too bright. Equivalent of over 2100 lumens (not really lumens but lets call it that) in best mode, ouch, light torch burn your eyeballs out bright, unless you open all the windows and the sun is shining right in your face.

I'd be more concerned about controlling ambient light, I probably wouldn't get the HP screen if ceiling mounting next to a WHITE CEILING, because it will redirect the light right back to the ceiling. That said, if you do have a white ceiling and want a screen with the sp8602, either a gray screen or just a regular 1.0 to 1.2 gain white screen will work better.

Get rid of the white ceiling if you can though.

The key with the HP screen is, wherever you mount the projector, that will be the center point of reflected light. So it means if the floor is too reflective, you don't want an HP for a floor mount, if the ceiling is too reflective, etc.

Now where an HP helps is with sidewalls and ceilings if you can mount in any given advantageous position.

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ADDED CHOICES
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A) Position the PJ at eye-level (shelf mount or table mounted) and it is far enough away from the walls, which might NOT work with this projector in your setup, too darn bright at this position. Although if you can scoot the projector far enough back, set it in LOW LAMP mode, so be at farthest throw, it might be do-able with a center mounting position, but I have the inclination to think it might be too bright unless your blinds are wide open

B) Position the PJ near the ceiling if you have a dark ceiling

C) Position the PJ near the floor if you have a dark floor

If you don't have a dark ceiling or a dark floor or dark walls, then the best position for the PROJECTOR with an HP screen is so that all 3 surfaces (ceilings, floor, walls) are equally far away from the projector's position, meaning usually the PJ mounted in POSITION A.

Hope that makes sense.

Just my thoughts.

With it ceiling mounted, I feel the HP screen will be a perfect fit ONLY if your ceiling can be painted dark. Otherwise, get a gray or white screen.

I guess I don't fully understand the viewing angle problem.

How many people will be watching the projector at the same time do you estimate?

Otherwise sweet spots likely don't matter if there aren't more than 3 people, you can just all scoot over a little and crank the brightness up, the difference will be somewhat minimal between seating positions, that most people wouldn't care. Although the person sitting on the farthest right will have to bear a brighter than normal image potentially, but you can adjust brightness and contrast on a projector to compensate, or just save multiple USER modes for different seating arrangements.

That said, if you really are worried about viewing angles and I don't fully understand the diagram (possible), then stick with a white screen.

Exactly, what an HP screen does is focus the light back to the projector's LENS point (the mounting position).

If you increase light bounceback from ceiling, it will interfer with the light pollution in general of the room, especially given how close the ceiling is to the projector's "MAIN LIGHT BEAM", it will washout the image more so.

In this case the HP screen won't help you, it will hurt you.

Peerless makes a good tube mount that will not wobble. My brother has his Peerless tube mount dropping 3' and he does not have any problems and his projector is heavy (Sony VW60). His system does not have a sub, but his active speakers have four 8" woofers in each main (Meridian DSP6000). They have an f3 of 25hz and 114db capability. Not to bad for a speaker that uses dome tweeters. He is a two channel guy.