Newbie who could use some help

Many of the modern projectors are fairly quiet, especially when you run the lamp in low setting. In your price range you will have a choice of either LCD technology (as used by the below suggested Epson models) or DLP (see the suggested BenQ model below). All of the below suggested models have full 1080p HD resolution.

As for a projector, for maximum placement flexibility I suggest you find one with vertical and horizontal lens shift and also a fairly wide zoom range. Within your price range I suggest you start off by taking a look at the Epson 8350 (actually $500 under your target price and a full review is HERE) or the Epson 8700UB (a little over your target price and a full review is HERE). The Epson 8350 is low enough in price that you could still afford to get a real screen with a size perhaps in the 100" - 106" range and still stay within your $1800 budget.

The DLP projectors in this price range typically have no lens shift adjustment and a very limited zoom range resulting in more limited options for placing the projector. For a bright DLP projector that does have lens shift and a decent zoom range (but still not to the extend of the Epson models), you may want to take a look a the BenQ W6000 (full review is HERE). However this BenQ model requires a longer screen-to-projector throw distance for a given screen size as compared to the above Epson models, so this would limit the max. screen size possible in your room. For example for a 12 ft. throw distance the max. screen size that can be used with the BenQ W6000 is about 100 inches (diagonal for a 16 x 9 screen) while from the same 12 ft. the Epson projectors will accommodate up to a 120 inch screen.

Will you be able to fully control lighting in the room? If so, then a matte white screen with a gain of 1.0 to 1.3 will work. You may want to take a look at a fixed frame model that is attached to the wall with a few brackets or alternatively a roll-down screen. The AV Science Store, that runs this forum, sells Epson projectors (and many other brands) and also serveral brands of screens. Their contact info is HERE and I suggest you give Mark a call once you have some idea what you want. For a lower cost screen lines take a look at Elite. There are also a number of low cost "house brand" screens being sold by on-line dealers. Sponsors of this forum that carry such budget house brand screens include monoprice.com and visualapex.com. You could use a white wall or a wall that has been 'painted" with a paint specifically well suited for this and with a blacked painted-on frame/mask. See the D-I-Y screen section of the forum for info and ideas and in that section of the forum there is a good guide for DIY painted wall screens - HERE.

1) Probably not without an expensive screen, although a high gain screen may get you close. But for me, being able to have a good looking picture on a 100" screen far outweighs having a great looking picture on a 50" screen. That being said, if you set your room up well (light controlled, dark walls), you should be able to exceed the picture quality of most commercial cinemas.

2) Probably one major reason people shy away from front projection is we are familiar with those loud hot office projectors. Most home theater projectors are very quiet. You might hear it on the quiet scenes, but if you're running in low lamp mode, most projectors designed for home theater are inaudible or barely audible.

3) ProjectorCentral recently did a test, and found that "Sherwin-Williams ProClassic Smooth Enamel Satin Extra White, # B20 W 51" paint is slightly better than a Stewart Studiotek 100 screen. Painting the Perfect Screen for $100 This solution would work well in a dedicated theater room with total light control. However, if you need to have a screen with gain because of ambient light issues, or because you want a brighter picture, paint won't be your solution.

You'll be limited to projectors with lenshift......which the Epson has....

I like our older Panasonic I you should also consider the PT AE4000 - it's at the top of your price range but probably worth it.

Our first room was 14ft and at that distance we did a simple shelf mount with a net lens-to-screen distance of about 12 1/2 feet and we used a Da-lite, da-snap fixed wall screen and in that room the about 100 inch diagonal gave us a "at the movies" visual experience. Our shelf was 60 inches off the floor and our ceiling fan (directly in front of the PJ) was not a problem. YES - lens shift would be a VERY helpful feature in your room.

We sat along the wall under the projector and in the "economy" mode we could not hear the projector at all.

Screen cost? How creative and determined a shopper are you? Our Da-lite, at the time, retailed for hundreds of $$$ but we found one NewInBox for $50 at a closeout store. Our current and larger screen was $70 found on C.List. I'd worry more about the newness of the projector and not so much with regard to the screen.

Compared to a TV? 1080p is, 1080 lines of resolution - the more the image is stretched across a larger display or screen the less distinct it can appear next to a smaller display - I prefer watching an elephant sized image instead of one the size of a pony
GoodLuck

I have a cozy bedroom theater setup too and love it! I loved my Mitsubishi HC4000 but due to my wife noticing the rainbow effect I had to sell it. I couldn't see it and I have 20/20 vision but my wife could. Make sure you're not rainbow sensitive if you go DLP. Pannasonic Ae4000 is great, so is Epson 8350/8700, but for my money, i'd take the $2000 and spend 1200 on the projector, and the rest on a nice 120 inch high power high contrast screen that'll make it POP like a plasma. Without a good screen a newbie won't even notice the differences you'll see spending that extra thousand dollars over the HC4000 on the Panny. As for the lens shift... I had to go to Lowes and get a flush to ceiling mount to move my ceiling fan up out of the way. I took me all of 20 mins to do, but I'm resourceful when it comes to making less than optimal equipment work for my situation. Don't be scared of DLP either! Picture quality for the dollar is better than LCD but you just don't get the placement options... and you might see rainbows.

I suggest looking at:
Epson 8350 with a HP or HPHC screen as your viewing cone will be narrower in a bedroom setup
Mitsubishi HC4000 with a High Contrast Grey screen
or
Benq W6000 (and save your money for a decent screen)
Epson 8700ub (")
Pannasonic AE4000 (")

Just depends on your situation. you will need to do a lot of research before deciding DLP vs LCD(do you prefer higher contrast/darker black scenes over bright scene pop -very divided opinons here, play around with optimal projector placement, determine amount of unavoiable ambient light, how much bounceback light from light colored walls as will effect contrast, how close the edge of the screen will be to ceiling/floor, seating cone viewing radius to get even light dispersal to all viewers with no hot spotting, lens to screen distance to determine amount of zoom needed (best not to go full zoom if possible). Use projectorpeople.com's calculator pro to get an idea of how much zoom to screen size you can get inputing your rooms dimensions, it helped me a lot.

Not exactly true. He could buy the Benq W6000, DLP with lens shift. It is with in his stated budget. I would take the W6000 over an 8350 any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Yeah I'm with MJG! You can get a Benq W6000 refurb http://shop.benq.us/ProductDetail.aspx?id=257 at a great price. Having seen it and the 8350 on more than one occasion, the Benq simply throws a superior image. It is sharper,brighter,better colors, has better contrast, better black levels in brighter scenes. Umm did I leave anything out? lol

Good luck

It is true that the W6000 will throw a much superior image than the 8350, but the one concern I have with the W6000 is that its not so much of a 10' throw projector. It's doable but you'll only be able to do 90" of display... If you can do that then swell, buy it! If you want a larger display, then maybe you should shop around and look for others.

His room is 14' deep. The W6000 is 8.5" deep. Allowing 5.5" for clearance between the back of the projector and the wall and 2" for the screen spaced off the wall, the OPer would be able to throw a 115" image using the W6000. That is a large screen for that size room.

The Epsons are easily shelf mountable with great zoom and lens shift. Other technologies, not so much.

If you are going to organize the whole room around the "theater" than any of the projectors listed would work, but if you need some placement flexibility the Epsons are probably the way to go.

Not trying to steer your either way...just keep in mind...in small rooms you have to be extra conscious of space limitations.

Oh and Yes...projectors throw a ton of heat.

I would rear shelf mount a refurb Benq W6000. Set all of your equipment at the back of the room with the projector. That way it is easy to get power and HDMI cable to the projector. The W6000 beats the 8350 in all image quality categories and destroys the 8350 in the best mode brightness. The only catagory that the 8350 wins over the W6000 is lens shift, but the W6000 does have enough lens shift to work well rear shelf mounted.

If you can work in the placement limitations of the w6000. I agree. It throws a better image than the 8350.

Are you sure it's 8.5" deep? I think specs indicate it's 13.5" deep. I'm in the same position as the OP. I have a room that's about 13 feet from the projector screen to the very back of the room and would like as large of an image as possible (100-120"?) I discounted the Benq because of the fact that it was listed as 13.5" deep and also is not a short throw projector.

I looked at some thing wrong. The W6000 is 13.5" deep as you say. The OPer could squeeze a 106" image in his room, but that would be as big as he could go with the W6000 (without tricks such as bouncing off a first surface mirror).

Mounting limitation of the W6000. Can be mounted anywhere between slightly above the image to slightly below the image. For rear shelf mount this should work in nearly any room with a single row of seating.

I don't know how his room is setup or how he wants it setup. If he wants the projector mounted towards the side of the room, the w6000 only has a 20% horizontal lens shift.

If you mount the projector on a shelf on the rear wall and it you can place this somewhere in the range of 45 inches to 65 inches above the floor and more or less centered horizontally with the screen, then you could be a candidate to use a Da-Lite Model B manual pull down screen with their "High Power" fabric. These screens are relatively low cost with a 16 x 9 aspect ratio model 'B' with a 106 inch diagonal size available in the range of $250. In order for the real benefits of the "high power" screen fabic to work, the projector needs to be mounted only a little above eye level and not up near the ceiling (ideally around 50" above the floor). So if you select a projector with lens shift that has enough adjustment range that can work with such a projector mounting location relative to the screen position then the high gain (i.e., 2.4) of the Da-lite High Power fabric can really work to produce an image that is close to the brightness you would get with a good flat panel display.

An 8350 will work in nearly any room.

I hope not. I hate to see any projector mounted off to the side.