New construction, new home theater... what projector...? - Page 2

I still say 14 ft wide 2.4. That puts you at 10.25 ft wide 16:9 approx. So first row can be 15-16 ft back. If the second row does NOT recline they can be 3 ft behind the first row. plenty of room left!

I'm thinking you will need around 2000 lumens to get around 25-28 ftL using a 1.0 gain screen. That is rather bright I'd think.

He means wide. Not diag

Yep, wide is what I meant.

Curved may also help but you will have a light controlled room.

I take it you are going acoustical transparent. SMX, Scrren Research and Da-Lite also have a good AT product.

14' = 168"
if 2.4 aspect ratio, then the height is 168"/2.4 = 70".

For the diagonal:
http://www.calculatorsoup.com/calcul.../rectangle.php

182"

For 16:9 (1.78 - HDTV) a quckie is width x 1.145 (or 1.15) = diag.

I didn't see anyone mention the Lumis SOLO. It's in the 50K range and has received a lot of praise from those who've seen it. I don't think it would have any trouble with the screen sizes mentioned, and you wouldn't need a projection room or exhaust stack to accommodate it.

I love my Lumis, but personally I find it just adequate to light up my 118" wide 2.35:1 and my 106" wide 1.78:1 screens ( both about 120" diagonal ). If you like a bright picture with some headroom for bulb dimming ( my target is 20 - 22 foot lamberts, 16 minimum ).
And I am a big proponent of putting my projector - any projector - in a closet shooting through a hole - less / no noise - out of sight, out of mind !!

Craig - what did you use to trim that hole?

Sure you don't want to rephrase that one?

Very funny

Craig,
Do you have a Lumis SOLO or an older 2D Lumis? The SOLO is rated at 3000ANSI which should be enough to handle a 12ft screen given control over ambient light in conjunction with dark walls/ceiling/etc. Presumably a screen that size would use at least a 1.3gain material.

My bad as they say - I have the 2D Lumis Host. Note that the photo shows my old d-Vision projector.

As for the other question, that reminds me I need to get " Pirates II " on Blu Ray........

Sounds then like you'd be a candidate for the Lumis DUO...6000 ANSI/12,000:1...INFITEC passive 3D...normal screen...

If you go to their web site they have a full-line brochure in pdf form. On page 52 it says "The Lumis 3D-D when working in 2D dual mode is able to output up to 6000ANSI lumens with a full on/full off contrast ratio of over 10,000:1." Elsewhere -- I don't know where I read it -- they stated it as contrast ratio "up to 12,000:1". Whether it's "over 10K" or "up to 12K" when combined with the big light output, it's still pretty impressive and should be able to handle jumbo size screens.

Pete - how would you compare/contrast your M.150 to your old C3X1080?

You still need to determine screen size and surface gain then target fL then see which projectors available can light it up. From there get the best overall performance in other important parameters. One needs to consider both sequential and ANSI contrast (believe me, since mixed material is the majority of what you watch you need to consider both) then also uniformity, panel alignment ,color reproduction and control, size and noise of the unit etc.assuming budget allows this freedom.

Art

I called SIM2 to ask about the contradiction and was told that the web site tech specs are out of date in that they reflect the original DUO which consisted of two of the older 10-bit Lumis projectors. The DUO now employs two 12bit models (same as SOLO) and you can run them either active or passive.

The old C3X 1080 predated LUMIS Dynamic Black, so while it was impressive by the then existing standards, it is not on par with the contrast of my M.150. Moreover, the M.150, while not as bright as the C3X 1080, not only has more contrast, but it exhibits considerably more detail and has the wider color gamut of LED. Given the screen size that HomeTheaterGuy74 is contemplating, however, the M.150 would not be suitable.

Any problems with light spill? How would you compare the M.150 to the C3X1080 with regard to motion and motion blur? ANSI Contrast? My screen is 9.5' Wide Micro-Perf Stewart Firehawk Constant Width. Light controlled room. I'd be curious to know the illuminance numbers for the M.150 with my screen.

I still have the C3X1080. There are a lot of things this projector does really well. I am tempted to upgrade. If I could get everything this projector does well (motion, pleasing picture, ANSI Contrast) plus significantly better on/off contrast and no light spill, I think this could be the one.

Here is my theatre..

Off the topic from the projector but one of the things I would have liked to do, had I known the importance of room color and reflections, in 1995.. is..

I would have used black or dark red carpet with the first 10' from the screen to be full black without design. Full black ceiling, with black acoustic panels. No stars or sky.,.. and for the Walls - Electric operated black drapes to close with picture but to disappear into large wall columns/pillars when lights are turned on.

Does not seem elegant, I realise.. hopefully your interior decorator can come up with a good compromise.. but with 2000 or 5000 lumen light output.. or any output for that matter, the room reflections are extremely important for good contrast - assuming that the quality of picture/video is paramount..

Please excuse me for this off topic post.. but I thought it was a necessary factor, while discussing 5000 lumen projectors.

Again, such projectors can emit a lot of heat.. If you do use a closet room/enclosure, with cooling system, try to avoid a glass (even at 45 degrees) in front of the projector.

Currently, I am using the Sony Qualia 004 with 140" wide stewart 1.3 micro perf. It's $6000 lens is simply amazingly sharp. I would recommend the Sony 4k, 12' wide 1.7:1 or 14' wide 2.44:1 so that you can change your projector in a few years to the laser units or LED.. As you know, there is rarely a "perfect answer" for such developing innovative technology arena.. Obviously, my suggestion is a compromise, for now..

Constant width meaning 64" image height in 1.78? The M.150 could handle that in 2D, but depending on how dark your reflective surfaces are, it might be challenged in 3D. With respect to the other concerns you expressed, I can only say that my M.150 makes a far sharper image with more saturated color and blacker blacks than my C3X 1080 was capable of. And there are no discernible motion artifacts as the switching speeds are 20 times that of a conventional single-chip with color wheel.

Yes, I use motorized top and bottom masking to reduce the height according to AR, but width stays the same, 9'6".

My room is very dark; black carpet, black stretched fabric, dark brown non-reflective paint, dark brown fabric
on the furniture, complete light control.

3D doesn't have that much appeal to me, but if I had it, I might change my mind. Does the M.150 come with 3D, or is
it an add-on?

I recently saw a demo in my theater. It was a Digital Projection prototype not yet in production said to be gearing up for a launch in the Fall.

I believe this projector is using the same lighting platform as the Sim2 M.150, but it won't be offering 3D and it should be less expensive unless the M.150 can also be ordered without 3D.

Anyway, the main point is that with this new higher powered LED lighting platform, there was plenty of light for my 9.5' Constant Width screen set-up.

If anything, I thought the brightness could be toned down a bit. This prototype did not have high/med/low bulb settings. If it did, I would probably have preferred it on a medium setting.

So, if I am correct that this is the same LED set-up as the M.150, and I don't see any reason to doubt it, an LED projector like the Sim2 M.150 with this new higher powered light output will have no problem lighting up my screen in 2D.

The Digital Projection projector without calibration threw a really nice picture, a slight but noticeable improvement over my C3X1080 in some areas.

I'm really curious how the Sim2 will compare.
Edited by rsbeck - 7/10/12 at 9:06pm