Uber Light Cannon for 250-280" scope screen?

I have a 30x40ft out building on my property that is currently a guest house with a two car garage. I'm thinking of re-purposing it into a home theater if the cost isn't too outrageous. Keeping it heated over winter could be costly....

Anyway are there any < $5K projectors that could work for a screen this size? If need be I would be willing to use a pretty high gain, non-acoustically transparent screen, forgoing the center channel.

3D would be awesome for games, but I could careless about 3D movies.

Yeah - can't believe my luck! It's the perfect space in a lot of ways. Only a couple of little windows and sound proofing shouldn't be an issue since it's over 100 yards from the main house. It already has a little kitchen and bathroom.


I'll be DIYing the screen and I already have the perfect DIY speakers to fill this space with ease. I'll need to DIY a large array of horn loaded subs and room treatments.

I just need to know if there's an affordable projector for a screen this size.
Edited by steve71 - 1/27/13 at 1:56pm

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'll check them out tonight. In general do these PJ's have a picture quality that is comparable to the < 1600 lumen PJ's in the $2,000-3,000 range?

Thanks for the input guys, lots of research to do. I want the biggest screen that is practical to fit in the room. In a few years when 4K 3D laser PJ's have come down in price I can spend the big money if need be. Heck, it will probably be at least a year by the time the subs/surround speakers/room treatments are built and the room is close to being ready. I'm not in a big hurry, but I just wanted to know I could fill that screen with OK quality without spending over $4k or so.

The building is 30x40, so it's about 28x38 on the inside with all the insulation. There is a small bathroom and utility closet + kitchen. The ceiling is about 8.5ft at the edges and about 12ft at it's tallest, but I'll have to take down a ladder and measure. It will be the height of the screen that will be the limiting factor - I'm hoping for 9ft tall. I think I'd have to shrink the screen tremendously to use an acoustically transparent screen. My speakers are pretty directive (massive) horns that produce a very solid virtual center image in the sweet spot. Hopefully that sweet spot will be pretty big in this size room. But nothing is set in concrete at this stage.

I really don't want to shrink the room with a screen wall or projection room. The front speakers will be on display. I'm thinking I don't really want to build a space that looks exactly like a theater. Right now I'm thinking of going with a western theme. Kind of like a old 1800 saloon set up to show movies - reclaimed wood planks (dark and matte) on the inside. After all we are living in rural Colorado at 10,000ft.

Obviously there will have to be a balance between form and function....

Yep we have lots of space in the main house, so we can claim all this space for a theater. Should be awesome for entertaining and kids parties etc (our kids will be school age before we know it!).

I really like the looks of that red laser PJ. Seems like this is the perfect time to be building with a 250"+ screen as 4K is just around the corner.

The budget is there to equip it out. Even if we decide we have to go a used professional cinema projector. But I'm a big believer in only spending what is necessary and not into the status of owning certain gear.

Then there is the possibility that we might have to move one day, so I don't want to put a ton of money into something that we'd have to take a big loss on.

Here is a pic of the building as seen from the main house. It's kind of ugly to look at so I was thinking of adding a western style shop front with porch like this pic (see link).

http://www.nascar.com/content/dam/nascar/articles/2012/01/22/dearnhardtjr-western-town/main/120122034407-western-store-front.jpg


HT by ZapBlank, on Flickr

Thanks! We love living here.

Thanks for the suggestions! There is a 240v outlet in the building, must have been for a big freezer or dryer.

The idea is to have the room completely light controlled. 5,000 lumen is a lot of light. Am I going to blind my kids if they look into that

I meant if they walk up to the screen, turn around and look into the projector.

We'll be mounting the PJ to the ceiling, out of harms way for sure. Now that I think about it, buy the time we're ready to hang the PJ our youngest should be old enough able to understand, " Don't look into the Projector!!!"