Is 45" x 80" (16:9) too small of a screen for the Sony 400Q?  

I'm in the process of planning my dedicated HT room and
will commence construction in the next month or two.

The projector I'll be using is the Sony 400Q and the room
dimensions will be approximately 15'W x 9'H x 22'L(subject
to change).

Viewing or seating distance will be around 13'.

I'm considering a smaller, but still high gain screen in
hopes that I'll get a higher quality picture.

I've also read multiple posts by 400Q owners who claim good
performance with much larger screens, but I've been watching
my 400Q(on a painted wall) from a seating distance of about
8 to 9' and an image size of about 5' wide for months now and
while I'm happy with the overall picture, scanlines are clearly
visible during fast vertical pans.

Am I better off with a smaller screen(45"T x 80"W), or would an
HTPC eliminate the scanlines on fast vertical pans, thus allowing
say a 106" diagonal screen?

Any and all input would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Anthony

The 400Q puts out about 400 lumens and has a built-in line doubler.

The 400Q's built-in line doubler is acually pretty decent except during
fast vertical pans during which it falls back to interlaced video.

I plan to use a high gain screen regardless of the size. Probably around
2.0 to 2.5.

Anthony

It seems that most printed HT publications recommend smaller screen sizes, usually around 78" wide. At 45H x 80W my smallish screen would still be larger than what TJN at SGHT recommends.

Any other recommendations?

J Thomas,

Thanks for the reply.

So are you saying that when watching satalite TV that you preferred
a little more distance from that screen size? Or were you talking
about standard non-HTPC DVD?

Also, would you say that the HTPC made a significant improvement to
the 400Q? On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being HDTV, where would you put
the 400Q's internal doubler vs. the HTPC's?

Thanks,
Anthony

Thanks for the replies!

I'm really tempted to do the HTPC thing, I just want to be sure
that I'll see enough of improvement to warrant to cost.

From what I'm hearing here, it does.

So maybe I can go a little larger on the screen?