[peptidelink]

Looking to turn my garage into home cinema.I am on a pretty steep learning curve at the moment. So forgive the silly questions . i have tried the search facility but gave up after trawling thro umpteen posts.


Still undecided on which projector i will go for either the panasonic AE300 or Sanyo PLV-Z1


Ok I will be mounting the projector on the ceiling. So


1. Do i need to put projector up upside down. So that ceiling mount can attach to base and invert picture output? or can they be hung up right way round? Indeed is there a preffered way?


2. Does it matter how far projector hangs down? i.e. do i just tilt projector so that picture hits screen or will having it at an angle affect picture quality? i.e. does it have to be square on to screen.


My garage is 8 feet high and i am 6' 2" so dont have too much head clearance.


I am taking it so much info at the moment on everything from. cable type to HTPC settings . I am finding it tough to get all the answers

 

[JoeB]

The projector will most likely be mounted upside down. However, you set the projector to ceiling projection mode.


If you want the cleanest picture, you do not want to use the keystone correction feature, therefore, based on projection offset, the projector should be lowered to the point where the image fits your screen when it is perpendicular to the floor / ceiling or square to screen (use a level)....at that point, no keystone correction will be needed.


I made my own cables out RG6 coax with gold connections...works great!


I hope this helps!

 

[peptidelink]

Thanks for the quick reply Joeb. Still a little unclear , Does this mean that the picure will be projected at an angle anyway. Is this what you mean by projection offset.


I will need a D-Sub type cable for HTPC use i believe

 

[JoeB]

The tw100 projector has an offset of 6 inches or so from lens center to screen at approx 11 feet away from the screen. In other words, if you ceiling mount the projector 11 feet from the screen and the center of the lens is a 7.5 feet from the floor, the image will project onto the screen starting at 7 feet from the floor. The farther you push the projector away from the screen, the farther down from the ceiling the image will be pushed down...and vice versa if you move the projector closer.


I hope this clarifies.

 

[AnthonyP]

1) most projectors are built to be hung upside-down if the projector is shooting downwards (i.e. ceiling mount = upside-down, table mount = right side up), but there are some models very few and usually expensive that are built to be right side up on the ceiling.


2) The optics in the projector determine where the image will be shown with respect to the projector (will the bottom of the lens be equal, below or above the projected image) and by how much. Some projectors also have a shift function (usually the more expensive projectors) and the best ones have an optical shift instead of a digital shift.


As for putting the projector at an angle, you can do that, and most projectors have keystone correction to square the image. But most projectors have digital keystoning instead of optical. With digital keystoning, the image displayed on the LCD or DLP is keystoned in the opposite direction, and therefor there is a loss of a few pixels. Which in theory should reduce the resolution.


But if it is a matter of banging your head on the projector, I would go with putting it higher, you could damage the projector by hitting it over and over again

 

[HankB]

I use the keystoning on my projector, and I barely notice it when running a 1024x768 desktop. I don't notice it at all when watching a DVD.


BTW, I made my own projector mount that is basically two pieces of wood hinged together. One piece is connected to the ceiling, the other to the projector. That means my projector is as flush as possible to the ceiling. I like it out of the way. When I first got it I was worried about loosing rez to keystoning, but have found that its not an issue.

 

[Steve13]

You can angle your projector slightly (point it down) and also angle your screen at a corresponding angle to avoid keystoning. In most cases, you won't even notice that the screen isn't perpendicular to the floor.