[sgapt]

Strongly considering a 128" CIH from carada bw with a panasonic 7000. First, the mount would be between 15-16 feet away is that too far away for good brightness? Second my first row of seats are at 11' then 17' then 23'. I used a excel theater calculator found on another thread on this website and everything checked out as far as screen size and seating location, but I am concerned about it being too close for those on front row. I have little to no ambient light in the room.

Any and all ideas would be appreciated. Sorry if this has been asked before. Also so glad there are others out there who dispise the letterboxing like me. (my wife doesn't like it either.)

 

[sgapt]

Come on! Somebody has to have an opinion. :

 

[HogPilot]

The seating distance question is ultimately a matter of personal taste. Some people like being closer to the screen to give them that "immersive" feel while others like to be further away to allow them to take everything in at once. Plus one's visual acuity factors in as well with respect to whether or not you can detect pixel structure, and whether or not that bothers you. The best I can recommend is for you to try it out on a blank wall before fixing you screen size. I personally sit just inside of 1 screen width from my 11' wide 2.35:1 screen and love being that close.


Panasonic projectors tend to be a little lumen-shy once calibrated, so again I'd recommend trying it out on a blank wall to see if you're comfortable with the brightness at your desired screen size. Remember zooming is going to spread those lumens over a larger area, and also remember to take into account approximately 50% loss of brightness over the life of the bulb.

 

[Gary Lightfoot]

If you sit anywhere between 2 to 4 times the screen height, you'll be in the range of most theatres seating. The geometric centre of the seating is often around 50 degrees, which works out around the same distance back as the (scope) screen is wide which is roughly where Hogpilot sits (so do I). Where do you like to sit (if you are able) in a commercial theatre? 2 x the screen height is considered the closest recommended by SMPTE if you're interested in industry guidelines. THX recommend that 3.68 x the SH is the furthest seat.


As Hogpilot said, experimenting is often the best way to find out what suits you before buying a screen, but many first timers don't realise how close they sit in a commercial theatre and often end up sitting quite far back at home since they don't think about seating distance as being important or consider how close they sit in a commercial theatre. Your seating sounds fine though - is that screen 128 ins wide or diagonal?


Gary

 

[sgapt]

Thanks guys for both responses. Hogpilot what are you using to project onto the 2.35 screen? A-lens or a projector with lens memory? I would prefer to do it with lens memory just based on cost alone. Do you think the 1.4 gain from carada is enough too off set the loss of brightness from stretching the image. (this is what rex from carada suggested)

 

[sgapt]

Another question. Would it be completely insane to have a fixed frame cinescope screen and then have a ceiling mounted pulldown/electric screen for watching hdtv?

Would be using a pana 7000.