[pittsoccer33]

I'm getting ready to close on my new home, so naturally before buying appliances or a lawn mower I'm fixated on FINALLY having space for 7 channel sound and a projector screen.

Right now I'm leaning towards using 120"/10' long lumber for the screen, with spandex as the material. My speakers are about 9" deep, so I figure the screen will be out about a foot from that wall. a 10' wide screen would still give me a bit of clearance to get back to the laundry area (I'll probably just use a curtain over that door).

1.78:1 would give me a 120"x68" screen, 138" diagonal

2.35:1 would be 12"x50", 130" diagonal

The drop ceiling there is about 7' high, and about 8' where I will be hanging the projector (BenQ 1070 or Optoma HD26).

CIH is obviously a home theater dream, but I don't think it makes sense in my case. Is there something I am not considering? I just feel like 16x9 sports and movies will be compromised too much by doing CIH.

I used the 2' wide ceiling tiles as my guide to approximate a 10ft wide screen:

 

[Ftoast]

Might you be able to cover the first 1 or 2 rows of the ceiling tiles with dark fabric (velvet is particularly good)?
The height itself shouldn't be a problem, just light reflection from having a light-colored surface so close to the screen. The wall nearest the screen on the left side would also seriously benefit from a dark curtain or something similar for the same reason.

If you really would prefer a CIH setup, there are a couple folks that have mounted the projector to a sled (think rollout keyboard tray on a desk..or a drawer roller mount). That allowed the inexpensive projector to move forward for smaller 16:9 content without an expensive lens or anything else.

Technically either setup would benefit from darkened the ceiling and wall/s close to the screen if at all possible.

 

[pittsoccer33]

I going to try painting the tiles navy blue - which I'm going to paint the rest of the walls. I'm not going to do anything to the wood (yet) but would strong consider it in the future.

We are also going to do dark earth tone carpet squares.

 

[Ftoast]

Nice. By darkening the room, you'll allow any projector you get to jump up to its actual contrast potential rather than getting stranded back around 1000:1 or less.

Here's a picture of one of the sleds in case you prefer that and a 2.39screen.

Probably outside of budget, but you might also consider the Panasonic ae8000 projector. It is the least expensive projector I know of that features lens-memory and motorized zoom which will make mounting and switching screen aspects as simple as a button press. It'll also give the next big step up in contrast/black-levels compared to the w1070/1075 which will be visible in your darkened room..but it costs roughly 2X as much at around $1600-$1700.

 

[MississippiMan]

Without any treatment the left side wall will shine very prominently at either size / format, but all the more so at 16:9

Also, that Floor isn't going to be ideal, so crowding it too close might present it's own set of issues.

Of course many will tolerate much to have the size image you want (16:9), and owning to your PJ choices, your not trying to go for 'The best possible"....but more like "The best I can afford".

Knowing that, just go big as possible now, and look to the future when you'll do so quick and easy wall treatments, because that will be the easiest way to see a difference on a restrictive budget.

 

[Peterc613]

You can pick up a used Panasonic AE4000 projector for about $850 on audiogon or amazon. At $2,000 new, it was a best buy projector for many reviewers about 5 years ago. Most important, it had sense motorized memory for 16 x 9 widescreen aspect ratio and support of 2.35:1 cinematic widescreen for certain movies. The projected distance (throw) is a fantastic 45 inches to 711 inches, with a screen size (diagonal) of 40 to 300 inches. Basically, you can use this home theater projector anywhere from a small room to a decent-size auditorium. You can program it's IR command for the lens shift into your universal remote.

http://app.audiogon.com/listings/pr...015-04-14-home-theater-11418-richmond-hill-ny

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B002W7CW32/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used


Projector Central Review:

"The Panasonic PT-AE4000 sets a new benchmark for price/performance in the home theater industry. In both picture quality and features, it easily surpasses the AE3000. And at just $1,999 it will have an earthshaking effect on prices throughout the industry. No other projector is as fully-loaded with user friendly features as this one; other than the AE3000, no other competing model even comes close in features and functionality. But what it always comes down to is picture quality. And in this regard, the AE4000 surpasses not only the AE3000, but all other 1080p models that we have yet seen under $3,000. It is not the brightness unit on the market by any stretch. Several other inexpensive 1080p models have brighter Cinema modes. But if you are looking for extremely high image quality and are willing to give up a little lumen output to get it, the AE4000 produces a refined, elegant picture that is extremely difficult to beat.

Since the AE4000's picture quality not only surpasses the competitors in its price range, but rivals and in some cases exceeds that of "high-end" models selling for five times the price or more, it warrants a solid 5 stars for performance. Since it has more features than any other home theater projector ever built, 5 stars is not even enough to illustrate its distinction in this category. Similarly, its ease of use is unrivaled-perfect color calibration out of the box in Cinema 1 mode, smart menus that are easy to navigate, lens memory to accommodate 2.40 super widescreen without an anamophic lens-no other projector has all of these things, and most have none of them.

All of this adds up to a remarkable value proposition: at a street of $1,999, we've simply never seen this much performance at this price. Panasonic has been extremely tight-lipped about this product launch. Until now many thought the company was dropping out of the home theater projector market. Today's announcement makes it clear that they are here to stay. The Panasonic PT-AE4000U will be one of the hottest selling home theater projectors of the fall season, and we enthusiastically give it our highest recommendation."

http://www.projectorcentral.com/panasonic_ae4000_projector_review.htm


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Pair this with an Elite dual screen which has both a 16:9 and a 2:25 screen in the housing. These were about $2,000 new but were discontinued at the end of 2014 but you can still pick one up at a fantastic clearance price of $174 on amazon before they're all gone. You can also program it's IR command for the lens shift into your universal remote.

http://www.amazon.com/Elite-Screens-DTE117C94H-E16-Osprey-Tensioned/dp/B003E6RGN6


Brochure:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/pdf/screens/ospreytensiondual_brochure.pdf


Home Theater Review:

"The Osprey Tension Dual Series Screen is an ingenious design, in that it gets around the auto-masking issue and its associated costs by simply housing two separate screens in one chassis. When I first learned of the Osprey's existence I had one of those "duh" moments, for Elite's solution seems so simple, yet no one has done it. They just took the two screens needed to enjoy both 16:9 and 2:35:1 aspect ratio material and put them together. It's freakin' genius, I tell you. And the cost for this fit of brilliance? Prices start at $1,999 for an Osprey screen containing a 78-inch diagonal 16:9 aspect ratio screen and a 97-inch diagonal 2:35:1 aspect ratio screen."

http://hometheaterreview.com/elite-screens-osprey-tension-dual-series-screen-reviewed/


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Mount the screen on the wall and put your speakers just under the screen drop. They will sound much better than behind the screen being muffled by the screen material. People spend gobs of money on perforated or woven screens to minimize the loss in clarity and detail from putting the speakers behind the screen. I would imagine that regular spandex would attenuate the high frequency detail even greater than these carefully engineered screens. Also spandex probably doesn't have the same 1.1 gain or reflected color balance of a commercial white screen.

Mount the projector and project a 16:9 image on the Elite 16:9 screen. Adjust throw distance to fit the 16:9 height/width, then adjust keystone correction and focus until it looks best. Store that as setting #1 in the projector. Switch to projecting a 2:35 image on the Elite's 2:35 screen. Adjust the throw distance to fit the 2:35 height/width, then adjust keystone correction and focus until it looks best. Store that as setting #2 in the projector. Create a macro in your universal remote to change the projector lens memory and raise or lower one of the two Elite screens.

If you want to mount the screen on a 2x6x10 wood spacer to move it out from the wall, then you can put an inexpensive $696 LCD 60" TV under it for daytime viewing when it's harder to control light. That gives you a chance to use the room for casual viewing without pulling the shades, dropping the lights and firing up the projector and screen. It doesn't have to be an expensive model for critical viewing since you're going to use the projector/screen for that when you really want to watch a movie or the big game.

http://www.google.com/shopping/prod...PVoATD_4HgCw&gclid=CPuEkbGTqcUCFcRgfgodAiAAUA

Now you have a Constant Height theater / multi-use entertainment room for a fraction of the cost of buying a newer projector with lens memory, two different 16:9 and 2:35 motorized screens and a 60" flatscreen TV! That's basically what I did in my installation (see below).

 

[Peterc613]

PS - If you don't have the funds for a projector right now, or want to save up for the newer Panasonic AE8000 (which is an improvement over the older AE4000 for $750) then at least pick up the Elite dual screen before they're all gone on clearance. At $174 for two screens you can't go wrong.

 

[shivaji]

My vote goes for the 130" 2:35 screen. It will look great in that space and when watching 16x9 content on it, it will still be a big image within that screen size. With the 2:35 screen hung a higher than your pics show you will have more room underneath the screen for bigger speakers.

 

[MississippiMan]

PS - If you don't have the funds for a projector right now, or want to save up for the newer Panasonic AE8000 (which is an improvement over the older AE4000 for $750) then at least pick up the Elite dual screen before they're all gone on clearance. At $174 for two screens you can't go wrong.

I don't think the OP is too interested in going from a possible 10' wide screen to a 80" diagonal.

And with the crazy mixed up product description.......

Besides all that, this is DIY Screens, where people make screens or re purpose Mfg Screens with new coatings.

The 4000 was good in it's day, but it burned through lamps too fast in comparison to today's PJs and the lamp grew dim very quickly. It's Blacks are nowhere near as good either. New at the price listed is a good bargain though. But the 4000 is a BIG projector....and it's no longer supported by Panny for repair, so there is that to consider as well.

Lastly...you are so far off the mark about Spandex's acoustic ability. It has be thoroughly vetted by Members here, very well measured, and found to be equal or superior to Mfg AT products. Across ALL frequencies. If you actually did some studying you'd know all this.

That said, making a Spandex AT Screen for so much less than a comparable Mfg version is exactly what DIY'ism is all about.