[jawbreaker]

i think i'm in a little over my head. i'm "building" my first home theater. it's just in my living room, though, in a rented house. no in wall speakers, no permanent 120" screen, no popcorn machine. there wasn't a real good spot to put a television of the size that i wanted, so i opted for a projector, and got all excited. the sanyo plv-z700 is on its way, and i thought i had a great deal on a screen lined up, but it fell through. i hadn't really put much thought into the screen, and now that i've done some research, i'm totally lost.


here's the stats: sanyo plv-z700, from a distance of about 14 feet. i know i want a manual pull down screen, mounted from the ceiling, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 80"-92". probably closer to 80". the room is painted off white, and some (probably too much) light leaks into the room until it gets dark outside.


i know, i should have done more homework before going ahead and getting a projector... i had heard somewhere that the newer lcd projectors were so good that you didn't need to have a completely dark room to enjoy satisfactory results. is there any truth to that? on the bright side, i'm pretty easy to please...


oh, and the kicker is that i'm only gonna have a $250 max budget.. is my situation completely fubar? can anyone help decipher all of the gain/viewing angle/16:9/2.35 code that is clogging my brain?

 

[FLBoy]



Quote:
Originally Posted by jawbreaker /forum/post/16833194


i had heard somewhere that the newer lcd projectors were so good that you didn't need to have a completely dark room to enjoy satisfactory results. is there any truth to that?

Only to the extent that almost no room is ever completely dark. Get some light blocking shades if you want to watch in the daytime. What you do have going for you is your planned small screen. Small = bright. Elite screens are within your budget. Be sure to get a quote from the AV Science store (linked above). Get a 16:9 (HDTV aspect ratio) screen. White will do, but gray will give you a slightly darker black level. For a wide viewing angle, a gain of 1.0 to 1.3 will do.


If you have access to Excel or MS Works, my easy calculator (linked below) will help you to understand different aspect ratios.