[Red-3]

I thought about posting this in the Dedicated Theater Room forum, but I

feel more comfortable here, since it seems a lot of you guys here have smaller rooms and a lot of the talk is around how to do it cost effectively. If it's the wrong place to post let me know and I'll take it elsewhere.


My project this year is to upgrade to my small dedicated room in the basement to use a DIY front projection screen.

I first built the room about 8 years ago, and made some serious errors in judgement first time around. Nothing I can't live with, but I'd like to not make another round of mistakes. The room is a bit short of ideal at 11' x 13'6", but one advantage is that the back wall is interior and so I have the option of mounting

the projector outside the room if needed. (I kind of think this would be

cool because it would seem like I have a projection room like in a theatre.)


I've done a simple room plan which I've attached to this post, or you can view it here:
Home Theater Phase 2 Room Plan


You can check out my current setup here:
Current Home Theater Setup


My current plan is to replace the 52" RPTV with a 100" diag 16:9 screen

(hopefully Do-Able board if I can get hold of it.)


Wanted some advice on a couple of setup issues.

Here are the dimensions:

Room width: 11ft

Room length: 13" 6'

Ceiling height: 7' 3"

Expected front row head distance: 7' from screen

Expected rear row head distance: 11' from screen

Rear row riser height: 9"

Rear row riser depth: 5' 6"


Target screen size (16:9): min 46" x 84" (94" diag): max 49" x 87" (100"

diag)

Approx throw distance: 13' 9"


I'm looking at the Panasonic, Sanyo and Mitsubishi 1080p projectors -

(currently biased towards the Panny PT-AE2000U, mainly due to no SDE and remote zoom, but that may change as

the market develops over the next year.)


I'm going to rebuild the riser under the second row of seating (I badly underestimated how deep to make it on the first build. ) I will also enclose the archway and replace it with a door. (Looks nice but is an obvious sound leak liability!)


Some questions:


PROJECTOR MOUNT

Room height is fairly low: 7' 3".

What's the ideal height to mount the projector?

Should I mount it upside down using a ceiling mount? Or right way up?

Occasionally I will want to take the projector to use at an event. Do you know of a ceiling mount which is easy to dismount the projector from? (I would like to unclip it rather than unscrew it.)


SEATING

Should I raise the height of the riser?

What's the ideal distance to sit from a 100" screen? With and without screendoor effect? (HD 1080p - if I go for the Panasonic, there's no screendoor effect - very tempting for closer viewing.)

Is 7ft away from a 100" screen bearable?

Would you forget about the front row and place the back row slightly closer to the screen?

What's the optimal viewing distance for a 100" 1080p HD screen?


SOUND & EQUIPMENT SETUP

Should I mount the centre speaker above or below the screen?

Where should I place the side speakers when I upgrade to 7.1 surround?

Where's the best place to mount the subwoofer?

I am thinking that the equipment rack is best at the back of the room. (Bottom left on floor plan.) I'm thinking of cutting a hole in the back wall and having the wires outside and the equipment facing into the theater room so that I can still use the remotes. Any advice of ideas on that plan would be appreciated.


Sorry for the long post, but I've been thinking about this for a while and I want to make the best of it this time around...

 

[Laserfan]

If your rear wall is accessible from behind by all means cut an equipment cabinet into there, then set the pj on a shelf with the other gear. That's what I do--I'm shooting 14 feet from back wall to screen, and the cabinet is fully accessible from behind as there's only a closet behind it. BTW my remotes fire right off the screen and activate the equipment behind me just fine.


Can't see "raising the riser" as you have so little headroom.


I'd do the screen such that your feet & knees etc. when slouched do not interfere w/vision. Then given it's Up a ways your center speaker is better placed Under the screen.


Final thought: get yr pj and play with screen sizes before buying any screen. Also consider just painting your screen wall and draping it.

 

[Red-3]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Laserfan /forum/post/12885132


If your rear wall is accessible from behind by all means cut an equipment cabinet into there, then set the pj on a shelf with the other gear. That's what I do--I'm shooting 14 feet from back wall to screen, and the cabinet is fully accessible from behind as there's only a closet behind it. BTW my remotes fire right off the screen and activate the equipment behind me just fine.

Do you have any issues with keystone placing the PJ upright on the shelf?

Would love to see some photos of your setup.

I'm pretty sure I want my equipment rack in the corner of the room, since it would be nicely tucked behind the door in the room behind. Then I would run just a couple of wires up and across to the PJ from there.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Laserfan /forum/post/12885132


Can't see "raising the riser" as you have so little headroom.

I think you're right.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Laserfan /forum/post/12885132


I'd do the screen such that your feet & knees etc. when slouched do not interfere w/vision. Then given it's Up a ways your center speaker is better placed Under the screen.

The current calculations mean that the bottom of the screen will be about 28" above the floor. I think I'm going to make a little stage feature and a shelf to place the centre on.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Laserfan /forum/post/12885132


Final thought: get yr pj and play with screen sizes before buying any screen. Also consider just painting your screen wall and draping it.

Thanks for your feedback. According to the calculators I'm well within projector specs for the screen size I want, and I'm considering a model with h&v lens shift for fine tuning.

As a DIY screen solution, I'm considering Do+Able board if I can get it, or maybe a DW laminate attached to the wall. A painted-on solution is not my first choice...


The Do+Able Vinyl 1/4" board is so cheap (

 

[tiddler]

The projectors you listed all have lens shift so you don't have to tilt the projector. Therefore keystone correction is unnecessary.

 

[Red-3]



Quote:
Originally Posted by tiddler /forum/post/12885609


The projectors you listed all have lens shift so you don't have to tilt the projector. Therefore keystone correction is unnecessary.

Cool - are there any disadvantages to using lens shift?

 

[Laserfan]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Red-3 /forum/post/12885494


Do you have any issues with keystone placing the PJ upright on the shelf?

The opposite--my pj is virtually dead center on the screen w/virtually no lens shifting needed at all in any direction. That's not usually an issue anyway as tiddler has said.

 

[Laserfan]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Red-3 /forum/post/12885790


Cool - are there any disadvantages to using lens shift?

If you study the manuals for the pjs you're considering you will find the recommended horizontal and vertical positions for it. Within those positions you won't generally see any effect from lens shifting.


Note that most pjs have much more Vertical range than Horizontal, i.e. you wouldn't be able to put your pj on a side wall and not have a keystoning problem.


I'd guess that if you can put yours in the back wall within a couple feet of center you'll be OK, but again check the manual(s).

 

[Red-3]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Laserfan /forum/post/12885983


If you study the manuals for the pjs you're considering you will find the recommended horizontal and vertical positions for it. Within those positions you won't generally see any effect from lens shifting.


Note that most pjs have much more Vertical range than Horizontal, i.e. you wouldn't be able to put your pj on a side wall and not have a keystoning problem.


I'd guess that if you can put yours in the back wall within a couple feet of center you'll be OK, but again check the manual(s).

The only thing I'm worried about is to discover when I make the hole in the wall that the supporting post under the joist is right where I want to place the projector. At most I'll be a projector's width off centre, so shouldn't be an issue.


Would you go for ceiling mount or shelf mount? (The position of the projector lens will be the same, whatever the orientation.)


If I were to place a glass panel over the opening in the wall, are there any special considerations? e.g. Do I need to angle the glass? Use special glass?

 

[Laserfan]

Red-3 you said: "Occasionally I will want to take the projector to use at an event." If you have the option to build a shelf, why even consider a ceiling mount? Cost, fixed postion, in the ceiling which already is low--gets in the way maybe, etc.


Also, I wouldn't put any glass between my PJ and the screen. It's just not necessary. None of the new pjs make a lot of noise--the Mitsus are virtually silent in operation.


The one thing I would caution you about: At approx 14' throw distance there is a SMALLEST size you can make your screen. The Pro calculator at projectorcentral.com will help you with that.


I almost ordered a screen that was too small for my fixed throw distance.

 

[Red-3]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Laserfan /forum/post/12887207


Red-3 you said: "Occasionally I will want to take the projector to use at an event." If you have the option to build a shelf, why even consider a ceiling mount? Cost, fixed postion, in the ceiling which already is low--gets in the way maybe, etc.


Also, I wouldn't put any glass between my PJ and the screen. It's just not necessary. None of the new pjs make a lot of noise--the Mitsus are virtually silent in operation.


The one thing I would caution you about: At approx 14' throw distance there is a SMALLEST size you can make your screen. The Pro calculator at projectorcentral.com will help you with that.


I almost ordered a screen that was too small for my fixed throw distance.

Still mulling it over, but the idea was that some projectors are better ceiling mounted when high up due to the angle the lens is set at. However, this doesn't seem to be an issue with the 3LCD types, just the DLPs I suppose.

The other thing I was considering was that if it snapped onto the ceiling mount it would always be put back into exactly the right place.

It's a consideration for when I actually get the projector, which, unfortunately won't be until December - my wife has agreed that it will be my 40th birthday present. (And I can't have it early!)

Not to worry though - the prices and quality of the 1080p are getting better all the time.


I have worked out that I can nicely fill a 100" screen from my calculated throw distance with about 1.3x zoom.