Joined
·
203 Posts
This is a response I wrote to help Lee who had sent me a PM. I've commented recently on a couple of HD1000U threads about keystone correction, shelf mounting, and the offset trying to let people know IT'S GOING TO BE OK. The projector will still turn on and throw a WONDERFUL image. I wanted to post our conversation so that it might help other fence sitters who have been scared to death by the KEYSTONE SCARE GUYS and the VERTICAL OFFSET/MUST CEILING MOUNT GUYS. Now of course I jest and these people are right that keystone correcting and shelf mounting is not ideal, but contrary to what they might believe, it still looks
![]()
. Here's our conversation.
Originally Question by smile:
Will you help me; some of your posts speak to my question. My ceiling is 9', eyes 12' from screen and pj will be ~14.5' from the screen. How do I determine if this HD1000U (or HD70) will work for me on a shelf, if that shelf can be 8'+ high? In other words, how do I est. picture placement; is there a site or formula to work w/? Thanks for the direction, for I have been told I am limited to LCD Z5 or Pan1000. Thank you.
Lee
My Response:
The reason people are telling you to go with the LCD units is because they have lens shift (the ability to move the image up and down by physically moving the lens). This avoids digital keystone correction. The HD70 and HD1000U both have fixed lenses that have a built in offset. This sets up these projector to be ceiling mounted because with ceiling mounting the screen is usually lower than the projectors lense so these manufacturers have built in about a 16" offset to always throw the image about 16" below the center of the lens (if upside down. Right side up the image will be about 16" above the lens.) I've simplified all of this but there are posts about how to accurately calculate how many inches the image will be above/below the centerline of the lense based on where you're placing the projector. You can search AVS for those explanations or I also believe mitsubishi has a calculater you can plug you're numbers into and find out.
Now as to your shelf question. If you are going to mount a shelf that high you're also going to need to then mount the projector upside down on the bottom of the shelf. Remember my basic estimate. Right side up the image is going to be higher than than the center line of the lens so at 8' you're going to have to tilt the projector way down to get it to hit your screen. If you mount it underneath then you'll probably only need to tilt it up a little bit to hit your screen. But undermounting a projector to a shelf can be a bit of work.
If you want to do a shelf assuming you're going to be installing one and not just using one that happens to be 8' high on your wall, I'd recommend doing what I have. With the offset of these projectors basically the lower your shelf the less keystoning you'll have to use. Now of course you'll need it high enough that it's not shining on people's heads or so low you'll smash your head against it if you get up from the couch. So here's my set up.
I have a very limited amount of room since I live in an apartment. My main couch is against the back wall which is about 11 feet from the screen. I have a shelf mounted directly above that probably 4 feet up and I have 8ft ceilings. The 4 ft mark is high enough that you won't bump you're head or feel like you're sitting under a roof or something. I then also have the top of my screen about 8" from the ceiling. This is also important because with a shelf mount again the higher you're screen will also allow you to tilt less since the projector is going to be throwing the image higher than where it's placed. Again lower shelf and higher screen, less tiliting, and less digital keystone correction. But as you can see, my set-up still has the screen a decent amount down from the ceiling and a 4 ft shelf is a pretty normal height, it's certainly not low. And my set-up works WONDERFULLY. A lot of people scare others away by talking about the offset/mounting issues and digital keystone correction. I have to tilt my projector down (quite a fair amount) and I'm using a good amount of digital keystone correction to square the image. It looks fine and works well. I have concrete ceilings in my building so I wasn't looking forward to ceiling mounting this projector. I was worried (because I had listened to the keystone scare people) but once I had the unit and looked at it, it's fine. Shelf mounting is a lot easier to set-up and is a lot easier to adjust if the projector isn't perfectly centered - just slide the unit over on the shelf a bit. With a ceiling mount if you missed it, you missed it. You can tilt and turn and all of that but the image won't be perfectly square.
I hope all of this helps. It might all sound a bit confusing but it's really not. Once you get the projector and get it set-up it will all make sense. You can then tweak your set-up to get it better because you'll be able to actually SEE what you need to do. But creating the PERFECT set-up isn't necessary. We all try to and that's what makes it complicated, but in the end you'll be able to make it work. I'm really thrilled with projectors ever since I got into it a few years ago. I'll never go back and the HD1000 is SILLY GOOD at such an amazing price. My current set-up throws an 85" diagonal image and it looks better than my buddy's new 42" Samsung plasma
![]()
and it's twice as big
![]()
![]()
Oh, and it cost a little less including my shelf, screen, and black frame I made for my screen. I think my buddy is
![]()
Originally Question by smile:
Will you help me; some of your posts speak to my question. My ceiling is 9', eyes 12' from screen and pj will be ~14.5' from the screen. How do I determine if this HD1000U (or HD70) will work for me on a shelf, if that shelf can be 8'+ high? In other words, how do I est. picture placement; is there a site or formula to work w/? Thanks for the direction, for I have been told I am limited to LCD Z5 or Pan1000. Thank you.
Lee
My Response:
The reason people are telling you to go with the LCD units is because they have lens shift (the ability to move the image up and down by physically moving the lens). This avoids digital keystone correction. The HD70 and HD1000U both have fixed lenses that have a built in offset. This sets up these projector to be ceiling mounted because with ceiling mounting the screen is usually lower than the projectors lense so these manufacturers have built in about a 16" offset to always throw the image about 16" below the center of the lens (if upside down. Right side up the image will be about 16" above the lens.) I've simplified all of this but there are posts about how to accurately calculate how many inches the image will be above/below the centerline of the lense based on where you're placing the projector. You can search AVS for those explanations or I also believe mitsubishi has a calculater you can plug you're numbers into and find out.
Now as to your shelf question. If you are going to mount a shelf that high you're also going to need to then mount the projector upside down on the bottom of the shelf. Remember my basic estimate. Right side up the image is going to be higher than than the center line of the lens so at 8' you're going to have to tilt the projector way down to get it to hit your screen. If you mount it underneath then you'll probably only need to tilt it up a little bit to hit your screen. But undermounting a projector to a shelf can be a bit of work.
If you want to do a shelf assuming you're going to be installing one and not just using one that happens to be 8' high on your wall, I'd recommend doing what I have. With the offset of these projectors basically the lower your shelf the less keystoning you'll have to use. Now of course you'll need it high enough that it's not shining on people's heads or so low you'll smash your head against it if you get up from the couch. So here's my set up.
I have a very limited amount of room since I live in an apartment. My main couch is against the back wall which is about 11 feet from the screen. I have a shelf mounted directly above that probably 4 feet up and I have 8ft ceilings. The 4 ft mark is high enough that you won't bump you're head or feel like you're sitting under a roof or something. I then also have the top of my screen about 8" from the ceiling. This is also important because with a shelf mount again the higher you're screen will also allow you to tilt less since the projector is going to be throwing the image higher than where it's placed. Again lower shelf and higher screen, less tiliting, and less digital keystone correction. But as you can see, my set-up still has the screen a decent amount down from the ceiling and a 4 ft shelf is a pretty normal height, it's certainly not low. And my set-up works WONDERFULLY. A lot of people scare others away by talking about the offset/mounting issues and digital keystone correction. I have to tilt my projector down (quite a fair amount) and I'm using a good amount of digital keystone correction to square the image. It looks fine and works well. I have concrete ceilings in my building so I wasn't looking forward to ceiling mounting this projector. I was worried (because I had listened to the keystone scare people) but once I had the unit and looked at it, it's fine. Shelf mounting is a lot easier to set-up and is a lot easier to adjust if the projector isn't perfectly centered - just slide the unit over on the shelf a bit. With a ceiling mount if you missed it, you missed it. You can tilt and turn and all of that but the image won't be perfectly square.
I hope all of this helps. It might all sound a bit confusing but it's really not. Once you get the projector and get it set-up it will all make sense. You can then tweak your set-up to get it better because you'll be able to actually SEE what you need to do. But creating the PERFECT set-up isn't necessary. We all try to and that's what makes it complicated, but in the end you'll be able to make it work. I'm really thrilled with projectors ever since I got into it a few years ago. I'll never go back and the HD1000 is SILLY GOOD at such an amazing price. My current set-up throws an 85" diagonal image and it looks better than my buddy's new 42" Samsung plasma
