I think I'm finally ready to take the plunge into a projector. I've been through most of the pros and cons on this and many other forums, and believe I've settled on the Panny AX200 for the placement flexibility and ability to deal with ambient light.
My situation is that I'm converting a dining room area into the theater.
- The space is 11' 6" wide, and 14' 4" long.
- Will have 1 row of seating ~ 10ft from the screen, and will take up much of the width of the room.
- The throw distance will be right around 11' and a couple of inches (could be as much as 12', but being conservative), and will be shelf mounted
- That shelf mount will still be slightly overhead and will use some vertical and horizontal shift
- The screen size will be in the 92" - 100" diagonal range (open to other suggestions/comments if you have thoughts on the size)
- Definitely will have ambient light during the day, and will get *some* use during the day (sports, occasional kid's movie, and some Wii gaming). Should be mostly light controlled at night
- The windows (facing East and South, but on the east side of the house with shade trees & other homes blocking direct light on the south side) in the room will have black-out cellular shades, and will likely also have some sort of drapery window treatment.
- The screen will be on the wall with one of the windows behind it, so it won't be able to lay flat directly on the wall.
- Will be used for both HD & SD TV at times, an Oppo DVD player, and some Wii gaming. Will probably get blu-ray at some point within next 12 months.
- The walls can get painted pretty much whatever I want. Today, below the chair rail is a beautiful deep cerulean blue, and above is a light peach-ish color with an off-white ceiling. Don't know if I'll find another dark color that will complement the blue, or just repaint the entire room a darker color. Will likely do something for the ceiling as well.
Based on all of that info, and using the projector calculator, looks like I'll be ~ 1.66x zoom for a 92" screen at 11', and getting pretty good image brightness at around ~33 fL (assuming zero screen gain). I do care about gray-ish blacks and shadow details. I have a pretty well decent eye, but not an ISF calibrator or anything like that.
So, I'm looking for some screen advice.
- How do you feel about the size I mentioned? Sound reasonable? (I'm not a front row @ the movies guy, but I do like the bigger image)
- I'm assuming I need a grey screen of some sort to help with ambient light & blacks
- Do I need some gain on the screen?
- What type of reflective screen?
- Would much prefer a fixed screen
- Will need to either mount from ceiling, or have some sort of arm that extends from above the window behind the screen to hold it
What would you recommend? I'd really like to keep the screen <$300 (and obviously the less is better
. I've been looking at the Elite Silverscreen thread here, but not really sure whether that will meet the requirements.
I love reading the DIY threads, but I really and truly have zero aptitude for that stuff. I can't really paint in my situation. What appeals to me with the Elite is that it is a complete package that won't require me to cut things, wrap things, paint things. etc.
Thanks in advance for everyone's assistance and suggestions.
Rich