Brand new to real Home Theater re-post

[record_breaker]

Hi folks, now that I've found the appropriate forum my 1st post follows:

Hi



I'm really just starting to look at projectors & a dedicated Home theater room. I am a little confused with all the choices. I'm going to have a problem because of my space, I have a basement area that I plan to wall off, this area can be up to12X20' my problem is the ceiling( just unfinished bare Joists at this time) which are just 6ft 10 inches from the floor the projectors in my price range are all entry level 720 X 1280 machines which all seem to have limited install features although I've been looking at the Mitsubishi HC1500 I am open to suggestions? My hope is a 16x9 screen size of 8 ft or 96 in wide.



Thanks

[Mr772]

record_breaker wrote:

Hi folks, now that I've found the appropriate forum my 1st post follows:

Hi



I'm really just starting to look at projectors & a dedicated Home theater room .I am a little confused with all the choices. I'm going to have a problem because of my space, I have a basement area that I plan to wall off, this area can be up to12X20' my problem is the ceiling( just unfinished bare Joists at this time) which are just 6ft 10 inches from the floor the projectors in my price range are all entry level 720 X 1280 machines which all seem to have limited install features although I've been looking at the Mitsubishi HC1500 I am open to suggestions? My hope is a 16x9 screen size of 8 ft or 96 in wide.



Thanks

You should look for a short throw FP and mount it closer to your screen to keep it from being above the seating area where people will be walking around. Or another option would be to mount the FP over the seating area where people would not be walking under the projector only sitting under it.

[tonyvdb]

If you mount the projector above a coffee table then you wont have people hitting it.
The Sanyo Z series of projectors have a feature called Lens shift this gives you allot of flexibility to placement so it doesn't have to be straight in line of the screen.

[muzz]

My sofa is against the rear wall, I have my Panasonic AX100U LCD pj on a shelf I built ABOVE the sofa(no banging heads either).
From a bit over 11' lens to screen, I get 115".

The LCDS like the aforementioned Sanyo Z5, and the Panasonic AX100/200 have lens shift, which may be something you are interested in, although you should try and use as little as possible.

I HAD a DLP with a short throw before this, and the same sized screen... problem was my ceiling/wall situation(screenwall has horizontal tongue and groove for like the lower 39") forced me to put it on a shelf where my sofa IS now ( wasn't able to use the sofa, it was on a shelf between 2 chairs)...
The problem I had, was the offset on the PJ in my tough room.

That HC1500 you mentioned has an offset as well, which may be a hinderence, or perhaps you can keep it REAL tight to the ceiling, and be near the floor at the screen.
This will require looking hard at the specs.... I don't even know if the 1500 will throw 8-9' if you are talking 12' depth.

[OvalNut]

Or, depending on the layout of the room and any adjoining room(s), put the projector in a room or closet behind the HT room. Shoot it into the room thru a glass window in the wall, much like a real movie theater. That way you can achieve a longer throw and bring it down from the ceiling a good bit. This also solves sound issues.

Hard to assess feasibility though not knowing the actual layout.


Tim

[record_breaker]

Good suggestion I would not have considered that.My lay out is pretty open I'm starting from scratch the only thing really hampering my selection of a PJ is the extremely low ceiling, but I have really been learning allot today.

[Keith from Canada]

record_breaker wrote:

Hi folks, now that I've found the appropriate forum my 1st post follows:

Hi



I'm really just starting to look at projectors & a dedicated Home theater room .I am a little confused with all the choices. I'm going to have a problem because of my space, I have a basement area that I plan to wall off, this area can be up to12X20' my problem is the ceiling( just unfinished bare Joists at this time) which are just 6ft 10 inches from the floor the projectors in my price range are all entry level 720 X 1280 machines which all seem to have limited install features although I've been looking at the Mitsubishi HC1500 I am open to suggestions? My hope is a 16x9 screen size of 8 ft or 96 in wide.



Thanks

6'10" without factoring drywall is just too low for a DLP with no lens shift. If DLP is the technology you want, you'll either have to find a projector with very little to no offset (hard to find since the BenQ PE7700 left the market) or spend more $'s and get a mid-level DLP with lenshift.

My thinking is that you'll be looking into the LCD world (nothing wrong with that). They offer extensive lens shift at even the lowest price points. I'm a DLP fan myself so I can't really offer too much insight into the different projectors you could choose from.

[record_breaker]

Keith from Canada wrote:

6'10" without factoring drywall is just too low for a DLP with no lens shift. If DLP is the technology you want, you'll either have to find a projector with very little to no offset (hard to find since the BenQ PE7700 left the market) or spend more $'s and get a mid-level DLP with lenshift.

My thinking is that you'll be looking into the LCD world (nothing wrong with that). They offer extensive lens shift at even the lowest price points. I'm a DLP fan myself so I can't really offer too much insight into the different projectors you could choose from.

Yes I;m realising that I'll have to ante up a little more $ to make this feasible. I'm looking real hard at the Sanyo Z's as mentioned earlier by Tim, so I'll be reading allot about the PLV-Z5 and similar machines in that class, read a review at projectorreveiws.com last night on the Z5 and that guy loved it. I've had good luck with other type electronic products from the Sanyo brand in the past and wouldn't be afraid to go that way again ,but as I said I'm just starting to research and I'll be going back and forth for some time, That's half the fun for a HT nut like me ??

[Keith from Canada]

record_breaker wrote:

Yes I;m realising that I'll have to ante up a little more $ to make this feasible. I'm looking real hard at the Sanyo Z's as mentioned earlier by Tim, so I'll be reading allot about the PLV-Z5 and similar machines in that class, read a review at projectorreveiws.com last night on the Z5 and that guy loved it. I've had good luck with other type electronic products from the Sanyo brand in the past and wouldn't be afraid to go that way again ,but as I said I'm just starting to research and I'll be going back and forth for some time, That's half the fun for a HT nut like me ??

The Z5 is nice...I've seen a few in person and they've all impressed me. The only issue with it is that it does have noticeable pixelation (screen door effect -- SDE). That's not an issue as long as you're not sitting too close to the screen. I for one would be further than 2 times screen width for it.

The Panny AX-200 has been getting some good reviews as have some of the Epsons.

[record_breaker]

Keith from Canada wrote:

The Z5 is nice...I've seen a few in person and they've all impressed me. The only issue with it is that it does have noticeable pixelation (screen door effect -- SDE). That's not an issue as long as you're not sitting too close to the screen. I for one would be further than 2 times screen width for it.

The Panny AX-200 has been getting some good reviews as have some of the Epsons.

I've read about that trade off. It's great to be able to hear from people that have seen and had hands on experience with some of these machines, I've always been Leary of possible bias by some professional reviewers. One thing in my favor for narrowing it down is light won't be an issue There will be no windows in my space.

[Keith from Canada]

record_breaker wrote:

I've read about that trade off. It's great to be able to hear from people that have seen and had hands on experience with some of these machines, I've always been Leary of possible bias by some professional reviewers. One thing in my favor for narrowing it down is light won't be an issue There will be no windows in my space.

I've always found Art at projectorreviews.com to be a very good and unbiased source when it comes to projector reviews. As with any reviewer though, it's best to read the review carefully...especially when you see dealer adds littered throughout the website.

[tonyjover]

Hmmm,

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but a ceiling-mounted DLP wouldn't need any lens shift in order to fill a 96" 16:9 screen mounted close to the ceiling. Obviously, the placement of the projector is critical to avoid heads knocking it, but taking my IN81 DLP as an example, it would want to be around 10 to 12 ft from the screen for the image size you desire, with the screen top around 8" down from the ceiling. The PJ complete with ceiling mount hangs down less than 12", so placement over say a coffee table would work just fine.

Or is there something I've missed here?

Regards,
Tony

[record_breaker]

From what I've read entry units like the Optoma HD70 and Mits 1500 have 30+% fixed vertical len shift built in. I could use one of these if I set it on a low table between or slightly in front of my front row seats, not the ideal lay out but I could save$$ that way.

[Keith from Canada]

tonyjover wrote:

Hmmm,

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but a ceiling-mounted DLP wouldn't need any lens shift in order to fill a 96" 16:9 screen mounted close to the ceiling. Obviously, the placement of the projector is critical to avoid heads knocking it, but taking my IN81 DLP as an example, it would want to be around 10 to 12 ft from the screen for the image size you desire, with the screen top around 8" down from the ceiling. The PJ complete with ceiling mount hangs down less than 12", so placement over say a coffee table would work just fine.

Or is there something I've missed here?

Regards,
Tony

The offset on the Optoma and Mits is too severe to accomodate a 6'10" ceiling (lower once drywall is factored in). I just installed a Mits on a 7'5" ceiling and the 92" screen is as low as I would want it. Force the projector down an extra 7" and increase the screen size 4" and the screen would be below where most people install outlets. That is simply too low IMO.

To the OP -- You could of course consider keystoning the image to get it higher. I would not recommend this approach but, some people have done it with little degradation to the image. I'm a big fan of DLP but if given the choice of moderate-to-severe keystone adjustment or an LCD unit, I would go with LCD.

[tonyjover]

Hi Keith,

I don't have a problem with moderate digital keystone correction on DLP with video images myself, although it looks pretty nasty on computer generated imagery. Agreed that it's best avoided though if at all possible.

To avoid it in my setup, my IN81 (which has a particularly large image offset of 36%) will require my screen to sit 700mm (around 2ft) below the ceiling to avoid keystoning. I agree that that wouldn't be possible on a 6'10" ceiling.

Thank you for allowing me to think out loud, and now I understand the previous advice given to OP.

Cheers,
Tony

[Keith from Canada]

tonyjover wrote:

Hi Keith,

I don't have a problem with moderate digital keystone correction on DLP with video images myself, although it looks pretty nasty on computer generated imagery. Agreed that it's best avoided though if at all possible.

To avoid it in my setup, my IN81 (which has a particularly large image offset of 36%) will require my screen to sit 700mm (around 2ft) below the ceiling to avoid keystoning. I agree that that wouldn't be possible on a 6'10" ceiling.

Thank you for allowing me to think out loud, and now I understand the previous advice given to OP.

Cheers,
Tony

No worries. I hope you're enjoying the IN81...I've yet to see one in person but I've heard nothing but good things about it. If I had the $'s, it would definitely be on my short-list for 'mid-level' 1080p!!!