Some help for my brother's FP basement HT

I'm in the process of helping my brother build his home theater in the basement of his townhouse, and he wants to install a projector so he can get the big screen effect. I'm pretty well versed in the audio side of things from my personal experience and my involvement here on the forum, but not so much on video aspects, especially concerning front projectors so I'd like your thoughts and suggestions on what I've come up with so far.

First, the details about the room. The room is 14' x 19' x 8', with a small window in the back corner that can be blocked out with a curtain to allow for full light controllability. It's an enclosed space except for the stairs that lead down to it at the back right corner of the room, and the door beside that which leads to the laundry/storage room that is on the other side of the right wall. It is a townhouse so there are neighbours on either side of the front and back walls, which could play a factor in how loud the theater can be. I've attached a rough drawing of the room layout and proposed location for all the gear.

At the moment, seating is about 11' feet from the front wall and the most likely location for the projector to be ceiling mounted is about 14' back, but this and the seating is flexible. The ceiling is composed of ceiling tiles so all wiring and work in the ceiling should be pretty easy to do and easy to conceal.

Now for the gear.

PROJECTOR
I'm suggesting that my brother go with a 720P projector so that he can benefit from the higher resolution available and be future-proof for upgrading to high def later on, without paying the premium for 1080P. His budget is around $1000-$1500. Based on the reviews and ratings at projectorcentral, the projectors we're considering are:
-Sanyo PLV-Z5
-Mitsubishi HC1500
-Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 720
-Panasonic PT-ZX100U
-Optoma HD70.

What factors should we consider when choosing the projector?
I know all of those are LCD, except the HD70 which is DLP. I'm thinking we want to go with LCD since there will be times when movies would be watched without the lights being completely off (i.e. when riding the exercise bike in the back, or when people will be moving around). Am I right in my thinking? The interesting tradeoff is that there are several stores here in Calgary that carry the Optoma (with bad or no demoing facilities), but most of the LCD projectors would have to be ordered online.

SCREEN
My brother wants as big a screen as possible, but with the jog in the wall, we're thinking that the max it could be is 100" diagonal. He said he doesn't want to spend more than $500 on the screen, and does not want a DIY. I'm thinking we could get a package deal on a screen if we bought it with the projector and ceiling mount.

We'll be heading out to the local stores in the next couple weeks to do some demoing, but I don't think there is much selection of these 720P and sub-$1000 screens locally so I'm also considering ordering online from Quebec Acoustic. They carry all the major brands of projectors, and screens from Dalite, Stewart, Draper, and Elite. I've also found avdeals.ca as another online retailer with many of these models. Are there any other online retailers in Canada that we should consider?

VIDEO SOURCE
My brother has a JVC DVD player at the moment but I don't think it is upconverting so I think I'll recommend that he buy an OPPO DV-980H. He'll probably eventually go to Blu-ray, but is not really interested in taking the plunge yet. If he were, I would get him to buy the PS3 since it is hardware profile upgradeable.

AUDIO
He's not really interested in upgrading his Yamaha receiver and Nuance bookshelf speakers, center channel and sub at the moment, but I am going to suggest getting a pair of dipoles for surrounds to spread out the surround effects more and be less obtrusive on the wall than a bookshelf speaker. I'm thinking the Paradigm ADP-190s, since they're small and can be had for about $350.


So those are the details of the room and what we're considering. Any thoughts on what I've come up with so far, recommendations or cautions for any particular model based on your experience, or anything that I have missed or should also consider would be greatly appreciated. We'll be going out to audition gear in the next couple weeks so suggestions for what to watch for would also be helpful.

Re: Some help for my brother's FP basement HT

Thanks. There's a local store here that carries that projector so we'll give it an audition.


I've read that before in other threads about choosing projectors. Since I've never auditioned projectors critically yet, what kind of differences are we going to see? Brightness, contrast, colour reproduction? We'll definitely have to audition both LCD and DLP before choosing one or the other - especially if we go the online route to buy.



Is that based on the specs, or your personal experience auditioning these projectors? The Z5 got a pretty strong review at projectorcentral.

Re: Some help for my brother's FP basement HT

Yeah, I see that now in the reviews of the Z5 compared to the Panasonic. Lack of brightness is highlighted as its weakness.

With regard to location of the projector, the stated projection distance for the Mitsubishi is 10-14' for a 100" screen. That would put it directly above or even in front of the sitting area. Are there any issues related to that which we should consider? I'm guessing fan noise would be more noticeable since it would be much closer to the sitting area, and possibly worrying about people bumping their heads on the projector when standing up.

Re: Some help for my brother's FP basement HT

Yeah, I guess if it is mounted right up against the ceiling tiles, it will still be pretty high up.

Am I correct in thinking that a 720p projector will not do any upscaling of its own (unlike a 720p tv)? Would I therefore need an upscaling DVD player to get the image displayed in 720p?

Re: Some help for my brother's FP basement HT

So after going out and looking at the very limited selection of 720p projectors available in stores in Calgary, we liked the Mitsubishi (saw a demo of the HD1000) but found out that it would be difficult to be able to place it in the optimum place for getting a 100" screen (there's a 6" drop section in the ceiling right where it would have to be).

We ended up ordering the Epson Powerlite Home Cinema 720 online, as it has a 2.1:1 zoom lens, and vertical and horizontal lens shift. A $100 rebate and free bulb from Epson helped sweeten the deal. It should arrive in a week, and I'll post pics and comments once we've got it set up.

I also ordered the brand new volume of Avia (Vol. 2), released in January, which I'll use to calibrate it. Here's the link: Avia Vol. 2 Has anybody else used this new version?

We're going to try the DIY screen route once we get the projector set up and figure out exactly how big we want to go.

Thanks for all the tips.