Just bought a house (1 Viewer)

I'll finally have a media room. It's not a big one (13'5" by 13'8") which I'm slightly bummed about but I think it will work.


I'm thinking I can get away with a 100" diagonal screen - am I crazy for thinking this?


I'm looking at either an Optoma HD141X or BenQ W1070 projector.


Also I'm trying to decide between a fixed or a powered screen with remote. I probably won't care if it's always covering the wall, but the 100" diagonal powered w/remote screens are $100 and some of the fixed ones are $200 and up on Amazon. What's the pros and cons besides not always covering the wall up? Are the fixed ones typically better quality which would justify the price difference?


We're going to have the builder pre-wire and I'll probably just buy my own speakers since their markup is probably huge.


Thanks in advance.

A 100" diagonal screen should be fine, but it depends on your seating distance from screen. Do you have much leeway on where you mount the projector(throw distance)?

I prefer a fixed screen. Is there some reason you want an electric screen?

Probably not what i'd consider a good reason . I'm a wireless junkie and had a vision of me walking in the room and hitting a button which lowered the screen, dimmed the lights, and turned on the projector and stereo. A powered lowering screen just sounded cool to me, that's all. In reality, it's probably more to break or have issues with and a fixed screen probably makes a lot more sense. With that said, are the $199 screens on Amazon pretty decent, and what features on a fixed screen are a must - is felt border a most for reflection reasons?


I'll have to check on the projector but I can't think of anything that would prevent me from putting it almost completely against the back wall (plus some room to breathe). What things would cause a lack of leeway?

Any obstructions on the ceiling such as fans, beams, etc. can alter the mounting position. Do you want to ceiling mount projector or use a rear shelf? If you use a rear shelf, you need a projector with a good amount of lens shift. I don't know if the W1070 has enough to work on a shelf. Electric screens tend to wrinkle if they are not tensioned screens. I know nothing about the screens on Amazon.

I recently replaced my old Panason AE-900U with an Epson Powerlite 8345 because of the lens shift and zoom features. It is about 14' from a 103" DIY screen.

I'm a wireless junkie and had a vision of me walking in the room and hitting a button which lowered the screen

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Why don't you have curtains that open up to reveal the fixed screen? For a while, I had curtains that looked like they were in the "open" position but they couldn't move. My wife wanted to change things up so they are gone now. With the lights out, I don't care either way.

We're going to have the builder pre-wire and I'll probably just buy my own speakers since their markup is probably huge.

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Can you pre-wire? That markup is huge as well. When my house was being built, I checked with my electrician and he told me to mark where I wanted junction boxes and he would drill out the top plates for me. I came in on a Saturday and walked all over the exposed rafters running RG-6 and speaker wire. I should have run CAT-5 as well.

100" seems a bit large for that room to me, unless you're planning on sitting on the back wall and then you won't have optimal sound. I'd go somewhere in the 70-80" range, and that would make the need for a projection setup more debatable. (And 70-80 inches assumes you'd only be using Bluray quality sources.)

Robert_J said:

I recently replaced my old Panason AE-900U with an Epson Powerlite 8345 because of the lens shift and zoom features. It is about 14' from a 103" DIY screen.


Why don't you have curtains that open up to reveal the fixed screen? For a while, I had curtains that looked like they were in the "open" position but they couldn't move. My wife wanted to change things up so they are gone now. With the lights out, I don't care either way.


Can you pre-wire? That markup is huge as well. When my house was being built, I checked with my electrician and he told me to mark where I wanted junction boxes and he would drill out the top plates for me. I came in on a Saturday and walked all over the exposed rafters running RG-6 and speaker wire. I should have run CAT-5 as well.

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Unfortunately we can't do that - it's not a custom builder so it'd be against code and they'd probably have a conniption. I'm not handy so prewiring is probably not a good idea unless I have someone else do it. The curtains opening aren't a bad idea, i'll have to look into that. For now I guess I could just plan on the fixed screen as a start.

I'm not handy

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Does that only include wiring or does it apply everywhere? Because DIY in certain areas can give you great results at a fraction of the cost. For example, I built my fixed screen in a weekend for about $75. Even with price increases over the years, I'll bet it can still be done for under $100. I built my front 3 speakers for about $150 each using published plans. Some people who also built them compared them to speakers in the $1000 each range. I have about $1,000 in my sub but I have more output, extension and less distortion than Thor's Hammer from Wilson Audio. I'm planning an upgrade this summer.