Determining projector mounting distance/height... (1 Viewer)

[Greg Robinson]

Hi everyone. Construction has officially begun on my dedicated basement Home Theater. (WAHOO! by the way) I'm trying to plan out how things will be arranged and most importantly where the front projector will go. Some info to help you help me...

The room will be a rectangle 27' x 17' (roughly once framed). I will most likely put in a very shallow makeshift ceiling or a short-depth suspended ceiling (there will be no integrated lighting) giving me 7' - 7' 6" of room. The screen will be mounted centered on one wall (the smaller end) and I'd like to get as big an image as I possibly can while maintaining the best quality projection.

Questions: based on these numbers - what should I figure on for projector location - something like 12 or 13' ? How big an image can most projectors output while maintaining a nice picture? At what size does it start to degrade? And finally, what height does the projector's lens need to be in relation to the screen. Pointing at the screen's top edge? Its center?

THANKS!!!!

 

[Dmitry]

Greg, this very much depends on the type/make/model of projector. Sony used to have a downloadable program on their website that calculated distances based on the screen's shape/size and projector type for their projectors. Most LCD projectors give you a range of aaceptable distances and provide a zoom function that allows you to dial-in the exact image. Most CRT projectors have to be installed fixed distance away from the screen. It's best if you can contact the manufacturer of your future projector and ask for the necessary info.

 

[Greg Robinson]

gotcha. i figured that every projector is going to be a bit different. How about the question of maximum "good" image size? I was poking around some specs on Projector Central.com and there seem to be many that boast image sizes of up to 200" - what is the quality like at such large sizes? Anyone? Thanks!

 

[Dmitry]

Again, that depends a whole lot on the type of the projector. I hope somebody who has experience with LCD and DLP projectors will chime in, I only have a general idea about CRT projectors. 7" CRTs are good up to an 80" wide screen, whereas 9" will be past it's peak on screens wider than 110". The first thing that will suffer is the brightness, so I would expect LCD and DLP projectors to be more tolerant in that regard.

 

[Jay Sylvester]

Pick your projector from the drop-down list, enter your screen size, and it'll tell you how far away you can mount it:
http://www.projectorcentral.com/projection_calc.cfm

 

[Greg Robinson]

thanks - i found that neat little feature on the site today. Good stuff - very helpful. How about you DLP owners out there? Can anyone chime in with how big their image can be and still look sweet? Thanks!