Front Projector Help (1 Viewer)

[Rob Kulp]

We recently moved into a new construction house in Florida and plan on living there for 15 to 20 years. I'm ready to start making my lifelong dream a reality by making it a dedicated home theater with a front projection system, flush wall system with built in speakers, and maybe a small stage for the kids.

The room is on the second story and of frame construction. The left, front, and rear walls have R-11 insulation, the right side wall has R-30 insulation as it is a knee wall to the attic.

My room dimensions are:
12'6" wide
20'6" depth
8' height

The entrance into the theater is going to be 125" from the front wall on the right side and my current plan (not set in stone) is to have an 18" to 24" deep flush wall system with the screen recessed in that 6" to 12". My equipment rack will be in the rear right corner (if you are looking at the front of the theater.

The front row seating position has not been determined, hopefully someone has some suggestions for those room dimensions.

My question here pertains to selecting a front projector and screen size for my setup. Features I'd like to have are the ability to watch 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratio movies and tv. HDTV is a must for use with Time Warner Digital in the Orlando, FL area.

Price of the projector is definately a consideration as well.

Thank you for any input.

Rob Kulp

 

[Gabriel_Lam]

Wow! Sounds like a great plan. You going to invite us over?
What kind of budget are you talking about in terms of the projector? If you want to be about to support at 720p at full resolution, you'll need a 1280x720 or higher native res projector.
The ambient light control in that room is absolute, correct?

 

[Rob Kulp]

Well...

Right now the room is bare bones. No lighting at all except a lamp sitting in the corner.

As for my budget on a projector, I don't have one. Though I don't have an unlimited amount of money to spend, I want a projector that will do only what I need it to do. That way I don't end up paying for features that I'll never need. For instance, I don't need a projector for a 25 foot screen =)

As far as features that are available go, I'm virtually clueless. I have no idea what resolution I need, how far from the screen it needs to be, how many lumens I need, etc. etc. etc.

And yes...anyone that wants to come see it when it's finished can =)

Thanks,
Rob Kulp

 

[Matthew Todd]

Hey Rob,
There are certainly more knowledgeable people around who will chime in, but I'll throw out a few things to think about for now.
For a projector, you could go LCD, DLP, DILA or CRT. If it were me, I think I would consider and look at everything.
Forgive me if this is stuff you already know:
Buying a used CRT projector is probably the best bang for the buck, plus you also get very good, arguably the best, picture quality of any of the projector types. You can get a very good CRT projector (probably 8" CRTs that will handle anything you throw at them) for $2000 or even less. Of course you can pay more if you want more capability.
As a quick example, I bought an Ampro 3600P with a set of brand new tubes (0 hours) for less than $2000 shipped. I have only briefly tested it as I'm waiting to finish my own dedicated room , but it should handle anything I want to throw at it. You can buy a very adequate used 7" CRT machine that will handle line doubling and HDTV for less than $1000.
The downside to CRT is that they are more difficult to maintain (although I don't find it that big of a deal) and you must have complete ambient light control in the room. Also, if you are planning on a screen over 8 feet wide, you're probably best off going with something digital unless you want to consider a high gain screen, which can be a tradeoff in picture quality.
The digital projectors (LCD, DLP, and DILA) are going to provide more light than a CRT, and therefore you can consider a bigger screen and total light control may not be quite as important, although I think you'd still want no ambient light.
As a quick reference on seating, I believe you generally want your prime seats to be a distance back from the screen of about 1.5-2.0 times the width of the screen. So if you go with an 8 foot wide screen (96 inches) you want to put the prime seating back about 12 feet or so from the screen.
Hope this helps!
A great place in addition to HTF to go for more info on projectors (both digital and CRT) and info on designing/building tips is:
www.avsforum.com

 

[Neil Joseph]

The front row seating position has not been determined, hopefully someone has some suggestions for those room dimensions.

For thar size of room, I would recommend either a 92" diagonal 16x9 screen or a 100" diagonal 16x9, then match it up with a projector that has a native 16x9 resolution. As far as recommending a specific projector, you really will need to give us a budget. But budget aside, here are some recommendations that you can use to plan your budget...
Boxlight Home Cinema 13HD
Boxlight Home Cinema 20HD
Sanyo PLV-60HT
Sanyo PLV-70
SharpVision XV-Z10000U
SharpVision XV-Z9000U
Sony VPL-HS10 Cineza
Sony VPL-VW12HT
... and those are just a few with a wide range of prices. Click on each one for more info. Then comes the screen. You can do anything from a DIY solution to a Stewart Firehawk and everything in between. If you have room in your budget, the Luxus Deluxe Firehawk would be a very good screen for your projector. For seating (depending on the projector of course) plan on sitting anywhere from 10ft - 16ft or more depending on which size of screen you go with. Once you select your projector and screensize, those details can be ironed out though.