What Projector to buy in 2016 for Cat-Fisch Cinema? (1 Viewer)

[Dennis Nicholls]

So what are you using for a ceiling mount? My old mount from 2006 was almost impossible to adjust correctly. But this new cheap mount is just the ticket. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000IDC0K2 I have to mount mine where the ceiling slopes at about a 45* angle up in my bonus room.

 

[DaveF]

I don't know yet. I've read the Peerless is good for Sonys.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TXNS6G...olid=UWXABWV8IJ76&coliid=I277HYPVOV7PW0&psc=1

In the short term, I'll put it on a ladder or set it on the floor to determine distance.

 

[Sam Posten]

I have two of those Peerless ones, makes testing new PJs a snap =)

 

[DaveF]

Good to hear.

A little thought experiment tells me that setting my projector up right side up on the floor will work identically to hanging it upside down from the ceiling (give or take an image inversion correction and my own shadow getting in the way). That will get me going to start. Then I'll consider the ladder. With my plans for the basement in flux and potentially growing, I may not be ceiling mounting for a while.

Or, I'll ceiling mount knowing that I'll later tear down the ceiling and redo the whole thing...

 

[DaveF]

So what are you using for a ceiling mount? My old mount from 2006 was almost impossible to adjust correctly. But this new cheap mount is just the ticket. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000IDC0K2 I have to mount mine where the ceiling slopes at about a 45* angle up in my bonus room.

I've got a bog-standard flat ceiling, so that one might be overkill for my situation. But it's good to know about if I run into leveling problems and need to change to a more robust mount.

 

[DaveF]

This all reminds me of a question: How hard was it to mount and align your projector? One neighbor said it took custom installers 10 hours to align her Epson 4020 to their 120" screen. I figured it would be an all day affair for me, working mostly alone for the first time. But if it takes a pair of pros more than a day...Or perhaps they weren't the "A" team?

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Note my mount was $30 shipped....

One reason I got the Optoma HD141X was that it was an upgrade to the 10 year old Optoma HD72. Manufacturers tend to keep their optical path design so you can just mount their new projector where their old projector was located.

I had to install a new mount (in the original location) but getting a tolerable image up and running took maybe an hour.

It's like a sports racing car: you can get a tolerable image up in an hour or so but you will keep tweaking it for weeks afterwards.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

What Dennis said!

I don't have mine ceiling mounted; rather, it's on a shelf in the back of the room. The Epson has a very generous lens shift so I was able to get it 95% right just on placement and then tweaked the rest on the projector. It wasn't really that bad. Just pull a Blu-ray that's 1.78:1 (16x9) and go to work.

...and be prepared to spend more time watching than you planned. I can't tell you how many times that "Let me just check 5 minutes of this disc" turned into "well, I'm 90 minutes in, might as well finish it"!

 

[OliverK]

This all reminds me of a question: How hard was it to mount and align your projector? One neighbor said it took custom installers 10 hours to align her Epson 4020 to their 120" screen. I figured it would be an all day affair for me, working mostly alone for the first time. But if it takes a pair of pros more than a day...Or perhaps they weren't the "A" team?

Maybe it was a pair of bros and not a pair of pros?

Just try to keep the projector centered on the screen horizontally and adjust the vertical after that - it isn't rocket science.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I once owned a used Electrohome 3 CRT projector. Now that did take a large amount of time to get up, focused, converged, and etc. Modern 1 lens projectors are a snap in comparison. Fortunately the nomenclature is the same, e.g. keystone correction.

 

[OliverK]

I once owned a used Electrohome 3 CRT projector. Now that did take a large amount of time to get up, focused, converged, and etc. Modern 1 lens projectors are a snap in comparison. Fortunately the nomenclature is the same, e.g. keystone correction.

I fondly remember the CRT projectors as my main viewing was on them for more than a decade - only real men could get a proper picture out of those

 

[DaveF]

It begins:

I picked up my Sony VPL-HW40ES this morning from Best Buy / Magnolia. Here it is in the basement on a precision mounting structure. I took my PS4 from the living room to have a media source, test video gaming, and use its headphones since I have no AVR or speakers. First up, the PS4 screen.


I threw in Tron:Legacy as a first demo. It's a gray day out, and you can see my ceiling lights dimmed, so I've got moderate ambient light. The Sony is its default, full-power lamp mode. In person, the picture is wholly watchable. It's not amazing, and not helped by the beige wall, but it's good. It tells me this will be enjoyable in casual viewing, and will only get better on a proper screen with the room dark.

For initial placement, I put the projector about where it would go, in distance from the wall, focused the image, and dialed things to roughly level and bring it up above the wall outlets.



My wife commented that the image was a bit large. I measured it: 143" diagonal. I zoomed out to a 120" diagonal. Now that I've seen it over 140", I may have to re-evaluate my planned screen size.


Mango deigns to allow me to watch movies in his basement.

 

[Sam Posten]

Love the "precision" mount!

 

[DaveF]

I'd also bought 4 pairs of Sony PS3 3D IR glasses to go with my projector. There was a deal at some site, $10 each. I couldn't pass that up.

I tested them this morning with Mad Max Fury Road, playing from my PS4. They worked great. Ambient light is moderate, which might mask crosstalk. But first impression by the wife: "I might get used to this." I was impressed too: no apparent flicker and no apparent crosstalk. The image is of course dimmer. But still, I'm not running the lamp in Eco mode it's watchable. Take the room black and run in Normal for a 3D movie and it will be better.

A good first test.

Next up, get the image size back to 120" and try some Fallout 4.

 

[DaveF]

Played FO4 for a couple of hours on a 120" screen about 10' back. The 40ES has no perceptible lag, to me. In response, it felt like playing through my Onkyo AVR and Plasma TV. And I think I enjoyed played FO4 on the big screen. I need to fire up Destiny to see how it is playing a frantic FPS. (The shadows and dark areas were harder to see than on my HDTV, but it's manageable.) I remain hopeful this will become my new gaming system, which will be a win for all parties in the house

 

[Sam Posten]

Wish ya luck with that, the big screen wears me out too fast!

 

[DaveF]

A new warning for prospective Sony buyers: people are experiencing lamp flicker. I've got 975 hrs on my lamp in Low mode (the lower brightness, 5000 hr lifetime mode). And I've been experiencing like a 60 Hz flicker after the projector is on for a few hours. I'm out of warranty so I haven't tried contacting Sony yet. I suspect I've experienced it for a while now but didn't realize it as it's not consistent, doesn't appear until after a few hours, and is apparent on bright scenes.

Current workaround is to run the lamp in High mode for a while and then switch back. And hope for the best.

I'm too early to know if this is a killer problem or not. I might be faced with replacing the lamp much sooner than planned...or even replacing the projector much earlier than planned. TBD.