Need help choosing a projector and screen

mystik610

I'm building a new home with a dedicated HT. The wife has 'delegated' putting the HT together.

At any rate, I've been spending the past couple of hours researching this, but figured I'd post here too since a lot of you guys have dedicated theater rooms.

The room is 14x16 feet...theater will have a wide orientation, and the viewing distance from the back row will be about 13 feet. The room will be light controlled with sconce lighting and no windows, though I'd like some flexibility in terms of lighting (I don't want to always have to turn the lights all the way down).

In terms of projectors, I'm eyeing the Epson 5010e, but am open to suggestions.

In terms of screens I'm completely lost. What size should I be looking at? I used a THX calculator, and its recommending a 116 inch screen (based upon viewing distance from the back most seats). Also, what color and type of screen should I be looking into? Grey, white, high-power etc etc etc? Are there any disadvantages to ceiling mounting vs shelf mounting?

kuntasensei

The 5010 is a damn fine choice, and even if you mount it above the seats at 13 feet back, you should have enough light output for some ambient lighting. There aren't really any differences between shelf-mounting and ceiling, so long as your shelf is level.

As far as a screen, the days of needing grey or high-power screens are kinda' over now that light output and contrast ratio have increased. A matte white 1.0 or 1.1 gain screen should be a good choice. The only reason I could think that you might want to look at high-power screens would be because of the way they reject off-axis light, but that really only matters if you're going to have walls that would reflect a lot of light.

PSOVLSK

Here's the screen I use with my Epson 8500. It's pretty easy to put together and I've been happy with it.

http://www.amazon.com/Elite-Screens-R106WH1-ezFrame-Projection/dp/B0014UTNNK/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1333552211&sr=8-17

My PJ is shelf mounted on the back wall. I don't really know of advantages/disadvantages. The reason I choose to shelf mount is that it seemed a lot easier to me. If you decide to go that route, I've got a shelf that I ordered but wasn't able to use. I'll sell it too you for a good price.

jaritta

I would suggest compairing the epson to the panasonic. I have a epson 8700 that I love, but the more I work with panasonic the more I like their feature rich configuration. The ae700 is a great projector.

The only reason you would need a high priced screen is if you couldnt control lighting. I would suggest a Elite screen, they have great customer service and the price is very reasonable. I have a SI screen and it is fantastic, but it is more expensive. I would suggest a 1.1 or 1.0 gain screen, but plug it in to the projector calculator to see what works best.

If you want to have lights on and get a high quality picture that is not washed out, I would suggest a Screen Innovations Black Diamond. It rejects ambiant light and retains black levels even when lights are on. It does have deeper blacks than a white screen even in a light controled enviroment.....because it is a black screen material. The only drawback is that it is expensive.

What i did was take tape and put it on the wall where your screen would be, to get an idea of how big it looks and how it will look in your room.

Projector central has a projector calculator that will help you in placing your projector. If mounting it to a celing I would suggest a chief mount. They are fantastic.

Remember that your hdmi run from the reciever to the projector should only be about 25 ft. you can go longer but the reliability goes down when you get over 25ft. If it is over 25 ft get a balun that is amplified. I also would run a single or double run of cat6 or cat6 incase you ever have issues with the hdmi cable.

Good luck and have fun

Jaritta

jaritta

Btw URC makes the mx450 that is rf ready, you can remotely control lighting via rf for a fairly good price. Also you can add a base station and hide your componants in a closet, or just have a more reliable way to send a ir signal

wolfman1138

I agree with the others that a 1.0 Gain screen is probably best, especially with the wide configuration of your theater. The High gain screens can lead to hot spotting and off-axis issues. They were needed by the older CRT projectors to get the most out of the low lumen output.

You never mentioned fixed vs motorized screen. I have to say that the only way to go with a motorized screen is Tab Tensioned. They have a perfectly flat surface. Non-tensioned screens can develop slight wrinkles which show up as light bands. I have a Draper 92" Premier M1300 (1.0 gain) screen and I love it.

For a good screen calculator, I found this one the other day:
http://www.eliteprojectorcalculator.com/
It has some nice features, including helping with mounting restrictions for both screen and projector.

Good luck!

polkfarmboy

I think your going to need a black diamond screen in that little room as your going to have the projectors light ruining the contrast as it bounces back n forth from the front and back wall. A black diamond will give you brilliant color with the lights on and really dark inky blacks in the night time when all the lights are out

PSOVLSK

Here's the shelf I mentioned. It's a nice, sturdy shelf. One of the pictures in the link shows it holding an Epson PJ. If you have free shipping from amazon, you'd probably be better off buying from them than from me. I was thinking of selling for $15, but shipping would add at least $10, probably more. I thought I paid more than just $32, but maybe not.

mystik610

Thanks for the input guys.

Probably going with the framed Elite screen, but have heard a lot of good about projector goo as an alternative. Walls and floors will be a dark color, so I don't think light reflections should be too much of an issue (correct me if I'm wrong).

Also, what do you guys use as a metric for screen size? Is the THX guideline a good metric? I know from an audio perspective, THX is not always ideal. They're recommending a 116 inch screen in my room. Is that too large for a 13 foot viewing distance?

My builder is charging 800 bucks to pre-wire an HDMI cable to the projector location, and since we're using foam insulalation throughout the house, running wire after the fact won't be worth the hassle. My thoughts are to go with the 5010e, because of the built-in wireless HDMI capability. Are there any serious disadvantages to going this route?

polkfarmboy

The goo is gooooo..d but you will have a hotspot with it. There was an article on pj central about a normal cheap regular paint that was on par with stewart screens and they cost thousands http://www.projectorcentral.com/paint_perfect_screen_$100.htm

wolfman1138

As far as screen size, it is personal choice. I like a 30 deg field of view. (As someone eloquently put it, I'm a middle of the theater type guy) My new home theater build will have the front row with the 45 deg and the 2nd row at 30deg. I have a 92" screen and will sit 12 ft back.

As for the wiring. $800 seems pretty steep. Can you run a smurf tube instead?

I have used two different HDMI products with decent results. My favorite is the Monoprice HDMI over 2 Cat6 cables. Cheap to run and works really well. I got the powered ones with the IR back channel for my application. They were $24!

I also have been using a Air SyncHD for about 1 year now. It is based on WHDI and can transmit 1080p about 33 feet. I have found two minor drawbacks with the wireless HDMI:
1) The Air SyncHD is sensitive to placement. I found that I had to move it over 1 inch as to stop the 2x4 it was bolted to from blocking the signal. I was getting a lot of signal drops, but placement fixed that. I transmit 25-30 feet through walls and oak floors.
2) The HDMI/HCDP negotiations take a LONG time. 30-40 seconds. This is so long that I miss the 1st 10 seconds of everything I play through my Popcorn hour. It is frustrating to say the least. (The Popcorn Hour causes a resolution change between menus and playing that causes everything to have to renegotiate.)

Hardwired is always the way to go given the choice. That being said, the Air SyncHD has worked well. I have an old house and didn't want to run lots of wires through plaster walls.

Good luck!

Sherardp

Go with the regular 5010 and skip the wireless stuff. Pretty simple to run a single HDMI cable to the back of the room, especially if your shelf mounting the PJ. Also for your cable I would suggest Bluejeanscables.com. They perform very well, especially the Belden cable. Elite screens perform very well, and you will want to go with a white screen since the Epson has pretty good black level on it's on. If the budget allows I would also recommend Carada Screen in Brilliant White material. Gives you a tad more POP to the image.

Sherardp

Lasareath wrote: »

What about Screen Goo?

I've used it twice with very good results.

Have any of you guys ever used it?

http://www.goosystemsglobal.com/indexeec7.html?cont=screen

Seen it, didn't like it. Rather have a good screen in place that looks awesome when not in use.

tonyb

HT mag is out and they have a few projector reviews and the 5010 is one of them. They didn't care for it in 2D but liked it in 3D. They seemed to think it didn't play on par with prior Epson projectors. You may want to take a look see.

Sherardp

Supposedly the Sony HW30 is the best mid level projector out. Performs very well with 2D/3D and has awesome color. I can't confirm this, because I have not seen one. May want to look into that one as well. Like TonyB mentioned check out the older Epson 8700, I know that will perform very good. Had a buddy just pick one up and pair it with a 110" Elite Tensioned screen.