[ab1385]

Hi there,

We're moving house in about three weeks to our first ever home we'll own. Great opportunity to set up a proper home cinema, but, inevitably, the wife wants it to be a lounge, not a home cinema, so it has to be discrete.

The idea I'd like your opinion on is a way of hiding the PJ, on the ceiling, in the middle of the room. My thinking was that my PJ, the Optoma HD700X (basically an HD65) is only 12cm high, why not build a large "light fitting" around it?

This is a sketchup of the kind of thing I mean, from below:

This would be attached directly to the ceiling, 'around' the PJ, with a hole the front for the PJ to project through, and some white mesh at the sides in front of a few 12cm fans running whenever the PJ is on to keep it nice and cool. This is kinda from above, which obviously would be flush with the ceiling.

The angles and electronics etc would all work, but do you think it would just look naff? It would be about 1m square, 14cm high, and those lights are 10cm square that are set in it.

Thoughts?

[spocksbeard]

I think it could look pretty good, depends on what else you have in the room though and pure personal taste.

Have you thought about rope light (assuming they don't get too hot, not used one myself so not sure) around the edge instead of the downlighters, creating more of a wash of light on the ceiling, rather than a large patch of light on the floor.

[RipMaster]

Great idea, though I think you'd have to be careful about what type of lights you put up there. Especially if they were on for extended periods (before the PJ was put into use). LEDs might be an option if you are set on downlighters.

I'd be interested to see how you propose to construct the mechanics, or are you going to just buy an off the shelf lift and decorate it the way your illustrate?

[alexhodge1234]

Just a thought, how are you going to switch it on via the remote? IR extender?
Also, if its going to be put in the middle of your room. How far will this be away from your screen? Lets hope you have a decent size living room.

[ab1385]

I wasn't actually proposing to have it raise and lower, though that does sound intruiging...

I was sort of, so far, planning on having it on the ceiling, like this:

But perhaps some linear actuators might do the trick...

[RipMaster]

I would imagine with no travel in the raiser that you are going to struggle with projection angle, unless your room is particularly large. Have you calculated throw ratios and any keystone correction possible/required for projecting from that position to where you will have the screen placed?

As a feature light I think it would look good as you have shown in the room graphic, but the challenge might be to have the design pleasing in a decorative way as well as functional as far as projection is concerned. Without being able to lower the unit I think you might struggle with that balance assuming the room is to scale.

[ab1385]

Nah, that room is not to scale. The throw ratio etc is just right for a screen about 100" diagonal, in the room I have. The room is 7.2 x 3.6m, but does have a dining area at one end. The PJ would sit in the middle. There would be no keystone necessary, a 100" diagonal, with the centre of the bulb about 9cm from the ceiling, would be 33cm from the ceiling, and then the bottom of the screen would be 101cm from the floor (conveniently witting almost on top of the speakers).

The PJ itself would not sit exactly central, but would have the lens at the front centre opening as in the second picture. The lip wouldn't impinge upon the projection unless it was more than 20cm edge.

The maths of it all works, I really wanted to see what people thought of whether the design would work, or just look worse than having a PJ in the centre of the room...

[GavT]

Great idea... I've had to struggle with the lounge / cinema identity problem myself in the past (a clear perspex shelf on the back wall where the PJ would sit for the duration of the film worked well).

In your design though I'd be concerned about cooling the PJ even though your talking about mesh vents, they will reduce the air flow. Simple holes would be better.
Also adding more fans will increase the noise, especially multiple fans.
Finally some PJs use their bodies /cases as a heat-sink so whilst fans exhaust the majority of the heat, having your PJ boxed might lead to a heat build up.

I'm interested to see how it turns out.