Got a slightly unusual request. We've got a HS10 that currently sits in a cupboard under the telly. When we want to use it we plonk it on a small coffee table at the side of the sofa and use the sideshot. Considering how much shuffling around of the pixels it's doing to convert a rectangle into a skewed shape the picture is really pretty good. However the grey triangles around the edge bother us, and the picture seems to smear more than when it's not doing the sideshot bit.

Therefore we'd like to work out a way of the projector firing straight at the wall with no offset.

the main sofa is in a window bay so we can't put the projector permanently behind the sofa. Also it's a nice Victorian lounge so there's no way we'll hang if off the ceiling permanently.

Therefore I'm thinking about a stand that would fit in the 6" or so space behind the sofa which we could erect when we need it and hide away when not. The base would have to be quite low (so most of it would fit under the sofa) so I'd anticipate it being screwed to the floorboards.

We'd then slot in a tall pole of some sort (which could live behind the sofa, lying down, most of the time) to give us the height. something like a scaffolding pole but hopefully a bit more aesthetically pleasing - chrome or white say. Also a friend's kids have a big plastic climbing frame in the garden which has 6' long poles (approx 3" diameter) - these are light and seem rigid enough, but I don't know what would fit on either end. Ideally this pole would be really quite high - say 5' to 6' so the PJ could be level with the top of the screen.

We'd then have the PJ permanently screwed to some sort of bracket which would slot on top of the pole.

I've been wondering where I could get the right sort of bits to put this together. Maybe a chandlery (the pole is a bit like a mast?). I could approach an engineering firm to make up something in angle iron I guess, but if I could get hold of some of the bits, it doesn't seem that difficult to do myself - just don't know where to start. B&Q etc obviously wouldn't do the business.

Any thoughts or advice, or maybe some lateral thinking alternatives.

Phil

Mmmm, have some plate with a metal pole welded onto it, make the pole approx 1" diameter and at least 15" long, this could be fixed into position behind sofa.

Get wood from your local timber merchant, square, and whatever height you want, wood would need to be the same sort of size as a garden fence post but a lot nicer.

Ask them nicely to drill a hole at the bottom of it the same diameter and length as your pole which is mounted onto your baseplate, Finally get MDF for top of wood and plonk your projectr on top of it, make sure you get wood for raised edges incase of ay knocks to projector stand.

I've seen this before on a website along with plans for it, it looked great and done the job, but i'll be damned if i can find the site!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wandering along the road the other day I had a brainwave and decided that the fixing brackets for aerials may be just the ticket. A 10 minute surf later and I came across this place:

aerial supplies


My idea is to buy one of the big (12" square base) patio stands and screw it into the floorboard behind the sofa (making sure that it is low enough to be well out of sight). I may need to screw down a bigger square of ply on top of the base to extend the base size and make it more stable.

Then I'd get hold of a 5' or so long pole which would slot into it. This long pole could live lying down behind the sofa when not in use.

then I'd get the smaller (19cm square) patio stand and screw this permanently to the HS-10. (Because the HS10 would need to be upside down, I'd screw a piece of ply to the patio stand then hang the HS10 from this in front of the main pole) then I'd simply be able to slot this on top of the pole and Bob's your uncle. My projector is behind the sofa, level with the top of the screen and square-on to the screen wall.

My only query now is what to use as the pole. I could get an aerial mast from the same company but I think it would be very heavy, have sharp edges, make your hands black, and probably be too tight a fit - I want it to slot in and out snugly but not so tight that it's impossible to remove. A better alternative would proabably be a wooden pole - somethng like a flag pole or the main upright from a garden parasol. Anybody got any suggestions for where I could source something like this? What about a plastic pole?

There is hundreds of ideas you could use, the idea i mentioned looked really good when finished and i'm sure it wouldnt cost much for a fabrication shop to make the base plate for you, but as i said, hundreds of ideas to choose from.

Thanks for the suggetion. I was just doing a bit of a surf to see if I could find any suitable bits 'off the shelf'. The 2 brackets I mentioned were only about £30 in total so I could give it a go and see how it worked for minimal expense. Once you start getting custom made stuff you have to be sure it's going to be perfect. As you say there are loads of alternative ways of doing this but fundementally it's quite simple and therefore shouldn't cost much.

Phil

ps - if you do come across the ref to where you saw your idea I'd be very interested to have a look.

I've been looking but just cant find it, i'm sort of in the same situation as you, waiting for a loft conversion to get done and i've changed ideas for the av equipment about 100 times so far, guess the best thing to do is stop searching the internet, everytime i look at websites i come up with different ideas.

I'm sticking to ceiling mount for PJ but as for the equipment i dont have a clue. Another idea i seen was a home made coffee table for the PJ (this will get your mind going again) with a fold down front which housed the PJ, and on the opposite side the amp and dvd player, the only thing about this idea was where to put the electrical cables, once again it looked very smart. For ideas just go to google.com and type in my home cinema, look out for one called Michael Collins which is hosted with Homestead, this is a very good website with lots of information.
Here http://www.myhometheater.homestead.com/

Anyway, good luck

[Nobber22]

Would one of these suit?

http://www.projecta.nl/stands.htm

Thanks for the link - it's the right kind of thing but not perfect.

The Problem is that I want the base of the stand to be invisible when it's behind the sofa when I'm not using the projector - so the base plus lower pole section need to be less then say 60 - 70cm high. I then want to slot in the main support (probably a long pole) to get the projector level with the top of the screen (so probably 160 - 200cm high). I could just go for it level with the bottom of the screen but then it wold be only a few inches above our heads when we were sitting on the sofa viewing.

Phil

www.spectral-moebel.de