Screen size and border placement?

[hhlodge]

Newbie here. I am going to make my own screen for home theatre with an NEC LT155 as the projector. Given that I can only mount the projector within a small ceiling area because of the room size and layout, I suspect the screen size should be based on what the projector displays on the wall, which is 85"x39" approxiamately from an initial screening with 'A Bug's Life' in widescreen mode. Should I get the projector permanently mounted and then determine the exact screen size from this? Should the border be just outside the edge of the image or straddle it? Finally, can I safely assume that all 16:9 movies will fall into this same border area? I can't imagine they differ or no border would be 100% correct. Thank you.

[Zone]

Originally Posted by hhlodge

Finally, can I safely assume that all 16:9 movies will fall into this same border area? I can't imagine they differ or no border would be 100% correct. Thank you.

Movies in 16:9 ratio will be fine yes, but you have other screen ratio's than that
1:33 standard square TV set.
1:85 which is a popular aspect ratio for many movies which is also slightly wider than 16:9 which is roughly 1:78.
2:35 widescreen, films such as LOTR which will project an image much narrower in height than your screen so you will end up with dark grey bars inside your black borders.

So you are right that no fixed border will be 100% correct for all films, the answer is to have adjustable borders, alternatively live with the differences.

[hhlodge]

Originally Posted by Zone

So you are right that no fixed border will be 100% correct for all films, the answer is to have adjustable borders, alternatively live with the differences.

Thanks for the reply. Not sure how one has adjustable borders with tape, so am I better off just going border-less?