[easylistening]

My home cinema project is moving (slowly) forwards. Which was good as full HD projectors get cheaper all the time But now I should start to choose one and have lots of unanswered questions.


The room is a cellar room with a 280cm high ceiling, length 680cm, width 500cm. As the room will also be used as a games(table tennis/darts) TV/party room for our teenage kids, my wife does not want it to have dark surfaces throughout. It has windows, but these can be totally blacked out as required. The screen wall will be black, the left wall red and the right wall, ceiling and rear wall white. The floor is a light maple laminate.

I want a screen of 300cm (118") width and the (full HD) projector should be mounted on the rear wall – which means it will have a projection distance (lens-to-screen) of around 630cm.

Now, having looked at a few sites and projectors, I am a little concerned about this. Most of the full HD projectors in the "reasonably affordable" category do not seem to have the power to project a 300cm image from this distance – even if the room lighting is completely off...

To improve things, I could just about persuade SWMBO that above the screen the first metre or so of ceiling could be painted black – and I could fit a dark carpet/rug below the screen which could be rolled up when not in use.

So, with all lighting off and the room dark around the screen at least, which projector could come into question – and what gain factor should the screen have for this set up (I've looked at various sites and am still not sure)?

Are the reviewers being hyper critical when they say projector X can't produce an good image wider than 240cm?

Anyone out there using one at above the recommended maximum and still very pleased? I suppose this is my main question

[KelvinS1965]

I am about to upgrade my 120" (diagonal) to a 128" or 133" diagonal screen, those in the screens forum might have seen my long winded decision process, but to cut it short: From my 6 metre throw distance onto a 120" screen gain of 1.8 I have to use an ND4 filter to get the brightness down to a comfortable level (for me and all IMHO of course). Even if this was too dim for some, then an ND2 filter would be bright enough in my room for most people I would think. When I upsize to 133" I've found that I'll have a brighter picture than now if I don't use any filters and buy a lower gain screen. I have a Panasonic AE2000 which isn't the brightest PJ in it's best mode BTW.

Just to buy you a little leyway, I'd suggest you get a screen with a little gain like 1.5 at 300cm width (133" 16:9 diagonal) and I reckon you'll be fine. If you find it too bright, buy an ND2 filter and use that until the lamp dims a bit with age. My room has light side walls and white ceiling. Only the screen wall is dark brown, so you have a bit better setup with the red wall on the left. See my signature for pictures of my setup thread.

If the AE2000 is more than you were looking to spend, then the AX200 is available for about £750 and is brighter so you'll need less screen gain. If you demo a DLP projector (to test for rainbow effect) then there are a number of great 720p bargains about if you ceiling mount them from the back of your room, such as the IN76/78 by inFocus or IN81/82/83 if you fancy DLP in 1080p.

Hope this helps.

[easylistening]

Thanks for the info. Very interesting because I definitely want full HD and the Panny AE 2000 gets great reviews – and it is certainly within the sort of price I'm prepared to pay – but it has quite a low output compared e.g. to the JVC and Sony full HD PJs, so I was most worried about exactly this model – I've read reports where they said a 2 metre wide screen was the tops for it – no way 3 metre.

However, like I suggested, I did suspect that these reviewers are extremely particular and that most people would be happy – good to have this confirmed by someone

Any more happy big screen owners running "above" the width that is supposed to be the limit?