Distance of projector and seating please

[westiefish]

As above, I really need your help please, my cinema room is now ready for running in cables before plastering. The wall the fixed screen will be on is 2900 wide so a screen slightly smaller than this, I've decided on a BenQ 1300 projector after a demo at richer sounds and really quite impressed! The projector I was thinking of ceiling mounting approx 2600 from the screen due to a couple of steels and will probably not let me run the cables further and I wanted to install some conduit for replacing cables if needed. Is this too close to the screen and do I have the seating further back? If the seating is further back, this would mean the projector forward to the seating and would this looks strange? The room is 6m long.
Your advice is really needed as I've not done any of this before and need the cables in ASAP
Cheers

 

[Peter Parker]

Project into the wall until you find a good size that you're happy with from where you want the seating to be - THX suggest anywhere from 2.4 (optimal) to 3.68 (back row) times the screen height as the range you should sit it. Closest would be around 2 x the screen height as pixels will start to become visible at that range. They're just recommendations, so sit where it feels most comfortable with respect to screen size, and don't have the screen too high.

So if you went for an 8ft wide 16:9 screen (approx 2.4m wide) you could sit as close as 10.8 feet back (3.24m), or as far back as 16.5 feet (5m). Closer is usually better if immersion is important to you, but experiment to see what feels best.

If you have a large diameter conduit for the cables, then you should be able to pull in newer cables later on, but leave a draw wire in there for that purpose.

Ideally you'll need the pj behind you out of sight so check the throw range. Projectorcentral usually has calculators for this on their website.

Gary

 

[westiefish]

Thanks for your reply Gary, unfortunately projector Central hasn't got the 1300 projector as it's fairly new, so I'll ring richer sounds. The 2600 distance is from the screen wall to the steels in the ceiling which won't allow the conduit through, I may have to run the projector cables in past the steels with out conduit and hope no break down in the future, the main thing is the seating position, projector further back from the seating area and a quality picture.
Nothing is ever simple. Ha