Question Short throw shelf mounted projector?

[R0P3]

Hi,

I want to purchase a projector but after extensive research I cannot find one which suits my requirements and wondered if anyone had any recommendations?

My requirements;

- Vertical shift - Needs to be shelf mounted. I don't want to have the projector on a table in front of the sofa and the ceiling is a concrete slab so cannot get cables to a ceiling mount discretely.
- Short throw - the space is quite short (only 3m), but can't be ultra short throw as there are no sockets on the wall I want to project on to and no way to run cables to that side discretely. The wall can only accommodate a 2m wide screen maximum and I would be satisfied with as small as a 60" image so perhaps short throw isn't necessarily required?
- Cost - I don't have a massive budget, would want to spend max £1k including screen (and speakers if necessary i.e. no/poor quality in-built speaker), however could be tempted to spend more if a projector has low maintenance costs and ticks the other boxes (e.g. a sufficiently bright LED?)
- Image quality - I am not fussed about 4k but would like 1080p as a minimum. I have no use for 3D.
- Brightness - The projector will be in the living room I want a projector which can handle ambient light.
- Connectivity - A couple of HDMI ports, a USB port and an audio out for external speakers is all I require.
- Use - this would be a replacement for my TV and I would estimate between 500-1000 hours of use per year, not sure if this would be economical with a DLP?

Any suggestions are welcome!

Thanks

 

[ShanePJ]

Sadly nothing of that nature really exists as it sounds like you are trying to use the projector in the same way as you would use a TV and they're very different other than something similar to the latest UST projectors which are located at the front of the room

I've included a couple of illustration below regarding connectivity, otherwise you're just going to have one big headache once you start to realise that it's almost impossible to achieve once you have started down that path

On the illustrations, you will see arrows going from a broadcasting device with the remote control to either a soundbar/av receiver then onto the projector. These should always be via HDMI nowadays. From the soundbar/av receiver you'll see another arrow going to a subwoofer/speakers subwoofer package, this is just because that's where the sound finishes up

Projectors which have a half decent lenshift for mounting on its feet on a shelf is usually above your budget price point, so it might be an idea to look in the classified area for a projector. One with at least 50% vertical lens shift plus at least 1.3 x zoom (which means it should achieve a reasonable screen size in a standard room) should do the job for starters. I suspect you'll be looking at older Panasonic Epson models as these usually have a good amount of flexibility

I hope that gives you a slightly different direct to look at which will enable you to create the starts of your first home cinema without having any unwanted bumps along the way