Wall Mounting a Projector

sapper

Prominent Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2000
Messages
2,260
Reaction score
145
Points
560
Age
57
Location
Southgate, North London
Hi peeps,

I am still contemplating the possibility of a projector and the various aspects that this covers.

In addition to deciding the actual projector and screen, there are other considerations to, well consider including

  • cable lengths and type
  • HDMI switching units
  • hiding the cable - use of trunking
  • Darkening the room - black out blinds and night time
  • mounting the projector
As I live in a flat, the ceiling is concrete. As such it is impratical to mount the projector from the ceiling for cable issues as well as I am not keen on drilling into a concrete ceiling.

So the most practical approach is to mount the unit on the back wall and to lead the cabling round hidden by trunking.

However, should I make a shelf or buy a specialist mount such as this from vogels.

I guess if one uses a shelf, it is easier to swap the projector with out having to move the mount an inch to get the centre of the lens as close to the centre of the screen as possible.

I would value your expereinces and ideas.

Adrian
 
Hi

Either use a shelf or get one of the cheap brackets meant for portable TV's. They are fine for wall mounting projectors and cheap as chips.

Steve
 
I used a pair of microwave brackets bought from B&Q as a temporary mount for my HD1. Does the job and was very cheap (£18 i think):smashin:
 
I use a tall Micro Hi Fi Stand and put the PJ on the top.
 
I have an LG wall mountable projector, looks great except I haven't tackled hiding the cables yet. Also planning on using trunking but not sure it will look too discrete. My brother has a ceiling mounted projector with a cement ceiling, I helped him install it and drilling into the cement wasn't too hard. He used trunking to 'hide' the cables. In my opinion you'll notice trunking along a ceiling and down a corner as much as running down the middle of your wall from the projector.
 
If you do need to use trunking, I recommend this stuff.

It's a lot more attractive than the usual stuff (it's curved), and comes in six different finishes:-

D-Line - right hand side near the bottom

Cheers,

I have used D-line previously - and I might have suffiecient spare depending upon cable thickness

Lots to consider and order in before the actual install, should I go ahead

Adrian
 
If you do need to use trunking, I recommend this stuff.

It's a lot more attractive than the usual stuff (it's curved), and comes in six different finishes:-

D-Line - right hand side near the bottom

Yeh thats good stuff, I need to do quite detailed trunking around the edge of my ceiling so I want it to look as nice as possible. Does anyone know if B&Q do something like this?

I also bought the Vogels 6565 yesterday from Amazon, its much cheaper at £106 but its a marketplace seller. Will let you know how I get on, I decided that my plasterboard ceiling was not able to hold a projector so its got to go on the back wall(this also means a huge 120" projection as its so far back, oh well :)).
 
— As an Amazon Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases —
Yeh thats good stuff, I need to do quite detailed trucking around the edge of my ceiling so I want it to look as nice as possible. Does anyone know if B&Q do something like this?

I also bought the Vogels 6565 yesterday from Amazon, its much cheaper at £106 but its a marketplace seller. Will let you know how I get on, I decided that my plasterboard ceiling was not able to hold a projector so its got to go on the back wall.

That is a rather nice looking wall mount- I am tempted...

But before I purchase, I will book a demo of a projector system, and then try and negoiate a deal...

Must book that demonstration

Adrian
 
— As an Amazon Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases —
I like these Vogals mounts, which allow you to unclip the PJ if you want to move it to a different location, but they are terribly expensive compared to some of the professional looking mounts on Ebay for £20-£30. Are they that much better or do you pay for the name?
 
If you mount the projector high up on a shelf don’t you have to turn it upside down? If I put my HD65 on a coffee table about 3.5 metres from the wall, the top of the image is only about 300mm from the ceiling. If I was to lift it up a metre or so then half the image would be on the ceiling.
 
I like these Vogals mounts, which allow you to unclip the PJ if you want to move it to a different location, but they are terribly expensive compared to some of the professional looking mounts on Ebay for £20-£30. Are they that much better or do you pay for the name?

Personally I'm a big fan of the microwave mounts, which are dirt cheap and look quite good when installed. Some of the ebay ones look hideous IMO - do you mean something like item 350014613338 or something different?

I've also seen mounts made out of wood, which can look quite nice, but I think you make those yourself rather than buy them.
 
If you mount the projector high up on a shelf don’t you have to turn it upside down? If I put my HD65 on a coffee table about 3.5 metres from the wall, the top of the image is only about 300mm from the ceiling. If I was to lift it up a metre or so then half the image would be on the ceiling.

depends on projector and what height you have the screen mounted off the floor. The HD1 has a very wide range of adjustment with the lens shift. I have the bottom of my screen about 600mm from the floor and the and have the projector mounted upside down 660mm from the ceiling using a hybrid mount from PJ HiFi. I had a temporary wall mount using microwace brackets with the projector at the same height (660mmfrom ceiling) but not upside down. I have also had it on a table about 700mm off the ground on a small table. So as I said depends mainly on the projector but to some extent how high the screen is. I much prefer the screen at this height, in fact had to move a radiator to mount it this low!
hope this helps
John
 
PS When looking at mounts found that most are rated for 10kg and the hd1 is 11.6kg hence the microwave brackets which without much effort didn't look too bat at all!
 
If you mount the projector high up on a shelf don't you have to turn it upside down? If I put my HD65 on a coffee table about 3.5 metres from the wall, the top of the image is only about 300mm from the ceiling. If I was to lift it up a metre or so then half the image would be on the ceiling.
you do hang it upside down, there should be a menu setting somewhere which tells the projector how to present the image. My Optoma HD72i (for example) has 4 options made up of the combinations of front/rear projection and ceiling/table mount positions.

I have that vogels mount btw, it is pretty well put together and easy to adjust to get the image setup how you want it. The one thing I'd mark it down for is that the position lock is not as rigid as one might like such that it is easy to knock the position slightly. Some sort of motorised controls to adjust yaw & pitch would be nice but things could get expensive quickly ;)

My PJ has a lens cap so I have to remember to be remove it carefully. If your PJ has an automated lens cover then this won't be a problem.
 
Personally I'm a big fan of the microwave mounts, which are dirt cheap and look quite good when installed. Some of the ebay ones look hideous IMO - do you mean something like item 350014613338 or something different?

I've also seen mounts made out of wood, which can look quite nice, but I think you make those yourself rather than buy them.


No that looks pretty horrendous doesn’t it! I was talking about some of the ceiling mounts like this 190189217537 that don’t look too bad.

Where are the wood ones you are talking about?
 
PS When looking at mounts found that most are rated for 10kg and the hd1 is 11.6kg hence the microwave brackets which without much effort didn't look too bat at all!

Got any pics? I looked at those microwave mounts and didn't quite understand how you would secure a projector to them
 
No that looks pretty horrendous doesn’t it! I was talking about some of the ceiling mounts like this 190189217537 that don’t look too bad.

Where are the wood ones you are talking about?

I guess for a wooden mount, the best option is to seek a local chippy who can make on for you if your carpentry skills are not up to it...


Yes a picture of these 'microwave mounts' would indeed be interesting

Adrian
 
Got any pics? I looked at those microwave mounts and didn't quite understand how you would secure a projector to them[/QUOTE
Afraid no pictures. Hanging from the ceiling now.
I put the brackets on the wall at the same centres as the HD1 adjustable feet and didn't fix the hd1 to the brackets as it was only a temporary solution. I would still consider using them if i was going to permanently wall mount the HD1, but put small shelf with some acoustic material to reduce the noise. Probably fix the shelf to the underside of the brackets to hide them. These brackets do offer a wide range of solutions with a little imagination.
hope this was of some help
John
 
Got any pics? I looked at those microwave mounts and didn't quite understand how you would secure a projector to them[/QUOTE
Afraid no pictures. Hanging from the ceiling now.
I put the brackets on the wall at the same centres as the HD1 adjustable feet and didn't fix the hd1 to the brackets as it was only a temporary solution. I would still consider using them if i was going to permanently wall mount the HD1, but put small shelf with some acoustic material to reduce the noise. Probably fix the shelf to the underside of the brackets to hide them. These brackets do offer a wide range of solutions with a little imagination.
hope this was of some help
John

Somethign like this?
 
The Vogels mounts are a bit pricey, but they will hold up to 10Kg without flexing and I think are the most presentable mounts given you are putting it on the wall. On the ceiling, the projector itself blocks the view of the mount to a degree, on the wall you see it pretty much warts and all!! With the Vogels you then get the cabling extensions and continue the mount/duct down to skirting level as somewhere to hide the cabling.

The cheapest option for sure is microwave type brackets or fashioning something yourself. Personally I think adapted brackets look absolutely hideous and is no way something I would have on my wall. Out of wood though I would, especially since it would match my existing decor. Screw the projector to the underside of a wooden shelf, and put something else on top like a pretty vase to cheer up the missus!

The point after all that rambling, is that you need to remember that most projectors will need to be mounted upside down onto the underside of the shelf. The lens will have an offset that makes the image look upwards at a normal standing position (so high up the wall or on ceiling it needs to be inverted to point the image downwards). This means you will be seeing more of the bracket and so some of the eyesore solutions may not be as ideal as they seem
 
The Vogels mounts are a bit pricey, but they will hold up to 10Kg without flexing and I think are the most presentable mounts given you are putting it on the wall. On the ceiling, the projector itself blocks the view of the mount to a degree, on the wall you see it pretty much warts and all!! With the Vogels you then get the cabling extensions and continue the mount/duct down to skirting level as somewhere to hide the cabling.

The cheapest option for sure is microwave type brackets or fashioning something yourself. Personally I think adapted brackets look absolutely hideous and is no way something I would have on my wall. Out of wood though I would, especially since it would match my existing decor. Screw the projector to the underside of a wooden shelf, and put something else on top like a pretty vase to cheer up the missus!

The point after all that rambling, is that you need to remember that most projectors will need to be mounted upside down onto the underside of the shelf. The lens will have an offset that makes the image look upwards at a normal standing position (so high up the wall or on ceiling it needs to be inverted to point the image downwards). This means you will be seeing more of the bracket and so some of the eyesore solutions may not be as ideal as they seem

Cheers Liam,

Hope all is well....

Still enjoying the fuji, but contemplating somethign with a more impressive "Wow" factor :)

I am still contemplating a projector, but can youplease clarify something for me...

A Projector mounted on a coffee table (i.e close to the floor)for example can work that way up as it is projecting upwards and forwards. Hover if you invert the same projector it then has to be mounted close to the ceiling to project forwards and downwards?

I understand that projectors generally cant be mounted mid height i.e mounted in the middle of the screen, which makes sense as 'heads' could cause shadows.

But I had not realsied that projectors close to the ceiling HAD TO BE upside down.

If that is the case, then a mount may be more preferable to a DIY option for reasons that you describe

Adrian
 
Yep in most cases a projector projects in an almost triangle. Imagine at coffee table height, the bottom of the image is where the lens of the PJ is, the top of the imagine way above, completing the triangle. Invert the whole thing and you have a projector on the ceiling or high up the wall, which then triangles downwards. There are quite a few exceptions though:

- one extreme is Themescene, where it is even further offset!! The projector practically has to be on the floor for an image where the bottom is about coffee table height
- projectors such as the JVC HD1 have a more central offset, but also a huge range of lens shift. Here the projector could be right-way-up and almost level with the top of the image.
- Sim2 actually have to be within the contrains of the image. With no lens shift applied they would be at about the centre of the screen height

There again it's no biggy to have it upside down, just as long as you remember that is how you will mount it when selecting the mount! Projectors do sometimes quote their "offset" which would refer to how far outside of the image they would be. And do sometimes quote the lens shift as a % of overall image size too (not always enough info though as you can't be sure if there's a huge offset to also contend with!).

Hope this helps a bit Adrian. It's not so complicated once you've got your head round it. If it's going in that lovely room you've had done for the plasma, I would go with a wooden solution to match the cut and finish of the cabinet at the front. Make a shelving gap at the rear and undermount the projector (potentially you could box it away and open only for use). Wood panel out a central section of the wall and you can hide cable behind the panelling. Keeping absorbent material left and right of a panelled centre and that would actually benefit acoustics too!
 
Cheers Liam,

You have helped to clear that up....

i am still unsure what PJ to go for, most probably a 1080.

It is for the said room, and that lovely front wood unit will casue a minor glitch in the selection of a screen but I think I ahve identified a possible contender.

As to the shelf at the back, I might innitially go for the Microwave option.

Then when its all up and working, contemplate how best to make it blend into the room. Even If I get a proper mount, Imay pay to have it boxed in properly if I can find a chippy who will do it for a fair price.


Adrian
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom