Projector to screen distance?

[Trevor Schell]

My room is 19 feet in length

My screen is 106"

What is the ideal distance to install my Studio Expereince HD2
projector form the screen.?

[Trevor Schell]

It's OK,,I found the info I needed!

http://www.projectorcentral.com/Studio_Experience-Matinee_2HD-projection-calculator-pro.htm

[Kevin P]

Ideally, place the projector as close to the center of the throw range of the lens. So, if the calculator gives you a 10.7-13.9 throw distance, shoot for the center of the two distances, which would be 12.1 feet. That way you aren't pushing the zoom lens to either extreme, and you have some wiggle room in terms of placement, in case you have to move the projector a few inches forward or back to accomodate ceiling joists, cable inputs, etc.

[Trevor Schell]

Thnaks Kevin!
That is exactly what I did.
I moved it up one beam on the ceiling forward.
That put's it at approx 12 feet. :yesnod:

BTW,,That calculating program is excellent!:T

[George Bellefontaine]

How do you like the HD 2 Trevor ?

[Trevor Schell]

Hi George! :later:

It's OK for now..
I would upgrade it soon though, once my Theater room
is finished at the construction level.
My only complaint with LCD is the screen door is very evident
to me.
I might move the projector forward another foot + 1/2 which may help
to minimize this.

I may have no choice though , to stick with LCD.
We bought a DLP Toshiba a couple of weeks ago and the
Rainbow effect is evident to me. Probably worse than screen door.

[Kevin P]

Moving the PJ won't make any difference with screen door. However, if you defocus the lens just slightly, enough to blur the individual pixels so they just touch, you can minimize the SDE without affecting the overall sharpness of the image.

[George Bellefontaine]

Trevor

As you probably know, I use two projectors in my theater: an NEC HT1000 dlp and a Yamaha LPX510 lcd. I sit 13 feet from a 92" wide screen and don't see pixels on either projector. In fact I have to move to within 7 or 8 feet before I even begin to see them. So maybe you're sitting too close. As Kevin pointed out, some people with lcd projectors defocus slightly to get rid of the screendoor effect.

[Trevor Schell]

I did the de-focus process and that does make a difference.
My seating is 12 feet from the screen.
Down the road I will invest in a new PJ , something of
good quality.
My HD2 is a good starter PJ and will likely end up
as a portable outdoor unit.!

[draganm]

Trevor have you ever considered CRT? You can sit as close as you want and there is no screen door, rainbows, or any other picture anomolies unless they are coming from the source (DVD player).

[Dean McManis]

I have the Studio experience HD50 and I love it. I'm viewing from 10' with a projected 120" image and there's no visible screen door, but it's a DLP model. I last had an Infocus SP5000 (with the same 720p resolution) and from the same viewing distance there was a little visible screen door and I defocused it slightly. But I'm a bit close to the screen at this projected size, and I don't think that it would have been an issue at all at a smaller screen size or viewed from a little farther away.

Personally, I'd much rather have a slightly defocused 720P LCD projector than a used CRT unit. Especially with less than $2000 to spend on either.

[draganm]

Personally, I'd much rather have a slightly defocused 720P LCD projector than a used CRT unit. Especially with less than $2000 to spend on either.

Well considering that the picture thrown by DLP's in $2K range is truly atrocious, I can only assume you'd "rather" have the DLP for other reasons, like easy install or warranty? People have been picking up Sony G70's recently used with very nice tubes in the $2K range, and I have compared these to DLP's up to $10K retail. There is no comparison for film based material, unless your shooting a computer desktop only a blind person would pick the DLP for watching movies.
:P

[Trevor Schell]

I am not sure of CRT,,
But I am willing to have a look at everything available at the time I
do upgrade. More options is always a good thing. :yesnod:

[draganm]

I am not sure of CRT,,But I am willing to have a look at everything available at the time I do upgrade. More options is always a good thing. :yesnod:

well that's normal, at $20K to $40K new most people didn't buy one for their home. The Electrohmes I love so much were built mainly for the military and Nasa, flight sims where an accurate/life like presentation and fade to total black is of the utmost importance. I do demo's for people all the time, but your up there in the wilderness with nothing but grizzly bears, so it might be hard to find a local demo opportunity. might want to ask on the AVS forum/CRT room, might be someone local? I think if you see a well set-up 8 or 9 incher you won't be going back to gray? then again, some people freak out at the size and complexity, it's a personal choice.

[George Bellefontaine]

As much as I loved my old Zenith crt FP, digital projection has come a long way. My NEC HT1000 has blacks and contrast very close to crt, and my Yamaha lcd, though not as contrasty as the NEC, is still up there. My crt was quite large, had to be floor mounted for various reasons ( mostly because of low ceiling) and just took up too much floorspace. And doing the analog convergence touch up every 8 or 9 months use to give me a crick in the neck. :P

[draganm]

As much as I loved my old Zenith crt FP, digital projection has come a long way.

LOL, and the Zentihs are considered small by CRT standards. The zeniths 800's and 900s were pretty basic and entry level machines with electrostatic focus, not very sharp or bright. The one Zentih I would love to have is the pro 1200, re-badged Barco Cine 8 . It will do 960P (line quadrupled DVD) and they can still be had for about $4500. used if you can find one. George I can't blame you for jumpig ship, but I wish you could have seen what the upper end machines can do.
The Zenith PRO 1200x is a late model (2001+) rebadged Barco Cine 8 Onyx (special edition). :
Liquid coupled HD-215 lenses for greater contrast and less halo'ing.
Tinted (colour filtered) C-elements on Red and Green for accurate colours.
Continuous Scheimpflug adjustment for perfect focus corner to corner.
Contrast Modulation for even colour/brightness across the screen.
Late model 120Mhz RGB output amps.
Black case.

[George Bellefontaine]

Drag, that Zenith you mentioned was a consideration at one point. I also had an opportunity to get a Sony VPH something or other. My son was a Sony tech at the time and gave me a pretty good demo, but in the end I just wanted to go for a change in technology. But hell, there is no doubt about how good a crt FP is. In fact with the old Zenith I used to use the squeeze trick to watch anamorphic dvds so I could take advantage of higher resolution and the picture was a knockout. :T

[nikos]

Somewhat on topic...

I have a PT-AE900U I have 13ft to work with from wall to wall....
the 12.1 sounds the best spot for me. But from where do you measure to be exact? from the very edge of the lens?

Thanks,

Nikos

[Dean McManis]

Yes, you measure from the front of the lens to the screen. But an inch or two doesn't matter. That's why you pick the center of the adjustable range (if possible) so that you have room to zoom and focus and get the picture spot-on.

[ktaillon]

Is it better to have the projector closer to the screen using less zoom? Or does the zoom lense take care of this without changing the quality of the picture?

[Dean McManis]

Picture quality should remain pretty much the same throughout the adjustable zoom range.
The only real effect is that when you are at the far end of the zoom range you are spreading the image over a larger area which diminishes theoverall brightness and can wash out the picture if you don't have room light control.

And of course blowing a crappy picture up really big reveals all of the image flaws much more than on a tiny tube TV.