Need help with projector ideas.

[AndrewM]

Well, I've made the first steps towards getting SAF on moving away from a RPTV and going to a bigger screen FPTV. Mostly by bring an old junky work projector home to try out, and we were both impressed by the picture this 5yr old 800x600 low contrast, low lumen projector put out onto a non-white wall (through a laptop no less, not even one of the nice PC's in the house). Mix that with seeing things like the Sony, Yamaha, Toshiba HT projectors in stores, I think I have her convinced on the benefits of having a big screen at home, and that the quality can be there if setup correctly.

Now the problem is how to integrate it into the room. Unfortunatly our room has a nice high 20+ft ceiling, which makes a ceiling mount pretty hard to do, so it will have to be anchored off the wall somehow. I have one wall that is free on the other side (for the most part), I was thinking of putting a little cubby hole in there and mounting the projector in there. But how are you guys setting up your audio equipment with a projector setup? I have no way of building that into a wall at all, so it's going to have to be in some type of audio rack, I'd like something that was maybe 3 "wide" and kind of low profile and just put it in front of the couch, under the screen, but it's hard to find something decent looking.

So basically any and all ideas are welcome, if you have or know of places that have pictures of projector setups in non-dedicated rooms, that would be great as well.

Andrew

[George Bellefontaine]

Check out my homepage, Andrew. You can see that I have my PJ installed on a shelf high on the back wall. My room is 18 feet long by 14 feet wide, so for this I needed a long thrown lens type projector. If you go with a short throw type PJ, you can have it on top of a table, or on a table shelf that could be situated between two Theater Style or Lazeboy chairs. Thing is, before you buy a PJ, make sure you know how it is going to be installed ( distance from lens to screen, floor or ceiling mount) as there are different short and long throw lens type projectors out there.

My HT is in a dedicated room, so what I have may not be right for your non-dedicated room, and you have to be sure that the PJ doesn't throw the heat exhaust out back or a back wall install could be a problem. These PJs run hot and need room to get rid of the hot air. I am thinking that a table/coffee table type set up may be better for your situation, and that may call for a short throw PJ.

Hope this helps, but it is hard to make recommendations without some description of length and width of room, furniture placement, fireplaces, etc.




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[AndrewM]

Forgot all about giving dimensions. The room is about 13-14ft from wall to wall and maybe 12ft or so wide. The area is almost T shaped, half the verticle area of the T is the dining room, so the area with the whole setup is on the horizontal side of the T (the other side is a staircase and the front door). Right now we just have a couch along the one wall, with a big wall unit and RPTV in it on the other side. No fireplaces or anything like that.

Just a typical greatroom in a Florida house, with a very high ceiling. My one idea which hasn't gotten any approval yet, is to just build a small "platform" across one wall, which would hold all the audio/video equipment, say around 30" or so high, which gives me plenty of space for everything and then some. Over that I'd have a screen and such. I think that would be the cleanest look, but I can't get the significant other to really picture it in her head, so it's hard to convince her.

Andrew

[George Bellefontaine]

Your dimensions would call for a short throw projector. There are plenty of these in both lcd and dlp models. And because dlps are light and easy to move around ( usually about 5 or 6 lbs) and easy to setup, you could probably plunk it on the coffee table whenever you want to watch a movie, then hide it away until next use. The new Piano dlp may be a good place to start looking or at least give you some ideas:
http://plushometheater.com.




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[Bob]

Your projector doesn't have to be in the room at all. What is behind the wall where you are thinking of mounting it? You could mount it there and project it through a hole in the wall, much like a movie theater or screening room.