Damed

My home theatre room is 11" wide by 14" long. Due to the layout of the room, I can't really make use of the length for viewing. So basically the couch is against the side wall facing the other side wall (11" away). Is that too short of a distance for a projector? I am looking at replacing my 21" CRT that I use now with either a projector or a 42" LCD Rear projection unit (Plasmas are too $$$ for my budget, and I want at least 42")

What would you do?

Maxflier

How'd you fit a couch in there?

kramdenfan

First of all, I personally wouldn't even consider a plasma. There have been alot of reports that the picture greatly diminishes after about 4 years. For the amount of money they cost, they should last longer than that. I don't have much experience with the front projectors for HT, but I have a 53" rear projector and love it. I just bought my parents a 32" Sony LCD, and the picture is amazing. For my next tv, I'm going with the 60" LCD.

Hope that helps

Dead

I just got my projector mounted. It's right at 12' from the wall. From that distance, my minimum 4:3 image size is about 80". Depending on the projector, 11' should make for a pretty good size image. Of course, a projector needs to be in a room that has good light control.

Brian Shannon

I agree with Dead. A projector throws an image up to a certain size from a certain point. You would need to look a several projectors and check what is called their throw distance. This will tell you where it would need to be mounted.

I noticed that Costco was selling an Infocus projector and screen combo that for the price in a light controlled room would be as good or better than alot of rear projection tv's.

Sdallnct

There are reviews and "throw" calculators at projectorcentral.com. I agree with others light control may be a bigger determination of getting a projector vs. your space.

I had a pretty powerfull work/flood light on in our media room while I was working on it. I had ESPN blasted on the wall, mainly just listening. My wife walked in and looked at the image and said it sucked. I turned off the flood light and she could not believe the difference and sat there just watching for about 10 minutes. And she hates sports!

BTW you don't want total blackness either. Once you get the projector in experiment with different types of accent lighting. I think I'm pretty much going with rope lighting and I might put them on dimmers if needed.

tec_41

We have a Sony 42" projection lcd tv and I must say...the picture is amazing, especially with hdtv. I'm not a huge fan of projectors because you have to have the light just right in order to make watching it enjoyable. Then you have people walking in front of it, blocking the image which pisses me off.

kramdenfan

anytime anyone walks in front of any tv it's going to block the image....

tec_41

But usually the projector is behind you...so if people aren't walking in front of you they can still be in front of the projector.

Dead

If you do a ceiling or shelf mount, you can minimize this problem.

Sdallnct

I'm not even done with my media room and it is obvious that having a projector is a different way of watching media. I love it!

TheMadMonk

I have a 27" tv right under my projector screen; I just use the projector for movies, and the occasional video game; Tv for normal viewing.

REL77

Costco sells the Infocus SP4805 w/77" screen for like $1100, its a killer combo. With your distance, you wont have the biggest screen, but something like 75-85" is still plenty big. Take a look at it, FP is the only way I will ever go now that I got one a few months back