Projector Room, Projector and Screen Questions

[nSinghal]

Here's what I'll do....

Short version: 14x15' room. 150 inch 16:9 screen with DIY masking at top and bottom making it a 142" 2.35:1 screen (if and when required). Single row of recliners about 11.5' away from the screen and PJ at the black wall in a shelf built inside the wall.

Detailed version:.....

Make the room 14'(w)x 15'(d)x9'(h). Get a 150" 16:9 Fixed screen (don't go with roll down screens if you can help it). Place it in the Center of the front wall, ie 17 inch above the floor, 17" below roof and 18" from both the left and right side wall leaving you enough space to place your speakers (assuming they are FS).

PJ will be placed in a shelf cut inside the wall at the top (shouldn't be a problem as you have empty space left behind that wall).

The recliners will be set at about 11' away from the screen (remember these recliners are 36+ inches deep) . Once seated, your eyes will be about 13.5' - 14.5' away from the screen (depending on if you are sitting upright or lying down on the recliner). Keep the recliners about 8-10 inches higher than the rest of the room (so that your eyes are a bit more closer to the screen's vertical Center) by raising the floor of that area.

Now the problem of black bars. Even with a PJ like tw8100 which gives you really good black levels, those top and bottom black bars are still going to look dark greyish instead of pitch black. For 16:9 content there will be no black bars. For 2.35:1, you should create DIY masking solution. It should be pretty simple. Add a small -roll down- black velvet curtain at the top which starts from the top of the wall and covers appx top 9 inches of the screen.

For the bottom of the screen, either figure out a way to roll the curtain upwards or simply add a wood plank (say about an inch thick, 134 inch wide, 9 inch high) cover it with velvet and hang it exactly below the screen (or place it on top of the shelf in front of the screen if there is any). Add some mechanism to it so that you can put it down or place it in front of the screen whenever you want (add some hinges and it'll work just like the top portion of a suitcase will work).

And there you have it. A 131" x 56" CinemaScope screen with no grey blacks (using the curtain at top and wood plank at bottom) and 131" x 73" 16:9 for your regular wide screen content (most 3d movies, ps3/360, HDTV).

That's the way I'd do without changing the room dimensions. If I could, I'd use another 2-3 feet, maybe even more and add another row of recliners. But if one row is enough for you, then there's no real need.

Also, please remember my acoustic knowledge is worse than your PJ knowledge. I still haven't even started looking for the audio gear. So I have no idea if you'd get the best sound in this current setup of mine

 

[soamz]

Awesome reply @ Singhal Babu

You are the man!

About Audio, I can help you anytime
My audio is set.
So, for my room size of 14 x 16 or 14 x 17 , I would be fine with a 150 inch screen ?

No compromise in experience, right ?

I dont want to spend and then find edges of the screen without the light or contrast .

 

[ravidharap]

Here's what I'll do...

Detailed version:.....

Now the problem of black bars. Even with a PJ like tw8100 which gives you really good black levels, those top and bottom black bars are still going to look dark greyish instead of pitch black. For 16:9 content there will be no black bars. For 2.35:1, you should create DIY masking solution. It should be pretty simple. Add a small -roll down- black velvet curtain at the top which starts from the top of the wall and covers appx top 9 inches of the screen.

For the bottom of the screen, either figure out a way to roll the curtain upwards or simply add a wood plank (say about an inch thick, 134 inch wide, 9 inch high) cover it with velvet and hang it exactly below the screen (or place it on top of the shelf in front of the screen if there is any). Add some mechanism to it so that you can put it down or place it in front of the screen whenever you want (add some hinges and it'll work just like the top portion of a suitcase will work).

I suggest you to use hydraulic cylinder type Hinges mechanism fitted to planks ( known as Maruti type hinges at Hardware shops in Mumbai) for screen top and bottom bands




I Love Tapatalk on my IPhone

 

[soamz]

I guess, I would be fine without any extra DIY stuff for the black bars.

Since the room will be pitch black, no need to add any extra thing for those black bars.

 

[nSinghal]

You can always leave it as it is for now and then add the masking later if the black bars bother you too much. It's not going to prove that much difficult.

You won't have any issues with brightness and contrast on a 150" screen with a tw8100 placed so close to the screen (if you had placed it far away and had to use zoom, you'd have lost upto 30% of the brightness and even then it'd have bright enough for a dark room IMO). So don't worry about anything. You're gonna love it

And feel free to help me out with the audio here http://www.hifivision.com/home-theater/36525-home-theater-n00b-speaker-placement-wires-fs-bs.html

 

[soamz]

Okay, so just to confirm ,

14 x 17 room .

150 inch screen
tw8100 projector

Also, can you send me the delhi seller number ?
Which area is his shop located ?

Im coming to Delhi for 2 days. I can go for a demo. Do they offer demo ?

 

[nSinghal]

Okay, so just to confirm ,

14 x 17 room .

150 inch screen
tw8100 projector

Yes.

Also, can you send me the delhi seller number ?
Which area is his shop located ?

Abhi Projection They ar in tilak nagar. You'll find either Mr sanjay or tushar there.

Im coming to Delhi for 2 days. I can go for a demo. Do they offer demo ?

They do have a demo room (with 120" fixed curved screen) set up but they have a panasonic ar100u there. If you call in advance then they might arrange for a tw8100 demo. They were willing to demo it for me too but I bought it without wasting time. No point in demoing it as it was the best projector (acc to reviews) in my price range and they wouldn't have been able to give me multiple PJ demo side by side. In your case demo will be beneficial in case the PJ has some issues from the very beginning.

Btw, my advice would be to wait on the PJ purchase until your room is close to completion. Buy it appx 2-3 weeks in advance at the earliest. No point in it lying around for 3 months reducing your effective PJ warranty (and especially the lamp warranty which is only 3 months) if you can't even use it. And maybe you'll get a better deal for it too by that time.

 

[soamz]

Okay.

I would like to have a demo of 150 inch screen with a 8100, if possible, as I have seen that big screen at someone's home

And what kind of after purchase maintenance is there for the PJ ?

Like lamp or lens or whatever ? What are the maintenance charges and what time to time ?

 

[nSinghal]

Doubt you can find a demo with that big a screen. But only the dealer will be able to tell you if he can provide it or not. So give them a call and see what they have to say.

I'm a newbie to PJ world as well but from what I've read so far, most you need to do is clean up the air filter regularly (once every few months should be fine). No professionals are required for that. Next is the lamp. You can't really do much to maintain them and increase their life (other than making sure there are no voltage fluctuations which might damage the costly electronics).

Epson's lamp is rated ~4000 hours of usage. What that means is that the lamp should work for 4000 hours. But they'll only gurantee it for 3 months. Also, it'll start loosing its brightness the moment you turn it on. It should loose about 25% brightness in first 500 odd hours. And another 25% in next 1000-1500 hours. It sounds scary but its not that bad. First the decline in brightness will be gradual instead of sudden so you won't notice it. And lamps aren't that costly. About 16k (300 $) for a new lamp. Even if you plan to replace the lamp midlife, it'd take 2 years @ 3hours per day usage before you reach that point. Just put a small piggy bank in your HT room and drop 20 bucks in it everytime you watch a movie and you'll have enough saved to replace the lamp by the time it reaches 2000 hours

 

[msk2013]

Doubt you can find a demo with that big a screen. But only the dealer will be able to tell you if he can provide it or not. So give them a call and see what they have to say.

I'm a newbie to PJ world as well but from what I've read so far, most you need to do is clean up the air filter regularly (once every few months should be fine). No professionals are required for that. Next is the lamp. You can't really do much to maintain them and increase their life (other than making sure there are no voltage fluctuations which might damage the costly electronics).

Epson's lamp is rated ~4000 hours of usage. What that means is that the lamp should work for 4000 hours. But they'll only gurantee it for 3 months. Also, it'll start loosing its brightness the moment you turn it on. It should loose about 25% brightness in first 500 odd hours. And another 25% in next 1000-1500 hours. It sounds scary but its not that bad. First the decline in brightness will be gradual instead of sudden so you won't notice it. And lamps aren't that costly. About 16k (300 $) for a new lamp. Even if you plan to replace the lamp midlife, it'd take 2 years @ 3hours per day usage before you reach that point. Just put a small piggy bank in your HT room and drop 20 bucks in it everytime you watch a movie and you'll have enough saved to replace the lamp by the time it reaches 2000 hours

Hi nsinghal,

First of all hats off to you for openly sharing and helping others with your experience.:clapping:

I have one suggestion - If we are spending 1L + for the PJ will it not be better to purchse a spare lamp also or atleast after 3 months? because even if there is a remote chance of the bulb failing or you feel after 2 years you find that the luminecance has decreased - you can change the bulb without searching in the market if the spare is available.

Or even the price prevailing at that time might be higher 2 years down the line.

I think it also makes sense if after 2 years usage you feel like upgrading to say 4k resolution PJ and offering for sale alongwith the brand new bulb might fetch you a better price than Pj with less bulb life left.

 

[prosenjit]

bhaina,
one suggestion
although 8100 is very good pj..you must demo same leuge dlps also like optoma hd 83....
lcd and dlp has pros and cons of their own...
just like plasma vs led case....
as you want to see theater like images...coloers...imho dlps are a notch above than lcds...like deepest blacks,natural colors etc....

 

[soamz]

4000 hours is fine for the first lamp.
I only watch 2-3 movies in a week.

 

[nSinghal]

Hi nsinghal,

First of all hats off to you for openly sharing and helping others with your experience.:clapping:

I have one suggestion - If we are spending 1L + for the PJ will it not be better to purchse a spare lamp also or atleast after 3 months? because even if there is a remote chance of the bulb failing or you feel after 2 years you find that the luminecance has decreased - you can change the bulb without searching in the market if the spare is available.

I'll advice against that. What if after two years you put in your brand new bulb and it turns out defective? These lamps have only three months warranty and there's nothing which can be repaired once it stops working.

As far as non availability is concerned, one of the reasons I went with epson is that its a very popular PJ company. The more people buying something, the greater the chance of its replacement being easily and cheaply available.

Also, as much as the bulb dims over time, it still works until it finally gives up. Someone buying this used PJ from you is certainly going to be on a budget and if he has a smaller screen with a dark enough room, it might just be good enough for him (for the time being). So too many variables here to make extra lamp purchase a good investment with a new PJ IMO

Or even the price prevailing at that time might be higher 2 years down the line.

The dealer I contacted said otherwise. Unless there is a huge fall in rupee value, the lamps for older PJs will be cheaper than what they were at launch time. So if today it's 16k, three years down the line it would most probably be atleast 2-3k cheaper.

bhaina,
one suggestion
although 8100 is very good pj..you must demo same leuge dlps also like optoma hd 83....
lcd and dlp has pros and cons of their own...
just like plasma vs led case....
as you want to see theater like images...coloers...imho dlps are a notch above than lcds...like deepest blacks,natural colors etc....

I didn't find any good Dlp projector in my budget. That's mostly coz epson is surprisingly lower priced in India than its price in US. So even if a good Dlp PJ costs the same as epson in US, in India it costs a good 30+k more than epson.

Another problem with Dlp was the limited placement possibilities. It's harder and more expensive to add lens shift in a Dlp PJ. And most DLPs have a short throw distance. I needed atleast 23 feet for 133" inch. Wall mount would have ruined my rooms aesthetics. Soamz won't have this issue though so he can look into those if he wants. Dlp (supposedly) provides better colors but not better blacks from what I've heard unless you go to really high end JVCs and Sonys. For 3D they have less crosstalk in comparison but also the image would be much less brighter with 3d in Dlp. Also DLPs may have RBE too unless you increase the budget by atleast 30-60%.

Epson seemed to have the best of all worlds to me - 2d,3d and most importantly price and warranty. Soamz should try and see if he can get a demo for both sorts of Pjs. I think benq w7000 is one of the better Dlp PJs in <200k budget. Maybe even wait and see if benq w8000 shows up in a month or two. W7000 is due for an upgrade as its almost a year old now.

 

[soamz]

Ha ha, I dont want to break my head anymore.
I have read a lot of good things about tw8100 already , so will simply go for it.

As people say, its a "SUPERHIT MAAL"

 

[soamz]

Singhal Ji, can you send me the link to those Epson 3D glasses which are recommended for this projector ?

Are they active 3D glasses ?
And rechargeable ones, right ?

I'm looking to order it from amazon then.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[msk2013]

Hi just a little more on screens - I had visited the Grandview website and had seen the permanent fixed curve screen under the home cinema series screens category.

Products - Grandview

Products - Grandview


Any views to share on this.

Can we not use this curved screen for solving the issue of seeing 2.35:1 images of 1080p? ie without black bars at top and bottom

 

[nSinghal]

Singhal Ji, can you send me the link to those Epson 3D glasses which are recommended for this projector ?

Are they active 3D glasses ?
And rechargeable ones, right ?

I'm looking to order it from amazon then.

Yes. They're active 3D and rechargeable. And the best news, I'm 99.9% sure you already have a compatible pair. The ut50 glasses should work with the epson. So don't get epson's glasses until you try your panasonic ones first.

In case they don't, try a pair of samsung 4100g glasses first. Compatible with epson tw8100 (I've tried them) and also panasonic ut50 afaik. They're available for 1300 bucks in India. They are lighter, brighter, but not as effective as panasonic and epson glasses in a bright room (not an issue for you since you'll be using them in a dark room). Try one first and see if they suit you or not.
Samsung SSG-4100GB 3D Active Glasses Price - Buy Samsung SSG-4100GB 3D Active Glasses Price in India, Best Prices n Review

Amazon.com: Samsung SSG-4100GB 3D Active Glasses 2012 Models - Black: Electronics

Epson's glasses are about 6500 Rs in india. Maybe available for a bit cheaper if you look for it but Samsung's were way too cheaper in comparison so I went with those only. I personally preferred the epson's fit though. But I've only watched one 3d movie so far. Here's the amazon link Amazon.com: Epson V12H548006 3d Glasses For Use With Powerlite: Electronics

Hi just a little more on screens - I had visited the Grandview website and had seen the permanent fixed curve screen under the home cinema series screens category.

Products - Grandview

Products - Grandview


Any views to share on this.

Can we not use this curved screen for solving the issue of seeing 2.35:1 images of 1080p? ie without black bars at top and bottom

I don see how curved screen will solve the black bars issue. You'll have to either get a 2.35:1 screen or digitally zoom into the image and crop the sides to make it fill the 16:9 screen (which this epson is incapable of doing with hdmi inputs). Curved or non curved wont make any difference here.

 

[Thtpro]

A curved screen or a flat screen will not change whether you see black bars or not.

A curved screen only changes the distance from from the projector to the screen-- it does not change the image size

A curved screen provides the capability to have the image at the center as well as the edge to be sharper in focus

 

[msk2013]

A curved screen or a flat screen will not change whether you see black bars or not.

A curved screen only changes the distance from from the projector to the screen-- it does not change the image size

A curved screen provides the capability to have the image at the center as well as the edge to be sharper in focus

agree with nsinghal & thtpro -

For my room dimensions of 10 ft x 14 ft say if I am working out a 120inch screen ie a 6 x 8 ft screen. For the same placement of PJ can I not accomodate a bigger screen (lenghtwise) and increase the image size with curved screen?

I might be wrong please correct !

 

[Thtpro]

msk2013-- I am not sure I understand what you mean by bigger screen (lenghtwise)--
the screen has a height and width