Love my Z3, but there are a LOT of very good projectors for that price range.

Sirquack is right on the mark with checking out Projector Central. You can play around with their "Throw Calculator" and find out what will work with the room size to get the picture size needed. Keep in mind that you don't want the "zoom" to be at the maximum or minimum to get the desired 90" screen. Some projectors have a little distortion at the maximum limits.

Also, it does make some difference depending on what ratio screen needed. A 90" 1.78:1 screen (regular HDTV or 16:9) is different than a 90" 2.35:1 (format Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, etc were done in).

You will also want to look at screens too. I picked up a Carada screen http://www.carada.com and love it. You will find pretty much all positive comments about their screens. To me, they are to screens what Axiom is to speakers. High quality, lower price, awesome customer service... But there are limitations. For example, for their 1.78:1 screen, there is no 90", but there is 88" and 92". For their wider 2.35:1, their closest screens to 90" are 88" and 96".

Lets say that you want at LEAST 90", so that means the 92" and 96" options I mention above. Here are the visible screen sizes...

1.78:1 - 92" = 80.2 inches wide by 45.1 inches high
1.35:1 - 96" = 88.3 inches wide by 37.6 inches high

Take that into account when factoring the size in on the calculator.

I went with a 1.78:1 screen, but there are many arguements to get a wider screen that can be discussed elsewhere. I went back and forth and ended up with the HDTV format even though I only watch movies on it and no TV... I have a few photos on my cheesy home theater web site linked in my signature line below. 106" is nice!


Farewell - June 4, 2020