So is it a better investment to get a projector that does more lumens, or a high gain screen to help out with a lower lumen count from a projector?
Well, there’s two different thought processes with this.. 1) digital projector technology is changing rapidly now with HD material becoming main stream. If you like to upgrade a lot, you might want to just put your money towards a good screen. That’s what I did because I tend to buy A/V equipment like I do socks. 2) the other thought is buy as much projector as you can afford and just build yourself a screen or buy a mid level screen. You can find many screens under $1000 that work very well for most situations.
If I do go with a 110" screen, what would be an optimal seating distance for viewing 1080P? What about a 720P cable broadcast or even a 480P DVD?
Screen size is totally subjective. It’s all a personal choice. Do you like sitting in the front row or in the back? Only you can decide what is right for you. If you are worried about SDE, don’t worry about it with 1080P, you won’t see any unless you get within two to three feet of the image. Depending on the projector your buy and the video processor it has, or if you use an outboard VP, 720 and 480 can look almost as good as 1080i/1080P source material, or they might look like crap. You still shouldn’t worry about SDE with 1080P output though. You won’t see the pixels, just a big crappy image, or a good up-scaled image.
