Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Projector recommendations

Thanks everyone.. so that does mean that 95% of movies watched on a Epson 1080P UB projector will have black bars ? and if don't want those black bars I have to get a different lens ($$$) ? Can't I get a screen size / width that will make the movies fill up the entire screen and still make regular tv watchable ?

this is getting a bit confusing.. even for someone as technical as I am..

I've explained to my cousin that the 2 factors for a projector are: 1. light control, ie: you'll be watching movies in the dark, or almost dark. and 2. not designed for watching 40 hour of Oprah with one or two movies thrown in on Saturday night..this is not suited for heavy load of regular tv watching.. get an LCD or Plasma if that's the case..

am I right ? or am I wrong ? projector seems to need a "dedicated" room with lighting control and is 90% or more made for movies, lamps are expensive ($350 approx) and last about 2000 hours. Most projectors under 4K put out about 1000 up to 1800 lumens.. while those in the under 10K put out up to 2800 lumens..and then if you have 50K ..up to 10000 lumens..at least that is what I got from that great article that was linked in a previous response to my post by PtRyno.. Thanks..

Riker

KPCrimson,

I'm glad to hear you recommend the Panasonic PT-AX200U. I just ordered one. I had originally purchased an Epson 1080UB that I'm sure I would have been perfectly happy with. However, my wife started to get very nervous of the amount of money I was spending since I am starting a HT from scratch (no current equipment). Since I was not willing to downgrade the audio portion, we decided a good compromise was to return the Epson projector and exchange it for the Panasonic AX200U (720p).

We both researched the 720 vs. 1080 issue and we both basically came to the same conclusion...that the 720 projector will suit our needs very well. We are planning to use either a 92 or 100 inch screen, which I've come to realize in the world of projection is quite small. Our seating will be about 13 to 14 feet from the screen, so the image quality should be excellent. If we could do a larger screen, or if we were going to be sitting closer, I'd probably insist that we go with 1080 (which I've heard is better resolution if you plan to go larger and/or sit closer to the screen). The only real drawback is I will not get the full benefit of my blu-ray, but at a savings of nearly $1,500 on the initial setup cost, it's a reasonable trade off, IMO.

The way I figure it, the technology is always one step ahead of the market. Currently, most, if not all, HD content broadcast through cable or satellite is 720p. Over the next several years, the amount of 1080 content available will steadily increase. Our gamble is the cost of 1080p projectors will continue to go down as the market catches up and, in 2 or 3 years, we'll upgrade then. The gamble may not pay off, but from what I've read about the Panasonic, we are not going to be dissapointed.

Scott

All the suggestions are great choices.

A friend of mine and I went through a projector upgrade a year ago and we both settled on the JVC RS1 which also fits your budget. The RS2 came out last fall so prices on the RS1 have dropped accordingly. Its an incredible 1080p/24 performer with exceptional lumen output and very high contrast ratio. My friend has a bright room and he went with a 121" DaLite Hi-Matte White screen while I kept my 110" Vutec Silverstar. Another screen in your price range which matches well with that projector is the DaLite Hi Power.

I wish someone made a projector that did internal scaling to 2.35:1 for all sources. instead of purchasing an anamorphic lense. This would be schweet.

Well technically Robb, they do. You just zoom. But, you will still need a 2.35 screen.

It may be that I have a grey screen and watch movies in the dark (usually), but I don’t notice the bars that much. I do not expend 2.35 images that come across on SD-satellite. They look horrible to start out with, and when I expand them, they are not watchable. But for all other movies with a 2.35 ratio, I don't mind the bars at all (both vertical and horizontal). I suppose if I had a white screen and a projector with horrible black levels, they may be quite distractive.

The reason I went with 2.35 and an anamorphic lens was for the WOW factor. Not to get rid of bars. It’s pretty immersive to be sitting 12’ away from an 8’ image. You can get away with more screen width when the ratio is 2.35 verses 1.78 because the image height is the same. Only the width is more. It is more difficult on the eyes to be constantly moving them up and down to see an image than back and forth. Back and forth eye motion is a natural and fairly consistent thing that they do anyway. Up and down isn’t.

Don't get too bent out of shape over the max lumens spec. Even with my rather bright, non-dedicated (albeit dominated), living room (big windows, open doorways to kitchen and rest of house) I still have it on the darkest setting (probably around 400 lumens). You'd have to be watching TV outside on a sunny day to need 2800! I didn't really set it up this way to extend the bulb life, it just looked better on "Cinema Black" than the other settings ("Dynamic", the brightest, looks terrible).
Lamp life is generally listed as being between 2000-4000 hrs. Mine was rated as 3000 hrs max and is now over 3700 hrs (in 4 yrs), and I do use it as my primary TV (although I watch a lot less commercial TV these days; mostly movies, dvd shows and sports).

The reason for a 2.35:1 lens is so that the movie fills up the entire screen when watching 2.35:1 movies (90 to 95% of all the movies). This way you can purchase a 2.35:1 sized screen so that it is as large (height-wise) that you feel comfortable with. Going this route the screen will fill up most of you peripheral vision. When you come across a movie is shot it 16:9 or 4:3 you can just flip the anamorphic lens to pass through and you will see the movie at the same height with black bars on the sides. If you want to mask the sides then you can buy some inexpensive sliding curtains to cover the black bars rather than some expensive masking devise.

If you buy a 16:9 screen to watch movies on and try to have it so that it fills up most of your peripheral vision and is a good sized height (in 2.35:1) then when you watch a 16:9 movie the height will be much too overwhelming. It seems that it is more overwhelming for the screen to be too tall than to be too wide. We shouldn't have to move our head up and down to see the whole image but it is okay if the screen is wide enough to take up some of our peripheral vision.

A good way to see what height is comfortable for you is to go watch some blu ray's on 1080p tv (since you are planning on getting a 1080p). Try to watch a blu ray that is shot in 16:9, Crank is one example. Move the seat up as close as you can so that the height seems like a big but comfortable size for you. Just the height not the width. Now measure the height of the screen and the distance that you are sitting away from the screen. If you divide the distance away by the screen height you should get some number between 1.5 and 4, call it x. Now that you know x, you can figure out how big of a screen that you want in your room once you know where you are going to sit. This is found by dividing the distance away from the screen by x. Just make sure that you measure everything in the same units (inches for example). Now that you know your screen height for the 2.35:1 screen you can get the width by multiplying it by 2.35. This is the dimensions of the screen for your room.

- Nick

Thanks Nick,

Lot's to chew on.. It's starting to sink in.. but I am still slightly unsure about how to determine the screen height and widgth ratio..vs the projector capabilities etc.. the projectors that fit my budget are the Epson UB1080 or the Panasonic model..neither have the anamorphic lens as far as I know.. so is that whole 2:35.1 ratio a moot point because of that ?

95% of movies are in a ratio that unless you have anamorphic lens you can't watch without black bars.. side or top.. depening on the screen dimensions.. if I get it right.

so given that black bars seemed to me in my future no matter what, given 95% movies require the special lens my choices don't have, to fill a screen of matching ratio..

What screen ratio / dimension should I be looking at ?

Riker,

You said originally that you could spend as much as $6000 for the projector and screen. Well a quick search found the Epson 1080ub for $3000 or less.
Link: http://electronics.pricegrabber.com/projectors/m/60743099/

An anamorphic lens doesn't come with most projectors and is about $2000. That leaves $1000 for the screen. It is easy to find a good one for that price. If you do a diy one then you will probably have quite a bit of that $1000 left. I think that sirquack did a 2.35:1 screen diy but can't remember for sure. Maybe he will be around to say if this is difficult or not.

As far a picking the screen height for your seating distance in your theater I'll try to explain it again since maybe it was confusing the first time. All that you have to do is find some 1080p display that you can view a blue ray on that was shot in 16:9. Move a distance away so that you like the distance away from the display height-wise. Divide the height away from the screen by the height of the 1080p screen that you are viewing and get some number between 1.5 and 4 (probably around 3 or 4 but you may like sitting close). Now, decide how far that you want to sit away from the screen in your room (measured in inches). Take your distance away from the screen that you want to sit and divide it by that number you found that was between 1.5 and 4. This is your screen height that you want in inches. If you multiply it by 2.35 then you get the width of the screen in inches. Now you have the dimensions of the 2.35:1 screen for your room.

- Nick

Riker,

If you google projectorcentral, on their opening page they have 2 articles that explain the differences in aspect ratio's. One of the article has actual pictures of images on various screens, so you can see what they look like, and make the best choice for what suits you, depending on what you are going to project on the screen. I hope this helps. It helped me.

Myles