Friends,

After ~12 years in our current home, I finally figured out how to configure an acceptable compromise in order to try using a projector. I'm excited.

This is a totally budget-oriented endeavor. I made a conscious decision to try a 110" projector-plus-screen rather than a cheap 70" LED. I wish I'd gotten a Panasonic Plasma, but, bygones. I'm upgrading from a 10-year-old JVC HDILA 61" RPTV. There is no substitute for "bigger". I've done the seating distance calculations and am pretty confident that 110" (at 12' viewing distance) is my sweet spot.

Pulled the trigger on a refurb 8350 directly from Epson. No tax, free shipping, $625. So, that decision is made, and you may not chastise me about alternative DLP rainbow generators light cannons. Throw will be about 13' (above and slightly behind primary viewing position).

The space is the living room. There will be ambient light. Even when we watch at night, somebody typically has a handheld device or something.

The room is broad rather than deep, so I want to preserve the off-axis viewing instead of using an ambient-light-rejecting screen that focuses the reflected light to a specific viewing area.

So, I'm thinking that a gray screen will be best.

In keeping with my budget mindset, the alternatives are:

Silver Ticket (also at Amazon. $289 with free Prime shipping). Has 1.0 gain and great reviews. I found several reports of exemplary customer service. OTOH, people seem to universally have trouble with assembling the support bar, the border isn't as wide, and it appears to be wholly Chinese-made.

For the same price including shipping, Jamestown offers 0.8 gain and a 4" border crafted in TN. But there is a production wait (which may not matter, because I have work to do). Given the throw distance, ambient light and relatively modest lumen output of the projector, I'm concerned about the difference in gain.

I guess my questions are:

1. Does anybody have opinions about or experience about these two screens?

2. Given my setup, does anybody want to try and talk me into a white screen? (which would open up Vapex, Monoprice and perhaps others as options)

3. I think that curved screens (which ARE available from both of the above) are silly and not worth the premium. Anybody disagree?

4. Relative to installation, I'll want a fairly shallow wall mount (it probably could be a shelf, but I think a wall mount will look better). Whaddyagot?

5. Monoprice for long HDMI cable?

Thanks - as always - for your guidance.

Tom

The 8350 was a great choice.

If I remember correctly the 8350 will just barely zoom to fill a screen that size at 13'. At 12' it wouldnt fill a 106" screen. Adding horizontal shift reduced zoom slightly as well. Probably a good idea to hold off on the screen size until you test it in your room if you have install limitations. The epson will have no issues lighting a screen your size with modest ambient light in normal mode. Might be stretching it in eco mode. In living room mode you're laughin. 110" at 12' will be a very immersive viewing experience. I would shoot it at the wall and test for a night or two to make up your mind if this is your first go with a PJ. Some people get motion sick if the screen fills too much of their periferal vision. In your position I'd pull the trigger on the cheap Amazon screen. You can calibrate to suit once you get set up. Pretty forgiving.

3 epson 8350 family. We went 2 years with a 90" DIY blackout cloth and it looked great. My brother has a 92" white Mustang screen and it looks great. My other bro has a 106" noname spandex screen from tiger direct and it looks awesome.

Reviews vary wildly with this sort of stuff because because some people just aren't good at assembly. (Never had lego as a kid I guess.)

Oh yeah, whatever you decide, 2 people are really needed to assemble and mount without risking any damage (or tempers!)

Thank you so much!

I'm surprised by your comments on zoom limitation. The calculator at Projector Central led me to think that the 8350 was super flexible relative to placement.

Excellent advice. Much appreciated.

Well it's about friggin time, Thomas!

As much as I hate to suggest this, I think you need to hop on over to AVS and search for user input on those two screens. A common issue you will find with screen gain, is that it rarely is what the manufacture claims (much like projector lumen output).

Considering the environment you will be using the screen, you would benefit from a grey or silver screen, verse a neutral white screen. My screen is a Stewart Firehawk G3 screen. It's gain is 1.3, but it's 'real' gain is closer to 1.1.... It's a great screen, but you did mention "budget", so this one is probably not on the shopping list, unless you could find a used one.... The viewing cone isn't as tight as some might have you believe either. It'd work just fine for you.

Good on ya Tom. You're gonna love the projector!

Trust Projector central's calculator on screen size.

If you can, get the projector first and watch a few movies at different screen sizes before ordering your screen. I'm at 106" from 1o' and there are people that like larger screens at that distance.

I can't help you on the screen type.

Thanks, Mike. Thanks, Fred.

I will do as you suggest - get the projector first and then decide, and also do a bit more research.

I appreciate the help!

Its always a pleasure to help you Tom. Keep us updated.

Epson canceled my order without notification. I'm dissatisfied, as they no longer have the 8350-R available. They do have the 8500ub, but it's rated output is meaningfully reduced (2000 v. 1600 lumens). Since I'll be in a room with ambient light, I think that's going to matter (16 v. 19 Fl for 110" at 13').

I can get an 8345 from Visual Apex for about the same cost. But - again - somewhat lower rated output.

Harumph.

The 8345 is the twin of the 8350. It was renamed for bestbuy/futureshop exclusively so they wouldnt have to pricematch other sellers I heard. All my references before were for 8345s. The exact same projector.

We watched ours with lights up frequently playing video games to avoid eye strain. Cant wait to set 'er up again. Great light output. I paid $1200 fwiw, and would again.

I'd been trying to dig up information about the differences, and never really got anything definitive. This is good news, and I thank you.

I'm getting mixed signals about the symmetry of the vertical offset (the up-and-down lens shift). In the manual, it seems to indicate that there is less available offset towards the top of the projector. If true, I'd probably need to mount it on a shelf (rather than inverted on a wall mount) since I will need to put it near the top of the screen. But Epson's calculator seems to show the available lens shift as symmetrical.

pp 13-14 here - https://files.support.epson.com/pdf/plhc8345/plhc8345ug.pdf







(couldn't find the 8345 in the list)

Do you know what I mean? Any experience in that regard?

Yep I gotcha. I mounted inverted on mount 8" off ceiling at 15' and filled my 90" screen 10" fromr ceiling to top.

Brother A has his 12" or so from ceiling at 12' and has his sitting right side up in a cubby 20" off center. He was able to shift and fill his 92" screen at 15" from ceiling to top of screen.

Brother B has his ceiling mounted inverted with same mount and height as I did and was ok from 13' or so for 106" screen.

We tested brother B's situation using a step ladder first and went from there. The Epson is remarkably flexible it turned out. So long as you mount the lens below the top of the screen, you should be good with either right side up or inverted orientation. The further you mount from the screen, the more shift distance available. (Lense shift is a fixed ratio but shift distance increases with throw distance.)

The epson also exhausts out the front, so you can jam it against a wall or in a cubby/shelf without issue. Just be sure to make sure it has breathing room on sides and not sitting on plush fabric or carpet.

Excellent. I really appreciate the reassurance.

Tom, thanks for the heads up on the Silver Ticket screens. My current screen has some smudges that won't come out (I think Nolan smashed a bug on it), so I'm in the market. I was thinking of painting a screen, but at these prices, I'm saving time and going for one of these babies.

Wife just called and said we need a new bulb, so it may be a good time for projector upgraditis to strike as well.

I killed a bug on the bulb.

You are evolving into my archenemy!

Glad you thought that was useful, JP. Are you going to get the white one or the gray one?

You should definitely upgrade your projector, too. Aren't you still forcing Gail to watch 720p?

As to Mark's bug story, it rings true because:

1. He claims to have done something
2. The "something" wasn't anywhere near his woodshop
3. Somebody is annoyed

I think you're right, Tom.

I'm thinking white screen since I have a totally dark home theater.

Yes, I'm still using my 2006 Panasonic projector, on its second lamp. Max res is 720p or 1080i, but that's what DirecTV's "HD" is, or at least has been (haven't checked lately) unless you are doing certain PPVs, so I haven't an urgent need to upgrade. I guess blu rays would look better on a new projector, but Gail and I had this conversation and her vote is for new living room furniture first.

Turns out we don't need a new bulb. Diagnosis: user error. Worked fine for me when I got home.

That's a crummy story. Try again.

I have an Refurb Epson 8345 on the way from Visual Apex. Had to pay WA sales tax (which sucks).

This Elitech wall mount and Bluerigger 35' HDMI cable are also on the way from Amazon.

BUT it's graduation season and we're going to have house guests, so I'm probably going to have to just look longingly at the boxes for a week or so.

I'll probably end up with the Silver Ticket screen because I'm a complete sucker for Prime shipping and by the time I end up making that decision, I'm not going to want to wait on Jamestown.

Cool! Congrats. Having a PJ is a major step up. Big screen. Big sound. Big fun!

That's great Tom!

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the 110" Silver Ticket gray screen I linked earlier. It should be here Thursday, but I probably won't get a chance to work on it until Sunday.

The projector arrived last night. It is gigantic.

They are bigger than office pjs for sure. The sonys and JVCs are even larger I think. Have you tested it out yet?

Not yet. Weird week.

Do It!!!!!!!!
<points finger at you in Evil Monkey style>

Careful with that finger.

I will probably get started tonight. I have a wiring question, though. My perception is that it is "bad" to run power cords and signal cords parallel (and especially in the same channel). But I'm wondering if that still matters with a digital signal cable like HDMI?

I obviously have to get power and HDMI to the projector and it would be a lot simpler if they were both coming up the wall together. I'll probably use a surface raceway kind of thing; while there is a power outlet in the wall below the projector, I'm going to have to route the HDMI through the crawlspace and I can't really think of an elegant way to get both power and signal inside the wall.

Anything?

Rough in a ceiling/high wall plug if you can. If not possible and you go with parallel runs on surface using wiremold use a shielded HDMI cable. If over 25' you may have issues with HDMI signal. May not. I'd test your cable first.

You can fish power and data in the same stud space, just not preferred close for much longer than you have to.

Thank you.

Thinking of mounting a plate like this on the wall near the projector.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GZ8...d=ATVPDKIKX0DER

It's an odd install, because the wall I am mounting the projector on is not full-height; it is the landing for the stairway. I'm struggling a little with how to make it look decent.

Yep. Perfect solution. Cheap find too.

Well, THAT'S not going to work.

As I feared, the framing for the stairway landing means there is at least one and probably two horizontal studs in the wall cavity between the floor/electricity and the projector. Even if I wanted to buy a $50 installer bit (which I don't), it would still be a colossal pain in the ass. So, I'm pretty much back to painted wiremold.

On the bright side, I got the projector mounted and tested last night. Definite "wow" factor, even using a semi-gloss, merlot-colored wall rather than a screen. It is so much brighter and more detailed than our old RPTV. Better viewing angles, too. And I'm really happy with the Elitech mount. Between that and the Epson's lens shift, I'm very confident that I will be able to get the image squared up where I want it.

Even though I had done the math, I was still a little unsure that a 110" screen would be a good fit. I needn't have been; I probably could have gone to 120" and been happy despite the non-THX-compliant viewing angles. No substitute for "bigger".

Assembled and hung the Silver Ticket screen last night.

It went together pretty well, but that last step (installing the center support bar) was horrible. Very bad design, and I scuffed up the material on the back behind the border pretty badly. You can't see it, but it was still really frustrating. I'm not sure I can recommend this experience to others.

The video on their site shows a support bar with some offset between the rounded part of the bar that is inserted and the part that actually goes above the screen material. Mine had a square end and no such offset, so getting the bar to slide into position without mangling the installed fabric was basically impossible. A rubber mallet helped.

But I'd probably have gotten a Jamestown screen if I knew then what I know now.

That being said, the frame is made of high quality parts, and the fabric seems to perform nicely. The detail, brightness and contrast are much, much better than our old JVC HD-ILA RPTV. The viewing angle is really great, too.

And - again - the combination of the Elitech mount and the Epson lens shift made it very easy to get the right size image exactly where I wanted it.

Now, on to some cabling and equipment rack reconfiguration.

Good job, Tom! I'm excited for you!

Welcome to Home Theater World!
Maybe you should get some of them Axiom speakers I heard about somewhere...

Nice Work Tom.

Pictures please.

Now all your old blurays are new again! congrats Tom.

Thanks very much for the interest, encouragement and counsel, everyone.

I will take pictures after I tidy things up. It's a colossal mess at the moment.

Felix Hernandez looked pretty great last night