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Yeah, more information please. I'm about to build a frame for a new 120" screen to replace my temporary 4x8 build but I didn't realize AT was this cheap now. Does it require anything different out of the frame itself or should I be able to easily upgrade from blackout cloth in the future?
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Oct 29, 2014 04:36
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wolfbiker posted:so the front l/c/r are up by the screen and all point down towards the ground? that must sound like poo poo. why not at least use in-wall speakers for the fronts? There are ceiling-mount speakers that stick out and fire at an angle, either intended to aim directly at the seating area or bounce off the wall. That said they're still not great compared to a normal set of speakers. Unless you start getting in to Atmos setups (where they're augmenting a normal 5.1/7.1 setup) ceiling mount speakers are like soundbars in that they're compromising performance in exchange for WAF. I used to live in a house that came with a high-end multi-room audio system using ceiling speakers, and it was great for playing music during parties or even running the audio from whatever sports game we might have been watching, but it sucked hard for anything where positional audio was important.
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Mar 22, 2018 14:19
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Projector bulb life is kinda like SSD write wear, something that people who haven't actually owned the things end up worrying about a lot more than they really should. In my experience a standard 3000 hour bulb is good for 3-5 years of moderate use. A few hours a day on average. I've actually never in 13 years of owning projectors had a bulb fail due to age, technology always moves along and I end up wanting something new, usually higher resolution. My one failure was entirely operator error, being way too stoned and bored during a thunderstorm and repeatedly turning it back on after power outages until it refused to turn on anymore. Two of the three I've gotten rid of have been sold to friends though, and in both cases the bulbs went well beyond their ratings. One was in the 6000s when it finally gave out. Bulb warranties are a thing too if you're concerned, but IMO bulbs are not expensive enough to be worth worrying about.
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Jul 6, 2018 20:56
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Have any of you seen any home theater class projectors that you feel actually do justice to HDR content? I'm talking in a dark room of course. I'm feeling the urge to upgrade from my W1070 but everyone in the big TV thread seems to agree that HDR is more important than 4K alone and actual HDR support (as opposed to accepting HDR inputs but not really being capable of displaying it) is rare in home projectors. I don't mind "faux-K" pixel shifting since I only use it for movies and games, not PC display where every pixel actually matters, but I want that dynamic range. Failing that, are any of you running a dual display configuration where you have the same A/V stack feeding both a TV and a projector that you can switch between depending on what you're doing? How do you have it set up and how do you like that? That's seeming like the most logical "plan B", to get a decent HDR flat panel display and use it when ultimate hugeness isn't the most important thing.
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Oct 26, 2018 17:04
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Ixian posted:I have the JVC DLA-RS540U. It is a great PJ that does HDR very well however it's considerably more expensive than the W1070 - you can get them for around $3500 these days. 4k and HDR with front projectors isn't cheap. Yeah, I of course am well aware that proper HDR from a projector is going to be expensive. So far all the reviews I've read on consumer-tier HDR projectors have been less than impressed, so mostly I'm trying to gauge how far up the range you have to go to actually have it be good which will then give me a rough idea of how far off it is from something I can afford and maybe which technologies to keep an eye on. edit: I hadn't looked at the JVCs, but they just really turned me off the second I tried to with their popup bitching about unauthorized distributors. I loving hate that part of the home theater world, the "our gear is special and we won't support anyone who doesn't hire some expensive idiot to bolt it to the ceiling" nonsense. I'm a nerd who likes to play with my gadgets. Designing, installing, and configuring it is part of the fun. wolrah fucked around with this message at 18:16 on Nov 5, 2018 |
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Nov 5, 2018 18:10
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My BenQ W1070 finally popped its original bulb at 4354 hours. I feel like that's a pretty solid run over something like three years. Picked up a replacement bulb assembly from the recommended seller on Amazon, so far it's definitely brighter. We'll see if it's a quality product over the next few years I guess.
wolrah fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Jan 18, 2019 |
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Jan 18, 2019 01:22
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That sounds like a pretty much perfect use case for one of those LED-lit DLP pocket projectors. A lot of them are really cheap WVGA or WXGA junk but there are a few in the $500-600ish range that are actually native 1080p. They'll all claim enough light to shoot a 100-120" image and that's total bullshit unless the room is perfectly dark, but they should be great for small sizes.
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Apr 18, 2019 17:46
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Yeah, if it weren't for the resolution requirement I was going to suggest the Nebula Capsule II for its entirely self-contained operation.
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Apr 19, 2019 15:18
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That room looks like it would be excellent for a projector. You could pretty easily avoid the wall surgery with careful projector selection. There are a variety of sites that have calculators which will tell you what size range a given projector can throw at a given distance, sometimes even the device manufacturers themselves. I recommend one where your maximum desired size isn't maxing out the range. Once you have it set up, play around with the size for a few days. See what you like before locking in a size and buying screen fabric/paint. Since it looks like you can have some pretty great light control you can use the grey/silver screen materials that trade a bit of brlghtness for improved contrast. wolrah fucked around with this message at 23:07 on Nov 4, 2019 |
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Nov 4, 2019 23:02
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Elysium posted:I figured having the projector on the other side of the wall would be a good thing, contain any fan noise and not have a projector overhead where it could be bumped or whatever. Plus the computer it would be hooked up to will likely be on that side of the wall as well. There’s nothing there (between studs) but a single piece of drywall. A few things I'd consider though: 1. How often do you expect the washer/dryer to be running when you're using the projector? The hole will pass sound just as well as it passes light. 2. Having to work around the studs will limit where your screen centerline can be. These aren't huge issues of course, just things to consider when planning this out. quote:Setting up the projector before getting a screen is a great idea. I totally forgot I could do that. quote:On screen size, I actually just remeasured and realized I hosed up the sizes, the big tape pictured was more like 140, 120 is a lot more reasonable. At a 12 foot viewing distance that means they recommend a screen size of at least 107" and consider 77" to be a bare minimum. There do not seem to be widely agreed upon guidelines for what's too large. quote:Is there any standards for how much room should be around the screen? Like currently where I have the tape, somewhat randomly, there is about 6 inches above the screen and a foot and a half below. Am I shooting for the middle of the screen to be head height? Ergonomically AFAIK the rule is to have 2/3 of the screen above eye level.
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Nov 5, 2019 17:32
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e: drat forum goblins
wolrah fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Nov 5, 2019 |
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Nov 5, 2019 17:53
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Elysium posted:Looking into projector offsets, it seems this will put a damper on my plan to mount on the other side of the wall. Because of the beam between the walls at the top, the mounting position would potentially be too low, as illustrated by this example projector calculation: How low is this beam? Also how high are the ceilings, how much vertical wall space are we actually working with on the far side?
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Nov 6, 2019 23:12
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If you're aiming for a 120" screen it'll be 59" tall. With an 82" wall that means if it's absolutely riding the ceiling it'd be starting at 23" off of the ground and going up. Following the 1/3 rule, ergonomically you want eye level to be about 20 inches up from the bottom of the screen. At least for me sitting on my couches eye level falls between 38 and 42 inches, so I'd probably want the image to be positioned a few inches below the ceiling. Your couch and viewer torso heights may vary. As I see it that actually works out pretty nicely with your requirements. If the beam is 8" that means that mounting the projector just below the level of the beam would put your lens center roughly 12" below the ceiling. When shooting a 120" picture a lot of the home theater projectors out there have what ProjectorCentral would call a -8" offset, or the bottom of the image is 8" below the lens. Since that's reversed in a ceiling mount, that'd put it about four inches off the ceiling which would be pretty close to perfect. You could use that space to build a border using some dark fabric which helps increase the apparent contrast. You definitely don't want to get a projector with a positive offset, but you still have plenty of choices across the market. Vertical lens shift is also reasonably common so as long as you're not trying to get the cheapest thing on the market you have some room to play. As far as coffee table clearance, yeah in my scenario we're going down to 19 inches so anything really close to the screen could get in the way, but you'd be surprised how little of an issue it actually is unless you want to shove stuff right up against the wall. If you've decided what screen size you want you could take some string and a pushpin to map out the edges of the beam. Put the pin in the wall roughly where the lens would be, attach the string to it, and pull it to the corners of where the image will be on the wall. Pull it tight and you'll see where you can't put things. wolrah fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Nov 7, 2019 |
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Nov 7, 2019 20:15
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Hmm, it seems you're right, I misread the way ProjectorCentral lists things, what you'd want would be something with a single digit positive offset at your desired screen size. That is a much harder request to fill. I did find one Epson that'd do it (https://www.projectorcentral.com/Epson-Home_Cinema_1060-projection-calculator-pro.htm), but that thing is designed for relatively short throw installations so for 120" it'd need to be 9-10.5 feet away from the screen, pretty much directly above the center viewing position. If you could tolerate something mounting much lower in the wall something like this would be an option: https://www.projectorcentral.com/Epson-Home_Cinema_3800-projection-calculator-pro.htm but obviously that means anyone standing in front of the center seat would be blocking a lot of the image. edit: Actually that one says it has a lot of lens shift capability and could neutralize that out. If so, it might work. Pricey for 1080p, but it's also quite bright with large optics. wolrah fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Nov 8, 2019 |
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Nov 8, 2019 21:19
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If you have any dark bed sheets or enough dark towels you could probably use that for a rough idea. It makes sense though, same basic principle as putting a dark material around the edges of the screen itself to minimize reflections.
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Mar 6, 2020 21:16
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Chumbawumba4ever97 posted:You can also put an in-the-wall speaker behind the projector screen. Some might find it sacrilegious or something but it's just carrying dialogue; plus you can tell your receiver to make that speaker louder than the rest.
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Mar 11, 2020 20:01
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Harvey Baldman posted:Is this just the inevitable result of having a relatively budget projector? What can I do? If I need to replace it, I'm willing, I just need to be pointed in the right direction. A lot of projectors, particularly cheaper ones, do not have any kind of lens shift capabilities. If you did your keystone adjustments from a menu rather than from physically moving something on the projector, for all intents and purposes you're just digitally distorting the image. Whichever end was too large in the normal state is now getting compressed down in to less pixels. This works OK for movies and video games, but you inherently lose the pixel perfect accuracy needed for small text and pretty much any kind of PC usage. --- You need to either remount your projector so you don't have to use keystone adjustment or upgrade to a new model that has optical lens shift. Using digital keystone adjustment should generally be avoided.
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Aug 10, 2020 22:20
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Harvey Baldman posted:It does actually have a physical keystone adjustment, I think - I didn't make any of those changes through a menu, there's a dial on the machine behind the front focus that I used. Does that change any of your response, aside from remounting it? I'm just trying to avoid that outcome because I want the projector high enough that it's not going to get hit by someone playing VR games in the same space. Given the price point if it does actually have optical adjustments I wouldn't be surprised to find that the optics just aren't great. You could easily test this by leveling it out and setting it back to the default position, if the blurriness near the edges goes away that's your problem.
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Aug 11, 2020 22:10
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Has anyone tried out one of the 120Hz capable projectors? I'm looking to upgrade my home theater to 4K and being able to support >60 FPS gaming is important to me. 1080p120 would be fine, though 4K120 support would be nice future-proofing if that's actually available yet. I'm hoping to be able to stay with projectors for this refresh cycle, but "theater" size TVs have come down to prices affordable by mortals so their advantages are getting hard to ignore. It doesn't seem like anyone has Variable Refresh Rate support in a projector yet, obviously the color wheel would make that impractical/impossible in a single-chip DLP but in theory it should work the same for LCD/LCoS as it would on a normal TV. Triple-chip DLP could probably also do it, but those are $car so not really relevant to most of us.
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Aug 21, 2020 21:26
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I don't think VRR and DLP will ever be compatible, at least not the single-chip plus color wheel DLPs available to mere mortals, because the wheel would need to change speed so often to track the input framerate. Triple-chip DLP should have no problems, but those are expensive, so I expect any potential "gaming" projectors aimed at the "mainstream" market will be LCD or LCoS. HDR is also inherently tricky for the same reason projectors require good light control. Peak brightness is a serious limiting factor. I'm in mostly the same boat, my W1070 is at the point where I'm getting bulb life warnings about my second bulb, at the moment the HT3550 is looking like the most appealing option available now or in the near future but nothing ticks all the same boxes I could get with a large direct-view TV. On the other hand though, even 85" TVs feel small to me now. wolrah fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Feb 1, 2021 |
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Feb 1, 2021 18:37
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ughhhh posted:Anyone have a suggestion for wireless streaming/casting dongle/stick for your projector. I want to get rid of the HDMI cable that comes out of my projector to clean up my living room a bit. Was looking at a chrome cast, but am a bit weary about the whole IoT device and google product nature. I dont use netflix or other streaming services anyways since i have a plex server setup, so all i would need is a wireless screen mirroring adapter. This really depends on what content you're trying to run over the wireless connection. WirelessHD is the most flexible option, being more or less equal to a HDMI cable up to 1080p, but it's expensive and requires line-of-sight between the transmitter and the receiver due to using 60 GHz radio to do its thing. It's the only option if you want to use game consoles over the wireless link. If you only care about using a PC as the source, then solutions like Steam Link and Miracast come in to play. Steam Link is gaming focused but can be used to stream anything not DRM protected with low latency. Miracast is cheaper and more widely supported (many Android devices can source it rather than just PCs) but doesn't really put effort in to latency. In either of those cases you will need to do some fiddling to get the audio to sync up with the video if you don't want to send it to the projector's speaker. If you don't actually care about the PC connection at all then you could pick your favorite streaming stick platform, but you'll have the reverse problem of now needing to get audio down from the projector to your sound system. Bluetooth might be workable in some cases if you don't care about surround. High definition video is a lot of data, it's really hard to move it around wirelessly once it's been decompressed.
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Apr 30, 2021 15:18
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Cornjob posted:Anything under $5k is a pixel shifting projector, which some snobs will turn up their nose at. But to trained calibrators and engineers, they are indiscernibly close to actual 4K, and in some cases outperform the entry level native 4K projectors in some of the more important categories, such as contrast and brightness. I'm under the impression that it's sort of like 4:2:0 color in that you usually won't notice it with movies or video games, or big-screen UIs but that if you drop to a PC desktop any narrow lines in text or UI elements will be a dead giveaway.
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Jul 1, 2021 20:10
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mutantIke posted:What is it with "portable" projectors and having extremely short cables? I got an Anker Capsule Max and while it does have a built-in battery, the charging brick (because gently caress USB-C I guess) only has like a 6 foot long cable on the thing. Before that, I had a cheap drop-shipped portable projector (no battery) that shipped with a cable so short it barely reached the floor. I'm a cheap college student, I can't be spending money on extension cords all willy nilly. (BTW, Capsule Max is a really solid portable projector. Great sound, shockingly solid image, and if you install VLC on it you can just play a bunch of movies off a flash drive.) Long cables aren't as portable and cost more money.
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Oct 24, 2022 15:11
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emocrat posted:At my old home i had a tv on the wall and a motorized projection screen that came down in front of it. It wasn't gaming or anything just dont always want the huge screen and low lights if your just watching dumb tv or something. That's a lot of effort and some non-trivial hardware just to make the switch between TV and projector look cooler though.
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Feb 17, 2023 17:19
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BrainDance posted:Who actually makes the best low latency projectors for gaming? It looks like Acer has a pair that I don't think have been officially sold in the US that support 1080p120 VRR and that's it. 4K120 is rare to begin with and 4K VRR doesn't seem to exist. Obviously a single-chip DLP with a color wheel will never be able to support VRR and pixel-shifting probably isn't compatible with the idea either (nor low latency in general), but I can't see any reason why a native 4K 3DLP, LCoS/D-ILA, or plain LCD unit would have any harder of a time than a desktop monitor would.
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Aug 30, 2023 15:08
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You also won't be getting the popping colors with any projector most of us would consider "affordable", and even then you're going to need controlled light to get the best out of it. In a living room application a projector is never going to be as good as an OLED. That said have you considered a Samsung "The Frame" TV? I don't know what they do differently but when in their "art" mode you could easily not notice that it's a TV at all. I've only ever seen that on those TVs and the Google Nest Display thing. They're not OLEDs of course so they're not going to be as good when actually using them as a TV but it's still going to look a lot better than a projector in a normally lit room while blending in to the decor better when not in use.
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Nov 8, 2023 16:35
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