New HT with a bit of dilemma

[Westone]

Hi,
I am a newbie here, and while I decided to hire a professional I got two different opinions. My room is 19 ft by 14 ft. However, there is an obstacle on the ceiling, and that restricts placement of projector to about 14-at the most 16 ft from the wall.

One vendor recommends going with large screen TV as the room is too short to hang decent projector. Other one states he can do projector and screen with Dolby Atmos.

I do not want to go too extravagant, and have limited budget. Is it possible to have a decent HT experience with a TV? Needless to say, the bids I got are very high, and that is why I am considering doing it myself. Obviously, if I go with TV then it would be relatively easy than hanging a projector.

Thank you.

 

[rojo]

Hi,
I am a newbie here, and while I decided to hire a professional I got two different opinions. My room is 19 ft by 14 ft. However, there is an obstacle on the ceiling, and that restricts placement of projector to about 14-at the most 16 ft from the wall.

One vendor recommends going with large screen TV as the room is too short to hang decent projector. Other one states he can do projector and screen with Dolby Atmos.

I do not want to go too extravagant, and have limited budget. Is it possible to have a decent HT experience with a TV? Needless to say, the bids I got are very high, and that is why I am considering doing it myself. Obviously, if I go with TV then it would be relatively easy than hanging a projector.

Thank you.

I just ordered some remnant 2.0 gain silver screen from Carl's, and will be stapling it to a DIY frame. Lowe's will cut the wood, and I'll use a few screws and L brackets to assemble it. I'll hide the staples with some black felt tape, and I might even run some LED lights behind the edges of the screen. It's going to be epic.

I'll soon be ordering an ultra-short throw projector, the Optoma GT5500, as soon as my defective TV refund gets applied to my credit card. Ultra-short throw projectors can project 100" diagonal image from only a couple feet from the wall. They're often placed on a console right in front of the wall, something like this:

Besides being a solution to your ceiling obstacle, this type of projector also alleviates the need for you to run electrical into your ceiling, and lets you skip the wall fish for your signal cables. I've read they require meticulous positioning and can be a struggle to get keystoned correctly, but they have the potential to produce a very impressive picture if you have the patience to dial it in. They also require a flawless flat surface, so don't plan to project directly onto your wall.

If you doubt an ultra short throw projector is the right fit, there are also short throw projectors that work 8 - 10 feet from the wall (which I can't use because of a ceiling fan). Hop on Projector Central and use their projector finder and distance calculator to find a good fit for your desired placement and screen size.

As you shop, beware that ambient light rejecting screens are not recommended for short or ultra-short throw projectors. The angle at which they project will be rejected as if it were ambient light.

 

[theJman]

I do not want to go too extravagant, and have limited budget. Is it possible to have a decent HT experience with a TV?

"limited budget" is vague and will differ from person-to-person, so without knowing exactly what range you're in suggestions are likely to be all over the map. But in a general sense...

Yes, you can have more than a decent HT experience with a TV. Some of the new OLED's easily rival a projector, but they aren't the least expensive option. Even some of the new non-OLED HD TV's have impressive pictures.

 

[lovinthehd]

If I could do a projector well in my main room I'd prefer the larger screen a projector provides, but I do get a good experience with a large plasma tv in any case. That short throw one might work, though, didn't know they had such short throw units! The light in my main room would still require a tv for any daytime watching I'd think but that short throw unit could sure be interesting in my bedroom....

 

[Bucknekked]

Big screen TV or a projector? I think that ground is pretty subjective. From a technical point of view, the big screen TV will work (i've had one for years) and in many rooms its already overkill. The projector, which I have not owned but visited in friends homes, also works from a technical point of view and it definitely pleases many who own them.

In my simple addled mind, this comes down to your eye and what's pleasing since both the choices achieve the functional requirements. Once the functional requirements are met, now it comes down to subjective scores on your evaluation criteria. If you have a spouse, does he/she get to vote? That's an often overlooked requirement. Daytime lighting comes in to play. Ease of use.

I always voted for the big screen simply based on perceived (not necessarily genuine) sharpness of the image. But, that's a subjective opinion not something that applies from one individual to another.

Whichever you choose, please send some pictures of how it turned out. I'd like to see what your setup eventually becomes. I bet it will look great.

 

[HTfreak2004]

I built a room 20.4 ft long, 12 ft wide and 71 inches high after laying the floor. I have an Epson power lite cinema 500. Painted the ceiling and front wall flat black, side walls and rear wall canyon red eggshell low gloss. Now my room has no windows and 2 entry doors at the back left corner. There is zero natural light in my basement theatre. I use dimmer pot lights for 3 zone lighting. It is one level and my AV rack is in the front partially the result of my planning blueprint but it is where I have always placed it in other rooms anyhow. Projectors have come a long long way since I purchased mine and especially the screens both in quality and price. If your room is like mine your options are maxed out other than for the screen size. The pitch black room is best for any theatre and the display you use for video is at it's maxed glory in that setting. The speakers kinda become like a phantom in a dark theatre but their presence is even more enveloping than when they are seen. You get lost in the movie experience with those conditions. Personally if you have the coin buy a 75 inch moderate level tv with the inputs/outputs you want as most high end gaming consoles, tablets, phones, laptops, etc already bring a lot or most of the software to play and view yourself into infinity and beyond(buzz light Year toy story). Unless you have to have all of the features built into your tv which with all the other devices you end up already having and using offer overlap it makes choosing a lower model tv easier. Always check the number and type of video inputs and outputs you get as well as audio inputs/outputs. It saves swapping wires between devices everyone you want to use a different one. Also be sure to at least get a tv that is capable of HDMI arc. Basically that means you can input via HDMI and use either HDMI, coax digital audio, or optical toslink audio cable to maintain the sound in the 5.1 or higher format and not get downgraded by using the TV as a hub between components and receivers/ss processors. With a projector normally you run a conduit in the wall to ceiling to delivery point at the projector incase you plan upgrading later or want to move and keep your 300+ dollar of HDMI/DVI cables running to the projector. Nice thing about projectors they are displays so you don't need to buy a wire for the picture than another to link back to the ssp/receiver in your setup. I prefer both a TV on the wall and a motorized screen. If your dedicating a area for your house for HT than it's a mistake to use only a projector as the bulbs will be sucked up faster with gaming and watching silly things best suited for a LED with 100000 bulb hrs. My projector is older but the bulb life is 1700-3000 hrs not particularly exiting at 325 a pop for a decent replacement bulb. Keep in mind that a decent projector screen and projector while awesome when mated correctly can cost a bit and personally the use isn't the same. So that is why I recommend both in a decent setup and if you can only choose one they choose the biggest TV you can practically afford to drop 5000+ k on. After all you cannot underestimate the joy in a high quality display. Pay for that but don't use the wimpy tv speakers even if you grand mother is the one you are show your setup to she will thank you for your consideration. Have Fun and keep the db's pumping


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[rojo]

I built a room 20.4 ft long, 12 ft wide and 71 inches high....

71 inches high? Are you a hobbit, precious?

 

[TLS Guy]

You absolutely can get an excellent HT experience with a large flat panel TV. I think for most people that is the optimal solution.

 

[lovinthehd]

I built a room 20.4 ft long, 12 ft wide and 71 inches high after laying the floor. I have an Epson power lite cinema 500. Painted the ceiling and front wall flat black, side walls and rear wall canyon red eggshell low gloss. Now my room has no windows and 2 entry doors at the back left corner. There is zero natural light in my basement theatre. I use dimmer pot lights for 3 zone lighting. It is one level and my AV rack is in the front partially the result of my planning blueprint but it is where I have always placed it in other rooms anyhow. Projectors have come a long long way since I purchased mine and especially the screens both in quality and price. If your room is like mine your options are maxed out other than for the screen size. The pitch black room is best for any theatre and the display you use for video is at it's maxed glory in that setting. The speakers kinda become like a phantom in a dark theatre but their presence is even more enveloping than when they are seen. You get lost in the movie experience with those conditions. Personally if you have the coin buy a 75 inch moderate level tv with the inputs/outputs you want as most high end gaming consoles, tablets, phones, laptops, etc already bring a lot or most of the software to play and view yourself into infinity and beyond(buzz light Year toy story). Unless you have to have all of the features built into your tv which with all the other devices you end up already having and using offer overlap it makes choosing a lower model tv easier. Always check the number and type of video inputs and outputs you get as well as audio inputs/outputs. It saves swapping wires between devices everyone you want to use a different one. Also be sure to at least get a tv that is capable of HDMI arc. Basically that means you can input via HDMI and use either HDMI, coax digital audio, or optical toslink audio cable to maintain the sound in the 5.1 or higher format and not get downgraded by using the TV as a hub between components and receivers/ss processors. With a projector normally you run a conduit in the wall to ceiling to delivery point at the projector incase you plan upgrading later or want to move and keep your 300+ dollar of HDMI/DVI cables running to the projector. Nice thing about projectors they are displays so you don't need to buy a wire for the picture than another to link back to the ssp/receiver in your setup. I prefer both a TV on the wall and a motorized screen. If your dedicating a area for your house for HT than it's a mistake to use only a projector as the bulbs will be sucked up faster with gaming and watching silly things best suited for a LED with 100000 bulb hrs. My projector is older but the bulb life is 1700-3000 hrs not particularly exiting at 325 a pop for a decent replacement bulb. Keep in mind that a decent projector screen and projector while awesome when mated correctly can cost a bit and personally the use isn't the same. So that is why I recommend both in a decent setup and if you can only choose one they choose the biggest TV you can practically afford to drop 5000+ k on. After all you cannot underestimate the joy in a high quality display. Pay for that but don't use the wimpy tv speakers even if you grand mother is the one you are show your setup to she will thank you for your consideration. Have Fun and keep the db's pumping


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Paragraphs, man, paragraphs! Get rid of the tapatalk ad too!