132" wide screen?

[NeonBeyond]

I know no affordable projector can handle such a wide viewing aria. My goal is to fill an entire wall from side to side and top to bottom. My question to all of you is, rather than buying a 25k+ projector, can I hook up two 2k+ projectors and some how link them together to form one screen? I was thinking I could use my computer to link them but windows has it built in so you can project an image on up to four screens all at once but for video it will only let you view one screen. Does anyone know of a device that I can use to link two projectors together so I can create a massive movie experience in my home?

Thanks
NeonBeyond

 

[BMXTRIX]

There are many questions that should be asked first and more often than not, what you are asking for is not appropriate. Your screen should be the appropriate size for your viewing distance and optimal image quality will come from a single projector that is properly matched to the screen and the environment that you will be using it in.

That said, projectors like Sanyo's PLV-75 will easily do a 132" wide image without issue and for a much better price than any edge blending piece will even hope to afford you.

REVIEW: http://www.projectorcentral.com/sanyo_plv-75.htm

Now, more to the point...

1. What is the reason for you wanting such a large screen?
2. What is your primary viewing material going to be? (HDTV, DVD, SDTV)
3. What is your seating distance in the room?
4. What/where are all your speakers? The audio budget should be no less than 50% of your video budget.
5. What are your throw distance options?
6. Ceiling/table mount?
7. What are the overall dimensions of the room you are putting it into?
8. Is there ambient light or other seriously harmful issues that will degrade image quality significantly in the room?

I suggest you do a LOT of reading about home theater projectors, appropriate setups, and consider your personal taste in viewing cinema. If you like sitting in the front row at a theater, than that size may work. But, if you like the exact center of the theater, and your viewing distance is 12 feet, than you really (really!) want a screen about 110" diagonal.

 

[Tom Andry]

My question is, if you are going to fill up a whole wall with video, where are you going to put the speakers? They kinda need to be in front.

 

[AVRat]

C'mon Tom, you know they go behind the acoustically transparent screen which of course adds to the cost.

 

[NeonBeyond]

Info you asked for

Not appropriate? I though this was the point of this site and forum? I’m 35 not 18 and am spending a good chunk of money trying to make this happen.

Ranting aside, I am happy to answer your question as I do appreciate anyone’s help, just know I’m not some kid dreaming of things for his bedroom in his parents house.


1. What is the reason for you wanting such a large screen?
A (almost) floor to ceiling screen would be fantastic. I would imagine that it would give you the feeling of really being in the action. If it’s not possible that’s fine, but its worth getting as close to that as I can.

2. What is your primary viewing material going to be? (HDTV, DVD, SDTV)
DVD only, HDTV does not impress me, so little improvement really from what I have seen in stores. Depending on how big I can get the screen I assume I will have to have a custom screen made for me. I hear the ones with the glass beads are the best for capturing and reflecting light and color. As well, I want a good picture and at that size, I figured I would be better served with two projectors. (you have see the big multi screen displays at stores like Best Buy where they have like 12 little screen at synced together to form one big video display) I just don’t know where to find equipment that can do that.

3. What is your seating distance in the room?
The room is 11.2’ wide. 25’ long 9’ H walls with a vaulted ceiling. The viewing wall is 11.2’ wide, and 9’ high. Because the ceiling is vaulted, I have an additional 5 feet of ceiling space from the top of the wall to the ceiling so there is plenty of room for a projector mount. From what I have read, it would seem the I should put the chairs 12’ or more back from the viewing aria.

4. What/where are all your speakers? The audio budget should be no less than 50% of your video budget.
Room is still under construction and as such, I am still considering speaker options. The room is our former unused garage. Just finished building up a new floor (wood beams and plywood floor over the old cement) Just finished rewiring the entire rooms electrical, took out all the old stuff and had wiring with better shielding installed as if I chose to run cable through the walls for speakers I want as little interference as possible. I also added more electrical outlets to the wall ceiling and floor. Decided I do not want wall speakers, so I was looking at the speaker recommended on this web site for the 25k home theater setup. Will do the 7point surround. There will be about a 1-foot space between screen and floor for front speaker, the rest will go along the side of the wall a few feet in front of the screen along the wall. Will use the laser recommendation that I read on the site to point the speakers toward the main seating aria.

5. What are your throw distance options?
The room is 25’ long so I can place a camera any ware along that length.

6. Ceiling/table mount?
Ceiling mount. It’s a vaulted ceiling so there is plenty of room and I can build a mount easy enough. However table might be an option I have to go with as well as I know the projector angle needs to be dead on or the screen distorts.

7. Is there ambient light or other seriously harmful issues that will degrade image quality significantly in the room?
I built a wall where the garage door used to be and installed a door and a window as well I installed two other windows along on of the walls. I want to use the oom for other things as well so having natural light is a good thing. However, I will have paneling that I can mount over the window frames for movie time, so there will be no light coming in from the windows.

Thanks for your time and advice!

 

[Rob Babcock]

I don't thing any offense was meant by saying a whole wall picture was 'inappropriate'- I think he was just saying it might not be optimal. Having a huge picture may seem like a good idea, but there are practical considerations.

First off, when you go to the movie theater, where do you sit? Down in the very front row where the screen covers your whole field of vision? Towards the middle? In the very back? I always sit basically in the very center of the theater at a very specific distance front to back; in the stadium seated theater I go to this places the center of screen right at eye level. If I can't sit in one of the 8 or 9 seats that meet this requirement I generally won't watch the movie. Now I'm probably a bit more rabid than most, but that's the way I like to see a picture. I suggest you consider how you like to see movies.

Secondly, how far away will you sit? DVDs can look great on a projector. I use a PJ myself. But bear in mind that at best you'll get 480P from DVD (notwithstanding upconversion- I've never seen that so I can't speak to well it might work). That means you might see visible line structure, pixelation or SDE (screen door effect, if the PJ you use is digital). The best cure for this is to project a smaller image or sit further back. I personally watch an 84" screen from 12.5 feet and think it's right on the edge of being too large. Still, others watch a 120" image at 9 feet and think it's perfect. YMMV.

Third, if you don't want to have in-wall speakers you'll probably want to leave a bit of room for floorstanders. I would hate to mount my center much lower than a foot and a half off the floor, but you could if you tilted it back a bit. Most speakers won't like being jammed tightly into a corner- most will sound better with a little room to 'breath', places a ways out of the corner and away from the side walls.

Lastly if you project onto the entire wall you may have some issues with light scattering back and reflecting off the side walls, floor & ceiling. This can be minimized by painting them black/dark and using dark carpetting. I have my front & side walls masked off with black fabric, which really helps. The next step for me will be to get a black rug that will cover more of my vide room floor than the current one does and consider painting the ceiling flat black or flat gray.

Overall you HT plan sounds pretty good. What do you plan on purchasing for a projector?

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

Almost any front projector (even the $1000 models) will fill a 130" screen if you can mount it far enough back from the "screen". No need for 2-projector trickery of any sort.

Of course there a legion of reasons why its probably not a great idea, ranging from "not enough resolution" to simply "picture so big your brain can't comprehend all of it" (what with peripheral vision and all).

I'd borrow a FP and try it for a movie or two before you invest any money. Who knows? Maybe you'll like the effect after all and prove me wrong. Stranger things have happened.

 

[Rob Babcock]

Well, it also has to be able to focus at that distance and put out enough light to be watchable. There are some very bright PJs under $2k, especially DLP.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Inappropriate, as said by Rob was meant as 'not ideal' not as wrong forum.

Your gut want is potentially not ideal because your goal should be to get the best possible image that gives you and your family the most enjoyment possible. The best way to do this is to interview you for your viewing habits at a movie theater. The guess here is that experience is what you are trying to recreate. As such, your screen size should really be determined by your commercial theater viewing preference and your home theater viewing distance.

Most theaters shoot for THX standards. The center of the theater (where Rob sits) is about 1.5x the width of the screen (approx). So, if the screen is 30 feet wide, he sits about 45 feet away.

So, a few more questions (repeat from above).

1. Where do you and your family members like to sit in a commercial movie theater?

2. What budget are you looking for on the projector alone.

3. Do you have a budget for the screen?

There are a lot of factoids that you are unaware of at this time, so while you are obviously excited, it is a good time to slow things down and do some research and reading. This site has some good information as well as www.projectorcentral.com Hopefully I will write up some projector FAQs for Audioholics to use (or not) which may be helpful.

General rules (which can be broken).

Shoot for about 10-15 lumens per square foot of screen size in a dark room. The screen gain can be adjusted to match the needs of the viewing audience at time of purchase.

Take a look at some screens at www.carada.com - They have some excellent pricing on some of the best fixed screens you will ever see.

Glass beaded screens are retro-reflective and are rarely used. They bounce light back at the projector and tend to have a very narrow viewing cone with more image brightness irregularity than other screen surfaces. Brilliant white screens or grey screens are far more common and fit 90%+ of all applications for residential use.

You do NOT want a multi-projector setup. This comes from years and years of experience. Multiple projectors must be perfectly color balanced to each other by a trained installer with several grand worth of the right gear. It adds additional failure points to your system, and is difficult to maintain - and nearly impossible to setup perfectly. Edge blending products, including those from companies like Extron and RGB Spectrum can mesh two projected images together into one, but expect to pay several thousand dollars for that ability. Yes, they are good - but they aren't cheap, and it doesn't get you away from having to tweak the setup regularly (more than once a month).

Your screen size, in your lighting conditions allows for single projector usage no matter what size you end up going with.

Do NOT start looking at $2,000 business projectors. They don't have the image processing, color balance, or other criteria that makes a home theater projector excellent. If you must go business class, than the PLV-75 which I listed above is the right direction to go.

The room is excellent, your mounting options are perfect - so you have a lot of room to come to an ideal setup. But, go ahead and take your time to understand what you are looking to do.

A pro installer would walk into your room, look at the prints which put primary seating at 12 feet and give you a 110" diagonal screen almost every time. It is also what I would recommend. It fits THX standards, is comfortable and LARGE to view, and will provide an excellent image for most 720p projectors.

FYI: DVD is great, but with an image that size, you may find that you will be getting a HD disc player in the near future. That said, you want to be sure that your display will be able to take the most advantage of that technology when it comes out. So, if you are looking to buy in the next 6 months or so and your budget allows for it, there may be some excellent new 1080p projectors on the market. Including the Sony Pearl which may be the deal front projector next year.

 

[Rob Babcock]

Scuttlebutt at AVS is that the new Optoma HD81 actually looks better than the Pearl...A bit early to say, of course. Maybe we'll know more after CEDIA.

Probably a glass beaded screen isn't the way to go. With good light control something like a Carada BW would probably work very well. Honestly, according to copious reviews a GOO screen may perform extremely well in your application. It depends on your budget- a good fixed screen that size starts around $600.

 

[NeonBeyond]

More info for you

Cool, Was up until 4am last night working on a college paper (back in school at 35) full time work, full time school, and full time family. It’s easy to get frustrated quickly. Thanks for your understanding.

I would say that the PLV-75 is about the most I would want to spend on any one projector. So 5k would be my max for that part for now with the potential for something better down the road as the field seems to be putting out better and better equipment at a pretty good clip.


1. Where do you and your family members like to sit in a commercial movie theater?
For me, just about any place is ok, I get so absorbed in movies and I forget everything around me and get more into the plots and actors than the actual scenery. While I love how Lord of the Rings looked with its big landscapes, I’m more into the mood of the whole thing VS being able to see the leaves on all the trees. Clear is all I need, ultra crisp would be lost on me but the rest of my family (3 kids) would probably enjoy that more for their video games. (Yes, I play them to!)

2. What budget are you looking for on the projector alone.
Under 6k for the projector if I want to get it this year.

3. Do you have a budget for the screen?
After reading about the PLV-75, it seems that on a screen this size I need something that is gray to help keep black more black. Price wise, it’s just a matter of time. I am taking my time with all of this, have spent a year already just prepping and re-building the garage. (Only have time every other weekend for this project). However, its to the point now where I need to think about where everything is going be positioned in the room before I put in the drywall so I can run cables and ports for the speakers and projector. So for the screen I want what is needed to get a good picture. The more expensive it is, the longer I will save for it is all. Figure a budget of around $500 a month until complete.

Already have a black rug picked out, they make an outdoor patio rug that can take a lot of abuse and it looks good. Going to spackle the walls a dark gray, not sure what to do with the ceiling yet, I don’t want to spackle it gray as well, I think it would just feel like I was in a egg carton package if I did that. Does spackle help keep the sound from echoing or will I possibly need to get some of those fabric panels?...ah well, one question at a time.

Thanks!
Neon

 

[Rob Babcock]

There's a lot of good info to be found here, Neon, but you may also want to check out AVS Forums. AH actually has a section there, too. There's probably no single place on the 'net where you can learn more about video than AVS. That said, nothing wrong with starting here. I also have to warn you that AVS sometimes isn't very "nOOb friendly."

 

[BMXTRIX]

My recommendation to you:

Go with good floor standing speakers and a decent center channel at the front of the room - no less than 18" off the floor for the center channel.

Screen: http://www.carada.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=PROJECTION-SCREEN-H126C

In Brilliant White (about $1,000 shipped)

Projector: If you can hold off and swing it I would wait to see what the Optoma HD81 offers for calibrated brightness. If not, the InFocus IN76 would likely be my first pick. About 500 calibrated lumens to the screen. With a screen area of a bit over 45 square feet, that gives you about 11 lumens per square foot. With the positive gain screen, it puts you right about exactly where you want to be in a dark home theater.

The price of that projector also should allow you to get that screen right away and have some budget to put towards speakers as well.

 

[NeonBeyond]

Thanks

Thanks for all the advice. I have it all printed out and will continue to do more research like you said. I have the time to wait and see what the new projectors can do, since its going to be the center piece to the whole system, it good advice that you give to hold off and to see if these just around the corner items might suit me better.

Thanks again for your advice and your vary helpful web page. You answered my question perfectly.

Neon

 

[BMXTRIX]

Neon - Glad to be of help here.

One very (very!) good piece of advice is that if you have the ability to get the projector before you decide on a final 'home' for it to live in the room, you can test it at different distances and different sizes to find what is most comfortable for you and your family. No screen, just use the wall (white). That'll give you close to 1.0 gain and give you some indication of the final result with a screen.

The best part is that you can really nail what YOU like personally. So, instead of committing to the entire wall, then ending up disappointed with things you can bring the size down. Likewise, if you are completely psyched on using the wall and it turns out that going smaller doesn't leave anyone happy, you can keep the size big.

As much as I go "this is how it should be done" - I don't want you to think that is how it MUST be done. Your money, your home, and your family and their preferences are a big deal in all of this. So, you are the one who really should be deciding. But, going in armed with information goes a long way to giving you the results you desire. Testing with the projector you will actually use in the room (no less than a week at any screen size!) will be one of the best indicators you can have.