Screen help for my first theater

[Algrin]

Hey Everyone,

I'm a young guy building my first theater and I am a complete noob to home theaters. I have already purchased an optima HD200X-LV projector. I am wondering what the best screen to buy would be for me. The seating will be about 13' away from the screen. I need help finding the best bang for my buck and I don't want to spend more than $600. Also, I would be ceiling mounting it.

Thanks so much for your help!!

 

[jostenmeat]

$600 is a decent budget. Check out Carada at the upper limit of your budget.

Otherwise, to save, you can spend considerably less with Focupix.

To save even more, you can go DIY. Jinjuku recently has done so, maybe he'll chime in if you express interest.

Lastly, you might consider what I will likely go for in the future. Seymour CenterStage XD fabric at only $13 per linear ft. Add a false wall. Hide all three LCR and subs behind it. Use three identical, vertically arrayed speakers for LCR, all at the same height. This gets you the best possible dialogue intelligibility, best possible panning, best possible acoustic match, improved center channel power handling, avoidance of midbass boosts from the floor, and having dialogue and all audio in general utterly locked on to the screen.

 

[Algrin]

Thanks Jostenmeat! You actually may have peaked my interest in the DIY, is that what the Seymour Center stage would be?

 

[AVRat]

You’ll probably want around a 120” dia. screen. Unfortunately, a Carada at that size is a little above budget.

http://www.projectorpeople.com/screens/proddtls.asp?productID=22888
http://www.htdepot.com/Focupix_Widescreen_Fixed_Frame_Screen_115_White_p/ff169lt-120mw.htm

If you go with a larger screen, > 110” dia., the material you’ll want to use goes up to $20/ lin. ft.
http://www.seymourav.com/screensDIY.asp
http://www.seymourav.com/store.asp

 

[jostenmeat]

Thanks Jostenmeat! You actually may have peaked my interest in the DIY, is that what the Seymour Center stage would be?

Yes, well at least if you asked me (because some DIY snobs might not call it DIY if it wasn't a paint mixture instead of bought material, but you won't find those snobs here so enough of my digression).

There is the former stuff called CenterStage, and the XD version has been around for some years now.

There are two PDFs for building the frame out, one is the basic version, and the second calls for splining the frame for better structural rigidity. You can find them here:

http://www.seymourav.com/screensDIY.asp

Mr. Seymour also wrote up this article for AH years ago, which gets into the benefits of avoiding horiz MTM for center speaker. Since, AH has written a follow up article, saying that a horiz MTM can be just fine if you are not terribly offaxis. However, for me, there is more than just avoiding lobing, because of the implications of having an enormous screen. The benefits in audio should* be very significant for me.

http://www.audioholics.com/education/loudspeaker-basics/vertical-vs-horizontal-speaker-designs

His results, and not surprisingly, the $250 horiz MTM finished last out of 9 orientations.

http://www.audioholics.com/education/loudspeaker-basics/vertical-vs-horizontal-speaker-designs/conclusion-rankings-and-evaluation.html

 

[jostenmeat]

If you go with a larger screen, > 110” dia., the material you’ll want to use goes up to $20/ lin. ft.
http://www.seymourav.com/screensDIY.asp
http://www.seymourav.com/store.asp

Ok, Rat, you have me second guessing myself. I will be over 110", and almost positively over 120" in fact, and I was planning on getting the 63" wide.

It would fit if I looked at 63" instead as height. The reason I second guess myself is because I want to know if the material should be oriented in particular manner in regards to its weave. I know that the fixed frames ALL come with a tilt, like 20 degrees or something, to avoid moire with LCD projectors.

 

[Algrin]

Thanks!!!! I think that may be the route I will go!

 

[AVRat]

Well John, as you probably know, it boils down to the screen size and how you build the screen. Just caught up on your “False Wall” thread and I think you may be pushing the limits of the 63” material.

 

[jostenmeat]

Well John, as you probably know, it boils down to the screen size and how you build the screen. Just caught up on your “False Wall” thread and I think you may be pushing the limits of the 63” material.

You sure about this? Here is a saved config of 120" dimensions. Slightly less than 59' tall, which means I'd have at least 2" at every border to play with in framing.

http://tvcalculator.com/index.html?2aa7a4e8777e40c649c9078e89d080a5

The only thing I can possibly think of is that the 63" must be oriented width-wise, however, it seems just about pointless to me to even sell this.

For example, to achieve 2" of play at every border, you would only have a 68" screen (see below). I don't know if I've ever seen a PJ screen that small before. Might as well get a plasma.

http://tvcalculator.com/index.html?1d501e37b7687cdb06c96fd85193a60e

The tilt is only a concern with 3LCD PJs. LCOS/DILA/SXRD, it's a complete non-issue, and the only reason to implement tilt is if I ever suspect that I go with that tech (but I find that highly unlikely).

 

[AVRat]

Yeah, I think you're safe using the 63" material for the 120" dia. screen without the tilt. I tend to err on the side of caution.

 

[jostenmeat]

Yeah, I think you're safe using the 63" material for the 120" dia. screen without the tilt. I tend to err on the side of caution.

You know what Rat, I think you're right after all. I will either need to go a tad smaller, or just get the bigger fabric. And now I'm thinking of doing the tilt so that I just never have to worry about it (had a brainstorm session which I'll continue tomorrow), which pretty much means going with the wider fabric. Thanks for bouncing your opinions off of me.