# Question about projection Screen Size



## loperwrestler3 (May 25, 2012)

I just bought a Panasonic PT-D3500U Projector, I got it in perfect working condition (with only a few hundred hours on the lamp) for $300, did I get a good deal on this? To me the picture looks great but it could just be because I am an ignorant noob to this game. 

Now on to my real question ... I built a 102 in. 16:9 screen using blackout cloth. The picture from my projector fits perfectly inside this framed screen when my projector is set to 16:9 mode however there is about of foot or so of light projected on my wall at the top and the bottom, its not a huge deal it just doesn't look quite as professional because it spills over my frame and onto my wall. Just curious if there was anything I could do to take these sections away so only my picture remains inside the frame. Thanks so much!


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## wgmontgomery (Jun 9, 2011)

Welcome to HTS! 

My knowledge of projectors is somewhat limited (it's been awhile since I've installed one), but it sounds to me that the pic needs to be adjusted for your screen size. The 16:9 is a ratio, and the projector still needs to be "_focused_" to fit the screen.

I'll copy this to the HT projector forum as you may have more luck finding an answer there. Good luck!

Link to copied thread here.


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## TypeA (Aug 14, 2010)

loperwrestler3 said:


> I just bought a Panasonic PT-D3500U Projector, I got it in perfect working condition (with only a few hundred hours on the lamp) for $300, did I get a good deal on this? To me the picture looks great but it could just be because I am an ignorant noob to this game.




Welcome to Home Theater Shack loperwrestler3 :wave:


You didnt spend too much for what you got. I recently purchased a Mitsubishi HC3000U for $250 on fleabay, it will need a new lamp soon and theyre about $80 to replace. So you can find good performance 720p projectors fairly cheap in the used market. Your Panasonic PT-D3500U is 1024x768 and 4x3 native, not ideal for a home theater application where 16x9 is preferred but I thought this was a cool feature that might come in handy later (certainly not an option I have with my Mitsubishi):





> Panasonic offers 5 additional optional lenses to choose from (the same lenses work with their more powerful, 5000 lumen PT-D5500u. In addition to the "standard" zoom lens, there is a extremely short thow fixed wide angle lens, ideal for tight rear screen applications, plus a wide angle zoom, a medium telephoto zoom, an long telephoto zoom and an extremely long throw zoom. The extreme zoom can place the projector as far back as 54 feet from a 100" screen, which is ideal for back of room mounting of the projector.


http://www.projectorreviews.com/panasonic/pt-d3500u/performance.php


The kind of flexibility those option lenses offer is somewhat hard to find, the extremely short throw and long throw lenses are just plain cool. If you can find them lenses cheap it might not be a bad idea to get them even if you dont think youll use them, could come in handy if you relocate it or just to make it easier to resell later. Otherwise for what you spent you got a pretty good projector that should provide years of solid service, all the reviews I read said it did great.




loperwrestler3 said:


> Now on to my real question ... I built a 102 in. 16:9 screen using blackout cloth. The picture from my projector fits perfectly inside this framed screen when my projector is set to 16:9 mode however there is about of foot or so of light projected on my wall at the top and the bottom, its not a huge deal it just doesn't look quite as professional because it spills over my frame and onto my wall. Just curious if there was anything I could do to take these sections away so only my picture remains inside the frame. Thanks so much!


Sound like you have some light bleed, if its coming from the case you might be able to cover those areas without interfering with the air flow. Is the light coming from areas that look like air vents?


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## loperwrestler3 (May 25, 2012)

Thanks for your response guys. TypeA your info was helpful! So since it is 4:3 native, does that mean I will always have the extra light filling out the 4:3 space even when it is in 16:9 mode? its really not a huge deal I am already kind of becoming used to it. Thanks for your help!


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## TypeA (Aug 14, 2010)

You should never have light shooting outside your screen with either 4x3 or 16x9 settings. Any picture that doesnt completely fill your full 16x9 screen will have black bars either on the left and right (4x3 material like standard definition cable channels) or top and bottom bars (like dvds and blu rays). These are black bars that are _within_ your screen boarders and, again, nothing should be shooting outside the borders of your screen onto the walls, ever. I use an xbox 360 dash board to give me full screen 16x9 and show me where my borders should be before I hit the black felt. Ive tried pausing my dvr on full screen 16x9 stuff, I even tried chasing 16x9 cable tv programming before I had a dvr and a pause button, but sometimes cable boxes or the programming is slightly less than full screen 16x9 so its entirely possible to get the zoom right for all the wrong reasons. Ugh.

According to what I read your projector will accept beyond 1080p so I would set all your sources to 1080p and start with something you know to be full 16x9 material. If your distance between the screen and projector are within your projector's lens throw you should be able to get a full 16x9 image with no throw over onto the frame and wall. 

You can, within your settings of either your source or projector, stretch 4x3 (cable tv) to a full 16x9 screen but I personally dont recommend it on a projection system. Stretching will do away with those left and right bars but distorts and reduces resolution. You will still have black bars at the top and bottom while playing wide screen dvds and blu rays that arent full screen 16x9 unless you zoom into the picture to get full 16x9. Zooming also isnt recommended, like stretch I think it just _kills_ your picture quality on a big screen. 

Cnet has a good guide on everything you really didnt want to know about aspect ratios. Take a look: Guide


Lets us know if this helped and we'll go further if need be


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