# HT and Projector setup



## marlin1881 (Feb 15, 2013)

My first HT and Projector project is going well. Some questions:

From what I've been reading so far, supposedly the bottom of the screen should be 3' off the floor. No problem. With a 13' distance from my projector, this gives me 96" wide picture, 54" tall, +/- 5" for zoom variation. And, it seems that the overall picture size varies a bit from the projector's true capability (blue screen), the size of a BD preview/menu, and then of course the 16:9 theater picture.

I'm going to check on the display size of the PC connection (16:10), and the comcast connection (not sure what the broadcast 1080i looks like). Somewhere, I'll need to decide on a happy medium of what will/will-not fit the screen and black border, exactly.

So, my question is around what size of screen to get, and how much black border do I want around the screen to possibly "absorb" a bit of an oversized picture? I think I need to fit to the largest screen that will be displayed by this project, and then everything else will just have black borders on top-bottom/side as appropriate?

Thanks in advance.


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## phillihp23 (Mar 14, 2012)

Your probably looking at a 100" - 110" screen, depending on your projectors ability at 13 feet.
My projector is at about 13 ft and I use a 100" screen. I believe my screen has a 3-4 inch black felt border.


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## marlin1881 (Feb 15, 2013)

Well, the framers left me alone for the weekend, so I setup my entire theater to see what I was really getting into. Fun stuff, except I had to tear it down again last night, as the framers were coming back again, this morning.

Looks like I'm going to have an 84" wide x 47" high - 96" diag. Decent picture size at 15' viewing distance. This size of screen is really nice after watching my 50" plasma for a few years.

Looks like I should be able to install it for keeps, in about 6 weeks, after most of the construction is complete.


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## phillihp23 (Mar 14, 2012)

marlin1881 said:


> Well, the framers left me alone for the weekend, so I setup my entire theater to see what I was really getting into. Fun stuff, except I had to tear it down again last night, as the framers were coming back again, this morning.
> 
> Looks like I'm going to have an 84" wide x 47" high - 96" diag. Decent picture size at 15' viewing distance. This size of screen is really nice after watching my 50" plasma for a few years.
> 
> Looks like I should be able to install it for keeps, in about 6 weeks, after most of the construction is complete.


Unless your screen allows for speakers behind it you will need space on each side of it for the front L/R Speakers.

Also need to figure in the felt border. Don't know if those were already figured in with the space your using.
Are you painting the screen or building one ?

Post some pics of the room if you can so we can get an idea of the space your working with.


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## marlin1881 (Feb 15, 2013)

phillihp23 said:


> Unless your screen allows for speakers behind it you will need space on each side of it for the front L/R Speakers.
> 
> Also need to figure in the felt border. Don't know if those were already figured in with the space your using.
> Are you painting the screen or building one ?
> ...


The stage is 13' wide. There are a set of shelves on each side of the screen that are 21" inside of a finished sheetrock frame. This leaves me with room for a recessed screen at 7' wide, with a 3" black border. I'll frame in the center channel just 2" under the screen. The front speakers will go into the shelf area for cosmetic reasons. I'd like to see if there is a solid sliding tray where I can move the speakers back and forth as desired.

I'm also allowing for some space above the screen, below the ceiling coffers, which will have a nice finished appearance.

All my HDMI signals looked to provide an exact matching profile on the bare wall I tested it on, so the projector layout should work quite well.

I'm going to paint on a screen, and I've talked to the builder about giving me a smooth finish screen area. I've got some more research to do on paints, but I've painted houses and cars before, so I'm really looking forward to creating that perfect screen.


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