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16 FOOT WIDE Movie Screen at home help please

xx.
Until now, I have been throwing a 12ft x 9ft image on a blank wall that is approximately the color of the pale yellow that the page you are now reading. The projector is about 20 feet away from the wall. For three or four years, this has been very satisfying to view movies.

My projector is a Sharp XR-20X with brightness of 2300 lumens and 2000:1 contrast ratio. I paid $1,000 for the projector.

Now I want an even bigger picture. So, I went out and bought myself an actual screen. The screen will hang from the ceiling and will roll up when not in use.

I have just purchased a Da-Lite 16ft wide by 12ft high movie screen.

I discovered that in order to get the picture to be 16 feet wide, I had to move the projector back further. Of course when I moved the projector back, it was not bright enough to my satisfaction. On really bright scenes, the picture was fine, but when darker scenes appeared....there was not enough contrast and the whole scene appeared dark.

I looked on the Projector Central website and found that in order to get a projector to throw an image that large with a longer throw distance, I would need a projector with an output of 6,000 lumens. Or, roughly three times the output of my current projector. Those projectors start at $6k to well over $20-30k. Waay out of my league.

I found a company that makes a wide-angle lens adaptor that will allow a shorter throw distance for a larger image. I asked the sales person what effect the adapted lens would have on the image. She told me that it could decrease the light output by 5 to 20 percent. The new lens would give me a 50% larger image from the same throw distance that I have now.

The room is 22ft wide and 70ft long with 22 ft ceilings. The screen will be suspended from the ceiling. The ceiling is concrete. The projector will be on the floor.

Please share your thoughts on all of this please.

Please click on my system page to see the room that the screen will be in. The screen will be against the wall where the window is. I am going to re-configure the whole room in order to accommodate viewing movies.

I am able to make the room pitch black. The window in the picture is the only source of sunlight.

Click here to see the conversion lens I am thinking about getting: CONVERSION LENS

Click here to see the screen that I have MY SCREEN

I will have the screen installed next week.

Click here to see MY ROOM and my system.

My home theater sound is a 5.1 configuration. I just can't imagine any more speakers than I have now in order to go 7.1 or 9.1.

I have tested the 16ft by 12 ft image on a beige painters drop cloth at the end of the room where the window is. I think I may be on to something...it looks promising. Sitting from 20 feet away from the screen, it is like sitting in an IMAX theater.

This room will serve as my living room and my 2 channel listening room. The screen and projector have to be put away when not in use. (well, the screen will roll up)

The big question mark is the conversion lens.

Worse case scenario is that the screen can be rolled down to a 12ft or 9ft height.
128x128mitch4t
ckorody
643 posts
 
Hey - thanx for the back story - enjoy the picture, the screen should make a nice difference - is your ceiling rated to hang it??? LOL

The rules in video are the same as audio - usually more is more. That unit you got is nice for the money - wait a year or two and you can get one that will do 1080p with an HDMI input, another quantum leap

BTW if you have not yet plugged your projector into a power conditioner, I highly recommend you do so immediately - the difference is much much greater then anything you will experience in audio - even a basic Monster or the new APC stuff is all you need.

The interesting thing I have observed is that despite the very small bandwidth of audio, it is much more difficult to fool the ear. It turns out to be much, much easier to trick the eye. That said, some attention has to be paid to engineering issues to get the most out of monitors and projectors.

The diiference will come in image quality (frining, noise, richer blacks, better color) rather then brightness but its low hanging fruit...
mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t OP
1,611 posts
 
Ckorody......the ceiling is concrete, the installer will actually have to drill into the concrete and bolt it to the ceiling....it will be suspended by thick chains or thick wire cable and will hold securely. However, Southern Calif is earthquake country....I don't like the thought of something that heavy coming down in the event of a tremor. I've lived through a few of them here, so that is still a remote possibility.

The glass beaded fabric was not available in the screen that I bought. I have to chuckle again, in audio, you can just about re-sell everything that you buy on the used market. Ha ha, it will be interesting to see if I can unload a 16ft by 12ft screen in a couple of years.
cytocycle
1,043 posts
 
Ckorody: I have to agree that I put my PS Audio Powerplant on my Projector and was amazed as the difference a regenerator made with blacklevel and detail. Noise completely disappeared. I am now going to upgrade to one of the newer Regenerators that has more current capacity for my video system only, since I don't have room in my rack for the PS Audio Powerplant and the PS Audio Power Director 3.5.
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