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Projectors and Screen Size

BuddiesBuddies Registered User regular
Using http://www.projectorcentral.com/Epson-PowerLite_Home_Cinema_6100-projection-calculator.htm For the Epson HC6100 to calculate max screen size for a 13'8" throw distance it says I can get a 120" screen with 1.85x Zoom. Is this possible? Is it recommended or does that mess the picture up?

Buddies on

Posts

  • Rotting MeatRotting Meat Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    If you check out the Pro calculator it'll give you more information about whether it'll be good positioning for you. The two things you need to be concerned about are:

    1) Brightness. The larger the image, the more diffuse the light is and the overall image will be dimmer. If you have a room with controllable light (no windows or very heavy black cloth over them) you don't need to worry too much. If you're in a room with light blinds, you'll need to maintain a smaller image in order to have the contrast effective for enjoyment.

    2) Seating distance. If you're sitting very close to an image you'll get the 'screendoor effect'. This is being able to see individual pixels (and the spaces between them) in the projected image. If you do have this, either make the image smaller or sit farther back.

    In the pro calculator they provide recommended seating distances for a certain size, and recommended ambiant lighting levels.

    Rotting Meat on
  • BuddiesBuddies Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    hey thanks man!

    Edit: I notice that site is the same I linked. But I will be able to get that screen size blown up to rediculously big, just suffer from a deteriorated image (will be blacking out windows and controlling light) . Thats good, I can live with that.

    Buddies on
  • midgetspymidgetspy Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    1) Brightness. The larger the image, the more diffuse the light is and the overall image will be dimmer. If you have a room with controllable light (no windows or very heavy black cloth over them) you don't need to worry too much. If you're in a room with light blinds, you'll need to maintain a smaller image in order to have the contrast effective for enjoyment.

    This is an oversimplification and isn't really correct.

    Your projector puts out xx lumens which when spread out over your screen area will result in a certain brightness measured in lux. So for a given number of lumens, the larger your screen is the dimmer it will be (same number of lumens x larger area = lower brightness).

    However a projector loses lumen output as you narrow the zoom - at fully open zoom (1.85x in your case) it is outputting the maximum number of lumens. So if you project a 120" screen from 14' at 1.85" zoom it will be far brighter than a 120" screen from 25' at 1x zoom. Of course your lumen gain from open zoom isn't proportional to the screen size increase so at a fixed distance the smaller screen will be brighter like Rotting Meat said.

    That said if you have light contros you will have no problems. I have a Panasonic AX-200U which has a 2x zoom and I project a 106" screen from 11' with no problems (in a room with no windows). I even have it running in the dimmer bulb-saver mode because in a pitch black room you don't need much light to get good contrast.

    midgetspy on
  • obijkenobiobijkenobi Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    I got a projector question and didn't really feel the need to make a new topic for it.

    I have an Acer 5420 Laptop and I just recently picked up a ViewSonic projector (model number PJ513D). When I connect the supplied VGA cable between the two systems, it often goes pretty nuts. It'll keep dectecting and losing the signal between the two. My laptop doens't have the pins that you screw into a monitor or projector to keep it in place so I figured that might be the problem. So I've tried holding the vga connection flush against the laptop and that doesn't really work. I've tried restarting my laptop and then connecting the VBA cable to it. When my laptop wasn't doing anything intensive, it was perfect. I tried running a streaming video off of hulu.com and both displays went insane. To me that sounds like maybe I'd need more RAM, but I figured I"d ask you guys to see what advice you have to offer. If anyone can help me that would be great and I'll be around to clarify anything else.

    obijkenobi on
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