So... wall finishes

[TB]

I'm going to be looking for a projector in the not too distant future and I'd like some feedback/suggestion from people more experienced in such matters. I haven't measured the distances/widths/heights yet but I think I can get fairly close.

Specs:
Projector to wall - 15'
Wall width - 14'
Wall height - 8'
Room can be made virtually pitch black - no windows, one door, dimmable (or obviously completely off) wall lights

Requirements:
At least one HDMI input

1080p resolution

The longer the lamp life the better, provided I'm not sacrificing something else like image quality. Again, note the very dark room so I don't need an incredibly bright lamp.

Questions:
DLP or LCD? I've read the plusses and minuses of each but having not seen what each one looks like, I'm not sure which will be better for this instance.

Screen gain - necessary in a dark room?

Screen color - grey or white or does that depend on the projector?

A company in town already had the room set up with a projector, screen and speakers (had them remove it because of the price) but they only had a 90" screen. Is there any reason I shouldn't go with a 133", or at least a 120", which my AutoCAD plan is showing fits just fine?

3D capable - yes or no? I'm not the least bit sold on it in the theater so should I even bother?

Anything else I should be aware concerned with?

Thanks for any input!

My list of questions got a lot longer than I initially thought!

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

I don't have a projector but I would recommend that if you are going to get one, get the 3d. I have been gaming at home in 3d and watching movies at home in 3d on a 40" Sony Bravia LED tv and its a much better experience IMO. Adds a lot of depth perception to each game and movie. I bet it would look amazing in a projector. I would highly recommend checking out Finding Nemo in 3D and The Hobbit. Both look so incredible in 3d.

 

[wfooshee]

I can't talk about projectors at all, but 3D I can speak to, having a 51" 3D plasma set that I'm quite pleased with.

3d programming..... depends. I've seen some that was extremely well done and realistic, and some that was so obviously exaggerated ("LOOK!!! We can do 3D!!!!!") For example, I thought Brave in 3D was incredible. The Hobbit was rather good, as well. Of course, Brave was rendered, easy to do 3D models in 3D, and The Hobbit was shot with 3D cameras rather than converted from 2D material.

I also have a lot of 3D programming available through Comcast's OnDemand service, and some of it is junk. 3D just for the effect of 3D, rather than trying to provide a simple realistic look. HBO provides a lot of 3D films in OnDemand, and ESPN-3D is usually quite well done. Most college football games in 3D were quite fun, and The Masters was incredible. AFAIK, ESPN-3D is the only live 3D programming available. X-Games, football, basketball, Little League World Series, and The Masters, to name a few of their offerings.

That said, there's always a couple of minutes when I start viewing that my eyes and my brain fight with the image, then it kinda clicks into place. Also, Blu-Ray 3D is better than cable 3D. Blu-Ray can give you full 1080 in 3D. (This article is the best I've found showing the difference between Bluray and cable 3D.) Cable is restricted by broadcast bandwidth, so they do 3D with the split-screen. Half of the screen is the left-eye picture, and half is the right. Whether the split is horizontal or vertical depends on whether the network is 720p or 1080i over the line. Anyway, you not only split the frame rate between left and right, you halve the resolution. It shows in some scenes with rapid motion as a bit jittery.

Unless the 3D doubles the price, I would get it. It would truly suck to give it up for just a little bit of money and then wonder, "What if?" for the rest of your days.

 

[TB]

Late, but I appreciate the input, guys!

The projector I've decided on does indeed support 3D, which, if I'm honest, I'm looking forward to but will hold off on buying a bunch of glasses until I've tried it out. As for sports in 3D, I don't have cable anyway...

The Household Budget Department has given me a target number to outfit the theater room with. After doing some shopping and playing with some numbers, I was able to come in (theoretically as it hasn't happened yet) under budget. Then, after rearranging my existing seating (see pictures), I was able to strike that off of the list.





At this point I'm thinking "Where else can I save some money?" I've decided that instead of buying new floor standing speakers like I was planning, and budgeted for, I'll build some stands and reuse the ones I already have. If I'm doing that, I might as well reuse my receiver instead of moving it out with the TV. Downside to that being my receiver doesn't have HDMI so sound from the PS3 is over optical and limited to 5.1. I can live with that for the time being.

All that said, I'll be going with the BenQ W1070 and, if I've run my numbers correctly, a 150" screen:



If I play my cards right, I might be able to buy everything next month.

 

[TB]

The BenQ W1070 was purchased and my numbers were correct - a 150" screen would do the trick. One problem, though. I'm not going to bother with the screen, at least for now.

The wall is painted a medium grey as you can tell from the picture in the post above. Watching The Avengers and Star Trek, I'm exceptionally pleased with the color, contrast, sharpness, etc. that I don't see the need to spend $700 on a screen for minimal gain. After holding up a piece of paper to the wall, the projector is a light canon and my concern is a white screen would have too much punch to it. Enter in a grey screen and I'm damn near back to the wall color.

 

[TB]

So dice 1998 asked me to do a review of the BenQ W1070, and I’m all too happy to throw my $0.01 into the pile of reviews floating out there. I’ll apologize for the inevitable ramble to follow.

First off, hardware and room conditions.

Equipment used:

First Gen Phat PS3, the BenQ W1070, connected via a 40’ Redmere HDMI, The Avengers Blu-Ray. Note: There is no screen used and there likely won’t ever be one. See below for more. All pictures were taken with a Canon T1i with the kit lens, mounted on a tripod and fired with a remote trigger. I attempted to represent as close as possible in the pictures what I was seeing on the wall. For all pictures, click for larger.

Room:

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m quite fortunate in this regard. The room is just under 15’ wide by 22’ deep and 8’ tall. No windows within 20’ of the room and sliding door for daytime watching anyway. Ambient light wasn’t a problem as I started taking pictures for this write-up around midnight.
As noted, there is no screen. The wall is painted Sherwin Williams Grey Matters (SW7066) and in my opinion looks absolutely perfect. Yes, the white-whites come across as a big grey, but certainly not overwhelmingly so. Especially when you remind yourself that you’ve saved at least $700 by not needing a screen. My other fear is if I purchased a screen that this little light canon of a projector might be too bright, causing eye fatigue. Since setting it up (on a chair ) on Thursday evening, I’ve watched The Avengers, Star Trek, The Hobbit and Hotel Transylvania with no problems.

All that out of the way, on to the good stuff.

After getting the W1070 mounted to the ceiling, straight, level and centered, it was off to keystoning. For those that don’t know what that is, when you use a projector, either sitting on a table top or mounted to the ceiling, the image will invariably come out looking like a trapezoid instead of a rectangle. Adjusting the keystone corrects this distortion. The W1070 has a button on the remote labeled “Test” that assists in that rather well. It displays a 16:9 grid across the entire viewing area:



This grid also aids in focusing, preferably with 2 people so you don’t have to go up and down the ladder 18 times…

Avengers Screenshot time

I’ve likely gone overboard on the screenshots but I wanted to include a broad range of scenes. First off, just because I thought it looked cool, the Paramount HD logo. I think it does a pretty decent job of showing the full range of colors and depths from the shadows of the mountains to the brightness of the clouds.



Very Dark scenes

The opening scene of the SHIELD base. Again, I tried to capture what I was seeing from the projector but I’m not terribly happy with how this shot came out. It’s not off a lot but it’s not quite right, either.



Fury and Hill:



Very bright scene:

Thor showing off. Yes, it is supposed to be that blue.


Flesh tones:

Some reviewers say that the W1070 fires a bit too hot in the blue range, and while that may be so according to calibration software, I’m not seeing it.



General movie stills:







Bottom line:

I don’t have the slightest idea what a $3,500 projector looks like unlike some people reviewing projectors. Sure, compared to them, I expect the blacks on the W1070 to not be as dark. I expect the fan to be louder (yes, it’s noticeable, but only barely and certainly not at all while the movie is playing). Yes, there is some purple fringing on the test grid, but get more than 5 feet away and it’s imperceptible. It set me back a whole $900. I’m not expecting stellar.

What I got, however, was precisely that. A fantastic projector at a fantastic price. This little box does one hell of a job. 👍

 

[ExigeEvan]

Awesome 👍

Deff' considering a projector set up when I get my first home. I don't really watch TV unless it's for something significant and it would appear the cost isn't far off a decent big screen TV.

Glad to see it's worked out well for you. How often do you plan to use it?

 

[dice1998]

That honestly looks like a great bang-for-buck projector! Many thanks for the review!

 

[TB]

Awesome 👍

That honestly looks like a great bang-for-buck projector! Many thanks for the review!

Thanks, guys. I have to admit that as I was spending the better part of two hours taking pictures and writing up the comments, in the back of my head I was wondering if anyone was going to even read it.

Deff' considering a projector set up when I get my first home. I don't really watch TV unless it's for something significant and it would appear the cost isn't far off a decent big screen TV.

For the price, once you surpass a certain size, a projector is absolutely the way to go. I was at Costco ths afternoon and they have a 70" for $2300 or an 80" for $3900.

I think I'll stick with my 165" for $900, thanks. Even if I needed a screen I'd only be up to $1600!

Glad to see it's worked out well for you. How often do you plan to use it?

I know right now it's a novelty so my usage from its arrival on Thursday isn't going to be typical, but I foresee a movie or two each week with some PS3 gaming thrown in for good measure.

Next up - lighting controls! I was doing some reading and it appears that there are products that will kill the lights when you push play, dim them up 50% when you pause and turn them on 100% when you hit stop. Must. Check. This out.

 

[Joel]

Scarlett Johannson must be larger than life!

Looks awesome, I'd love to hook my PC up and play some battlefield 3 on that screen

 

[TB]

I suppose I haven't shown the actual size of the screen, have I? Might have to remedy that shortly.

 

[TB]

It's not Scarlett, but this will give you an indication of the size.



In looking at the picture again, the image actually goes out to just inside of the speaker. This video must be cropped in a bit. Also, my son needs to work on his photography skills...

 

[Pako]

Nice man! 👍

 

[TB]

Next up - lighting controls! I was doing some reading and it appears that there are products that will kill the lights when you push play, dim them up 50% when you pause and turn them on 100% when you hit stop. Must. Check. This out.

And I finally have.

As I mentioned in the Recent Purchase thread, I finally settled on the Lutron Maestro IR Digital Dimmer. Installation was simple - kill the breaker, remove the old dimmer and install the Maestro. Less then 5 minutes and the power was back on.

If you've set up things with Harmony's remote software before, setting this up was pretty straightforward. Until you wanted to fine tune it a bit. After doing a bit of digging around in the settings and reprogramming the play, pause and stop buttons, I am able to:

• Turn the lights to a "Favorite" setting (I have it set to 50% brightness) when the projector, receiver and PS3 turn on
• Turn the lights off when I hit play
• Turn the lights to "Favorite" when I hit pause (aka "Going to the bathroom" mode)
  
• Turn the lights to 100% when I hit stop
• Turn the lights off 20 seconds after everything else when you hit Off so you have time to leave the room without stepping on a Lego or three

All in all, for $40 it does absolutely everything I wanted it to do. And I didn't even have to move my IR blaster, although I'm really not sure how it's getting the signal!

Highly, highly recommended.

Suggestions for my next tweak?

 

[Slash]

Looking good!!

 

[TB]

As is the case with most things, it's coming along but I'm always on the lookout for another upgrade, much to my wife's dismay.

 

[Sprite]

Looks great, sorry I'm late to the party. Nice review and what looks like a fantastic space. I look forward to the future upgrades and watching how it develops.

 

[Mikeybc]

Very nice setup ! The projector looks very good in the pics,

Any thought of adding acoustic treatments/panels ? The room itself has a dramatic impact on how a system will sound.

 

[TB]

Looks great

Very nice setup !

Thanks, guys!

I look forward to the future upgrades and watching how it develops.

I'm really itching to get sound back in the rear center so to do that with the PS3, the fiber optic audio needs to go and be replaced with HDMI. Which means a new receiver, likely the next upgrade.

The projector looks very good in the pics

It's only been in for a few months but I'm absolutely loving it. I honestly don't know what a more expensive unit could offer that I'm not getting from the BenQ.

Any thought of adding acoustic treatments/panels ? The room itself has a dramatic impact on how a system will sound.

I'll admit that when I first started looking at theater room set ups and components, I was worried that all the drywall would make it too "boomy" and I'd have echoes everywhere. In watching no fewer than 20 movies so far, not once have I heard any echoing and, if anything, the drywall actually helps my 8", 100w sub sound better than it is by adding some boom. Doesn't mean I'm not looking at 10 and 12 inchers, though!

 

[TB]

I'm in the planning stages of getting budget numbers together for finishing the walls in the theater room. I'm planning on wood frames made out of 1"x2" pine then wrapped in 5 different colors of fabric (blues and greys), something along this line:

The box-outs around the receptacle and sconce would be built something like this:

As for the right side between the receptacle and sconce, I'm considering a skyline diffuser. I love the looks of them and they should take care of the first reflection point for most of (I haven't done the mirror-on-the-wall-crawl yet) the listening positions.

Anything glaring that anyone can see with the tentative plan?

 

[TB]

(I haven't done the mirror-on-the-wall-crawl yet) the listening positions.

Just finished:

After seeing how widespread the reflection points are, if I did the diffuser, it would be almost completely for aesthetics. For the price and time involved, I can't justify that.

On the plus side, now that I have the reflection points mapped out, I know which frames would need sound dampening.

 

[Grayfox]

Egg carton bottoms.
Use them to add some sound dampening for the short term.

 

[TB]

Egg carton bottoms.
Use them to add some sound dampening for the short term.

That would be a damn lot of eggs!

 

[Shaun]

Omelettes are good for you, get eating.

 

[Grayfox]

That would be a damn lot of eggs!

Restaurants may give them to you for free.
Plus why not cook an egg the australian way

 

[TB]

My wife and I went to a few fabric stores and liked this combination the best.

Most of the colors (besides the white becoming royal blue, but it was never going to be white anyway) match up surprisingly well to what I laid out in CAD.

Some of the charcoal grey had a purple tinge to them so they were ruled out. There were some blues that I liked but they were nixed because of the different texture from the other material.

It's progress!

 

[Rallywagon]

Not sure if you have put any thought back into a screen, but there is an alternative to a panel screen. It's certainly a bit more affordable as well.

 

[TB]

Not sure if you have put any thought back into a screen, but there is an alternative to a panel screen. It's certainly a bit more affordable as well.

I've come across that in my searching before. I'm betting that the screen paint is virtually the same color as what my wall already is and after 4 years, I still have no complaints so regular old Sherwin Williams it shall remain! 👍

 

[TB]

I know I'm being more indecisive than my wife picking out what to wear but I have a change of plans from all the frames and cloth on the side walls. A neighbor just had his basement finished and they had a reclaimed wood wall put in. I thought it looked fantastic but in researching, was not a fan of the price tag associate with it.

Keep in mind this would only be for the back wall, not the sides. Pallet wood to the rescue! With all the abuse a pallet gets, it's already got the reclaimed look and the best part is they're almost always free.

Disassembling the first 3 pallets wasn't terribly difficult (and meant I could buy a sawzall!), now I just need to do another 10 or so.

Then lightly sand, cut, stain and mount to the wall.

I haven't decided what color(s) to go with yet but I'm liking how this turned out:



Rough numbers: The wall is 179" by 84.5" (15,125.5 square inches) and the planks are either 40" by 3.5" (140 sq. in.) or 40" by 5.25" (210 sq. in.) meaning on average I'll need in the neighborhood of 100 pieces. Three pallets netted me 25 (15 3.5" and 10 5.25"). That's a lot better than I was initially thinking.

There's rumors that there are some decent oak pallets on campus somewhere. This must be investigated further.

Progress pics to come later.

 

[TB]

This is how the back wall currently looks:



My first pile of boards, ready for sanding:



Now on to layout. First off, my brain does not do random so I had to come up with a plan that appears random while still satisfying my "everything must be in order" tendencies.

Enter in Excel and a random number generator. I know, I know; completely over the top OCD and BEYOND not necessary for normal people.

I'm going to need, give or take, 25 rows of planks. Opting for an even 2" offset in length, I started at 25 with a 40" plank, 24 is a 38" and so on:

The negative numbers were subtracted from 40 (-6 would be 34", 0 would be 40, etc.) meaning I'd have seams that lined up, which I didn't want. Laying it out in CAD resulted in this, red being the lined up seams:

While not terrible, as I said, I didn't want any seams to line up.

Moving on from 2" to 1" for the offset meant I wouldn't have lined up seams but, and again I know this is being nitpicky, I didn't like how "grouped" the seams were, then a space, then more seams (FYI - last seam from the left to the next grouping red to red) is 14"):

Going back to Excel, starting at 25 = 40" again, for every even number, I subtracted 2 and for odds, one (25, 24 and 23 are 40", 38" and 37" respectively):

This leaves no seams overlapping and no large gaps anywhere. The largest gap, shown in red, is 4":

Entirely too much thought to get to this point but I'll be happy when I start and have a solid plan in place.