my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » The Afterlife   » Measurements for Home Theatre Screens (Page 2)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2

Author Topic: Measurements for Home Theatre Screens Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 10-20-2007 02:45 PM                     Question: noticed in some projector ads on the web, like Costco for example, of "business office" and "home theatre" projectors. What would be the difference? -thx Monte  |  IP: Logged Larry Myers Master Film Handler Posts: 371 From: Herndon, VA, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 10-20-2007 07:09 PM                 You really need a 1080p projector and nothing less so you can upgrade to Blue Ray or HDDVD later. My projector has an automatic anamorphic sensor. It actually plays it squashed for about 1/2 second and then goes full anamorphic. So with a 2.35 anamorphic, the image will have bars on top and botton of the screen and you need to set the zoom lens to the 8 ft wide image. This is second best resolution. If the DVD is 1.85 anamorphic, the image will spill over the top and bottom of the screen at 8 ft wide. You need to reset the zoom lens to a 3.5 by 6.5 ft wide image. This is your best resolution possible and is very close to film. Some DVD's will just play a non-anamorphic 2.35 image in the center of the screen. If this is the case, you really need to zoom out to the max. The problem is, the image will look like crap. You must read the back of the DVD case to see if it says anamorphic 1.85 or anamorphic 2.35. Otherwise forget it. Then not all DVD's play the same. Some DVD's have heavy compression which tends to give a ghost image. To me, the best of the best DVD is Star Wars the "Revenge of the Seth". The DVD is so good that if someone offered me the film in 35mm for free and all I had to do is pay shipping, I would turn it down.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 10-20-2007 11:06 PM                     Thx, Larry for your discussion and presenting various facts concerning home digital display. Yes, on what you've covered is what is one the box, per say. "Enhanced for 16:9 TV's" meaning that they're squeezed images and the image will be expanded to fit such screens and keep the same visual quality. Whereas, you also mentioned, the anamorphic imagery downsized in a 4;3 frame which then has to be blown up to fit the adjusted wide screen, in which in the process, the loss of visual quality. Now, for another question, per chance: I've seen dig projectors that have dual display mode: the 4:3 and the 16:9. Then, would this projector have the availability to project these anamorphic released DVD's which, once again, are "enhanced for 16:9 displays"? Is your unit, LCD, or DLP? thx - Monte  |  IP: Logged Larry Myers Master Film Handler Posts: 371 From: Herndon, VA, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 10-21-2007 09:52 AM                 My projector is LCD. It's very bright in a totally dark room. My theater more or less looks like the corner neighborhood theater you went to as a kid for 25 cents in the 50's. It's a 10 by 10 room with a booth off to the back. The Walls are painted very dark gray on the bottom and dark gray on top with a institutional black strip all the way around the middle of the wall. The curtains are a mix of black and very dark red. It's simple and cheap and has full 35mm and digital capability. It works good enougth for me. I had an expert in Professional Digital Theaters recommend the Panasonic unit I am using. I found a guy selling them on Ebay that lived about 30 miles from me. I went over and test the unit. Then paid him the $1000 cash and was on my way. Otherwise, I know nothing about Digital Projectors.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-21-2007 01:29 PM                     quote: Larry Myers I had an expert in Professional Digital Theaters recommend the Panasonic unit I am using. I found a guy selling them on Ebay that lived about 30 miles from me. I went over and test the unit. Then paid him the $1000 cash and was on my way. Otherwise, I know nothing about Digital Projectors. I've installed alot of the $6000.00 Panasonics in theaters for pre-show... nice images and the projector interfaces directly to relay contacts in existing automation but the lamps can be pretty darn expensive... approaching $500.00 ea. Lamp life has also been poor 250 hours at best at one site running 7 of them and there is no warranty given on video projector lamps even though they may say 2500 hours or some BS like that. The warranty is worthless. That site running 7 units is at a very high altitude.. almost 7000 feet so we have been considering outboard exhaust blowers on these in attempt to increase lamp life in spite of the blowers being set to high and also running for a while after the lamp shuts down... Other small plexes that I service have been installing small Dell projectors that cost about a grand new and they have had better lamp life nad the lamps are far less expensive, Image quality is ok on a small screen. Mark  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 10-21-2007 07:57 PM                     quote: Mark Gulbrandsen but the lamps can be pretty darn expensive... approaching $500.00 ea ..true, know how that is. We've got an 8 screener using Proximas 6800 series (2800 plus lumens, XGA LED display, 275w bulb unit) and I have to change bulbs well before their so-called warranted life. Luckilly, we're not footing the bulb bill where the ad company is. Plus, the ad company uses reman bulbs as well. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Larry Myers Master Film Handler Posts: 371 From: Herndon, VA, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 10-22-2007 10:51 AM                 So far so good on my 600 hours of use. The bulb is rated for about 1800 hours. I believe the type of bulb in the Panasonic I am using is several hundred dollars to replace. Anyway you look at it, a home theater cost money. The issue I believe here is just how good do you want it and how much do you want to spend. I know of people who spend $30,000 just in drywall, paint and labor putting up a home theater. I have about $1500 in drywall and paint with my own labor. Then another $3000 in equipment for both 35mm and DVD projection capability. This Old House Bob Velia did a special on TV about 2 million condo in downtown Boston. It had a $100,000 home theater with a powder room that used real gold plated bathroom fixtures. A very nice touch indeed.  |  IP: Logged Jack Theakston Master Film Handler Posts: 411 From: New York, USA Registered: Sep 2007 posted 10-23-2007 02:57 PM                     Let me also add that aside from the screen wall's height and width, consider the amount of films you'll be watching in each ratio. If you have a high volume of Academy Ratio films, you'll probably want to stick with a 1.37:1 screen. If most of your films are from the '50s or after, you should try to get a wide screen. If you're going with a wide screen, I'd suggest one that is natively a 2:1 ratio. You'll be compromising both scope and flat with your masking, but it will be a better overall compromise if you're running an equal amount of both.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 10-30-2007 03:57 AM                        Wouldn't you get the best image if you used the projector's native chip size, either 16:9 or even 4:3, using an anamophic DVD, leave it a compressed image and rather than stretch it digitally in the projector, use one of those 1.4x anamorphics designed specifically for video projection. I was told someplace along the line that that was the way to get the best image. Evidently in order for the projector to make image corrections digitally it has to futz with the pixals and you loose resolution. My friend insists that you shouldn't even do keystone correction in the projector; he is a fanatic and when I tried to adjust the keystone distortion with the menu, he started screaming at me to either put the projector in the right position in the middle of the screen so there is no distortion or use side masks like you do in film, but DON'T use keystone correction. Perhaps he over exagerates, but his explanation, at least as I undertood it, made sense. Only thing is, I looked up the price for the Schneider video anamorphic lenses -- pretty much you could buy another projector at those prices.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.