Good to know, just in case we ever want to get a pet. Right now, we have our hands full with a little monkey
Haha! Thanks, man! I try to keep myself entertained/occupied. 
So I got the TV setup and all I can say is WOW! This thing has the most incredible picture… The colors are so bright and crisp and the black levels are really good… Been playing around with the settings and such in an effort to fine tune it as there are some advice posts online… Smart aps and built in camera are really great as well… Wife, son and I skyped with his grandma and it was awesome to see it on the TV as Wilhlem got a huge kick out of it… He could run around and the camera follows him so he had to show off for grandma… lol Also, bought a few 3D movies and watched gravity… Really amazed at how far 3d has come as it looks freaking great and that is a perfect movie to watch in 3d… Gonna order some more this week as I only bought that How to train dragons for my son, and avatar… Not a ton of choices out unfortunately…
Also, unfortunately Amazon’s primes partners don’t seem to honor the two day shipping even though it says their shit was in stock… So still waiting on the new Bose setup, should be here Tuesday and I’ll get it setup probably next weekend and then post some pics…
Nice! Sounds like you are going to end up with an amazing system.
Prime, you also might want to consider “cloudy with a chance of meatballs” for your son …good 3D content.
Does backlighting the screen offer any bene fits? or does it just add a nice glow behind it?
What kind of paint did you use for the screen?
If you could do it again, would you still go with the benq 1070 or go for something like the epson 5030ub?
It doesn’t really provide any visual performance beits, but between it there, and behind the trim in the back half of the room, it works very well as an indirect ambient light source. If I’m really really watching a movie, I’ll either have all of the LED’s off, or maybe just the ones around the screen turned on but on the lowest setting.
With a projector, ambient light that hits the screen, is what kills your picture. So it depends what you’re going for. We like entertaining a lot, and having friends over. When you have to kill every light but the projector, that kills the entertaining mood a bit, and makes getting your next beer a lot tougher! But if you’re putting it in the basement for just you and the wife to watch, not a big deal having all the lights off. However, my wife loves it b/c she can still flip through her magazines or do her nails while we watch a movie together. If all the lights had to be off, she’d be much less into it.
All that said, projectors have gotten a lot better and put out a lot more light than they did 10 years ago. But the premise is still the same. So screens can take more ambient light and still be watchable, but it definitely degrades the quality the more light that hits the screen.
I haven’t kept up on the new models too much, but I’m still extremely happy with the BenQ I have. I’d say 95% would a hard time telling the difference in my projector and one that cost twice as much (750 vs 1500). Now when you’re talking $1k to $10k, there’s a difference, but is all about diminishing returns just like modding cars.
I went to HomeTheaterForum and found a mixture of special products and material to paint the screen with. However, given the price and time involved, I’d probably just buy a screen from monoprice or amazon and build a nice border for it. My screen is great, but if the cost is the same, I’d have a hard time saying my screen is “better” than a $300-$700 screen that you could purchase and I probably had $300 into it (without the border)
In my experience dogs have a lot of trouble controlling speed while going downstairs. They just seem to barrel on down at full speed. My stairs are even carpet and both the dogs I’ve had in the house pretty much need a runoff area once they’re at the bottom and that’s even after turning left for the final 3 steps.
Thanks, I ran through a few calculations and it seems like I’ll need a short throw to get the size I’m looking for (160" screen but only a max of 11’ for mounting the projector from the screen).
The BenQ 1080ST seems pretty good. Same quality as the 1070 but with shorter throw. Not a bad price either. Found it at a few places for only $1k.
Now I just need to convince my wife that she doesn’t want an 80" TV for $3.5k…
She’s not sold on the projector being as easy to turn on and use as the TV just yet.
160" is quite large. How big of a room is it going in and what is the distance to your seating? One thing to think about, regardless of the projector, as you go larger there will be some relative loss in quality and in light output as the same picture is being increased in size. Not to say 160" won’t look good, just be aware of your room’s limitations. Biggest isn’t always best. At 115" I’m 7’ wide as I recall.
As far as turning it on and such, no, it’s not a tv, but a Logitech smart remote will certainly make that process smoother. We only use the projector when watching a tv show / movie for an hour+. Never really turning it on for 20min to just catch up on TV.
The room is 14’x15’. 160" would mean 139"x78", with the projector 8’ back, so the room would definitely support it. Whether it would mean good quality… I’m not sure. But I can always go smaller if needed. I should have good control of the ambient lighting in the room as well.
We’re planning to get a smaller TV for the living room (Mounted on top of the fireplace unfortunately) so the projector would be reserved for movies etc.
Still need to figure out what amp and speaker setup to go with. I’m not an audiophile, I just like my bass.
That’s huge for that room. It would make me dizzy having to constantly scan the screen left/right to see details that aren’t centered mid frame.
Way too big (IMO). My room is 22’ deep and 14’ wide and I went with the 115" and I wouldn’t want any bigger in that room. Good rule of thumb is your sitting distance should be at least 2.5x your screen size. I.e 7ft screen you should be ~17.5ft back. I usually fudge that a bit and go with about 2-2.5x.
Try to find someone locally and see what at 110" screen looks like. You might be surprised how big it is. It’d also be easy to buy a prefab 110" screen and try it out. If not sell it and get bigger, just mount the projector so it could be zoomed out for a bigger screen. And a 14x15’ room isn’t all that big. Especially after you add 5 speakers, subwoofer, furniture, etc. I wish my movie room was twice as big, and if so I’d still probably only go up to a 130" screen.
You have a price range for the stereo stuff? Be happy to give some suggestions if you don’t have a gameplan. Avoid best buy and the big box stores. There’s lot better equipment and stuff out there if you’re willing to piece some stuff together.
I would have to agree with what people have said above. I am sitting about 9-10ft back from a 60in plasma and I would not want to be any closer than that. I couldn’t imagine something over twice the size and only being a few more feet back. Just cause it fits, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea 
haha
While I havn’t spent a lot of time watching the newer projectors, I think that you will be happier with the 80in TV in your application and room size. Easy on/off and better picture quality IMO. But I understand the price point is probably much better on a projector/screen set-up.
Also, If you are considering more than a 3.1 setup, you will have to account for the rear channels, likely sitting you even closer to the screen. You also don’t want your front channels to be spaced too far apart in relation to your viewing area and center channel. Where you place your subwoofer is going to come into play as well.
As far as speakers, (as Mistro said) avoid big box and (IMO) avoid Bose as well. Do your research. If you want post up on an AV forum (if you havn’t already) what your budget is and what you’re looking to accomplish, they are usually good about pointing you in the right direction. Audioholics.com is one that I like. I’m sure some people on here can give you good advice as well.
Crutchfield has a lot of good articles on tv vs viewing distance, as well as speaker placement vs room size and shape.
Whoops…Maddog, not Mistro
Almost everyone I know who has installed a projector/giant screen tires of it quickly. At the end of the day the picture is shit compared to a TV, and it’s too cumbersome.
People use them once a year when there’s a big hockey game on and even then it’s not necessarily better… They just feel the need to use it.
Some of you talking about it are a few years younger than me. I bet you all a coke in 5-7 years these setups are gathering more dust than you could ever imagine today.
^i win the coke then! I’ve been using a projectors for over 10yrs now as a movie/tv screen.
And the projectors in the last 2-3 years are SIGNIFICANTLY better than what was out 5+ years ago. Yes a new $3k tv is better quality. But your $1k 70" TV (IMO) is no better than the projector I have quality wise(in a controlled light environment). I was stunned by my new projector when I finally got it fired up.
But you are right saki, if the room is setup where it’s a hassle, you won’t use it (this is partially why I suggested a Logitech smart remote bc it can be programmed to do multiple commands with one button press). But we use ours on a weekly basis throughout the year, and even more come football season as well as for entertaining.
Quadfreak, good point about the front channels in relationship to the seating position. That was one of the big hurdles for me, I set up my speakers first (floorstanders) and then figured out just how big of a screen I could get away with. I was going to go for 120", but dropped down some and almost wish I went to 110" just to move one of my speakers in another 2-3". But Mistro will certainly go with bookshelf speakers given his room size / speaker budget I would guess.
Also saki, one of the big differences in projectors from 4-5+ years ago and the one I bought is the use of DLP vs LCD technology. 5 years ago you’d be very hard pressed to find a decent DLP projector for less than $5k and most avg people are only interested in a price comparable to their tv setups (plus factoring in more complicated install, screen, wiring, and needing a stereo).
DLP is able to actually produce a black, where as LCD can only produce black by absence of any other color. So with a LCD the black will only be as dark as the ambient light allows (or the light bouncing off the screen to the wall and back to screen).
That is a large part of why I’ve been so impressed with my projector because it’s one of the first good dlp projectors to really be under a retail price of $2-3k (far less under that even as it’s $700 new). A quality screen and proper calibration also goes overlooked far to often. Everything has to work together.
But I still agree with you completely in the sense that if it’s cumbersome to use and a hassle to operate. It won’t be used. Again why the led lighting was so big to me bc it allows the wife to do her normal stuff and one button turns everything on and one button turns everything off.
You guys are all old farts. Bigger is always better ;D
In all seriousness thanks for the input. I’ll probably just buy the projector and play around with the sizes too see what looks good. Maybe 100"ish would be enough as well. I do know that 80" at 12 feet back still felt small for me for a dedicated movie/sports screen.
I haven’t even begun to look at or research speakers yet unfortunately. We just finished picking out appliances and are now looking for couches, tables, beds etc. I’ll let you guys know what I end up with.
^post up how much you’d like to budget for receiver + speakers (if you’re okay posting a number up) and I’m sure some of the guys here could post some good options.
I think buying and playing around is best. That’s what I did even though I’d done the math prior and was 95% certain of the size I’d be using.