distance to projector screen ;-)

[mapegl]

TLDR: Is a 12 foot distance too close for a 135" screen? (1080p now, 4k possibly soon)

 

I am VERY new to the game and I am also currently completely redoing a room for myself.
Half-ish of the room is going towards office space and a little workout corner and the other kinda half will be dedicated to my home theater. Anyways, I am wondering about the screen size I should choose. 
My current plan is to sit approximately 12 feet (3,7m) from the screen and I was gifted a 135" screen. That is a bit over 1x the diagonal in distance.

I added a very rough sketch of what the room may look like. Excuse the use of meters. I know that the imperial system just makes way more sense, but unfortunately I live in Germany and we use metric. The screen is on the right, the upside-down L is my couch and the 3,71 are the distance that I am assuming...

 

Concerning the resolution of the projector, I am actually not really digging 4k that much. Right now I have a pretty good 1080p projector that basically was "mobile" and now I want a permanent setting. Nevertheless, if the setup gets a lot of use, I do want to upgrade to a better projector with LED and 4k in the future. 

 

 

[johnt]

I have a small theater with a 110" screen and I sit about 8 to 9 feet back. It's ****ing amazing and I don't think it's too big or too soft. If you get good quality source material (blu rays), you should be good to go.

[Kilrah]

You want about same distance as diagonal for 4K, at 1080 it might look a little ugly i.e. visible pixels. Then there's a lot of "personal preference" going on...

[mapegl]

13 hours ago, johnt said:

I have a small theater with a 110" screen and I sit about 8 to 9 feet back. It's ****ing amazing and I don't think it's too big or too soft. If you get good quality source material (blu rays), you should be good to go.

I definitely want to invest in blu rays but the is obviously going to be streaming done as well. 

Thanks for the input.

 

13 hours ago, Kilrah said:

You want about same distance as diagonal for 4K, at 1080 it might look a little ugly i.e. visible pixels. Then there's a lot of "personal preference" going on...

Well, that definitely works out for the distance I. Am planning to implement. I honestly don't even know if I will permanently install the 1080p projector or if I will just test the size etc and then just get something like a BenQ x500i and do it right. However, I don't mind 1080p for movies even at a closer distance. I actually absolutely hated hobbit high definition so...I like a movie to look like a film....if that makes sense. 

 

I have more than 135inches from screen to the seating position, so that should be ok I guess. I measure around 370 cm and 135 inches comes to about 340cm. 

Thank you. 

[sonnumber5]

I currently have a 128" diagonal 16:9 screen with 11' distance to my main seat, overall I've been pretty happy and it definitely isn't too big at that distance. I just ordered a 156" diagonal 2.40:1 screen to replace it as I feel the 128" isn't cutting it for cinemascope content and I'll maintain almost as big of a 16:9 image.

[mapegl]

2 hours ago, sonnumber5 said:

I currently have a 128" diagonal 16:9 screen with 11' distance to my main seat, overall I've been pretty happy and it definitely isn't too big at that distance. I just ordered a 156" diagonal 2.40:1 screen to replace it as I feel the 128" isn't cutting it for cinemascope content and I'll maintain almost as big of a 16:9 image.

Thank you for your input. 

 

I just wondered about something like that myself, however, as a total noob, I was wondering how to switch from 16:9 to 2.40:1 and back...

Does your projector have sufficient zoom or how do you use that?

[sonnumber5]

On 12/31/2024 at 3:57 PM, mapegl said:

Thank you for your input. 

 

I just wondered about something like that myself, however, as a total noob, I was wondering how to switch from 16:9 to 2.40:1 and back...

Does your projector have sufficient zoom or how do you use that?

I'll need to use a combo of zoom and new placement of my projector in order to fill the screen for 2.40:1. I'm fortunate enough to have a projector with multiple motorized lens memory positions so it's not too difficult to swap.

[sm1th5]

I watch a 130 inch projector from 10 feet/ 3 meters so the answer to your question of too big is going to be no

[mapegl]

Not that anyone expected it to be different, but I just tested my projector in my room that is still under construction (needed a little motivation to push through) and 1080p is so bad....like so, so bad. 

I just used the finished plastered wall as a screen, which led to awful colors etc., but you could really see the pixels at almost 12 feet distance

[mapegl]

Just letting you guys know:

 

The final image is about 133" and I sit about 3,20m away from the image. It is freakin' great. 

I don't want it bigger, but it completely fills the viewers vision and you feel so immersed, especially in gaming. 

 

The x500i, for those who care, is very good. Just a little on the louder side, but I want to build a hush box, so this doesn't concern me too much.