Ultra Short Throw Projector

[mikeiow]

Wondering whether anyone here has a UST projector, & if so, are they good?

I'm losing the battle to properly trick out the lounge, but something like the Optoma GT5000+ could make some problems disappear: temporary film use, a choice of locations, SWMBO-friendly!

[Type R Tom]

Can't help on them but I've always fancied one of them to be GF friendly, I wonder if you could fit it inside a chest of draws or a side board with a slot cut in the top to allow the picture through, would be invisible!

[B17NNS]

Bloke giving his thoughts on the LG here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55la7bJhd04

[mikeiow]

B17NNS said:

Bloke giving his thoughts on the LG here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55la7bJhd04

He seems to like that one....fan felt a little noisy to me, although he didn't seem bothered....& I see the eco fan setting on that is 21db, whereas the Optoma is 28db.....despite rubbish hearing, I have been known to be sensitive to noise of TVs....

I'm also confused by the differing specs:
Contrast Ratio: LG (150,000) Optoma (25,000)
Lumens: LG (1000) Optoma (3600)

Curious though: can't seem to find reviews of the Optoma, aside from a few on Amazon UK (& more on Amazon.com).

Tempting. If it ever comes back in stock!

[mikeiow]

Well, we have ordered one (90-day return option!).....but I have learned that pull-up screens will NOT suit UST (or even short throw) because these projectors demand a flat target to avoid issues. Bah!

So: we have picked on one location for it, and now need to source a 100-110" tab-tensioned screen.

Luxburg look like the *cough* more reasonably priced of the ones I have found online - anyone used them & have comments?
Or does anyone have such a screen they no longer need & could usefully sell?

[B17NNS]

Make your own Zeos style

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxbLfiwBAiw

[mikeiow]

B17NNS said:

Make your own Zeos style

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxbLfiwBAiw

Ha! That looked a bit.....Heath Robinson to me....
But the next one was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn81__TovpY, which actually looks an option, I would say.....provided we can find space to store it, it could work for us (over some patio doors....
Interesting!

[crossy67]

I've got a big Luxburg screen and to be honest it's not great. It has no gain what so ever and offers nothing more than a white painted wall. I'd paint a screen on your wall, search painting a projector screen.

We use a Benq W1070, that's got a short throw but not sure of the specs.

[mikeiow]

crossy67 said:

I've got a big Luxburg screen and to be honest it's not great. It has no gain what so ever and offers nothing more than a white painted wall. I'd paint a screen on your wall, search painting a projector screen.

We use a Benq W1070, that's got a short throw but not sure of the specs.

Interesting - thanks for the comment.
My challenge is we don't have a wall - it will, instead, be across some bifold doors. Nothing to stop us having a temp screen we can pop up and down as needed though.....
.....& size-wise, I have had the revelation that a 87" x 49" screen (as in 100" diagonal) would make the perfect size to live on our pool table when not in use, with a couple of inches over all round.
So now I am wondering about a hard board (MDF is perhaps smoothest?), either covered with something suitable (any suggestions? Carl's stuff Stateside looks good, as in that one on the video I put up), or perhaps even painted with something suitable.

Mind you....we have 2 pieces of mdf covering the pool table right now....I reckon a single piece might be hard to lug around (definitely a two person jobbie, & even then, heavy!)....may need to make that frame and find the best covering we can - any ideas?

Hmmm.....

Edited by mikeiow on Monday 30th October 10:39

[B17NNS]

mikeiow said:

Ha! That looked a bit.....Heath Robinson to me....

It is. He's rather bonkers but very passionate about his subject matter. Always good honest reviews of the kit he looks at.

mikeiow said:

So now I am wondering about a hard board (MDF is perhaps smoothest?), either covered with something suitable

A sheet of 8' x 4' MDF cut to whatever size you wanted would work.

This is a wiki about a paint that seems to work well...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Widow_(paint_m...

Alternatively cover it in spandex (as per the video above).

https://spandexworld.com/c3/catalog/product/1423

If you've got space to store you could also make a Scope 2.35:1 as well as a 16:9.

[mikeiow]

Thanks - I did see the black widow thing earlier in my searchings alongside this thread - can't actually see anywhere in the UK to source the stuff though!

Spandex - link is also US (are you US-based?) - sounds like a possibility though. Some searches then lead to lycra....
Still can't really tell whether such screens are better in white/grey/etc/etc/etc - bit of a noob at this despite hankering after them for years & years!

Cheers!

[B17NNS]

The black widow stuff is a home made concoction a bunch of science types played around and fine tuned on the AVS forums I think. You can mix it yourself (using UK products) using the recipe on the wiki page.

https://www.avforums.com/threads/diy-projector-scr...

The lycra link was taken from Zeo's video. Assume the same or similar is available here in the UK. He played around with grey as well as white and finally settled on the ivory as the best fit for his set up/room.

[mikeiow]

Ahh yes, the witches concoction - may be worth a try.
Our lounge is actually Dulux Warm Pewter (a grey shade)....may see how the image appears on that, maybe we can use the same paint!
Most "proper" screen paints I can find look to be white (& then chats about "actually just a bright matt white can work".....

[B17NNS]

mikeiow said:

Ahh yes, the witches concoction - may be worth a try.

Yes, looks like it's 4 parts Dulux trade vinyl matt 'Grey steel 2' to 1 part Auto-Air Aluminium Base Fine.

I imagine painted perspex or acrylic sheet might work well too.

[mikeiow]

(still cannot see where to get the AAA *fine*....I may try Dulux Light & Space Matt Emulsion as a starter for ten on a big sheet of 6mm mdf, sealed first with Rustins)

But more importantly....the Optoma GT5000+ arrived today.....so we whipped off the 48" Samsung in the "snug" and tried it: wow!!
So the wall just about fits in an 80" screen (we plan to get to 100" in the main lounge, soon to be known as "Film Room"!), and we watched a bit of Prometheus (blu-ray, never watched before....but the disc turned out to be corrupt after about 50 minutes - doh!), then went with Life of Pi.

Well, the bulb needs to be dialed down to eco (otherwise the fan noise was a bit high, as others have said in formal reviews), but that is good for bulb life, right......& then the film effect was superb!

Bit of Blue Planet on youtube first:


Then Prometheus:
IMG_7924 Prometheus

& finally Life of Pi


Note the projector is at the furthest point just 40cm from the wall - astonishing!

I can see why you need a dead flat surface wall for these types - we have a small (4cm x 8mm) indentation in the wall (never noticed before), and suddenly it became scars on faces etc!

Overall - massively impressed, and now inspired to upgrade amp & blu-ray in main lounge - hurrah!

[crossy67]

I've heard good things about the Optoma projectors. That looks impressive and at that distance, wow. What's the rainbow effect like?

[mikeiow]

crossy67 said:

I've heard good things about the Optoma projectors. That looks impressive and at that distance, wow. What's the rainbow effect like?

Well, I 'generally' consider myself quite sensitive to these things....viewed an AT screen at Richer Sounds a couple of years back and the tiny holes bothered me.....but I can't say I noticed any rainbow effect, so quite relieved! Others view may of course vary!

We had some 'normal TV' on afterwards and notice a 'judder' on part of the top - like part of the "top row of pixels" flickering a bit, but hadn't spotted it at all during the 3 hours of film watching. Will need to keep an eye on that, but need to get it in the bigger room with the bigger screen....which will sadly have to wait a couple of weeks now.

Also need a new AV Receiver (my old one has no hdmi connections) & a blu-ray player for that room. Don't want to blow any big budget on that - thinking the Pioneer VSX531 for a receiver (with easy MCACC mic tuning), and perhaps the bargain Panasonic DMPBDT180 - could be a trip to RS later

Edited by mikeiow on Tuesday 31st October 09:13

[OldSkoolRS]

mikeiow said:

We had some 'normal TV' on afterwards and notice a 'judder' on part of the top - like part of the "top row of pixels" flickering a bit, but hadn't spotted it at all during the 3 hours of film watching. Will need to keep an eye on that, but need to get it in the bigger room with the bigger screen....which will sadly have to wait a couple of weeks now.

Sometimes there is a bit of digital 'noise' at the very top of the image from TV sources, I tend to slightly overscan any 16:9 content (I have a 2.40:1 screen) which puts that 'noise' into the black area around my screen. Or you can digitally 'crop' it using built in 'masking' if your projector has it (or using an external video processor).

The films you watched were probably wider than 16:9 so that top area wouldn't have been in use, except for the black bars, but if there is a problem caused by the projector itself I would have expected that noise or 'judder' to have shown at the top of the screen during Prometheus.

[mikeiow]

OldSkoolRS said:

Sometimes there is a bit of digital 'noise' at the very top of the image from TV sources, I tend to slightly overscan any 16:9 content (I have a 2.40:1 screen) which puts that 'noise' into the black area around my screen. Or you can digitally 'crop' it using built in 'masking' if your projector has it (or using an external video processor).

The films you watched were probably wider than 16:9 so that top area wouldn't have been in use, except for the black bars, but if there is a problem caused by the projector itself I would have expected that noise or 'judder' to have shown at the top of the screen during Prometheus.

Thanks - I agree, I don't think it was a big issue.

Keeping this together (although maybe should be a separate topic) - anyone used/using a screen that is a fair bit bigger than their projected image?

I ask because there are a couple of good deals on what look like decent tab-tensioned screens - 120" and 133".
We were after one in the range 100-110, although the larger ones could fit our room - just wondering if we were to keep the image a bit smaller (120-133" *may* be too big - likely to be sat 10-12' away in general), would the white of the surrounding screen be annoying!?

thx