Projector And Screen For Living Room

[jyl]

We don’t have or want a TV in our living room. For movie nights, I set up a projector and a screen, run from a laptop. This works fine but there is set up and tripping over cords and fiddling. I would like to have a sleeker set up.

I’m thinking a wall or ceiling mount screen, that pulls down then self retracts, kind of like a window blind? I don’t need it motorized, and would just as soon avoid a cord running up the wall.

For the projector, the ideal would be one mounted high on the wall at the other end of the room, which would be around 25-30 feet from the screen. It would really be ideal if the connection between laptop and projector were wireless. Ditto the connection between laptop and speakers.

Oh and I don’t want to spend much money on this. Naturally.

Anyone able to suggest what I should get?

[id10t]

We went to appropriately painted walls for projector surfaces as work, though a few are pointed at smartboards etc

Ill ask the person in charge of class/lab tech stuff for screen vendors, but we did go with a flat white wall for a reason ...

[Tobra]

Dad used a white king size sheet pulled tight, looked better than the flat white wall, which was textured

Fishing weights and safety pins on the bottom

[stevej37]

The Best Buy near me has a nice viewing room setup with different types of screens and projectors.
If you are close to one, they could give some suggestions.

[dad911]

If it's the look of a TV on the LR wall, have you seen the TV's that look like a painting when off?

[908/930]

Something to check prior to purchasing the projector, you mention if you want to position 25-30 feet away, how large of a screen do you intend to use? You can check a site like projector central and they have an app for checking different projectors throw calculator. Most have some small zoom adjustment function, but some home projectors are designed to be fairly close to screen others pretty far. Years ago I had a JVC DLA-HD250 on a 110" screen at about 23' away, it was only 1080p but pic quality looked quite good, almost any newer projector would be way better.

[LWJ]

I have this.

We bought a screen online. The screen can retract. Easy and cheap. Projector can be hard mounted if desired. Mine is.

This has been done and is easy to replicate. If you want, you can come see my almost 20 year old system. It looks great. Watching Glass Onion with my favorite Daughter tonight.

[cabmandone]

I have a Yaber Pro V7 out in my media room that cost all of $199. I'd recommend it, but it's not on Amazon anymore. They have other models available. My screen is about 16' wide by about 8' tall, so it's big, and the picture is very clear but it doesn't like a lot of ambient light. I can dim the lights and see the screen well. I know the screen is bigger than you're looking for but I can post pics of the picture quality at lower light if it helps.
The Yaber Pro V9 appears to be the newest model. The V7 has manual focus and manual keystone correction. The one thing I will say that is a slight drawback to the V7 is, it struggles with dark scenes in movies.

[Paul T]

Not sure of the layout of your room, but they have some cool laser projectors today that can be placed on a table or floor mere inches in front of the screen, if you don’t want to ceiling mount.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by cabmandone

I have a Yaber Pro V7 out in my media room that cost all of $199. I'd recommend it, but it's not on Amazon anymore. They have other models available. My screen is about 16' wide by about 8' tall, so it's big, and the picture is very clear but it doesn't like a lot of ambient light. I can dim the lights and see the screen well. I know the screen is bigger than you're looking for but I can post pics of the picture quality at lower light if it helps.
The Yaber Pro V9 appears to be the newest model. The V7 has manual focus and manual keystone correction. The one thing I will say that is a slight drawback to the V7 is, it struggles with dark scenes in movies.

I'd love to see a pic!

We'd be using this for movie nights, hence low ambient light.

What projector do you use with it?

I've been using some Epson projector bought used for $100, kind of a like a standard office projector from a decade ago. I'd ideally like something white and smaller that be mounted on the ceiling or wall without looking like a big black wart.

Is there a rule of thumb to guess how many lumens you want/need? I'm seeing everything from 220 to 5000.

[LWJ]

I have the benefit of a dedicated room in my basement. When we remodeled, I carved out a 10x15 space with no windows and added a wall and door to enclose it. So it can be BLACK. We have a Panasonic projector from almost 20 years prior that does a great job in this environment.

As you add light I would expect you need to add lumens.

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by jyl

I'd love to see a pic!

We'd be using this for movie nights, hence low ambient light.

What projector do you use with it?

I've been using some Epson projector bought used for $100, kind of a like a standard office projector from a decade ago. I'd ideally like something white and smaller that be mounted on the ceiling or wall without looking like a big black wart.

Is there a rule of thumb to guess how many lumens you want/need? I'm seeing everything from 220 to 5000.

Here's the amount of thought I put into buying my projector. My son got a little projector and a small screen for Christmas. I thought to myself "wow I wonder what this bigger one will do" and bought the Yaber V7 and the huge cloth screen. I think all in I had $350 in my setup. I wanted a retractable screen but couldn't find any in the size I wanted... which was giant.

[908/930]

jyi, I don't know if there is a rule of thumb for projector lumens, but that projector I had was max 1000 and quite sure it was running lower output for my room.

[cabmandone]

No light and low light. The Yaber projector is about 20 feet away from the screen. Again, the projector only cost $199. I can actually light the room up more and the picture is still visible.