HD Projector

[HoganWoods]

HoganWoods
Check the Optoma EH300 and DH1011. Amazon prices $1218 and $818
You need HDMI inputs and these have 2 so one for golf and one for movies- they auto detect a signal. The main difference between them is brightness, 3500 vs 3000 Lumens, bulb life and Warranty....
You will not regret getting true HD 1080 projector and the 3D is a good toy

What do you think of the Optoma HD25E 3D 1080P. They have it at Costco. 2800Lumens and 20000:1 Contrast Ratio. 2 HDMI ports
If I compare it to the DH1011 that you suggested, that has 3000 lumens but only 13000:1 contrast ratio.

How much weight should I put on a good contrast ratio? I read that it's very important, even more than lumens.. ?

Then you have the EH300 which has 3500lumens and 15000:1 contrast ratio. The keystone correction is twice as good on the HD25E and DH1011 than the EH300.

I'm still trying to decipher all this. You are right though in saying 1080p and 3D are the way to go. Not much more in cost and kids will love it.

[psace]

the Optoma 25HD is a nice pj for the price point. I don't put much onus on contrast ratios for simulator use, at least up to this point. 3D is interesting but not a game changer for me. I do have it on my Benq W1070 but don't care that much for it as most 3d movies are not really that well done from what I have seen thus far.

[HoganWoods]

Black Friday is almost here and I've got lots of gear to buy for the room. I'm still undecided on the projector, but I have narrowed it down to 3.

Epson 2030
BenQ 1070W
Optima H25E

I keep switching back and forth between each. Any suggestions? Its a dark room and I'm going to mount it at 16'. I'm leaning towards the BenQ right now I think. I'd like to hear from anyone using an epson 2030 or optima H25e. Was it hard to mount? Quality?

ps: My room can accomodate the throw of all these projectors, including the optima which I know requires more distance for a big screen.

[syhlif32]

Might be to late this response.
The Epson get some negative reviews due to it is not producing a clear picture. Might not be a huge issue with a golf simulator and if you are seeing rainbows it might be the unit to go with.
I got a Optoma HD23 which is a Brazilian version of the HD25 with 3D disabled.
Pretty good projector. very quieted.
Think the BenQ and the Optoma HD25e are very similar and you should decide which one suits you space best with regards to throw distance.
Look up Avsforum for more info on the different projectors.

[Dax]

After much deliberation, I think I have finally settled in on the projector that I will be using. It seems like trying to get a full 1080p projector is not possible as the light output is too low and when combined with the need to get a short throw projector, there really is not much to choose from (may need to wait until 4k becomes mainstream). So I decided to spend my time researching 720p projectors and after much deliberation, it seems like the Optoma GT760 has everything that I am looking for with a great price (given the price, if there is ever a 1080p in the future that meets what is needed, then I can always sell this and upgrade)!

The only negative that I see is that the projector likely be ahead of my hitting position by about a foot and a half and so I will need to find a way to protect it (as I guess you never know).

[CPA]

Dax I think you will regret a non HD projector.
What are your room specs again.
I found many had a problem with the projector in what they thought was a hit zone. Now it is behind there is no issue.

[Dax]

Thanks for the comment CPA. It was really a chicken and egg thing in that I wanted a projector with at least 3,000 lumens and the closest I could get with full 1080p at a good price was 2,200 lumens and the lamp life was shorter than the Optoma at about 4,500 running full out (this means that the half life of the bulb will be longer and I can likley change out the bulb at this point to maintain a good picture). I agree that a full 1080p picture will look much better than the 720p at the sizes that we are looking at, but I will also be standing about 12 feet from the screen and so this should be a good distance to negate some of the negative effect.

In terms of my room dimensions, I have a room that will be 21 feet long and 13 feet wide with 10'2" ceiling height (screen size will likely be 11 feet wide (I will try and squeeze out 12, but suspect this may be difficult). Given that the projector will be 9 feet from the screen, I believe that I will need to just install a cage to protect the projector (although I will play around with the image first at 12 feet to see if I can make that work).

This projector will be dedicated for the golf simulator and will not be used for watching sports or movies.

Also, given that the next gen of projectors is just around the corner I decided to keep this purchase on the cheaper side as well as it will let me wait until their is a great 4k short throw projector on the market in about 4 years.

[SLYDER]

Hi Dax & CPA
It is getting colder in Oshawa so it is time to finish my set up. You were mentioning one of the reasons for not going with a hd is that the light out put doesn't measure up. The room (garage) I have is pretty dark would that be an issue for me? My screen size is about 8'X8'. What would you recommend. The farthest back I can get is 11 to 10 feet to pu the projector.is it better to hang high or would a side table work? I have about 12' accross.Thanks for your input?

[CPA]

Dax doesn't Optoma HD25E 3D 1080P. Meet your spec mounted behind. No shadow. Under 1K.

[CPA]

Hi Dax & CPA
It is getting colder in Oshawa so it is time to finish my set up. You were mentioning one of the reasons for not going with a hd is that the light out put doesn't measure up. The room (garage) I have is pretty dark would that be an issue for me? My screen size is about 8'X8'. What would you recommend. The farthest back I can get is 11 to 10 feet to pu the projector.is it better to hang high or would a side table work? I have about 12' accross.Thanks for your input?

High and behind. Get onto projector central calculator.

[Dax]

Thanks for checking into this projector for me CPA

The way my calcs are working through Projector Centrals calculator is that the projector will need to be about 24 feet behind me maxing out with the optical zoom to get it as close as possible. It also looked like the centre of the lens needs to be mounted 13 inches above the top of the image which would put me into the ceiling (I am assuming this is what the negative 13" means).

This was the common issue that I found with most of the HD projectors out there.

[Dax]

Slyder

Winter is back in Calgary as well today! How high are your ceilings? For a home theatre the darker your room the better, but you will need some light for the golf simulator and depending on the sim you choose, you might need to set up light in a very specific way (there are others here who can help with that). My garage has a fair bit of light and thus the reason for wanting the higher light output (may still be able to use eco mode on the projector but will need to play around with that given the screen width that I am looking at.

Also, in a 4:3 set-up a 8 foot wide image will provide you with a screen height of 6 feet (I believe that this gives you a 10 foot diag length), but you seem to have some more width to play with to perhaps get a bit bigger image.

In terms of projector choices, there are a lot, and you will likely need to go for a short throw projector (which really decreases the selection) for sure if you will be able to mount it about 10 feet from the screen. If you do want a full 1080p image, there was a very good Benq that I saw and considered, but dismissed on its light output (perhaps others could chime in on the light output of their projectors and their results, my thoughts were that I wanted to be over about 2,800). I believe the model was just around $1k (not sure what your budget is) as we well and believe it was the w1080. What ruled it out for me was it was 2,000 lumens, but this might be fine for width you are looking at).

[CPA]

Dax what are your room specs....gc2. ..protee???

[Dax]

CPA,

At the moment, I am shooting for a TM, will be completing an indoor demo of one later this week to confirm whether it will work for my room. I am planning to have my screen one foot from my back wall and them perhaps include some foam behind to protect the wall just in case as I believe most say you need about 18 inches (from what I have read, this migth be a little too much). If I take a foot here, that gives me about 20 feet to play with and if I have the trackman at the back of the room, I should have between 11.5 and 12 feet to the screen with the TM being about 8 feet behind me. This should give me assuming that a drive hits 5 feet high on the screen, then this should give me 13 feet of ball flight for TM to measure. Assuming a very slow ball spin off a driver, then the TM should hopefully measure 3 spins on the ball (TM says they only need two). The only thing that I don't think I will be able to measure is a high lob shot.

If I don't go with the TM, then I think I will go with a gc2, but will likely wait for what they announce at the PGA show as I have read that they might have some new things to introduce (I believe I read this on their website). If I went wit ha gc2, then I could definitely set up with the projector above me and then no issues. In terms of the gc2, I was just hoping for the E6 package (as their next gen looks very very good just don't know when that will be released), which unfortunatly they don't use.

[CPA]

Dax think you are applying wishful thinking with trigonometry and distance. The Track man recommended numbers are simply ball to screen...no angles.

Suggest you PM frans as he is the TM expert here.

You can put memory foam against the wall and screen against it. Will gain you at least 1 ft.

[Dax]

CPA that is what I thought as well, but in my email communication to me they reminded me that their minimum spec is based on ball flight and not distance to screen. Just went on their website and confirmed that they are looking for a minimum of 10 feet of ball flight.

Thanks for the advice on the memory foam! I was thinking of doing this to protect the wall and still have a gap with the screen, but if it can give me some more distance, then it will definately be worthwhile to consider.

[espresso]

Dax, it seems like you don't have any issues with budget and have ample space to work with. Why are you limiting yourself to short throw projector? I'm sure there's a business projector available that's bright enough and give you a 4:3 ratio picture and maximizing the screen image to 12' x 9'. Have you consider a BenQ business projector? I don't know what distance from the screen you plan to hit from but with a 21' length room, I wouldn't hit from closer than 10' in. Given that hitting distance and 10' ceiling, I wouldn't position a projector anywhere near your stance and it would be at least 15' from the screen ceiling mounted without any necessary cage. That makes the projector more accessible when making adjustments.

As for the screen placement close to the wall, have you considered using whatever screen material you intend to use then back it with PR-20 mesh then a net? That will give you 3 layers of material to deaden your shot. I would place them as close together as possible (maybe 1" apart). That way you can place the screen maybe 6" from the wall. For added protection, maybe add a layer of memory foam on the wall as well for those driver shots. I'm not a fan of having memory foam right behind the screen as I think there's still some rebound compared to the method above. The trick is to stretch your project imagine material tight on the sides but make it free floating off the ground or sitting right on the ground. That way it limits the amount of rebound since it has some give/sway. If you look at cinema screens, they use a tab-tensioned system. Basically a bar at the bottom that stretches the screen vertically and a cable on either side used with bungee straps on the sides to stretch the screen horizontally. If you apply that method to your impact screen, you would still get a fairly tight surface/screen but would limit rebound. The PR-20 material is great for limiting rebound but not the best material to project an imagine on. I see people stretching their screen tight to get a clear imagine but also anchor it to the ground thus creating a vertical trampoline. I don't mind the ball rolling back to me after it hits the screen but when it bounces back after a shot, it's a bit distracting when you're trying to focus on watching the ball flight on the screen.

Post pics of your setup area so far. Many of us are curious to see the progress.

[CPA]

I agree on the projector on top of back wall ..optima should do the numbers. Again pm frans about limitations of TM indoors and you room size.

[espresso]

From the Trackman website. Very bottom of the "Freedom of Design" section.

- The only requirement is the total distance from the radar to the impact screen. Minimum recommended room length is 18 feet (5.5 meters).
- Minimum recommended ball flight is 10 feet (3.1 meters)

This should be a very sweet setup. I'm curious of the pricing you've received on the TM sim with software (not that I can afford one)? I think if you can afford a TM or even a GC2 setup, a $2-3K projector is a drop in the bucket even knowing that you'll be upgrading 4 years down the road. 4 years is a long time in terms of technology. I would expect 3D home golf sims by then. Maybe they'll invent 3D glasses that are comfortable enough for sim use.

[Dax]

Appreciate all of the feedback! I am hoping that the set up that I am going with will be great. I have been spending a lot of time thinking about this and trying to determine the best approach.

In terms of the projector, I am starting to thing that I might be going at this the wrong way. My hopes were to basically to fill my screen with the image and try and maximize the height of the image as well. Given this, I was looking at a 4:3 aspect ratio and wonder what everyone else might be doing. I could make the Optoma projector that CPA recomended above (HD25e - optical zoom will make the set-up much easier as well)) work just fine and if I can stretch my image out to 12'6 inches I could get an image that is 7 feet high and get 1080p (with very good image brigthness). Based on this, I was wondering what others might be using in terms of aspect ratio in their designs? Maybe I am wrong in wanting to try and fill the screen going with the 4:3 ratio as it puts 95% of the projectors well over 22 feet (including all of the ones over $2k and $3k).

Greatly appreciate any thoughts on image size.

[Dax]

Espresso forgot to mention the pricing, but am not sure if that is ok to post on the this forum. What I can say is that the price of the TM is posted on the website and that is the pricing that they are offering to me without shipping (all is USD of course, which is getting worse by the day). I have not rec'd pricing on the software yet from TM as I am waiting to demo an indoor set-up in the coming weeks before pulling the trigger.

Also, thanks for the ideas on adding additional material behind the screen. I will definately factor this into my design.

[SLYDER]

hi Dax
I am thinking the optima may be the way to go as well. I was wondering when you put it high and back do you put it on the left or right side of the shooter ?

[psace]

Appreciate all of the feedback! I am hoping that the set up that I am going with will be great. I have been spending a lot of time thinking about this and trying to determine the best approach.

In terms of the projector, I am starting to thing that I might be going at this the wrong way. My hopes were to basically to fill my screen with the image and try and maximize the height of the image as well. Given this, I was looking at a 4:3 aspect ratio and wonder what everyone else might be doing. I could make the Optoma projector that CPA recomended above (HD25e - optical zoom will make the set-up much easier as well)) work just fine and if I can stretch my image out to 12'6 inches I could get an image that is 7 feet high and get 1080p (with very good image brigthness). Based on this, I was wondering what others might be using in terms of aspect ratio in their designs? Maybe I am wrong in wanting to try and fill the screen going with the 4:3 ratio as it puts 95% of the projectors well over 22 feet (including all of the ones over $2k and $3k).

Greatly appreciate any thoughts on image size.

Definitely go 16 x 9. This is what high def is all about. Also, you will get a wider picture making the course layout look more realistic and scenic. I am certain all simulator software will be geared to hi def in the future.

[Dax]

Slyder,

I will be placing the projector at the centre of the screen and assuming this is my target line (I have sufficient width to have both lefties and righties hitting down the centre - if I recall you likely had enough width for this as well), then the projector would be to the right of me if I were to face the screen. In terms of set-up, I will try and get all my measurements square and then use a wieghted string hung from the ceiling to zero in on where the lens will need to be (although the zoom on the Optoma that I am thinking of should be very helpful).

Espresso, I forgot to mention that the install is in the garage of my new house that I will be moving into shortly. I am hoping to get things going on the sim this January and thus can start posting some pics then. I just have to deal with a decision that I am regreting now on the garage install. I accidently asked them to put a drain in the floor of the single bay area of the garage and now I don't have a flat floor and so I will need get that dealt with first.

[espresso]

I've considered placing a sim in the garage since mine has a 12' ceiling and would allow me to swing a driver but I'd never use it out there. For one, I have cars parked there but more important is it's not heated. If you have 9' ceilings in your basement, that would be ideal. I have an older 16:9 ratio projector and even if you need to change the image to fit a 4:3 screen, it's still possible. The wider screen is nice if your space allows but you have to plan it out so the height of the screen fits the width as we'll. Otherwise your image might not be flush to the ground or have a huge gap between the ceiling. You have to make compromises based on your layout. In my opinion, fitting the height of the screen/area is more important than having a slightly wider image although you can't go wrong with a widescreen setup.

[CPA]

16\9 or 16\10 Dax centre mounted. Yes psace is right makes it look realistic

[CPA]

projector, lighting etc give off a lot of heat expresso and if it is in the house unless you live alone you will have a curfew guatanteed. Put it in the garage....get rid of the car

[bpep]

I'd like your opinions/ suggestions on my upcoming projector decision. I'm looking at the BenQ MW821ST DLP Short Throw - 3000 lumens 720p verses the BenQ EP5920 1080p - 1800 lumens. I have my sim set up in the garage so always dark and have the projector back because I dont want it in the hitting zone as I have a 9.5 ft ceiling. This will be for the optishot now but looking to upgrade to the protee someday. If you have other suggestions let me know but I'm trying to stay in the $500-$600 range as these fit that spec. Let me know what specs we should weight more. I appreciate all your comments. Thanks.

[bpep]

I'd like your opinions/ suggestions on my upcoming projector decision. I'm looking at the BenQ MW821ST DLP Short Throw - 3000 lumens 720p verses the BenQ EP5920 1080p - 1800 lumens. I have my sim set up in the garage so always dark and have the projector back because I dont want it in the hitting zone as I have a 9.5 ft ceiling. This will be for the optishot now but looking to upgrade to the protee someday. If you have other suggestions let me know but I'm trying to stay in the $500-$600 range as these fit that spec. Let me know what specs we should weight more. I appreciate all your comments. Thanks.

[Dax]

bpep,

Unfortunately I quickly discounted these projectors as they did not fit the bill for what I was looking for and so don't have any helpful comments other than the reasons why I did not choose. For the MW821ST, I ruled out when I decided to go the 1080p route and also after getting the feedback from CPA above stressing that you likely don't want the projector in front of you, but what are your room dimensions and the size of screen that you have available?

For the EP5920, my room length was too small for the screen size that I was wanting to get.

In terms of projectors in the price range you are considering, what about Benq W770ST? Again depending on your screen size this might be to close. Or the Benq MW519. I think that there were also a lot of recommendations a couple of pages back on a few projectors as well. I was set on the Optoma GT760 for just over $600, but again ruled out do to it being too close. The other that you can still by is the GT750e which got some great reviews a few pages back that I think you can get used in your price range.

Not much, but hope it helps a little.