HT Room planning, setting up for a projector?

[Zman2k2]

So, right now, I'm in the design phase of my theater room. I'm laying out the in-wall wiring, and something hit me. Right now I have an LCD TV, but what if one day, I want to get a projector? Should I run the wiring now, before I drywall the ceiling? What would I need to run for wiring? Should I even bother trying to plan for something I don't have?

The room I'm using is in the basement, and it has a support pillar right in the middle of the room. So I'd only get the projector about 10 feet from the wall, so is it even worth it? How big of an image can I get from that distance? Should I just stick with flat-panel displays?

Sorry for too many questions.

[jomari]

how big is the room in the first place?

we havent been to your basement yet, so that always helps.

1. depending on the pj you purchase, you always have to consider the throw distance you'd get from the pj
2. is it going to be ceiling mounted? wall mounted?
3. how big of a screen are you planning to have? will it be a drop down screen? fixed?

a lot of questions can be answered
here
and
here

[Zman2k2]

Wow! Thanks jomari. Now I've got some reading to do in order to decide if this is something worth doing for me. I didn't know that different projectors have different throw angles and such, giving different picture sizes at similar distances. Now I've got way more to think about.

[Original-6ix]

zman take it from me if you think your going to do something different in the future wire it now before you close everything in, as i wired my basement for 6.1 sound about a year and a bit ago, i should have researched a bit more and wired for 7.1, now im regretting that mistake, dont do the same

[Deadset]

Exactly. I wired up for 7.1 and a projector cable. At first I wasn't really sure if I was going to get a projector or not. I went ahead and setup the basement for it within the restrictions of the room. I haven't seen many setups that have been to the T ideal. Do everything you can before you sheetrock. I've wired mine for gigabit even though my current setup isn't. I also printed out a sheet and drew the outlet placements and lighting placements on the plan. Make sure you do it to scale, you can do this in Word or Visio, I didn't buy basement planning software, however your plan is the most important thing in the entire project. See the attached file of mine.

One challenge I have is that my projector has to be mounted on the frame I built around the duct work. It's only 80" from the floor to the bottom of the sheetrocked framed soffit. I am still reading about projectors, but that is one challenge I face, can I get one that has a minimal offset? Does it have to be centered or is there settings for horizontal shifting?

I started my basement finishing project in January and am currently about 85% done with the sheetrock. If you want photos or things I've learned the hard way, let me know. My current schedule will put me complete by Nov/Dec of this year. The only thing I've changed in the plan is sheetrocking the entire ceiling for head room and for cost containment.

Good luck with your project!

ps. I had to zip the PDF file to get it to upload, my PDF exceeded the 19.5kb, it's only 45kb when you download.

[kingofgrills]

If you think you might want a projector down the road, make your cable runs now while everything is open. When I built my home theater room, I was installing a Sony SXRD rear projector, so I didn't have the home theater installer run for a projector. In hindsight, I wish I left that door option as an option.

As has been previously mentioned, running the cables will take a little mapping out to include projector type, distances, and mounting method. You also should consider the amount of light and how well you can control the light in the room. Projectors in rooms with poor light control don't look good.

[kmshark]

Since you have a receiver with HDMI switching, you just have to run one cable for the PJ and then the power.... much better to do it know once you know where it will be. Given than you have a pillar in the middle of the room, you can't go with rear-wall.. so your only options are to mount on the Pillar or ceiling. Just get a 50ft HDMI cable from monoprice for $40 and run your power.. overall under $100 to be future-proof.

GOOD LUCK..