Compact Projector... Is there such a thing???

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Long story short...

We have not long moved in to our first house (which is a 3 floor town house).  In the lounge I have a Sony 46W4000 which I am very impressed with and was thinking of getting the 40" version for our bedroom.

However this being a townhouse, our master bedroom is sort of in the loft and I was thinking that the odd shape would lend itself quite well to a projector as we have quite a decent sized surface with which to project on too and because the bedroom only has a small window, outside light can be kept to a minimum.

Might be a bit OTT having a Projector in our bedroom, but I have never been one much for sticking to the norm anyway lol

My questions in which case are, will a projector be suitable do you think in this environment and are there any compact projectors or wall hanging projectors that are worth considering (or do they al have to be ceiling mounted).

I seem to remember a compact LG one or something (some time ago).  Anyway, I am way out of my depth here with Projectors, so I will take any advice you guys can give.

Many thanks, Nathan... 

 

 

[Anonymous]

There are certainly reasonably compact ones around - I have a cheap and cheerful optoma HD-700X which is roughly A4 sized, and the picture is surprisingly good from a high-def source (or upscaled DVD) for a sub-400 pound 720p projector.

If you have a solid wall and want to wall mount it, you can get ceiling mounts that also work on walls - many designs are basically a tube from the ceiling to a ball and socket joint which then attaches to the bit that bolts to the projector. For ceiling use it's usually a short tube, but some mounts also come with a long tube so you can attach the mount to the wall, use the ball and socket at 90 degrees, and still have enough clearance away from the wall to fit the projector in.

Projectors are usually designed with an optical offset so they can either sit on a table and project up, or hang upside down from the ceiling and project down (so the bottom/top edge of the projected image is usually higher/lower than the projector itself) - unlike slide projectors which usually project straight ahead.

Main limiting factor is usually the throw ratio - basically, how close/far away the projector has to be to fill a given screen width. Many cheaper projectors have a limited zoom ratio, so you have some size adjustment, but the screen size basically dictates how far back the projector needs to be - or turned around, if you fix the distance then that more-or-less fixes the image size you'll get.

Obviously, results are best with a reasonably dark room, but can still be seen with loss of shadow detail with some ambient light - the whites are still white, but shadows become washed out. TVs do better then, because their blacks are black (or at least dark gray) as compared to the white of an unlit screen. But get the room fairly dark, and the sheer size of a projected has a quality of its own.

Don't forget that you'll also need something to get the sound out, too.... most projectors don't have speakers