New Setup Needs Projector Recommendation

[Hostess]

I am having trouble identifying the correct projector for my set-up and need some help. (I've never owned a projector before and i am tripping over a lot of the details on projectorcentral.com). My screen is 12w x 9h and i intend to hang the projector on an arm projecting off the top of my cage approximately 7 feet from the screen (top of cage is 10' high). Can someone give me a few suggestions (in the $500 to $1K range)? Using SkyTrak fyi.

Ive learned so much from this forum but really need this last piece of advice! thanks in advance

[Kent]

Optoma GT1080Darbee should work for you. BenQ HT2150ST is another one to check out. Both are used by many people on the forum.

[shimonko]

Agree on those two. Haven't tried them together but focused on both before settling on the 2150. In summary, the 1080 was brighter and had a shorter throw, 2150 more punchy image (higher contrast) and I like the very small vertical offset as I like my picture to fill as much of my screen as possible without keystoning, and I only miss a few inches at the top, none at the sides or bottom.

Also use the 2150 for movies so like the zoom range to lift the image up to a nice viewing height, and for games which I enjoy the projector's low latency.

[Hostess]

Thanks for the feedback. When I run those models through projectorcentral, i'm finding that the BenQ2150 requires mounting the projector 12' from the screen if i want to use it in 4:3. In 16:9, it requires 8' (but i get a much smaller image i think). I don't have that distance unfortunately (7'+/- max). So i don't think that one works.

As for the Optoma Darbee, in 4:3 it requires 8' (again i don't have that much room), and in 16:9 it works at 7' but my image will be a foot smaller than the height of the screen. Seems like this one works, albeit not perfect. Very possible I am missing something here, so any comments to educate me on this are appreciated.

[mikemcd22]

I'm curious what you ended up with? I have approximately the same dimensions to work with and am running into the same issue (not tall enough to fill the screen fully from top to bottom). Seems like the Optoma Darbee is the better "fit".