Torn about projectors and aspect ratio with a 12.5' x 9' screen

[morrisad]

I have an HQ2 screen from par2pro. I can mount the projector anywhere between 11' and about 14' feet from the screen on the ceiling. Hitting from about 11' back from the screen. I want to fill as much of the screen as I can, which would mean using a 4:3 resolution. If I go 16:10 then I'm going to have about 2' of blank vertical space on my screen. That being said, I sprung for a GTX1060 graphics card and want to get the most out of my PC and TGC in terms of graphics. There are very few projectors around these days that have a native 4:3 aspect ratio, but I'm not sure how well newer 16:9 or 16:10 projectors work in 4:3 mode. What do you golf sim gurus recommend?

[Laboroflove]

I’m no projector guru, but I’ve for the benq 1085st(modern model is 2150st) and it works great for my similar needs. Looking at amazon now it’s a fair price too. Good luck.

[morrisad]

I had a 1085ST at our previous residence, and have an HT3050 at our current house. BenQ makes great projectors. I found an older model, MX631ST, that is 4:3 native (1024 x 768), 3200 lumens, and would mount around 12' from the screen for a 150" wide image. Still not sure if this is a better option that a 1920x1200 projector set in 4:3 mode though... hopefully Aja or one of the other regular contributors can chime in.

[wbond]

Forcing my native 16:9 into 4:3 looks fine to me.

[morrisad]

So what's your process to do so? What do you set your PC resolution to and what resolution do you choose when you start TGC? How did you figure out at what distance to mount your projector using this method?

I'm having a tough time finding a 16:9 or 16:10 projector that can project a 4:3, 12' wide image from a distance of 12-14'.

[aja]

You can use a wide screen projector in 4:3 mode you just have to position it at the right distance. The www.projectorcentral.com "projector calculator" will help you find the distance and give you the relative brightness of the image.

Takes a bit of fiddling with but the calculator is very useful. Choose 4:3 as the image you want to project (even though it's a 16:9 or 16:10 projector) and adjust the screen width to 150 inches (12.5 feet). The calculator should give you the throw distance, etc.

But - because you have a ProTee sim, you do have to be careful where you mount your projector so that you are not blocking the overhead lamps, and hopefully the light spilling from the lamps isn't affecting your projector's on screen image.

[morrisad]

I actually sold my Protee and got a SkyTrak instead. My space ended up too narrow to center the hitting area and still have room for righties and lefties to play (my son is a lefty). That does alleviate the complications with placing the overhead lights though, which is nice. I'm having a tough time finding a 16:9 or 16:10 projector that can do a 12' wide image in 4:3 at a throw distance of 12-14' at the moment, they generally have to be short throw and most of them don't have the brightness necessary to project from that distance. I need a throw ratio of around 1.0, which is apparently rare.

[aja]

Don't limit yourself to a throw distance 12 feet or more. I'd try for something more "short throw" and closer to the screen. Brightness will be better, for sure. Don't get hung up on the throw ratio - don't think that's a useful stat.

[TheUsualSuspect]

You can use a wide screen projector in 4:3 mode you just have to position it at the right distance. The www.projectorcentral.com "projector calculator" will help you find the distance and give you the relative brightness of the image.

Takes a bit of fiddling with but the calculator is very useful. Choose 4:3 as the image you want to project (even though it's a 16:9 or 16:10 projector) and adjust the screen width to 150 inches (12.5 feet). The calculator should give you the throw distance, etc.

But - because you have a ProTee sim, you do have to be careful where you mount your projector so that you are not blocking the overhead lamps, and hopefully the light spilling from the lamps isn't affecting your projector's on screen image.

I have a 12 x 9 setup. I hit from 10 ft away and play TGC in 16x10 and JNPG in 16x9. Difference is the “windowing” for the two Sims so one looks better one way then other. You get over the black bars pretty quick and if you ceiling mount then you can get close to ground level coverage. One tip is for 16x10 use 1440x900 or better resolution instead of the lower options that you read about.

[morrisad]

Cool, what projector did you go with and how far from the screen did you mount it?

[morrisad]

Alright here's what I'm thinking of going with: http://www.projectorcentral.com/BenQ-MU686.htm
It seems like only a "business" projector is going to be bright enough to do a 12' x 9' image at around 16'. The bonus with this is that I'll get 1200 lines of vertical resolution so the picture should still be sharp. The only other options I found were other BenQ business projectors that were older with lower native resolution for around the same cost.

[Shifty]

I have the optoma hd28se and that works for about that screen size, except for that size it needs to be 18' from screen. Great projector if you can still find one. They are in demand, so finding one around $700 can be tough

[morrisad]

Well I can happily report that I got everything running this weekend and the projector (BenQ MU686) worked out great. In 4:3 mode with TGC set on 1920 x 1200 it looks really nice. I have it mounted around 16-17' from the screen and it's nice and bright. I'm still working through some alignment issues with the SkyTrak, I need to do some cord management, and also put down the astroturf I bought between the screen and my hitting mat, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. It is pretty great to be playing Augusta when it's -2 degrees outside.