Projector Placement

[DaBills_04]

I am building a house and want to put a golf sim in my basement. I would like to have the electrician prewire and install the plugin on the roof, but I'm unsure of how far back I should put it.

My room is 15' 7" W x 21' D x 9' H, I want to have my projector second as a TV so I would like the display to be 16:9.

I've checked out a few on projector central with their calculator, but it seems to be all over the map as far as distance. I want to ensure the projector isn't in my swing path and that it's high quality like 4k. Any recommendations?

Also can I get some recommendations for screen size with those dimensions? To maximize the full height of my basement the screen would be 8' 6" H x 15' W, does that seem reasonable for the space? Is there anything I'm not accounting for? Will I regret using the full width?

Lastly what are peoples opinions of curved screens? I might be interested in one but have never actually seen or used one myself. So any feedback would be appreciated

Sorry for all of the questions, I've never built a sim and want to do it properly once

Thanks

[Ports]

Somewhere between a 0.6-0.7 ratio short throw lens seems to work well from my experience. Have to think about not hitting the projector with your swing or ball for that matter. You don't want it too far back either or it will cast your shadow onto the screen

[andygg1986]

As far as I know, there aren't any short throw 4k projectors out there that aren't ridiculously expensive. Also, most impact screens are not smooth enough for the image itself to benefit from the higher resolution, and there will likely be some waviness on the screen as well. Just my two cents, but I wouldn't want to watch TV on a 15 x 8.5 foot screen. It's just too big unless you plan on sitting really far back. It is nice for a simulator because you get the immersion factor though.

I ended up with two projectors and two screens. My simulator uses a cheaper short throw projector with an impact screen, and I have a fixed 120" home theater screen on the adjacent wall with a nice normal throw projector. That was partially determined by the fact that I built a home theater before getting a simulator and already had the fixed screen and projector.

[teearejay]

Pay attention to the physical size of the projector and mount needed. I would consider at least 6-8" away from ceiling minimum, which would most likely be in your swing path, if mounted slightly in front or behind the golfer. You have a decent amount of depth in the room, so you could potentially be either directly beneath or a few feet behind a short throw projector. With that height, a longer throw projector (i..e throw ratio >1.0) wouldn't work. A projector with an adjustable throw ratio would be easiest to install.

Also, consider other plug ins like your HDMI cable(s) and where you want to put your computer to control it all. Speakers in the ceiling/wall would be a nice fit for a custom basement build. Ceiling joist location would also be a consideration for the projector mount. A solid center or some horizontal supports under the drywall would make that an easier install.

In regards to the maximizing space, I would consider how much wall and ceiling protection you want around the screen. If you plan to add a few inches of foam padding, insulation, cornice board or drapery, that'll cut down on your usable screen size.

In some ways I wish I had the ability to do this from scratch for a clean look, but honestly a lot of it is trial and error and change of preference during the actual build itself.

[bongta029]

I'm on a same boat as you. Almost same size room and i went with 13x8.25x5 enclosure. Deciding if i want to have 1080p 3d dlp or4k 3d since i want to use it as a theatre as well.

[gnomike]

I have 9' ceilings as well, but a lot less room depth than you, so I really had to perfect the sweet spot of hitting area & projector position. I ended up with my projector just a little back from directly overhead (optoma gt1080 darbee). When it was directly overhead, I clipped it a couple of times on wedge follow throughs... yikes!

I did three things to work around... I moved my hitting area forward a hair as I mentioned, and I bought a really sweet low profile projector mount. A tad finicky to adjust and a bit pricier, but a really great design for not wasting space.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ARI8IW2/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Lastly I recessed it a bit into the ceiling... every inch counts!

My two cents wrt the curved screen... I wouldn't do it. A lot of extra hassle and expense, and once the novelty wears off, not much extra bang for the buck. I've used a high end sim with curved screen, and yeah, it was amazing, but honestly when I'm playing at home, my setup is more than good enough for me to be immersed in the game...