Optoma EH412St question

[Millertyme]

I've seen this projector mentioned frequently as a good option.
When I go to the distance calculator for me to fill my 177" screen it would be 6.5 feet away from the screen.
2 questions
1. If I am hitting from 9-10 feet is that an issue?
2. This projector does not have optical zoom but does have digital zoom, could I mount it a few feet further back and zoom it in?

Thanks

[frodaddy00]

I have this projector. It is pretty bright but has a few major drawbacks in my opinion:

#1 - no optical zoom. You will have to position this sucker EXACTLY where you want it distance-wise away from screen. Digital zoom is trash. It magnifies your screen and does not change the overall picture size.
#2 - no horizontal keystone. This means you have to center it almost perfectly. my hitting zone is offset which placed this projector dangerously close to my follow through swing. Make sure your setup allows you to place this projector dead center of your screen.
#3 - the throw ratio of 0.5 does not work at 4:3

#3 is a big issue for me. I actually sent the first one I had back because the throw ratio is off in a big way. I have a 8x10.5 screen with 121 inches of usable screen width. If you use the calculator it says I only need to be 81 inches away. WRONG. I had to move my projector 99 inches to fill the screen. The second projector has the same issue so either I'm just dumb and have something wrong with my resolution (1600x1200) or their throw ratio is incorrect.

[dack]

Hey frodaddy00. If you had to do it all over again, what projector would you buy? Your comments here are helpful as I am in the market. I also have a 4:3 wall. Thanks.

[frodaddy00]

Honestly I don't know.. I made the EH412ST work because I made the mistake of buying from someone other than Amazon that wanted to charge me $150 to return it.

[bionicboogerboy]

Simple throw ratio math doesn’t work for golf simulation due to vertical offset. Vertical offset is the distance a projector has to be above the screen and it is generally expressed as a percentage. In golf simulation we generally have very little vertical offset requiring excessive keystoning. When you keystone an image it shrinks its size requiring you to move the projector back to increase its size. Hope this helps.

[Millertyme]

thanks for the feedback....i suppose I will open it up to any other suggestions, my issue seems to be finding something that has picture adjustments and can be mounted ~9ft away but will still be bright enough.
Other options I looked at
BenQ HT2150ST - does not seem bright enough
BenQ TH671ST- does not seem bright enough
Optoma GT1080Darbee - same issue with lack of zoom and needing to be mounted 6.5 feet away

[Millertyme]

I have decided on the Optoma WU515TST which seems to check all the boxes I need (though it was ~2k)

[frodaddy00]

OK so I looked at my EH412ST further and I believe issue #3 was my own problem. I hesitated even posting this cuz I'm dumb but figure you deserve good info :P. I can't believe I didn't notice this before but the aspect ratio setting will actually throw off your ratio (pun intended).

I had it on 4:3 which shrunk my screen but if I put it on native it went back to 1:1. This is found in users manual (see picture).

Issues #1 and #2 still exist but I may actually move my projector forward out of harm's way this weekend now that I see I fubared the throw ratio myself.

[aryantes]

So 4:3 setting shrunk your already 4:3 signal making it smaller than it is supposed to be, but native setting with your 4:3 signal worked as you expected?