Projector Challenge, should you wish to participate . . .

[Cruisin1966]

I've been trying to find a projector for my specific room characteristics, and am still coming up with nothing. So, I'm reaching out to the community for some help. If projectorcentral.com had a way to search for vertical offset, this might have been slightly easier

Let me start off with some "limitations" in this garage space as it's a goofy layout. 2.5 car garage, two separate single-car garage doors about 4 feet apart . I'll have the existing garage door opener and chain removed and a wall-mount unit (Liftmaster) installed. I can also shorten the tracks an additional 18". Unfortunately the tracks must stay as Calgary doesn't have anyone who knows about (or carries) slide-to-side or side-hinged garage doors. The tracks are hanging about 6" away from the ceiling. Hitting towards the garage door seems the easiest, as there are fluorescent lights and a furnace to deal with, if facing the opposite way. Note: this side of the garage will still need to be used for two motorcycles, so it can't be set up permanently

Ceiling height: 107"
Proposed image height (from floor): 96"
Image Width: 120" (could be as wide as 144", but would have to hit offset from centre)
Distance from ball to screen: 8' - 9' (protects from hitting above screen?)
Bottom of projector to floor: > 98" (set above hitting area, positive vertical offset required)

So, without casting shadows, and having the projector mounted to the ceiling. what options do I have?

[timsiegle]

Can you post some pictures?

[Cruisin1966]

Here's some older ones. I'm in the process of cleaning everything out in lieu of the launch monitor arriving early this upcoming week

If you're in Calgary, stop by and see for yourself.

[dudley286]

If you go onto Optoma.com and find their projector calculator, it has a lot more than the other site. The only thing is that it is for Optoma projectors but you can search all theirs and see what works best for you with theirs. The below link is to the GT1090HDR and you can change the model at the top and if you scroll down to the bottom, you can input your room dimensions in the advanced section and it will plot it out for you. https://www.optoma.com/projectioncal...name=GT1090HDR

[Cruisin1966]

Thanks. I tried on the Optoma and BenQ sites. Can't seem to find anything that will fit that can be mounted closer than about 100"

[3on3putt]

Thanks. I tried on the Optoma and BenQ sites. Can't seem to find anything that will fit that can be mounted closer than about 100"

100 inches should be right about where you want to mount it though, no?

[Dax]

Agree this sounds like it will be right over hitting position once the garage door opener is moved.

[timsiegle]

A 96" high picture will a 170" width at 16:9. A projector with a 0.5 throw ratio would be mounted about 85" from the screen. Put that throw ratio into the Projector Central search tool and see what comes up

[Cruisin1966]

170" width won't work, unfortunately. Best I could do is maybe 144".
I'll do a quick lookup of 0.5 throw projectors

Probably have to go 4:3, and with the zoom, the lens would be at 110" producing the 96" height and width of 127"

Here's what I plugged in:

[Cruisin1966]

For a screen height of 96", isn't a hitting distance more than 8', potential for hitting over it more in play?

[3on3putt]

In a 4:3 aspect ratio, a 120-inch width will get you 90 inches high (not 96). Now, you can customize a resolution to manipulate the image to have it fill the remaining 6 vertical inches of screen size. However, doing so will just eat away at your picture quality. If it were me, I would just live with the 6 inches of blank space. For one, it preserves picture quality. And two, it gives you more options for the projector because those 6 inches can be used on top, on bottom or a mix of both.

So in all, that gives you between 11 and 17 inches between the top of your image and the ceiling (depending on how you want to ration out those 6 inches of unused space). You should have plenty of projector options.

With such a low screen height, I would not go any further away than 8 feet for a hitting spot.

One example of a projector that would work for you would be the one that I have --- InFocus 138HDST. For a 120x90 image it would mount 6 feet, 8 inches away and has a vertical offset of 14 inches. So you could mount it flush to the ceiling at about the front edge of your hitting mat (to get it out of the way) and then the vertical offset would put it right in the range you would need.

I would look for projectors with a similar throw distance and vertical offset. Get the projector over your hitting area mounted flush to the ceiling and let a big vertical offset do the rest.

[Cruisin1966]

Thanks for that. Excellent explanation and suggestions.

To be clear, when we're referring to flush mount, the mount could be a low profile (3") style? Something like: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00PR3ZTE2

[3on3putt]

For sure. I use the term "flush" loosely. Basically just a low profile mount that keeps the projector in the vertical offset range you need