Short throw 16:10 projector?

[Bwinokur1]

Hi everyone,

I’m sure there has been discussion on this but I’m having a difficult time finding a short throw 16:10 projector. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

thanks!
Blake

[GarnetGolf]

What is your budget? If it is sub $1000, your better off buying a 1080p 16x9 projector and running a custom resolution (1728x1080).

[Bwinokur1]

What is your budget? If it is sub $1000, your better off buying a 1080p 16x9 projector and running a custom resolution (1728x1080).

thanks for the reply! I was thinking $1,000 or under. Is there a short throw projector that is recommended for a custom resolution? What would a native 16:10 projector cost?!

[Dax]

Blake, the Eiki 308u for $1600 would give you a 9 foot high image at just over 15 feet. Also, if you can find one, Panasonic does some that you can buy with a zoom lens. An example is the pt-ez580u that would do the 9 foot height at 12 feet 2 inches. Some projectors have a lens option that you can select in Projector Central (the 590u is $3500 as another example).

over your budget, but they are out there.

[3on3putt]

There isn't as big of a selection of 16:10's anymore. They were very popular about a decade ago but most movies and games and what not are now produced with 16:9 in mind and the projector market has followed suit. So the selection of 16:10's has gotten smaller while the market is now flooded with 16:9's.

You can find some high definition 16:10's (1920x1200) for under $1,000, although they may not have as much flexibility with mounting distance. What is the height and width of your screen? And ceiling height?

[Dax]

Agree Epson makes a few. 9220 comes to mind.

[GarnetGolf]

thanks for the reply! I was thinking $1,000 or under. Is there a short throw projector that is recommended for a custom resolution? What would a native 16:10 projector cost?!

You can set a custom resolution in Windows. Every projector I have used will crop the image accordingly leaving you effectively a 16:10 image if that is what you want. You're obviously giving up some resolution as your cropping the image but in some cases, it can be the best option. I would recommend setting a custom resolution with the height being 1080 pixels as then you won't have any scaling image quality degradation from the projector (assuming you're using a 1080p projector).

[3on3putt]

Yup, good advice here. If you strike out on the 16:10's you can run it as 16:9 and then use your graphics card / windows settings to stretch the image to 16:10. You will lose a little bit of resolution that may or may not be noticeable. The other option (in case the resolution loss is noticeable) is to just use 16:9 and sacrifice a small amount of screen space on top and/or bottom while preserving the native resolution.

[vrpunk]

OPTOMA WU515ST (and TST) has H/V lens shift as well so can move it away form hitting area without loss of image quality

[Bwinokur1]

Thanks for all of the advice! My room measures 184.5" across and 201" deep with a ceiling height around 12ft. The reason I'm looking for a 16:10 resolution is because I wanted to order the largest setup I could which in this case was the 9.5X15 ft. Pro golf enclosure from Carl's Place, which happens to be the 16:10 size. I didn't think ahead and realize how challenging it would be to find a short throw projector. Best buy actually sells an Optoma that has the native 16:10 but it is NOT a short throw and I would need to mount over 20 feet from the screen. The room is in a new construction house so I had the electrician put an outlet on the ceiling and feed an HDMI cable as well at around 8 ft. off the wall. Thanks for all of the helpful advice!

[Bwinokur1]

Actually the model at Best buy was the Epson 9220 NOT the Optoma. This would be great but its not a short throw...

[Dax]

On projector central, did you use the zoom feature to see how close you can get it for the screen size you are looking for ?

[Bwinokur1]

You can set a custom resolution in Windows. Every projector I have used will crop the image accordingly leaving you effectively a 16:10 image if that is what you want. You're obviously giving up some resolution as your cropping the image but in some cases, it can be the best option. I would recommend setting a custom resolution with the height being 1080 pixels as then you won't have any scaling image quality degradation from the projector (assuming you're using a 1080p projector).

I think this option is my best bet. If I'm going with this plan, do you have any recommendations on a solid short throw 16:9 projector with zoom options? If custom resolution is set at 1080 pixels for the height, then the width should be set at 1728?

[3on3putt]

Thanks for all of the advice! My room measures 184.5" across and 201" deep with a ceiling height around 12ft. The reason I'm looking for a 16:10 resolution is because I wanted to order the largest setup I could which in this case was the 9.5X15 ft. Pro golf enclosure from Carl's Place, which happens to be the 16:10 size. I didn't think ahead and realize how challenging it would be to find a short throw projector. Best buy actually sells an Optoma that has the native 16:10 but it is NOT a short throw and I would need to mount over 20 feet from the screen. The room is in a new construction house so I had the electrician put an outlet on the ceiling and feed an HDMI cable as well at around 8 ft. off the wall. Thanks for all of the helpful advice!

Keeping it under $1,000 might be tough unless you go the used/refurbished route. This one would work well for your setup but retails well over 2 grand. It's a discontinued model though so you might be able to catch a deal on a used one somewhere.

https://www.projectorcentral.com/Opt...ulator-pro.htm

Other than that, I would say just go 16:9. That will open up the door for a ton of projectors that will be well within your budget. Your 16:9 image height would be just over 101 inches and your screen height is 114. So you could leave some blank screen on top or bottom or you can manipulate the image a little using optical zoom or with your graphics card if you wanted to fill the screen. You could also hang some black material at the top of the screen to cover up the top 6 inches of screen to change your visible screen height from 9.5 to 9. Then you'll effectively be filling out a 9 foot screen while preserving the native resolution.

This is a good video that shows how to stretch your image to fit your screen using your graphics card.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-lG1sfwzms

Bear in mind though that doing too much of this will eat away at your image quality. Essentially, you'll be stretching 1080 pixels over 112 inches instead of 101 inches in its native form. So to do that, the projector will either increase the size of the pixels or increase the space between the pixels (or a combination of both) in order to get those 1080 pixels to cover more screen space. And both of those things will degrade the image.

I think this trick is great if your image comes very close to filling out the screen and you just want to manipulate it a little bit to reach the edges. But I would caution against doing too much of this as the loss in picture quality becomes noticeable. In your case --- stretching it another 11 inches -- you might be safe and may not notice a change. Hard to really say until you try though. I did it with mine (stretching it a good 2 feet) and it was so noticeable that I changed it back just a couple days later.

If you can find a projector with optical zoom (not digital zoom) that might be your best bet as optical zoom allows you to increase the image size without affecting the quality. (Digital zoom does affect the quality).

[Bwinokur1]

I found this projector, BenQ MW632ST, and it seems to be exactly what I need..

[GarnetGolf]

I found this projector, BenQ MW632ST, and it seems to be exactly what I need..

Keep in mind, that is a WXGA projector with a resolution of 1280x800. Cropping a 1080p 16x9 projector to 16x10 would result in a resolution of 1728x1080 which I think would be noticeably better.

[Bwinokur1]

Keep in mind, that is a WXGA projector with a resolution of 1280x800. Cropping a 1080p 16x9 projector to 16x10 would result in a resolution of 1728x1080 which I think would be noticeably better.

Interesting. So I actually found the right projector but simply getting a 16X9 and cropping will most likely work out better. Any recommendations?!

[jasonreg]

Keep in mind, that is a WXGA projector with a resolution of 1280x800. Cropping a 1080p 16x9 projector to 16x10 would result in a resolution of 1728x1080 which I think would be noticeably better.

While this is true, the 632 is a super bright and inexpensive starting point. And 16:10 is a great format if you have the height.