Newbie questions on building garage golf simulator / home theater setup.

[tripplebogie]

Hello~

I'm in the very early stage of building garage golf simulator that I occasionally want to use to project movies for kids.
The available space for this is 11.5' W x 9' H x 20' D. It's narrow in width which poses a few challenges.

Q1: I'm thinking of purchasing an impact screen with 10' width. Is this too large for the space?
I'm wondering if the final enclosure is too close to wall (or garage storage cabinets) and would cause damage.

Q2: 4:3 aspect ratio for 10 ft wide impact screen would give me 7.5 ft height which seems descent.
Since I'm planning to use a PC to drive the projector (with 4x3 aspect ratio), if I play movies from the same setup,
can I still use the full width of the screen? I understand the top and the bottom of the screen is unused but
is it reasonable or am I making a terrible mistake?

Q3. I'm planning to hit 10 ft from the screen and if I use BenQ TK710STi for 4:3 ratio, the suggested distance is 9`2".
So, it'll be 10 inches ahead of the hitting spot. Is this reasonable?

In case it helps, I'm considering Mevo Plus as the launch monitor and my budget is roughly 5k USD excluding PC.

Thanks in advance for your help! This site has been very helpful so far.

[tripplebogie]

I chatted with BenQ support and was pointed to this article. It does suggest that setting up projector and the screen for 4:3 aspect ratio then later projecting 16:9 movies should be fine except the unused space top and bottom. I assume this feature should work for BenQ TK710Sti. FYI.

I'd still appreciate thoughts on other questions. Thanks!

[mthunt]

BenQ projectors offer a lot of flexibility on resolution. I did one a 4:4 once. Everything will be fine in your set up as long as the projector isn't in your swing.

[tripplebogie]

Thanks! That's very assuring to hear! I guess I'll try a few dry swings to see if the projector would be in the swing path.

[gstprecision]

Seems to me your area is plenty for your sim setup. I have a 10' screen and hit about 8' from it without any issues. I use a Skytrak+ that sits beside the hitting area so I can get away with a bit less depth.

For the projector mine is about 12" in front of the hitting area no problem. You will be using a computer you can adjust the width to fill the screen entirely. Adjust the projector distance until it fill the entire height and adjust the width in Windows and the graphics card software.

[tripplebogie]

Thanks! It sounds like you're hitting about 4' closer to the screen than the projector and you didn't get any shadow. I wasn't sure if I'll cast shadow if I have my projector a few feet behind me. (but it sounds like I won't!)