Jun
13
How-to: Install a Front Projector & Screen
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As far as I’m concerned nothing says home theater like a front projection system, there’s just something about a 2-piece system that really captures the magic of going to the movies. The beautiful thing about front projection is that even in this day a 50” Kuro plasma’s and a 40”- 1080p LCD’s for under a grand, front projection still provides the best bang for the buck in screen size, and with fuel prices continuing to climb that trend will likely continue.
As much as everyone around here loves projectors, it’s obvious that they aren’t for everyone. There are multiple reasons for this but two of the biggest are the need for a relatively dark environment and the fact that installing a projector really isn’t seen as a do-it-yourself project. Well, I can’t help with the dark room but I assure you that if you’re even moderately handy around the house, you can install your own front projector and screen.
First things first, I like to start with the screen. The screen should be your anchor, not the projector. Think of it this way, the screen is what you’ll actually be looking at, so it’s important to have it where you want it in the room and then worry about how to get the projector where it belongs. I fully acknowledge that there are other schools of thought on which comes first (the projector or the screen) but after having installed an upwards of 125 front projection systems over the years, I have come to know, love and embrace the path of screen first.
So with that we need to establish the proper height to mount the screen at. Even though we’re installing the screen first, take a quick look over your shoulder at the area where you’ll mount the projector and look for any obstructions. If you see a heating and air vent, smoke detector, ceiling fan or anything else that might be in the path of the projector or mount, you’ll need to factor that in. i.e. if the true center of your room is offset by 2” to the right due to an obstruction, you’ll want to shift your screen over to the right by 2”.
Jun
13
How-to: Install a Front Projector & Screen (Part 2)
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Read the First Part of the Article: How-to: Install a Front Projector & Screen.
So with our projection screen mounted and waiting for video, it’s almost time to mount our projector. But before we do (you guessed it) there are a few tasks we have to accomplish first, one of them is determining the screens centerline, centering a projector is critical for proper optical alignment. I’ve seen and heard dozens of methods for determining true center in relation to a fixed object but none of them seem as easy or ultimately accurate (no, using a tape measure isn’t accurate, that assumes your room is perfectly symmetrical, it’s not) as the one I use.
For this part you’ll need an assistant, a ladder, the nylon string and pencil I mentioned previously. Pull off a long piece of the string and tie a knot at one end, have your assistant hold that knot in their hand and hold it up to one end of the screen frame (fig. A – at the top of the screen). Now, pull off enough string to make it back far enough so that you’re into the projector manufacturers recommended throw distance (Fig. P) for your particular screen size. (Note: the throw distance can either be found in the owner’s manual or on-line by searching for brand/model + throw distance).
Once you’re certain you’re back far enough into the recommended throw distance (preferably ¾ into it), tie the string around the pencil and pull the string tight. Once you’ve done so point the pencil toward the ceiling and make a light mark in an arc motion. Have your assistant move to the other side of the screen (Fig. B) with the string and then make a second, complimentary mark from the other side. As long as all the variables were minimized, i.e. the assistant held the string at the same position on each side of the screen and you pulled the string tight, you’ll have a perfect center mark.
Now a bit about cabling, of course you’ll want to run a HDMI cable from your equipment to the projector, and for good measure I’d recommend a component cable as well but go ahead and run a CAT5/6 cable as well. You may use the CAT5 cable as a screen trigger, you may use it as an IR emitter, you may never use it at all, but there is no time like the present to build in a little future-proofing. Now, since we’re on the subject of cables, we need to talk about getting power to the projector.
Apr
8
Last week we talked about mounting flat-panel televisions on metal studs, this week let’s talk about anther tricky mounting surface, brick and concrete walls. Firstly know that yes, it’s absolutely possible and even preferable in some circumstances to mount televisions on these surfaces, but just as with metal-stud installations there are a few things to keep in mind before proceeding.
Right off the bat we’ll of course be using different fasteners to anchor the mount to the wall than we would if we were talking about wood studs, specifically we’ll be using concrete anchors. Call them what you may, lag bolts, anchors, expanding bolts etc. The basic premise is to drill a hole into the brick or concrete and then place the anchor through the mount and into the hole.
The anchor is then expanded by tightening a bolt which pulls the end of the anchor in toward you. Simple story made even simpler, the bolt is wedged so hard into the hole it become rock solid that is if you drill the hole correctly… I have to admit the only television we’ve ever had fall was one previously hanging off a brick wall. In short the guy drilling the holes awed them out (made too big) and the bolts didn’t get the proper expansion, result was one busted television but luckily no busted people.
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Apr
4
In my 17 years of involvement with custom audio/video I’ve had a lot of conversations on the subject, a lot of the same conversations as a matter of fact but one subject has never come up, not even once. In all the years of talking with client after client I’ve never heard anyone say, “we pulled too much wire” or “I really wish we’d had you guys run fewer cables”.
I suppose this falls right in-line with (although not nearly as famously as) you can never be too rich or too thin, back to the point. If you’re pre-wiring a new home, remodeling an existing home or just running some cable to your current home theater, run extra cables. Why run extra cables you ask? Because in just about every case I’ve witnessed there’s no such thing as an extra cable. i.e. you’ll eventually find a use for it.
I’ve mentioned this before but networked home theater devices are becoming more and more common, who had the foresight to run Ethernet to their equipment rack 10-15 years ago? It’s almost a given that no matter how many cables you run, eventually, sometime down the road you’re going to find use for another CAT-5, component, HDMI or Ethernet cable. Simply put it cost less to run them now versus later. Or just think of it the way our installation team does, always run a spare.
Apr
2
Hanging flat-panel televisions (plasma, LCD, etc.) in multi-dwelling, high-rise buildings can offer some unique challenges versus typical single-family construction. Right off the bat we’re looking at metal stud construction which doesn’t provide the same load capacity as wood studs. More problematic than the actual load capacity however is the nature of metal studs to “twist” under load.
This twisting is due to the fact that metal-studs are used in buildings with concrete and steel load-dispersion and therefore don’t necessarily have to “support” the walls themselves. In essence all a metal-stud wall has to hold up is the sheetrock attached to it, natrually heavey objects mounted on these walls can present a problem. The good news however is the average full-sized sheet of drywall is heavier than the television we’ll be mounting.
Ok back to my point, in order to reduce twisting and to just give the mount a slightly firmer foundation; I like to take a piece of plywood (painted the same color as the wall) and mount it to the wall and then mount the wall-mount to that. This affords us the ability to hit the metal-studs with more screws and by cutting the plywood slightly taller than the mount, you can get even more spread to disperse the load on. By the way, you’ll want to pre-drill (pilot) holes before trying to sink a screw into metal studs.
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Mar
26
We’ve discussed the proper seating distance from your display but what about the proper mounting height? It’s no secret that one of my biggest pet peeves is displays mounted so high on a wall that you have to crane your neck backwards to see them. While I’ll obviously never be able to talk everyone out of this mistake, I do have some tips for those who are more interested in the most enjoyable viewing experience; than seeing how high on the way you can mount your television.
Firstly keep in mind that the following guidelines are intended for your normal seating position, don’t decide where to place your display based on sitting at a barstool unless you do all your viewing from barstool etc, this goes for standing, laying down etc. You want to mount your television so that the center of the screen is roughly at eye level seated, you can go slightly higher than that but once you reach the bottom of the screen at eye level or higher you really should consider dropping it back down.
I know it’s easy to imagine the display higher and to want it higher but if you find yourself rubbing at a sore neck after viewing a whole movie or ball-game what’s the point? Sure these are just guidelines and every scenario is different but think about ergonomics more than aesthetics when deciding where to place your wall-mounted TV, your neck will thank me.
Mar
21
This tip is aimed at the do-it-your-selfers out there, specially the folks wiring up new homes or adding additional wiring to their existing homes. Wiring is obviously an integral part of home theater. Wireless solutions are getting better and better every day but they still have a long ways to go towards the performance of traditional hard-wired systems.
We all know that speaker cables, CAT-5 and HDMI cables need to be ran to their corresponding locations in the home theater but don’t forget the coaxial cables. Coaxial is used for cable TV and also for component video, but do you know that RG-6 and RG-59 have specific applications and aren’t (ideally anyway) always interchangeable? Most coaxial cable can be identified by reading the cables jacket but it should be easy enough to tell RG-6 from RG-59 just from the cables diameter, RG-6 should appear considerably thicker than 59.
Use RG-6 for cable TV and RG-59 for component video feeds, RG-6 has better shielding for noise rejection and tends to work better for CATV. RG-59 on the other hand is rated at 75ohms and is better suited for the individual RGB (red, green and blue) carriers of a component video cable. RG-59 is also a bit more flexible which could come in handy considering the need for three cables versus the one for a single cable TV feed.
Mar
16
If you’ve researched wall-mounting a plasma or LCD television you’ve undoubtedly noticed there are several different types of wall-mounts available for the task. Each of these mounts serves a different mounting purpose so we’ll run them down one by one. The most common type of wall-mount is the standard non-tilt “flat” mount, what you see is what you get here, the TV mounted on the wall, no muss, no fuss.
From there you get into the low-profile wall-mounts which in a nutshell give you a slimmer, tighter fit to the wall, sometimes as little as an inch and a half gap between the wall and display. Moving to something a little fancier there are the tilting mounts. A wall-mount with tilt allows you to do just what the name implies, tilt the display up or down a few degrees which can be really handy for finding that just right angle and or tilting the display to avoid glare.
Moving right along into the swivel mounts you gain the ability to pan the television left and right up to 45 degrees, and in most cases these mounts also tilt up and down by 15 degrees. Obviously the tilt/swivel mounts afford a level of flexibility not possible with other mounts but they aren’t necessarily the best value. In other words there is nothing inherently valuable about a wall-mount that can tilt and swivel if you don’t need it to do so. Pick the right mount for the right job and leave the bells and whistles for new cars.