Projector in a living room?

Since cancelling cable TV in January 2020, we have been watching more movies.  We typically want a projector and projection screen to provide a more realistic experience than our TV.  However, that has some drawbacks that I am currently in the process of trying to fix.  

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​The Screen Problems

At first, I used a tripod mounted screen with a 100 inch surface  This worked, but it had some drawbacks compared to a wall mount.  It put the screen in front of my entertainment center, which hurt the audio of the center speaker, which sat behind it.   Also, setup took some time and taking it back down took even more time.  It was such a hassle that we rarely used it unless we were watching the Super Bowl or some other major event.

​Recently, I decided to just get some projector mounts and screw them into the wall.  Then put a 100 inch projection screen on the mounts.  This is a whole lot easier to deal with.  Just pull down the screen when we want to watch and put the screen back up when done.  It is probably the ugliest thing in the living room, but it is so functional that I felt that it was a trade off I would be willing to take.  


Tripod screen pic below:

​The Projector Placement Problems

Well, this is really a bigger pain than the original tripod screen.  I have the projector inside an ottoman and pull it out and either put it on the ottoman (usually with a flat piece of wood under it) or put it on a tripod stand.  The stand itself is starting to bend in one corner, so I am going back to the ottoman.  Of course, I try to get the projector into a similar position each time, but I am always having to work on getting everything in focus and centered because it is difficult to put it back in the same exact spot.

​To connect it to my receiver, I have a male to female HDMI that plugs into the third HDMI out of my receiver.  When I want to watch a movie, I have a 20 foot HDMI cable that I use to plug into the female side of the receiver connected HDMI.  This leaves us with a long cable running through the room.

The current ottoman is in the pic below:​

​Solutions

Well, first off, I can use the pull down projection screen for the time being.  We plan to paint the living room down the road, and at that point, I am going to switch to a screen that can be controlled via a remote.  This will make it even easier to switch from TV to projector.

The second issue was the projector is placement and I don’t want to mount it in my living room.  I have art on the walls and don’t want a large projector hanging in the path.  That left me with few options.  I don’t have room behind the couch to put it on a table, either.   

Well, we decided to get a new ottoman.  The current one is cloth on top, which the dogs love, but I found an ottoman with that same feature (with an additional feature of the cloth side being able to be put face down with a table top going face up).  I had an ottoman with this feature in the past and it allowed visitors in the middle of our sectional to have a place for drinks (even if it did confuse my pups).   The new ottoman has an open area at the bottom and this is where I will put the projector.  It is ideal given my limitations.  It will give us some storage for 3D glasses and a few knick knacks, while also serving as a permanent location for the projector.  We will have to figure out exactly where the ottoman needs to be to watch a movie, but that should be easy enough.  This will curb setup time dramatically.  

The other issue is the HDMI cable that people could trip over.  Well, I looked at wireless HDMI and it seemed too expensive if I wanted a 4k signal.   As a result, I went with a device that will push an HDMI signal over Ethernet.  I did have to get into the attic and run cable, but I had done it before with my surround speakers and subwoofer cable, so nothing I hadn’t done before.  I tested it this weekend and it worked great.  The only minor issue was that the manufacturer said that the receiving device would get plenty of power without plugging it in, but I had to plug it in to get a perfect signal.  No big deal, it uses mini USB (which it says it used for for service) and my nearby power strip has a couple unused USB ports. 

​To Wrap up

I have the ottoman on order, so we will see how things go after using the setup for a little while and I will post an update article down the road.  However, this seems like it will fix most of my issues until I can get the electric screen in place.   We love movies, and I love sports, so this should pay for itself in the long run.  

By the way, some people have mentioned that you can get a 75 to 85 inch TV these days, so why bother with  a projector?  The answer is that I have a doorway that a screen can pull down in front of, while I can’t mount a TV there.  I currently have a 65 inch TV and maybe I could fit in a 75 inch, but even if I stay with just a 100 screen (I may switch to a 120 when I go electric, but I will have to see if it will still fit in the space), the experience is just better from my typical viewing location.  Having a screen stretch from speaker to speaker is ideal for my needs and that requires it to extend in front of the doorway. 

Also, I did look at ultra short throw projectors and, for the price, I saw a lot of complaints about their current state.  I think my Epson 5040ub is just a better projector for my needs given the current state of technology.   However, I will see how things progress in this area if the things I discussed above don’t go as planned.

Note:  I get paid commissions for purchases made through any links to Amazon products on this page and website.