If you plan to install a video projector on the ceiling, it is best to consult a home theater installer. That way, you can be sure of the proper distance, angle to the screen, and ceiling mounting, as well as whether your ceiling will support the weight of both the unit and mount.
Most modern projectors intended for home theater use have at least one HDMI input and composite, component video, and PC monitor inputs. Make sure your unit has the ones you need before making a purchase. Once on, the first image you will see will be the brand logo, followed by a message the projector is searching for an active input source.
Turn on one of your connected sources. If the projector cannot find your active source, you can also select it manually using the remote or onboard source selection button. Once the unit finds your active source, you know it is working. Now, go into the menu and select your projector's placement front, front ceiling, rear, or rear ceiling to correct the image orientation. Next, adjust the projected image, which will most likely be the source device's on-screen menu.
Once the unit is powered up, use any built-in test patterns available through the on-screen menu. Most often, the test patterns will feature a red, green, or blue screen or grid, such as small white squares with black borders or black squares with white edges. Now you need to place the image on the screen at the proper angle. If the projector is on a table, raise or lower the unit's front using the adjustable foot or feet located on the bottom front.
There may also be adjustable feet situated towards the rear. If the unit is ceiling mounted, you will have to get on a ladder and adjust the ceiling-mount to angle it correctly with the screen. In addition to the position and angle, most video projectors also provide additional setup tools, such as keystone correction and lens shift. Keystone correction is found on almost all projectors, while lens shift is usually reserved for higher-end units. Once you have the correct image shape and angle, the next thing to do is use the Zoom and Focus controls to get a clear picture.
Use the zoom control to get the image to fill your screen. Once the image is the right size, use the focus control to make it clear to your eye from your seating position. On most projectors, the zoom and focus controls are manual, but in some cases, they are motorized, which allows you to make zoom and focus adjustments using the remote control.
The zoom and focus controls are usually on the top of the unit, just behind the lens assembly, but sometimes they may be located surrounding the lens exterior. Some cheaper projectors may not have a zoom or focus control. Now you can make further adjustments to optimize your viewing experience. The first thing to do is to set the default aspect ratio. You may have several choices, such as , , , and Letterbox. He jumped up from the pain and took to steps backwards.
What he didn't realize was the "board", behind the board he was standing on, was actually a piece of cardboard. His entire leg came crashing through the ceiling, putting about a two foot hole in it. After we found out that he was alright, then came the arguing and fighting. Once everyone had cooled off, we drove to Home Depot and picked up some sheet rock and sheet rock mud. We cut the broken sheet rock up the closest studs and cut a patch piece to fill the hole.
We then floated the seams with the sheet rock mud This was just a quick fix and haven't sanded and painted the patch yet. You will be pretty upset when you find yourself falling through the ceiling. Cut hole for your wires and get a face plate to cover the hole.
Phish all your wires down the wall from the attic. If you are finding it hard to phish your wires, try using a phishing snakes to push your wires down the wall. A screen will greatly improve the quality of your projector system and I highly recommend getting one. It will make your colors more vivid and appear easier on the eyes. Projector screens don't have to be expensive, but they don't have to be cheap either.
Refrain from using a bed sheet and upgrade for some real projector screen fabric. It is made of a non-reflective material that prevents glare from your projector's light.
Build a rectangular frame out of wood and cut your screen to the size of the frame with about a 4 inch overlap on all sides. As you go through this arduous process, know that you will have to revisit each adjustment multiple times. Every time you adjust one thing, it will affect something else. This is a back-and-forth process. This is especially true if the projector is far away from the screen. Zoom is adjusted by turning a ring around the lens.
I normally make the image a little larger than the screen to ensure that the entire screen is filled. Any part of the image that spills over will be absorbed by the screen frame. Sometimes I will purposefully make the image too small while performing other adjustments and only zoom out to the cover the full screen when everything else is dialed in. This is because it can be easier to tell if pitch, roll, or yaw are incorrectly set when you can see the border of the image on the actual screen, as opposed to the frame around the screen.
Adjusting focus on a projector is just like with a camera. You start by moving the image out of focus, and then slowly adjusting the ring until the image snaps into focus. If you are doing this alone, you can use a pair of binoculars or walk up to check focus.
Many people simply adjust focus using their naked eye from the distance of the projector. Roll is fairly easy to adjust. Assuming that the screen is level, all you need to do is set a small torpedo level on the projector, oriented so it is parallel to the screen, and adjust the mount until the projector is also level. Remember, fine-tuning is a process of repeatedly making small adjustments to each setting.
If the projector is pointing up or down, you will have issues with pitch. The projector should be pointing straight forward, perpendicular to the screen.
If pitch is set correctly, the left and right sides of the image will be parallel. The easiest way to dial in pitch is to set a small torpedo level on the projector, oriented so it is perpendicular to the screen, and adjust the mount until the projector is level. Once the pitch is set properly, chances are that the image will be too high or low on the screen. This is where vertical lens shift comes into play. Use lens shift to bring the image up or down.
You may have to go back and forth between adjusting pitch and vertical lens shift a few times until the image is lined up properly. Do not, ever—no matter what—use keystone correction. Keystone correction is digital processing used to manipulate the size of the image and compensate for incorrect pitch. It is convenient, but will reduce image quality.
I find that yaw is the most difficult adjustment to make. To adjust yaw, you need to turn the projector from side-to-side until the top and bottom of the image are parallel. If the lens is exactly horizontally centered on the screen, the image will also be horizontally centered on the screen.
If the lens is a little off, the image will be off. Just like adjusting pitch, lens shift is used to fix this problem. Adjust yaw a little bit, then lens shift, then yaw, and so on, until the image is horizontally centered.
An invaluable tip when adjusting yaw is to use a piece of tape to mark the center of the screen place the tape on the frame, not the screen. You can also use this trick when adjusting pitch, just put the tape on the vertical center of the screen instead of horizontal center. At this point, you are finished mounting and aligning your screen and projector.
Congratulations are in order! Check out our home theater set up guide for help setting up the rest of your gear, and making picture adjustments on the projector. If you have any questions or comments, let us know in the comments below. Cliff, like many of us, has always loved home theater equipment.
In high school he landed a job at Best Buy that started his path towards actual high quality audio. His first surround sound was a Klipsch 5. After that he was hooked, moving from Klipsch to Polk to Definitive Technology, and so on. Confused about what AV Gear to buy or how to set it up? Installing a Home Theater Projector and Screen. Screen Location Your very first task is to determine the best location for the screen. According to THX, viewers should not have to look up more than 15 degrees At this point in the installation, you could pull out the instruction manual that came with the screen and mount the screen on the wall.
Projector Location Determining the best location for the projector is quite a bit trickier than the screen. Vertical Offset: How far down from the ceiling? Horizontal lens Shift: How far off to the side? This is good for placement on a coffee table, or mounting on a ceiling, as the image will be close to the center of the wall or screen, even though the projector itself is closer to the floor or ceiling.
However, this means that placing a projector on a stand behind you is a challenge, since the image will now be projected on the upper part of the wall and probably the ceiling. If this is the placement you want, check out projectors with either lens shift, or no upwards throw.
Now it's time to make connections. Note you still haven't permanently mounted anything. You definitely want to make sure everything works before you secure it all in.
So now's the time to run that extra-long HDMI cable. This is the ideal, over wireless or connecting multiple sources to the projector itself, as it gives you the most flexibility and the highest frame rates and resolutions.
It does, however, mean you'll need a receiver or soundbar to connect and switch your sources. A good idea anyway, as you should never rely on the speakers in a projector for sound. Once it's all connected, check some different content.
If you have a 4K projector , make sure you watch some 4K content to make sure your system can handle that resolution. Just because it can handle p doesn't mean it can do 4K. Read more: Best 4K projectors for An alignment image, like what's shown above, can help you make sure you've got everything lined up.
Spears and Munsell has a good pattern available on its site if you want. It also has a good setup disc , which will help with several of the steps here. Alternatively, you could turn off the lights and just see where the edges of the image are. Make sure you use actual video content, though. If the image isn't rectangular, it's likely because it's not exactly perpendicular to the screen.
Measuring the exact distances for everything will likely make aligning the projector easier. Don't, unless you absolutely have to, use any kind of keystone adjustments on the projector. These electronically manipulate the image so it's rectangular.
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