Projector Lens Shift Question

[Slick5150]

I'm going to be moving into a new house in a few weeks. I currently have a Viewsonic Pro8200 projector w/ a 100" screen. I'll have room to mount the screen in the new place, but the problem is there isn't an ideal place to put the project directly in front of the screen. So, I'm looking at options of putting it off to the side a bit.

I know the Pro8200 has no lens shift, so I'm certainly open to replacing it. But, if I were to get something like the Epson 8350, how far off at an angle can you practically put it and still get an ideal picture?

Just looking for some thoughts on that.

Thanks

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

You need to make that judgement call with your own eyes. Digital correction for off-center placement gets worse and worse the more angled you get. If it's literally just a few degrees off-center, you can probably just keep the Viewsonic and use keystone to square the picture. The image degradation won't be that noticeable on a normal image. You might see moiré and stair-stepping on images with fine lines, like test patterns, fences in movies, etc., but it shouldn't be too bad.

As for the Epson, you need to check the calculators to make sure it works in your new setting. I'll tell you this, if the screen is so far off-center that even the 8350 doesn't fit without using keystone correction, I would never consider using the Viewsonic.

http://www.epson.com/alf_upload/landing/distance-calculator/

I really wish cheap DLP's had better placement options. The upside is that my Mits HC4000 is probably sharper and clearer than anything in this price bracket. I <3 my DLP.

 

[Slick5150]

I'm going to have to put it at least a few feet off center, so I know the Viewsonic is out of the question. I agree with you though, I love the PQ of it and wish I could just hang on to it, but I just don't see how that's going to be possible.

Looks like according to the calculator that the Epson could go close to 7 feet off center at the distance I'm looking at, so that's looking like a pretty good option to me.

 

[BurnItDwn]

If it's going to be a few feet off center I think you may want to rethink your approach.

Maybe there's a "short throw" projector? Or maybe you will need to think about having the screen off center to preserve quality? (of course that may mess up audio a bit) ...

Good luck whatever you wind up doing.

 

[vshah]

if the epson's lens shift is anythign like the panasonic projectors i've used, then at a distance of 10+ feet, you have maybe 4-5 feet of adjustment to the sides and 3-4 feet up and down. lens shift is a killer feature for projector placement.

one thing to note is that it's not a perfect circle, meaning that if you're all the way to one side, the vertical adjustment will be limited, and if you're all the way to the top or bottom, the horizontal will be limited.

 

[sdifox]

why does it need to be so far off centre? can't ceiling mount?

 

[PrincessFrosty]

if the epson's lens shift is anythign like the panasonic projectors i've used, then at a distance of 10+ feet, you have maybe 4-5 feet of adjustment to the sides and 3-4 feet up and down. lens shift is a killer feature for projector placement.

one thing to note is that it's not a perfect circle, meaning that if you're all the way to one side, the vertical adjustment will be limited, and if you're all the way to the top or bottom, the horizontal will be limited.

This is good advice, generally speaking lens shift is in the plus/minus 50% range, it does differ from projector to projector though.

Lens shift shouldn't degrade picture quality the same way digital keystone correction does so you can shift a lot without worrying about that.

However as vshah said, the lens shift is often limited when using it in both vertical and horizontal directions so don't expect to get maximum lens shift in both directions at once, you'll only get partial shift, if you download the actual user manuals for the projector you're thinking of getting it will likely list the lens shift ability in more detail including the limitations of using it in 2 directions at once.