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[skeeterfood]

Hi guys,

I recently finished my home theater and I've got a Panasonic PTAE4000U projecting CIH (Constant Image Height) onto a 120" wide 2.35:1 acoustically transparent Seymour AV Center Stage XD screen.  (I highly recommend this projector and screen combination BTW)









This scrub bar and OSD are visible inside the screen borders for 16x9 Movies/TV, since they use the whole 16x9 panel on the projector and the image fills the screen from top to bottom with black bars on both sides as shown in orange below.



However, the scrub bar and OSD are projected outside the screen when I watch a 2.35:1 movie, since I use the zoom feature on the projector to enlarge the image until the horizontal black borders just go off the screen and the left and right edges just reach the borders as shown in blue above.  The screen border and front wall are black velvet, so that basically makes the scrub bar and OSD invisible.

What I'd like is a way to shift the scrub bar down and the OSD up, so they're always visible on the screen.  I don't think there's a way to do this already is there?

-John

[JimH]

Wow!  Well done.

[darichman]

I miss the 'click on the video display and hold to drag the image' feature.

Also, very well done indeed. I can't wait to do something like this one day.

[Matt]

Awesome theater.

As for the request, are there any video card / windows resolution ways to make it so your computer sends a 2.35 image and the projector positions it correctly?

Another approach would be for us to always put the OSD over the image region of the video, although normally putting text in the black areas would be good.  And I don't think it would make a lot of sense for the popup playerbar on the top to always cover the video instead of snap to the top.

[fitbrit]

Would it not be easier (for the end user) to be able to adjust where the OSD goes?

Also, great job on the HT! Mine is almost done - hopefully by the end of the year. It's going to be a retractable 16:9 120" screen with an 11.1 sound system. The room will double as a gym during the day (with TV 55" screen) and will convert into light-controlled theatre mode within 2 minutes. Of course, MC will be at the heart of it.

I really wanted a 2.35:1 retractable, acoustically transparent screen, but they cost many $thousands compared to retractable 16:9 screens which can be had for 10% of the cost. I've devised a ghetto masking system that should allow great viewing of 2.35:1 material also, assuming that the OSD can be moved. This system would require NO adjustment at the projector whatsoever.

As for projectors, the PTAE4000U is what I really wanted but is about $900 more than my budget. I was thinking of the new Epson 8350, or a second-hand Viewsonic Pro8100.

[glynor]

Beautiful job!  Really impressive.

I have to say, I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Panasonic PTD6000 DLP projector I got back in June for work.  I needed a high-lumen projector for the space it was going in (a room made out of glass, I know, I didn't design it).  However, despite pushing some serious lumens, that projector does a really nice job in 16x9 mode at night time in my glass room.

Panasonic really knows how to design a projector.

[skeeterfood]

Thanks for all the compliments guys.  It only took a year and a half to finish.    Actually, it's still not quite done.  Turns out getting the crown molding to fit on the top of the columns is tougher than I thought it would be...

As for the request, are there any video card / windows resolution ways to make it so your computer sends a 2.35 image and the projector positions it correctly?

It turns out I can create a custom 1920x820 resolution in the ATI CCC that works pretty well, but I can't find a way to have both a standard 1920x1080p resolution and a custom 1920x820p resolution available at the same time.  AARGH!

FYI, the overall room is approximately 12x22.  There's about 30" behind the screen wall for the front speakers and sub.  The theater is on the opposite side of the basement from the kids rooms and I used 5/8" drywall with Integrity Gasket to isolate it from the studs.  I didn't want to go through the effort, or have the money, for a completely sealed room, but it turned out to have a lot better sound isolation than I ever expected.  Outside the kids rooms, I can barely hear anything with a movie cranked.  In our bedroom that's directly above the Theater all I can really hear is a low thumping from the sub.

I'll post a link to my theater build thread on AVS Forum once I actually update it.  Turns out I'm a lot better at building a theater than I am at keeping a thread up to date.

-John

[rjm]

Never heard of a constant image height screen so I googled it. This thread was the 7th link offered by google.

Seems you are really on the cutting edge.

[mark_h]

I'm another CIH user.  http://www.blu-ray.com/community/gallery.php?member=Mark_H

Nothing worse than subtitles/menus etc being in the black bars on 2.35:1 images as I don't see them.  The ideal is allowing the user to specify where these go so they can adapt to their setup.  In cinema, the subtitles are always within the film, which makes them easier to read, whereas on home formats they are more often in the black bars which means the eyes have to flick up and down which can be tiring.

Getting back to MC.  My recommendation would be allowing the user to adjust the position of menus allowing them to put them in their preferred location.

Cheers,

Mark