[James Romeyn]

Geddes' book "Premium Home Theater" has a chart w/ recommended relationships between resolution (pixels)/screen size/viewing distance.

My understanding is that the screen size/view distance relationship must match the lowest resolution source.  In other words, the picture may look fuzzy (visible pixels) viewing a DVD on a screen matched to a HD source.  How far off am I so far?

Source is DVD only; no HD source whatsover.  I understand the maximum resolution of DVD is 720 x 480.  If that is correct, must the maximum screen size be matched to DVD's 720 x 480 resolution regardless of higher potential resolution of the projector?  Along this same line, is there no visible advantage to a projector w/ potential resolution higher than DVD?  (Excellent light control.)

For DVD source is there any advantage to HDMI cable to the projector vs. component, estimate 30' maximum. 

May be better in a separate thread: Geddes' book was published in 2002.  Earl specifies grey screen only for enhanced black levels.  A Vutec screen company tech said grey bleaches colors, making white preferred today because of advances in black levels since '02. 
Sincerely,
Sleepless in Utah

[JP78]

hello,

i'm not a theater designer but i do work for a theater company and have seen a lot of gorgeous theaters and learned a little something along the way.

regardless of what companies may state, the very nature of a projector is to shine light on a screen...this inherently compromises blacks due to ambient light.

the largest screen company in the world, stewart filmscreen, offers grey screens on their flagship product.  smx, the company we use here, offers two shades of grey in their flagship products.  even with 50+k projectors the engineer still uses a light grey screen...

as for your question about screen size, i believe mr. geddes book is dated.  upscaling dvd players do a great job, but of course they're not near the resolution of 1080p.  i think the size of the screen is better determined by the brightness of your projector and your viewing distance.

if you need more detail you should call the office and ask to speak to a tech. i'm sure they'll be happy to answer your questions in better detail...it's a pretty laid back place.

also, if i may ask, why no blu-ray player or pc? if not for a personal library, it's still a pretty amazing experience to rent a blu-ray movie for the eye candy.

good luck with your theater,

jp

[Bob in St. Louis]

Hey Jim (it IS Jim, isn't it?),

I only have a second to post, but you may find this very helpful regarding proper distance versus projector versus resolution etc...

http://www.projectorcentral.com/projection-calculator-pro.cfm

Bob

[viggen]

Although materials that need to be upscaled will not look quite as good as materials in their native resolution, I don't think it is a good idea to design a system to suit lower resolution material. 

I believe the ability for sources, tvs and projectors to upscale signal has vastly improved since 2002 especially if you go with some of the higher end projectors. 

Also, in terms of upscaling or any other type of video processing, I think the projector will do a better job being fed a signal via HDMI than component.