Projectors came about in order to disseminate information or give entertainment. The earliest projectors had gas lamps or candles serving as their light sources. Modern projectors use LEDs and lasers instead. In any case, how should you go about making your own basement projector setup?
How do I choose a projector for my basement?
There are a few things to consider when choosing a projector for your basement.
First, you’ll want to think about brightness and contrast. All projectors deliver enough brightness for watching movies in a dark room. However, if your room has more ambient light, you may want to choose a projector with higher light output to keep the picture looking sharp.
Additionally, higher brightness can also help if you’re displaying an extra-large image (110″ or bigger).
Another thing to keep in mind is the size of your basement. You’ll want to make sure that the projector you choose is able to project a sufficiently large image for your space.
Finally, you’ll also want to consider your budget. Projectors can range in price from a few hundred dollars to several thousand, so it’s important to find one that fits your needs and budget. By taking these factors into account, you can be sure to find the perfect projector for your basement.
If you wish to turn your basement into a home entertainment man cave, should you go about it with the assistance of a projector instead of an HDTV?
The Concept of the Man Cave or Basement Cinema
The latest projectors do just about everything to make the job of businessmen, students, and educators easier. However, in 2021, more people use projectors for entertainment purposes than for studying or for business presentations.
On that note, turning your basement into a home-based cinema or home theater couldn’t be simpler. You have more control of your lighting in basements, which is why many dads out there turn their musty basements into man caves for movie screenings and PC gaming.
The Projector Serves as Your Man Cave’s Centerpiece
You can avail of projectors in particular to turn your basement into a projection room with little to no ambient light to stand in your way of watching Netflix all day or gaming all night. In particular, projectors provide much bigger screens than your average HDTV.
This works great when it comes to high-resolution cinema. An HDTV can’t properly translate 4K Ultra HD unless they have extra large space because of the pixel density of such a resolution. A projection fits all those millions of pixels just fine.
7 Basement Projector Ideas to Consider
Regardless, here are 7 basement projector ideas you can try out in order to turn your basement into something usable for home cinema purposes.
1. Install the Projector and Screen Inside Your Basement
Empty your basement and consider the placement of your projector relative to the screen and relative to your seating arrangement. Take into consideration the throw ratio of your projector to estimate how far away it should be from the screen.
Usually, the projector should be five feet or more away from the screen. Sometimes, you have to place the projector at the back of the room, on a shelf. Other times the prudent choice involves ceiling mount placement and loads of keystone correction to prevent a trapezoidal result.
2. Take Into Consideration the Seating Arrangement
What sort of seating arrangement does your basement have? Is your basement big enough to have an aisle in the middle of two sets of chairs? Or can the basement only fit in a couch or two, with one couch more elevated at the back compared to the front couch?
The seating placement obviously influences the screen placement, including when you have an HDTV as the centerpiece and the projector screen on the side. Or you might have a drop-down electric projector screen that goes over the HDTV when using the projector.
3. Consider Putting Up a Wall Shelf or a Ceiling Mount
When mounting your projector, you can either put up a ceiling mount made of a metal hanger or a stainless steel cage while it wireless connects to your projector or you could invest in a wall shelf installation to make the projector more transportable or moveable when all is said and done.
You have to decide between which is more expensive and which is more laborious. If you have some DIY chops, you can make the whole thing cheaper by installing the shelves or the ceiling mount yourself.
4. Should You Instead Get a Table or Projector Stand?
Instead of having a professional install the ceiling mount or wall shelf for your projector, you can opt for the more mobile and adjustable option of investing in a projector stand. Some of these stands look like old-timey A/V mobile carts that come with a CRT TV and VCR/VHS player.
Or they look like meals on wheels food carts. They have shelves you can play your Blu-Ray/DVD player or laptop/smartphone media sources for your projector. You can also avail of the more affordable tripod stands that look like music sheet holders as well.
5. Should You Get a DIY Projector Screen or Buy One?
Your screen can also be either made of bed sheets or a blank wall painted with screen paint. Place the screen where you’d normally place your HDTV as well. Decide whether you wish to get a DIY screen or install the whole kit and caboodle pro-screen.
Most projectors come with their own screens. Many homes have an empty blank wall you could project on too, but they come with the caveat of affecting the image quality thanks to surface imperfections. You can fix this by sanding them down and painting them with screen paint.
6. Setup Your Home Entertainment System and Media Sources
Once you figure out the placement for your projector, you should then proceed to map out cable management for your other wired connections. Should you use an HDMI splitter for multiple displays or HDMI switch for multiple media sources? Or an HDMI matrix switch for both.
Get a table, cabinet, or shelving ready for your HDTV, cable/satellite box, laptop, desktop, tablet, game consoles, and sound system. Will you use Bluetooth speakers, a Wi-Fi soundbar, or an A/V receiver and a full surround-sound setup?
7. Finish Up and Enjoy the Show
You can deal with the rest of the finishing touches of your man cave or home entertainment system here, such as whether or not your Wi-Fi router signal could reach you in the basement. Or if you need Ethernet cables to directly plug your projector to the Wi-Fi for a better Netflix experience.
Do you need extra seats or ottomans? Is anything in the way of the door or staircase leading out of your basement? What about your ventilation needs? You don’t want your projector to overheat because you’re having a Lord of the Rings marathon.
Summary
Projectors have delivered significant contributions when it comes to making people’s lives more comfortable and better. At the very least, digital projectors nowadays provide loads of entertainment in many a household out there.
They’ve significantly evolved from the slide projectors or overhead projectors of yore, developing into outright HDTV and CRT TV alternatives that offer bigger screens and a better showcase of 4K Ultra HD resolutions.
References:
- David Urmann, “Things to Consider When Buying a Projector“, com, May 5, 2009
- “8 Best Materials for Outdoor Projector Screen“, HomeTheaterAcademy.com, Retrieved September 9, 2021
- “7 Cheap Projector Screen Alternatives“, HomeTheaterAcademy.com, Retrieved September 9, 2021