To an inexperienced user, installing a projector can seem a daunting prospect. Most people imagine all sorts of technical wizardry must be needed to conjure a picture so large, but our step-by-step guide makes it easy to take a look at the bigger picture.
1. Your room
Room dynamics play an important part in planning projector installation. The space at your disposal determines the
screen size you can accommodate. A good rule of thumb is that the screen's width should be one and a half times the distance to the nearest viewing position.
Your projector's throw ratio - the relationship between the distance from screen and width of image - will determine its position. Simply speaking, each projector's lens has a distance and width ratio - if this ratio is set at 2 you'll need 2ft distance for every 1ft of screen width, so if you want a 5ft image, the projector needs to be 10ft away.
Home cinema projectors can either be placed on a low level surface, like a tabletop, or mounted on a ceiling or wall. Ceiling-mounted projectors can be secured out of the way and you won't have to set it up every time you want to watch a film. Tabletop projectors meanwhile are easily portable and can be used in other rooms or taken round to a friend's house. Try and position the projector centrally and at right angles to the screen as this helps with aligning the image and avoiding blurred edges.
The ambient light, and even the colours of your walls, will also affect picture performance. Ideally, your room should be in total darkness - but, unless you're serving time, have Gothic tendencies or own a dedicated cinema room, it's likely that compromises will need to made. You can darken your room by using blinds or blackout drapes and painting the wall behind the screen in a dark shade will reduce reflections and enhance perceived contrast without creating a distracting 'light spray' border around the screen.
2. The screen
Despite shelling out for a piece of state-of-the-art projection equipment, some people still use a white wall or sheet for a screen. But uneven and low reflective surfaces won't do your projector any justice and there's no substitute for a dedicated screen.
Screens can be either permanently fixed to the wall, drawn from a portable case or fitted to a mounted support that can be lowered manually or electrically - if you're in an Austin Powers kinda mood. They come in different shapes and sizes, so make sure you choose a screen in accordance with your projector's image size. And allow for a distance of around 1m between the screen's base and the floor.
Screens are made from different materials with varying degrees of reflectivity, referred to as Gain. The higher the gain, the more reflective the screen - which reduces the effect of ambient light, but can also restrict the viewing angle. Aiming for a gain of 12 is a safe choice and choosing a screen with a black surround will reduce unwanted bright edges and help enhance contrast.
3. Getting connected
Hooking up your projector is a painless process that essentially requires a single video connection to your picture source. And spending a little extra on quality cables will bring big improvements to performance. Depending on your projector, there's a choice of video connections that follow a performance-based hierarchy:
DVI or HDMI are all-digital connections that are still rare (although that's changing) but produce the best pictures.
Component inputs are the most common high-quality connections found in projectors, providing excellent interlaced pictures and supporting progressive scan video with a compatible DVD player.
RGB Scart connections are widespread among DVD players but only found in a few projectors.
S-video is a competent option that produces clean, crisp pictures but colours lack lustre.
Composite is the lowest quality connection and is best avoided as images suffer from poor colours and noise that's exposed on a large screen.
You can watch TV pictures from your projector if you connect it to a set-top receiver or recording device. Set-top receivers tend to have limited, poor-quality connections so it's best to use a DVD recorder or VCR with decent connections. But, generally it's a waste to power up a projector just to watch an episode of EastEnders.
4. Fine tuning
Once you have your projector and screen in place, you'll need to make several adjustments to align the image and tailor the settings to suit your personal preferences.
The image needs to be aligned so it accurately fits your screen without leaving spaces at the edges. Most projectors are fitted with adjustable feet that can be raised or lowered, while some models include a Vertical Image Shift function that electronically alters the height of the screen. Zoom functions allow you to manipulate the image to fill the screen, but it's a tricky process that requires some time spent experimenting.
Tilting the projector to align the image can create image distortion, leaving you with slanted edges tapered at one end. To overcome this, projectors are fitted with Keystone Correction - a form of digital processing used to straighten edges so both sides are parallel. Some projectors feature a graphic display made of gridlines that can be superimposed on screen to help you.
Focus is crucial to performance and can be adjusted either by using the ring around the lens or electronically. The simplest way to focus your projector is to pause the credits of a DVD film featuring white text and adjust the focus until the words appear solid and straight-edged. If you have an LCD projector that's prone to the 'chicken wire' effect, which causes the image to look unacceptably pixellated, reducing the focus can actually improve the picture by softening the effect.
Finally, you can play around with your picture settings - you can do this by eye or use a DVD test disc. Deep black levels are important as they enhance detail and perceived depth, especially in a darkened room. Keep brightness settings quite low to leave blacks unbleached and colours natural, while high contrast settings add depth of field and realism. Colours are a case of personal preference but try and find a balance that produces natural skin tones and vibrant special effects. Some high-end projectors are equipped with more advanced picture settings such as controls for adjusting specific elements of colour and contrast. They're really for fine tuning the picture but are worth experimenting with.
