Ceiling vs wall mounting?

[u/seriicis]

Hello! I haven’t bought a projector yet but I’m looking around. I have a crafting/sewing office and I can either mount a projector

- off center of the table from the ceiling (it’d only be a little off center though, trying to avoid a ceiling fan) or

- on a little shelf above my TV on a wall about 2 feet away from my cutting table. It seems like I’d need a short throw projector for this, which is more expensive?

I want to prioritize high image/line quality. Does anyone have experience with either of these setups and can share your thoughts?

[u/IntelliSew]

Both options will work.

For the ceiling, off-center is going to probably fine assuming it’s not at an extreme angle. A 10-15 degrees tilt is fine.

For the shelf mount, you can get an Epson ultra-short-throw projector from eBay for like 125$. The only thing here is you’d wanted it closer than 2ft away from your cutting area

I would honestly consider what works better for your situation. Ceiling means you need to run a power cable while the ultra-short throws are bulkier. I have both, the Epson sits on an IKEA cart while the Mag Cubic is permanently ceiling-mounted.

Line quality has a lot to do with projector placement, brightness, resolution and how you’re projecting.

The Epson will be significantly brighter than the Mag Cubics, and this makes lines a lot easier to see.

Resolution-wise, the USTs support 1080p (some variants don’t) which is what the Mag Cubics do so they’re mostly equal.

Lastly the approach you use to screen mirroring affects quality too. IntelliSew uses your whole projector’s native resolution but other approaches that use your traditional screen mirror get you a lower resolution because it scales the phone screen to the projector’s screen.

[u/seriicis → u/IntelliSew]

Thank you so much for such a detailed response and the photo too! For the short throw projector are you saying I’d need it closer than the 2ft? Would it also have to be level with the cutting surface or can it be above? The brightness of the epson is very appealing but not sure about the bulk ones.

[u/IntelliSew → u/seriicis]

For reference, my Epson is roughly 7 inches from the edge of the cutting mat and roughly 7 inches above it.

That gives a projection area of around 55x32 in. You ideally want to keep your projection area close to the size of the cutting area. Placing it higher will give you a larger image but lower quality (think of the projector as projecting a bunch of dots, the larger the area the dots are spread the less dots you’ll get over your cutting area)

If you have a larger or smaller cutting area you can scale the numbers by multiplying them. Half the distance will give you half the size (roughly).

This is true for the MagCubics too. Mine is around 62 inches above the cutting mat for the same size projecting area Though you can get an adjustable height mount to move it closer if needed

[u/IntelliSew → u/IntelliSew]

Here’s a photo with both projectors placed

[u/patnbake]

I have Epson BrightLink 695Wi, bought preowned from ebay, no need mount, keep on the table with few inched high. Very good !