Monitor replacement — using a projector for a home office setup
TLDR
- Projector: Short-throw Optoma GT1080HDR
- Screen: 90" Grey fixed frame hung on chains from a ceiling (about 85" x 50")
- Mount: Projector stands at 12" height off the floor, at a 41" distance from the screen.
- Main plus points: Larger viewing surface; Larger distance from a screen prevents strain caused by too much close work; Indirect, reflected light is easier on the eyes than a direct, projected one.
- Challenges: Still not sure what to do with a camera placement for Zoom calls; Color accuracy for design work is not ideal.
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A little while ago I shared a photo on LinkedIn of my new home office setup using a projector. I was quite surprised by how many people expressed an interest in the detailed how-to of it. I am more than happy to get into the nitty-gritty of how it happened to be, but please keep in mind that this was designed specifically for my needs and home office situation, while yours might be quite different.
The motivation
Too many customization options and the many variables that go into creating this setup — is what makes it not as trivial, or user friendly, as I would have liked going in. It is so much easier to just buy a computer monitor and plop it on a desk or use a laptop screen directly. But because too much close work is really bad for my eyes (I have a tendency to hyper-focus), I was really motivated to try this setup out. Knowing that a reflected image from a projector screen is gentler on the eyes than a projected one from a computer monitor, was also a factor making this setup appealing. Finally, I was in a process of converting my garage into an office, I had the time and the space to make this happen.
Too many factors to consider and way too much research
There are a number of factors you need to consider if you want to work off a projector. I wished there was some sort of formula where I could have plugged in the numbers and it would spit a recommendation for an optimal setup for my specific needs. But there isn’t any. I am really not a geek on technology, quite the opposite. I would even go as far as calling myself technologically challenged, or at the very least averse. My eyes glaze over reading online forums, reviews, and technical specs. Yet, I can’t buy anything without researching it to death or succumbing to analysis paralysis. The vast amount of information and black holes one can fall into researching stuff online, on pretty much any topic these days, can be quite dizzying (or maybe it just me, I don’t know…). I read so many online reviews and watched countless projector videos on YouTube (the one in the link was the most helpful, go Linus!). I even wrote to one YouTuber asking for a recommendation for my desired setup but never heard back.
Everyone covers home cinema, gaming, and business presentations use cases — nobody covers what I wanted to do
The problem with the online reviews for my office setup was that the majority of these reviews focus on three main projector use cases — home cinema, gaming, and business presentations. Any website that sells projectors will focus on these three, highlighting the specs and the features through these three unique lenses. But what I wanted was neither. I just wanted to be able to do mundane office work, on a projector. In my case that involves a lot of reading and looking at designs — Email, Slack, Figma, spreadsheets, Mural, and a lot, I mean A LOT, of Confluence.
At one point, I got so frustrated reading online reviews and running around my house in circles with a measuring tape that I called a home cinema service, asking for a specialist to come to my house and give me a projector recommendation. I was willing to pay $$$ for somebody to just tell me what to buy and how to mount it. In one such phone call, the person told me that a bare minimum decent projector I could consider would be at the very least around $3,000 and that anything below that would be, mildly put — garbage. Quite disheartening to say the least. Not an amount of money I was willing to spend.
After a lot of research, I went ahead and bought a decent-looking standard-throw projector on Amazon. It didn’t work out, but it was still a good exercise, having something concrete in my hands to play around with. It definitely helped me finetune what I needed. For one, I figured that I need to look for a short-throw projector. Another thing was that I needed something with highly adjustable levels of brightness and viewing modes. The projector I got was amazing for watching movies, but for reading text, on white paper, it was way too bright and not adjustable enough. The white was too bright even on the lowest setting and with all the possible comfort settings. Luckily Amazon allows for free returns.
Questions to ask yourself if you want to work on a projector instead of a monitor
Now to the specifics. Here are a few points you’d need to consider:
1) Screen size — How big do you want the projected image to be? The size of the screen will determine the size of the letters on the screen (depending on the resolution, of course). How big will you need these letters to be? If you’ve never worked on a screen larger than a 27" monitor, answering this might be not as straightforward as you think. Another interesting point to consider is that when looking for a fixed frame screen to purchase, I couldn’t find anything less than 90".
2) Projector location — Where do you want to put the projector? Projector location and the desired screen size will impact the type of projector you will need. A short-throw projector will need to be put much closer to the screen, so probably in front of your desk or just under it (the way I have it). The farther you will move it, the larger the image will be. The larger the image, the farther you will need to sit from it. The farther you will need to sit from it, the more your eyes will be working at a distance. If distance vision is your problem (like in my case), then this might be an important factor. A standard-throw projector will need to be put behind you. The closer you will put it to the screen, the smaller the image will be. But also, as I learned, the image will be brighter (which is not necessarily a good thing, if you don’t want to look at too bright of an image).
3) Projector mount — Another decision to make is whether you want to mount the projector on a ceiling or on the floor. This will determine the height and angle of the projection. If you are going to use a pull-down screen, then you need to consider that those have a limit of how low they can go (basically how long is the black section) and you might not be able to set up a viewing space lower than a certain point.
4) Your distance from the screen — How far from the screen will you need to sit? This will partly depend on the size of the screen that you will end up with. This will also be limited by the size of your office and your particular eyesight situation.
5) Screen mounting — Do you have a wall to mount the screen on? Short-throw and especially ultra-short-throw projectors don’t do well with pull-down screens. The tiniest ripple on the screen will be magnified tenfold and become very visible. These kinds of projectors work best with fixed frame screens, which need to be mounted on a wall. I hung mine on two chains from a ceiling.
6) Room lighting — How much light do you have in your room? Conventional wisdom says that projector setups are tougher to implement in bright rooms, but that is not necessarily true for a desktop setup. I have my setup in a windowless garage, so natural light is not a problem (for better or worse). But I do find that even when I have all my ceiling lights turned on, the image on the projector screen is good enough for working. I don’t like having a high contrast, so this works for me. Also, because I don’t like the high contrast, I went for a grey screen. Initially, when looking at specs, I was looking for high contrast and bright whites. But after all the experiments I realized that too bright of a white was too harsh and hurting my eyes.
7) Price and specs — How much money are you willing to pay for this? My projector cost me about 800$. For me — it’s crazy expensive. On the other hand, one can easily find projectors costing several thousand dollars and up. The same goes for the screens. I paid about $200 for mine, but I saw screens costing thousands as well. Why? In all honesty, I have no idea. Maybe these projectors and screens are even more amazing, but I don’t want to pay the money to find that out. Other projector specs items you will need to consider are lumens, fan noise, and bulb lifespan.
I ended up with an Optoma GT1080HDR and so far I am very happy with it. It’s very quiet. The image is clear and crisp. I can adjust the image settings to any level of comfort. I am also happy with my grey, 90" fixed frame screen, and the ceiling mount. The screen does hang at a bit of an angle (tilted forward), but it’s not a problem at all because the projected image can be easily adjusted. For now, the projector sits on a cardboard box under my table, almost flush with the front of the table. I plan to build a more sturdy contraption for it, because as is, I kick it with my legs here and there, and that makes the projector very sad :)
Open items and cons
Overall I am very happy with my “mission control” of a setup. However, there are a few issues that still need to be ironed out:
1) Camera location for Zoom calls — For now, my camera setup for Zoom calls is a bit awkward. Because the screen is so large, if I put the camera in front of me on the table, and project the image of a person I speak to on the projector screen, it constantly looks like I am looking above them and not at them. After all, my head is somewhere in the center of the 44" high screen. So I have about 20" to look up and down, which looks weird on camera. I need to see if I could put the camera on a tripod in front of me at an eye-level. I can also try to minimize the Zoom window size to not be full screen. For now, I use the MacBook camera and screen when I am on Zoom.
2) Color rendering — Because I set up the color rendering for the projector screen to be to the max comfort for my eyes, it is slightly off. It is absolutely fine for everything, but design related stuff. For now, when I work with designs and need to evaluate specific visual choices, I need to move the image to the small laptop screen. And working on designs on a small laptop screen is not ideal…
3) Juggling close and far distance work — This one is specific to my eyesight situation, so will most likely not be an issue for most people. I have a pretty big gap between close and far distance prescriptions: -7.50D for close work and -9.75D for distance. To view an image comfortably on the projector, even though the projected image is so huge, and I only sit ~45" from it, I need to wear my far distance glasses. But if I turn my head to read stuff on my laptop monitor, the far distance glasses are too strong and uncomfortable, and I need to switch to my close distance glasses. This is annoying. I mostly only use the projector monitor, wear my long-distance glasses, and it’s all fine. But when I need to do Zooms or do anything that requires toggling between the two screens — the juggling of the glasses is kinda annoying. When I worked with a regular computer monitor before, this was not a problem as the monitor was at the same distance as the laptop. But with the projected screen being far — it became more of an issue. I tried to mitigate this a bit, by moving the laptop as far away from me on the table as possible. On the other hand though, the juggling between close and far focus is actually beneficial for the eyes, so this might not be a con after all…
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And that’s pretty much it. I hope you guys found this helpful. Let me know if you repeat this experiment.
