How many lumens do I actually need? My garage has ambient light issues
My garage sim will have some ambient light issues. There's a window on one side that I can cover with blackout curtains, but light still creeps in around the edges. Plus there's a gap under the garage door.
I see projectors ranging from 2,500 to 5,000+ lumens. The higher lumen ones are obviously more expensive.
What's the minimum I should look for? My screen is going to be about 120" diagonal. Don't need perfect movie theater darkness, just want it to look good enough that I can see the ball flight clearly.
Current room is probably like a dimly lit restaurant level of brightness during the day.
3 Replies
For a 120" screen with ambient light, I'd recommend at least 3500 lumens. More is always better with ambient light.
I have 3000 lumens in my garage and it's usable during the day but not ideal. At night it looks great. If I could do it over I'd spend the extra $200-300 for a brighter unit.
Before buying a super bright projector, consider improving light control first. It's usually cheaper!
I spent $50 on proper blackout curtains and weatherstripping for my garage door gap. Made my 2500 lumen projector look way better than trying to overpower the light.
What screen material are you using? A high-gain screen can effectively make your projector brighter. A 1.3 gain screen with a 3000 lumen projector looks similar to a 1.0 gain screen with 3900 lumens.
Just something to factor in!