What screen size and aspect ratio do I need?

What aspect ratio means

Aspect ratio is the shape of a picture or screen: its width divided by its height. It's written as two numbers. A 4:3 screen is 4 units wide for every 3 high, which works out at 1.33. If a term is new, the glossary explains it.

• 1:1 is square, 1.0.
• 4:3 is nearly square, 1.33.
• 16:10 is a little wider, 1.6.
• 16:9 is widescreen, like a TV, 1.78.

To find your screen's shape, divide its width by its height. That number is what you match the projector to.

The room sets the screen, not the other way round

With an enclosure, you don't choose the screen size separately. The room's width decides which bay fits, and each bay comes with its screen cut to fit. The steps are:

1. Measure the wall at the narrowest point where the bay will stand.
2. Pick the widest bay whose outer frame leaves 8cm each side. Which enclosure size do I need? has the wall width for each.
3. Read off its screen size and shape in the table on this page.
4. Set the projector to that shape.

Height follows the ceiling. The 2.5m-high bays, SIM 0 to SIM 4, have screens 2.3m high and need a ceiling of at least 2.7m. The 3m-high bays, SIM 5 and SIM 6, have screens 2.8m high and need at least 3.1m.

The shapes in our range

SimSpace labels each screen with a ratio, but the measured shape doesn't always match the label exactly, so the table gives both. SIM 1 and SIM 5 are close to square. SIM 0 and SIM 6 are close to 4:3. SIM 2 sits between square and 4:3, SIM 3 nearer 3:2, and SIM 4 is close to 16:10. Wider bays have wider screens, because the height stays at 2.3m while the width grows.

The Vanish comes in two shapes: the 11 and 13H are 4:3, and SportScreen lists the 16 and 16H as 16:9. That makes the Vanish 16 models the widest pictures we sell, for rooms 5.03 to 5.33m wide, and they suit films and sport as well as golf.

Matching the projector

Every projector has a native shape, the shape of its chip. The BenQ AH500ST in our packages is 1080p, which is 1920 × 1080 pixels, a 16:9 shape. Its Screen Fill setting adjusts the picture to 1:1, 4:3, 16:9 or 16:10, so it can match any SimSpace screen. The Optoma ZW350ST is WXGA, which is 1280 × 800 pixels, a 16:10 shape.

When the picture is narrower or squarer than the projector's chip, the projector uses only part of it. On a square screen, a 1080p projector uses 1080 of its 1920 columns of pixels, a little over half. That's normal and the picture still looks sharp at simulator sizes, but it's why the shape setting matters.

Letterboxing, and how to avoid it

Letterboxing is the black bands you see when the picture and the screen are different shapes. A 16:9 picture on a 4:3 screen leaves bands above and below; the other way round leaves bands at the sides, or spills light past the edges onto the enclosure. You avoid it by setting both the projector and the simulator software to the screen's shape, then lining the picture up with the projector's keystone and Screen Fill controls. Keystone correction straightens a picture that's wider at one edge because the projector is tilted.

How far back the projector sits

Throw ratio is the distance from the projector to the screen divided by the picture width. The BenQ AH500ST's is 0.499, so it needs about half the picture's width in distance. Its picture is 16:9, so it's the screen's height that sets the distance: BenQ's advice is to move it back until the picture fills the height. For the 2.3m-high screens in SIM 0 to SIM 4 that's 2.04m from lens to screen, about 46cm in front of the ball; for the 2.8m-high SIM 5 and SIM 6 screens it's 2.48m. That's why it can sit in a floor case inside the bay.