What is the Best Golf Simulation Projector for a Floor Mount?

While ceiling mounts are the most popular way to set up a golf simulator, being able to mount the projector on the floor is still a popular way to set up golf simulators in small spaces like a garage or basement where a ceiling mount might be impractical.  In different golf simulator forums, there are a lot of different opinions on this approach, so we’ll breakdown the key questions most often asked, and also a detailed setup guide that will take you step by step on how to configure the projector so that you can use it both for golf simulation as well as for watching your favorite golf tournament or football game without having a squished image.  So, while floor mounts look deceptively easy to install, it can get complicated quickly so let’s get started with the most often asked questions that ensure a successful installation in a minimum amount of time.

·         What are the most popular projectors models used in floor mounts?

·         How far back does the projector need to be away from the screen and playing area?

·         Why do I have to tilt the projector with a floor mount?

·         How difficult is it to properly fill the screen?

·         Which projector is best for a floor mounted golf simulator?

When you’re setting up a floor mount for the first time, there are typically two moments of panic. The first moment is when you notice that the image from the projector is too high on the impact screen.  This is because to get the image size large enough fill an impact screen, the projector has a certain amount of “offset” in the optics that causes the image comes out higher on the screen than the projector mounting location.  The BenQ AH500ST has about 12 degrees (112%) of offset from a floor mount, and the Optoma ZH450ST has about a 16 degree (116%) offset, so the image is a little higher on the screen with the Optoma.  This means that the projector needs to be tilted down for the image to properly fill the impact screen from the floor to the top of the screen.  Many of the floor mounts come with wedges or adjustment bars to place under the rear of the projector that will move the image down, so it reaches the floor.  The second moment of panic comes when after tilting the projector down, the nice rectangular image is now an ugly trapezoid. We’ll cover how to fix this in the next section.

1. Use the BenQ Golf Simulator Planning tool to lay out your space.  The AH500 requires about 9 feet of distance from the screen for an 8 foot high 1:1 or 4:3 impact screen, so this is a good starting point.
2. Tilt the projector down enough so that the image covers the height of the screen to the floor.  Some floor mounts come with a wedge or other support object for the rear of the projector, and a small piece of wood will also work as a substitute.
3. Use the keystone adjustment on the remote to square the sides of the image so they are parallel to the sides of your impact screen.  Don’t worry if they are wider than the screen right now.
4. Move the projector back enough to make sure the image can fill the vertical height of the screen.
5. Open the projector menu and use the “Screen Fill” function to set the aspect ratio to the closest one to your screen.  The projector has a native 16:9 aspect ratio, so this enables you to use 16:10, 4:3, or 1:1 aspect ratio impact screen and the projector will adjust the picture and tell your computer the correct resolution for your screen.  This results in a properly formatted image – not a squished one that can happen on other projectors when you just change the aspect ratio from the menu.
6. Most of the time, your golf simulator impact screen aspect ratio will probably be different than on your 16:9 monitor on your PC.  So, to keep Windows from resetting everything back to 16:9, set your Windows monitor setting to “Extend” or make the projector the main display (which will change your resolution of your PC monitor to match your impact screen).
7. Now – use “Corner Fit” on the projector menu to fine tune the picture to fit your impact screen and projector setup.  The BenQ AH500ST has a large amount of corner correction to enable you to fit all the corners to your impact screen.  This is especially helpful if you have a custom impact screen that doesn’t use a standard aspect ratio.  This can also be used if you want to move the projector off center or to the side of your hitting area, like you see in this video.

For this comparison, we used the newest projectors with a.5 or shorter throw ratio and 4000 lumens, which are the BenQ AH500ST, a purpose-built golf simulator and the Optoma ZH450ST, a corporate boardroom projector that can be used in a floor mount. Here are the primary differences between these projectors.  We also included a popular XGA lamp projector onto the table for a low cost option.

The BenQ AH500ST Screen Fill function eliminates most of the work of converting a native 16:9 image to a 4:3, 16:10, or 1:1 aspect ratio without distorting the image.  Just select the aspect ratio of your impact screen from the “Screen Fill” projector menu, and it will reformat the image with the correct resolution and update your PC with the updated resolution needed for an undistorted image.  This eliminates most of the work on a traditional projector that involves creating a custom resolution on your PC’s graphics card. The Optoma ZH450ST will enable you to change the aspect ratio of the image on the screen, but the image can be squished, so if you want to watch a golf match or a movie on your simulator, it may not look right.  It also doesn’t natively support a 1:1 aspect ratio image.

If your projector gets out of focus for some reason, just push a button on the BenQ remote and the integrated camera will resharpen the image for you automatically.  The Optoma has a manual focus ring that requires you to open up the floor mount to adjust the picture.

The BenQ AH500ST has less offset than the Optoma, and has digital shrink, digital shift, keystone and a massive amount of corner fit correction to make it easier to fit the image to your screen.  Here’s a review on how this works on a large screen with a floor mount.

A number of golf launch monitors such as Rapsodo, Garmin, and SkyTrak enable you to wirelessly connect to the projector via WiFi, and the BenQ AH500ST has a slot for an optional WiFi adapter that can eliminate the need to run a HDMI cable to the projector. 

The Optoma ZH450ST uses a separate power brick that needs to be either stuffed into the floor mount (assuming there is room), or safely secured outside the floor mount.  The BenQ AH500ST just uses a standard power cable for cleaner and easier installation.

Here is a breakdown of the differences between all three projectors.  Because the BenQ AH500ST is purpose built for golf simulation, it has a lot of features that are important for a floor mount, but pretty much irrelevant for conference room use.  For example, the offset of the AH500ST projector is lower than the Optoma ZH450ST, which helps reduce the tilting needed with a floor mount – but hurts it if you are setting it at the end of a conference room table in a meeting room and trying to get the image as high as possible.