Planar A480-PL User Manual and Installation Guide, Version 2.3, copyright 2009, all rights reserved, Planar Inc.
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INTRODUCTION
Thank you for purchasing the Planar A480-PL lens system
– the world’s leading model
anamorphic lens system designed to dramatically enhance
today’s high performance 16:9
projectors when showing the true widescreen aspect ratio of most major motion pictures.
The A480-PL lens system includes the UH480 Lens and ATH1 automated transport to provide
the optimum performance when viewing all wide screen content. The ATH1 transport can be
mounted to your ceiling, to an improvised ceiling structure, or to the pre-engineered AKPro
Attachment Kit. However, due to the very simple Plug-and-Play procedure they offer, use of
these kits will be the focus of this installation guide.
UH480 BASIC PROJECTION PARAMETERS
Throw Distance
(distance from projector lens to screen)
This distance should be between 12 and 25 feet (3.6M and 7.6M) with the
standard UH480 lens with an ideal range of 14.5 to 17.5 feet (4.4M to 5.3M) for the
highest pixel level clarity, especially for computer graphics applications at 1080
resolution. If your projection system involves a significantly higher throw distance then
we recommend purchasing an optional correction element (see www.panamorph.com) if
you need graphic level performance.
Throw Ratio
(ratio of throw distance to 16:9 native image width)
This ratio primarily impacts image distortion. To minimize the amount that the
image edges bow inward a throw ratio of at least 1.6 is recommended.
If larger distortion is acceptable, the large aperture of the UH480 will generally
work with a throw ratio as low as 1.3 as long as the beam passes through the lens
unobstructed. Due to the large distortion and also the increased non-uniformity of image
brightness (hot spotting) at very low throw ratios you may wish to consider a curved
screen in such cases to help compensate for these artifacts.
Image/Lens Shift
Horizontal lens/image shift other than fine adjustment is not recommended due to
keystoning that can be introduced by the UH480. Vertical lens shift does not impact the
use of the UH480. However, note that with vertical lens shift the UH480 should be tilted
to face the approximate center of the screen to make any residual pincushion distortion
symmetric at the top and bottom of the image.
A NOTE ON YOUR SCREEN FORMAT
The A480-PL system works very well with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio screen. However, if you are
considering a new screen we actually recommend an aspect ratio of 2.40:1 for the best all
around fit. The 2.35:1 aspect ratio is somewhat of a film industry designation for many aspect
ratios
around
2.35:1 and may include many titles up to 2.40:1 and occasionally higher.
Consequently, by following these installation instructions we will help you optimize your constant
height imaging performance for all three primary aspect ratios of 16:9, 1.85:1 and the general
range of 2.35:1-2.40:1.
