I've always found
www.projectorcentral.com to be a really useful site in finding information about consumer digital projectors. There is a feature search link on the left side of the home page which you will like. It takes you to a search box where you can enter things like throw distance, screen size, etc. It will return a list of projectors that fit your requirements if any are available with all the specs and suggested prices. Pay attention to the amount of light per square foot that each can put on a screen of your size. Click the calculator link to check it. Mine was just in the minimally acceptable range. It was watchable, but brighter would definitely be better. If your screen is smaller, then it will be brighter with the same unit, of course.
I ended up buying a projector for my 10x23 screen that had a throw roughly in the neighborhood of 40 ft, but I don't remember exactly how far it was. It did not completely cover the screen because the aspect ratio was not the same. I had blank areas at both ends of the screen on wide screen features, and even wider blank areas on the others. Height restricted me. Since it is a consumer projector, it does not have scope and flat settings, only normal TV ratio and widescreen ratio. There is no lens to change, just a different menu selection to switch between these. I think there may be some higher end units that allow for custom lens installation, but they are more expensive as I recall.
I found it challenging to get the unit installed in the correct location. There wasn't a lot of adjustment possible, so the most important thing was to get the projector installed in just the right spot. This can be hard in a full sized auditorium with high ceilings. Luckily, I had a good place to put it. In the 2nd auditorium, I wouldn't be able to install one there. I couldn't find one with just the right throw and screen size combination. I think it would have to be suspended from the ceiling in there. There is kestone correction for vertical placement, but it is still limited. There may be another projector that would have been a good fit, but I didn't find it within my budget.
I'm sure you are curious which one I bought, so I will tell you. I bought a ViewSonic PJ559D. It puts out a nice picture on a smaller screen, but probably is not fit for features on a larger screen. The colors were dull because of the low light levels. Specs say it puts out 2700 lumens. I decided it would be better used for advertising. Although, I think black and white movies looked ok on my screen with this projector. Still could have been a lot brighter though. I guess compared to my Simplex film projectors with 2000 watts, not many consumer electronic projectors are going to look nearly as nice.
Actually, I must confess, I bought that projector for my smaller screen, but couldn't find a place to mount it, so I put it in the big room instead. That is why it wasn't bright enough. The smaller room has a smaller screen of course. If I could have mounted it there, the picture would have been much better, although pretty small since it didn't completely fill the screen.
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