Should I Upgrade or Not?!?

[delte7]

Audioholics,

I am considering upgrading some components in my home theater. While I'm not a complete noob, I dont consider myself an expert by any stretch of the imagination. I'll do my best to explain my current setup and what my thoughts are for upgrading. I'm sure I'll leave some data point out so please feel free to point out anything I'm not considering. Also, I understand that every person has likes and dislikes and that every set-up may be a little different. I'm looking for some advice/experience from folks that have real world experience. I have read many pro reviews and now I would like to get all of your input.

I have a dedicated home theater I built myself. Room is 16 x 25. Seating is 15 ft from screen. Projector is mounted directly above seating area. I have controlled lighting in the room (dimmer switches) with no ambient light (home theater in basement). Canned (controlled) lights are 3 feet away from edge of screen. In other words, I have no lights in direct path of projector or screen.

I view all kinds of media. I watch colleague sports , play Xbox 360 often with my 2 sons, stream high def movies thru the xbox for date nights with my wife, and have DirecTV HD for the HBO's and such. I don't think I watch any type of media more than others...unless its March Madness or something that might peak my interest.

Before I get into my personal observations I wanted to preface it with a few things. I think my objective observations on my current set-up has changed over the years. When I first got everything set-up I was VERY happy with it, and still am happy with it today. I love technology and know that as technology changes so too does the quality. Maybe I got spoiled with my current set-up or maybe some components need to be upgraded...that's what I would like your input to try and figure out.

Personal Observations with current Gear: (this is where personal preference and perception come into play)

• Watching sports by and large is great. Picture is bright and clear. Picture is not as crisp and clean as I would like it to be. It appears to be little grainy. Please don't ask me to define crisp, clean, or grainy. Use your own personal definition of what you think this means and provide input if you can.

• Playing XBOX games is something that has been very noticeable to me. Some games are too dark. I have to brighten them up with in-game setting and this tends to throw the gamma out of wack. To give you an example: Madden Football looks great on the big screen with no adjustments needed while on the other hand Batman Arkum Asylum is hard to play as it takes place in a dark asylum. I would have to turn all the lights off to be able to play and even still it seems dim/dark. Red Dead is another example. If I turn up in-game brightness it helps while its night in the game but when its daylight in the game it's too bright.

• Streaming High def movies works the same way as games. Movies with dark scenes are hard to see. If I turn all the lights out in the room than the picture looks good on the big screen. Problem is when we are watching a movie we like to keep the lights on a little(with dimmer) so we can eat our snacks and such.

• General TV viewing is a mixed bag. For HD movies on say HBO, if it has dark scenes then lights need to be off, or very close to it. If it's an animated movie with the kids it looks great even with the lights turned most of the way up.


Current Gear:

Paradigm 330 series with ADP's as rear speaker and Sub. (5.1)
Yamaha RX-663 receiver.
PT-AX200U (less than 300 hours on current bulb)
110" framed projector screen - Grey /.08 gain. / 16:9 (dont recall mfgr, cost about 350.00)
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I'm considering upgrading my projector and screen.

I really like the 200U Panny I current have . It has been a great projector, lots of user options. Bulb life and bulb cost could be better but you can't have it all I guess. While I really enjoyed the Panny I'm open to other potentially better brands. The 2 projectors I am looking at in my price range are the PT-AE4000U and the Epson 8700UB. I know these are very popular and common choices. I am leaning towards the Panny as I had such a good experience with my current one, and the user options are superior IMO. My big concern with Panny is brightness. On the other hand, The Epson is brighter and bulb life is longer. I hear that Epson has better support. Maybe I shouldn't but I'm going with the fact that both of these are solid products and won't have any major issues that need repair.

As far as screens go I think having a grey screen may be contributing to things being "to dark" with some lights on. At the same time it was my understanding that a grey screen would help to NOT wash out the picture with light in the room. I could really use some insight on this as I have gotten some mixed messages when reading up on the whole Grey VS White VS Quality thing. The screens I am looking at so far are: (Cinema White)

110 Inch Diagonal Precision Series Projection Screen - 1.78 to 1

110 Inch Diagonal Criterion Series Projection Screen - 1.78 to 1

I have not done a ton of research on the screen but these one has come up a couple times in my readings.
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Closing:
I still very much enjoy my home theater even with the current setup. I'm only looking to see if I can improve it, weight the cost against that, and see if it's something I think is worth it. (budget: under 3,000)

By now you must be thinking..WTF dude. You wrote a book, this is just a forum!! My apologies if I was a bit wordy. I work in the IT field and it always seems like when there is an issue, if we had all the information up front we could have developed a solution or fixed the problem sooner. That is the main reason for "the book" above. I am attempting to make sure I presented all the data points up front. If I missed anything please let me know. This site was very, VERY helpful to me when i was setting up my home theater back 2+ years ago so I really look forward to any and all comments.

BTW: I hope my wife doesn't see this, then she'll want me to talk more with her about things.

 

[AVRat]

We's likes books -- then we don't hafta ask fer more dern infermashun!

The one thing you didn't mention was how dark the walls are, as this can also affect the lighting/contrast issue.

 

[jostenmeat]

Should you upgrade or not?
A novella by jostenmeat

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Let's talk about A) source quality, and B) light control and its supreme importance in terms of performance. I hope you will forgive what will probably be numerous comparisons to audio performance.

A) An ok pair of speakers with excellent source material will sound better than a pair costing double with lesser source material. Therefore, I urge you to spend $30 on an antenna, $10 on a coax cable, and hopefully you have an ATSC tuner somewhere, probably not, hmmm, oh wait maybe your DTV does. Then, any NFL game, Olympics, Final Four basketball, etc, flip from DTV to OTA. The free stuff is actually the best stuff, because it's not REcompressed once again by the provider (DTV in this case).

Use this resource for an idea:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29

Streaming is a joke, quality-wise, compared to the BD. You can read my thoughts here.

B) An ok pair of speakers in an excellent room will sound much better than a pair costing double in a terrible room (after all over half of what we hear is the room). Likewise, an ok PJ in an excellent room will look much better than a unit costing double in a bad room. Light control is not just outdoor light, it's the indoor light. Leaving any light on, FOR ME, is absolutely unacceptable with any BD, and perhaps is ok for TV. You lose contrast at an exponential rate with the increase of ambient light. TRUE light control means not only is there no lights on, but all of your ceiling, floors, walls are not painted black, but actually covered in black telescope-grade velvet. My ceiling is black, my floor is black, my screen wall is black, and sidewalls are dark burgundy curtains.

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Screens.

So now you have the above perspective in mind, yet an upgrade can still be reasonable. But I have to ask you, do you want to spend on better performance with your terrible light control, or would you rather spend on ideal environment/performance? Totally different applications here, and you can't have both, unless willing to buy two different screens.

For bad light control, you'll likely have to blow the entire budget for something like a Screen Innovations Black Diamond. For much less money, you can amplify your brightness with a Dalite High Power screen, at the expense of limited PJ placement and viewing cone for widespread viewers.

I just upgraded to DIY Seymour AT material, and holy crap is it awesome for movies. I think for sports, it's really not that important, or TV, etc.

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Projectors.

The main benefit in upgrading for terrible light control conditions would be brightness. A much better reason to upgrade here would be for the ideal environment, where contrast all of a sudden will make a difference.

It would kill most of your budget, but you can now land a JVC HD250 for 2.5k. However, for your purposes, I think it's probably not the best idea. Yet, it will be brighter when calibrated, it will give you the highest fill ratio vs the lowest, and is just in a completely different category as far as reliability (for one, it uses sealed light paths; virtually no chance of dust blobs).

The main compromise is that you have less calibration tools, namely that it lacks a CMS.

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Tweaks.

You might find a big boost in brightness by using a microfiber and isopropyl on your prism/diffuser. I did, it was like putting in a brand new bulb, but for free. YMMV. Speculation is that it must be residue from bulbs degassing.

Or you can put your PJ closer to screen for increased brightness, at the expense of contrast. Getting a smaller screen size (or masking of the current screen) will of course also increase brightness.

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Questions?

 

[BMXTRIX]

I would say that you need to make sure your walls are painted dark and your ceiling is painted dark. That $100 in paint is the SINGLE biggest improvement you can make to any home theater setup for video after you have ambient light under control.

As far as your lights in the room. Lights in direct line of sight are not an issue. Lights NEAR the screen are a huge issue. If the lights anywhere near the screen are ever on, they should be removed. Just unscrew the bulb. The only lights which should be on with front projection should be well away from the screen above seating and eating areas. With dark furniture, walls, and carpet, you can put a LOT of lights on and still have excellent results on screen.

Take a look at this: http://www.avintegrated.com/lighting.html
The projector in use for those shots is a Panasonic PT-L300U (years older than yours!)

Now, once the room is painted dark, a white, minimal gain screen is a no-brainer. The main reason to go with grey is to combat uncontrolled ambient light and reflections in a poor room. A good room should basically never have a grey screen. The exception being a top shelf grey screen like a DaLite with HCCV material (1.1 gain) or a Stewart with Firehawk material ($$$$).

Otherwise, a Carada Criterion (always the Criterion if possible!) in Brilliant White is one of the absolute best fixed frame screens on the market. The 1.4 gain with heavy material is very well built and the frame (the expensive part) is in a class above what most others are capable of giving you.

Yes, the white screen can was out when some lights are on, but if you control light this isn't an issue. For movies, lights should be off. For CRITICAL viewing, lights should be off. But, for 'the game' the lights can be pretty bright, away from the screen, with minimal image impact.

As already said, the JVC is the gold standard right now. It's more expensive for the HD250, but may be worth it as it will provide the highest reliability and quality. If I were an avid gamer and liked 3D, then I would even go for the RS40 if I could swing it which is brighter, and supports 3D with still higher quality. Around $4,000 is nothing to sneeze at.

Anyway, I would still probably take the screen to about 120" or more if I were you. At 15', the recommended screen WIDTH is 120". If you just go from your existing .8 gain to a 1.4 gain, you are looking at over a 50% increase in brightness! That alone is something that you should really keep in mind, so I would add at least 10" to the diagonal to make it more of an 'upgrade'.

 

[delte7]

WOW...great stuff guys. This is exactly what I needed. Some of the things mentioned are over my head so I'll be doing some googling and reading tonight. I also want to hit some of the links and review some of the products you guys mentioned. Not sure if my budget can afford it but I still want to check it out.

One thing I can respond to as I noticed it came up a couple times was the lights and ceiling/wall colors.

Ceiling - Black. I bought some nice theater/acoustic tiles and installed them myself. I don't recall the specs but they are made for home theaters and were special ordered. Point being i didn't run down to the local home depot and pick them up. Its not velvet or anything but works well and doesn't reflect much light that I can tell and also absorbs the sound.

Walls - Gray. Nothing special here. Just flat gray paint.

Furniture - Black

Carpet - Red

Lights - I have canned lights in the ceiling and 4 sconce lights on the walls around the room. As it was recommended, I simply unscrewed the bulbs close to the screen. I stared doing that about 6-9 months ago. The only canned lights that are on are back where the seating is. The wall lights are very low wattage and if on, are kept very low...if not turned off all together.

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I will be going thru the posts and responding with answers and asking additional questions. Really appreciate the ideas, suggestions, and comparisons.

 

[delte7]

Jostenmeat:
Great comparisons !!! Nicely done.

Source DTV- I understand and agree with the whole "garbage in, garbage out" concept. I live in a rural part of Ohio. If I'm not mistaken the only way I can get local channels is OTA. I'm pretty sure they are pulling in the OTA reception up on the roof where the dish is. While viewing sports the picture quality is pretty much the same regardless if from local channel or say ESPN in my home theater. If I were to put the same football game on in my home theater and my 65" LCD SONY in my family room the picture would be superior in the family room. I don't expect that type of quality in my home theater, but I am hoping to improve it if possible.

Source Streaming - I understand that even if I stream a "so called" 1080p it will be compressed and degraded. Again, if i stream the same move to HT and then to flat screen LCD Sony the quality is much better on Sony. Are flat screen LCD's that much more superior to Projectors? or just that much more superior to my entry level projector? When streaming it's not so much the quality but how dark scenes in movies are TOO dark, even when controlling all light in the room.
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Screen - DIY Seymour AT material...hmmmmm. This is definitely something worth looking into. Fraction of the cost. Appreciate the insight.
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Projector -Will do some research on the JVC HD250 and weigh pro's vs cons.
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Tweaks - "Using a microfiber and isopropyl on your prism/diffuser". Honestly, I don't even know what this is but I will find out soon enough. Where would I be without Google?!? lol

" PJ closer to screen" . This is something I have considered. Would require some work as I would have to take down some tiles and secure a new projector mount in the ceiling. Not a ton of work and definitely a good idea that could provide positive results.

Thanks !!

 

[goodman]

To compare your PJ pix quality with your 65" Sony, shrink the PJ pix down to 65".

 

[jostenmeat]

Jostenmeat:
Great comparisons !!! Nicely done.

I appreciate the compliment!

I live in a rural part of Ohio. If I'm not mistaken the only way I can get local channels is OTA.

Ah ok, forget that $40 expenditure then.

Source Streaming - I understand that even if I stream a "so called" 1080p it will be compressed and degraded. Again, if i stream the same move to HT and then to flat screen LCD Sony the quality is much better on Sony. Are flat screen LCD's that much more superior to Projectors?

IMO, projectors annihilate the PQ of LCD flat panels. But, it's of course dependent on the models in question, the room, setup, calibration, the source material, yada yada. Also, the much larger viewing angle of your PJ setup will be more revealing in resolution. How does the best bluray PQ you own compare on the two? Still better on the flat panel?

or just that much more superior to my entry level projector?

I don't know. I know your PJ is or was a very good one for the money, at the time. But it's been a long time, well long in AV terms anyways.

When streaming it's not so much the quality but how dark scenes in movies are TOO dark, even when controlling all light in the room.

TOO dark as in you cannot discern shadow detail? IMO, the great majority of displays out there are simply too bright. I have to admit it's hard to know whether to go with the PJ or screen change, and I now understand much better the confusion. I would go for both too! Haha. The great thing is that it is the year 2011, and that means your budget of 3k allows for BOTH the PJ and screen upgrade.

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Screen - DIY Seymour AT material...hmmmmm. This is definitely something worth looking into. Fraction of the cost. Appreciate the insight.
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Yes, it's simply unbeatable for the money IMO, for *movies*. However, for sports, video games, television, stuff like that, I don't know that it's worth the effort/change, or allocation of funds toward any desired property.

Tweaks - "Using a microfiber and isopropyl on your prism/diffuser". Honestly, I don't even know what this is but I will find out soon enough. Where would I be without Google?!? lol

JVC owners, increase your brightness!

Thanks !!

You're welcome. Talk soon.

 

[delte7]

BMXTRIX:

Lights in the room - As you suggested I unscrewed the bulbs close to the screen and only have lighting above the seating area working (have been doing this for last 6-9 months). See my previous post to get additional info on my lights and room colors.

The link you provided was VERY informative and helped me see some things more clearly. I have Zones in my HT (partially). I have lights on 3 diff dimmer switches.

1) Lights for stairs
2) Lights for wall sconces
3) Lights for canned lighting in ceiling. In hindsight, I should have broken this out into 2 or maybe even 3 separate zones. Unscrewing the 3 bulbs in the front of the room will have to suffice, leaving just the lights above the seating on with ability to dim/raise as needed.
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White, minimal gain screen - This is something I would really like some additional insight on. At about a grand for a good screen I want to beat this one up a little. Let me first start with a couple recent examples.

• I was just watching Clash of the Titans. The source is DTV HD in 1080p. The scene was right after Perseus and Draco (captain) spar in the woods. Draco is then leaning up against a tree. I paused the scene and turned all the lights out. The room was completely dark. There were little to no details in the dark parts of the paused scene. The right half of the scene was just gray and black.

• My kids were down in HT last night playing Black Ops on 360. Even with all the lights off the game details were not as good as I would have hoped. Things just look gray or black on parts of the screen (depending on where you are looking in the game). Not allot of details in those gray/black areas. The game has lots of dark scenes and seeing some details in those gray/black areas on the screen when an enemy is trying to take you out is critical...LOL.

This is where things get confusing for me. Another benefit, I thought, to a gray screen is that it would help with details in gray/black areas of movies and games. Would a white screen with minimal gain help with details in gray/black scenes or games ? Or will the contrast on a newer projectors make a significant difference (AX200=6,000:1, AE4000=100,000:1, 8700UB=200,000:1)? Or are the projector in my price range just not able to make a significant difference ? ...In your opinion.
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JVC HD250 - So I have some questions and concerns on the HD250.

• While this projector looks to be a huge leap from my current Panny the cost might be more than I can afford, especially when a new screen will be must. My original budget was 2K (when talking with my wife). I thought a new screen might be needed so I pushed the budget up to 3K. I didn't run this past my wife but she is pretty cool with me about stuff like this so I figured even with a 50% bump I could talk her into it. With the HD250 AND a new screen the budget just doubled. While this projector does appear to be the shiznit !!! Not sure I can swing it. All that being said...I know, you get what you pay for.

• Games, Sports, Streaming (yeah I know not best quality). This projector does great when viewing Blueray, but what about Games and Sports via HD DTV ? Any personal thoughts you can share ? I'll continue to scour the net looking for professional and personal reviews to see how it performs with these other media types.

• Some concerns that jumped out at me when looking at the specs were contrast and lumens. I know those numbers are often inflated as a marketing scheme to rope in consumers. Never the less I would like to talk it thru. Would 1000 lumens and 25,000:1 contrast ratio still provide superior results over my current setup for movies, games, and sports? Is D-ILA technology really that much more superior to 3LCD and DLP ? The reality for me is that even with being able to control all light in the room, more than likely some lights will be on. Whether that is for snacks while watching a movie, talking smack and interacting with my kids while playing games, or talking with friends while watching sports. I know some folks are firm about a dark room for critical viewing. I agree with this and when I sometimes watch a movie or play a game by myself I do turn the light off. Realistically for me, I use my HT as a place to bring my family together and interact as much as possible. That interaction will require some light in the room. Sometimes more light than others. Even with lights on in the back of the room will the JVC still be superior ?
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Increasing Screen size - I really like this idea ?? Bigger is always better, well not always, but bigger is always better when you have supporting data to back it up. Anyway, not sure this is feasible due to how my center speaker is mounted. To make a long story short, I would have to bring the screen out from the wall (build a frame to support it) and put the center speaker behind the screen. My Paradigm 330 center speaker sits flush with bottom of screen. Don't think I can take it much lower as it sits about table high from the floor. Will keep all this in mind though If I decide on a new screen which looks to be a no-brainer at this point, regardless of what direction I go in.
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Again, I really appreciate the ideas, suggestions, and thoughts. I really needed to be challenged on some of this.

 

[jostenmeat]

Regarding the numbers game, you absolutely cannot trust the mftrs, and must instead look towards 3rd party reviews. Often, they will be done in best mode, which often means not only the best color accuracy, but in high lamp mode.

So sometimes a PJ is way brighter than a JVC, perhaps including Pana/Epson, historically. Then you calibrate them, and all of a sudden the JVC is significantly brighter. There is little brightness lost on a JVC when calibrated, comparatively, historically.

Also, JVC overstates their lumens to a much lesser degree.

3LCD and single chip DLPs for that matter are often stating their contrast with the use of a dynamic iris. JVCs simply don't use them, and don't need them. You understand how a DI works, yes?

It is IMO not worth spending the money particularly on the superior contrast of a JVC if most viewing is with lights on. It COULD be worth it for better reliability, but that's a value judgment depending on warranties in question, CMS, free bulbs, etc.

PM BMX for HD250 quote, if interested. Much less than you probably think, but I did already mention price, or maybe not. The Seymour XD is $20 per linear ft for the wide stuff, and something like $13 for the narrower stuff. You could spend $40-80 on decent to top grade wood for the frame, and some super cheap doug fir for the false wall. Well, this is similar to what I did.

IOW, you can have new screen, false wall, JVC projector, within the limit of your original budget. I too was at 15' and now at 12', with the false wall. 11.5' I believe is the guaranteed distance where you cannot discern its texture with 20/20, according to a very well known calibrator/installer, 3rd party. I for one can be much closer and still not notice.

 

[AVRat]

Man, I love it when things are rolling like this! I really enjoy it when people like yourself are open to others’ ideas and get a good dialogue going.

Another question, and may help diagnose the lack of detail issue but have a feeling that may be the screen’s low-gain issue, have you done any sort of video calibration?

Regarding the actual upgrade question, I think you would definitely benefit by doing both the PJ and screen, but perhaps not all at once since budget is an issue.

My preference would be the screen first since I feel this is where you may realize the biggest improvement for the money. And you already have a decent PJ. If there’s anyway possible, I would also recommend going the AT screen route that way the larger screen is possible and you can orient the center channel vertically which is preferred. Maybe hang it from the ceiling.

 

[jostenmeat]

Regarding the actual upgrade question, I think you would definitely benefit by doing both the PJ and screen, but perhaps not all at once since budget is an issue.

I agree on the both part. He can* do both at the same time, but if he goes for an SI BD screen, or a JVC RS40, no he can't.

 

[AVRat]

I don't think he'd be real interested in either of those, but if he can DIY the screen, the other PJs mentioned can/could be done. (JVC HD250?)

 

[jostenmeat]

I don't think he'd be real interested in either of those, but if he can DIY the screen, the other PJs mentioned can/could be done. (JVC HD250?)

But his uses are spelled out pretty well, for the most part, and the SI is a pretty unique screen. I do believe just turning off the lights is the most cost effective performance measure, but we are all different.

I didn't think the RS40 would be in the picture either, so to speak, but if BMX believes it would be the ideal choice, I am sure he says for a reason, and it appears the OP is definitely considering any and all options.

Cheers Rat.

I do want to reiterate the possibility of the HP material, but there are compromises there, for sure.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=773065

 

[delte7]

AVRAT:

Calibration - I have not done any kind of calibration. What I have done is gone in and created a couple custom profiles. The Panny will allow you to use a base profile, edit it, and save as custom. I created one for games and one for movies. Both are not very good. My goal was to try and brighten and bring out details on black/gray scenes. It seems that one always cancels the other out.

Would a novice like myself be able to do a calibration? What tools or software or knowledge is required? This may be a good starting point or baseline that could help define next steps. For example, if I can clean up details and improve brightness then maybe just a new larger screen is needed. If NOT then next steps might be projector/screen upgrade.

 

[delte7]

But his uses are spelled out pretty well, for the most part, and the SI is a pretty unique screen. I do believe just turning off the lights is the most cost effective performance measure, but we are all different.

I agree 100%. All the input you guys have provided has helped me be much more conscious and aware of ANY light in the room. I went in and re-programmed my lights to only display over seating at a much lower level for movies and games. Sports and regular TV show viewing are a little brighter so the lights can be a little brighter in the room, but again only above the seating area.

 

[AVRat]

Many people use calibration disks from DVE, AVIA, or Spears & Munsil to help adjust settings. You can usually obtain pretty good results w/o the need for extra equipment.

 

[jostenmeat]

AVRAT:

Calibration - I have not done any kind of calibration. What I have done is gone in and created a couple custom profiles. The Panny will allow you to use a base profile, edit it, and save as custom. I created one for games and one for movies. Both are not very good. My goal was to try and brighten and bring out details on black/gray scenes. It seems that one always cancels the other out.

Would a novice like myself be able to do a calibration? What tools or software or knowledge is required? This may be a good starting point or baseline that could help define next steps. For example, if I can clean up details and improve brightness then maybe just a new larger screen is needed. If NOT then next steps might be projector/screen upgrade.

There are different levels of calibration, and the kicker is that some PJs require less or more drastic measures than others. In my instance, I could greatly benefit from a CMS, using a colorimeter (or spectroadiometer) for dialing in grayscale, and taming down saturation.

Depending on the PJ you might select, some already have the CMS with it. Then all you need is the measuring tool.

However, calibration can't do much for pure lumens horsepower. Also, remember that thing I talked about, being able to get more lumens the further you are willing to go away from accurate colors, particularly with LCD models of past.

 

[delte7]

There are different levels of calibration, and the kicker is that some PJs require less or more drastic measures than others. In my instance, I could greatly benefit from a CMS, using a colorimeter (or spectroadiometer) for dialing in grayscale, and taming down saturation.

Depending on the PJ you might select, some already have the CMS with it. Then all you need is the measuring tool.

However, calibration can't do much for pure lumens horsepower. Also, remember that thing I talked about, being able to get more lumens the further you are willing to go away from accurate colors, particularly with LCD models of past.

I'm going to try a couple things with my current Panny (PT-AX200U) and see if i cant get better performance out of it first.

1) Try the DVE calibration. I have a friend i can borrow from. I'm hopeful this might help with some of the gray/black details...maybe not but will give it a shot.

2) Clean the Prism as you suggested. I'm a smoker so that alone is incentive to clean it. I'm hopeful I can get some lumens back that way.

3) Lower the ceiling mount so projector requires less lens shift. I think I read somewhere this will help. Minor and easy fix so why not try it.

4) Considering moving projector 3 ft closer to screen (12 ft away). I'll have to measure and make sure it wont be in the way. I'm 6' 3" so this may not be an option as It might be a hazard when standing up.

I hopeful that a combination of the above will help with brightness and gray/black details. If not, then the next step is to consider a new screen and weight the pro's and con's with current projector against a new projector/screen combination.

Either way, I am learning a ton of new stuff and will be very comfortable with any purchases I might make as I am exploring many different options. Again, very thankful for all the help and insight provided thus far.

 

[jostenmeat]

1. It's a good idea, but there is only so much you are going to be able to squeeze out of it, naturally. I have the DVE BD, as well as Avia, and Spears Munsil Benchmark, and I pretty much only use the last since I've obtained it.

2. Oh boy, yes, a LOT will come off of it if you smoke in the room. If you insist on smoking in the room, I hope you are always putting on the lens cap when not in use, as well as very regularly cleaning out the filter. If you buy a new PJ I insist you get one with sealed light paths. This means no 3LCD for you, but likely a 3LCOS instead.

3. Lowering the PJ, in my case, will also lower what is called ANSI contrast, a spec that is argued about once in a while. I forget why this is with my unit, and I'm not sure if it's the same for yours.

4. No comment. In my case, I definitely wouldn't due to a great variety of reasons.