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Re: Two Cents Wanted - AVR, PR, Screen
michael_d #265330 07/04/09 06:22 PM
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Zimm Offline OP
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That is exactly my situation; I had planned for DIY, but my time for practice runs is really low right now. Two questions: (1) does AVS have discounts on Stewart, and (2) is the sacrifice on the 2.35 in terms of 16:9 height really worth it? My max width is about 105 inches so that would cut about 10 inches off my 16:9 height if I go with a 2.35 over 16:9.

As for Stewart, I was leaning towards Carada based on a good flow of info from customer service, but Da-Lite prices are lower. So far, I can't really see a difference in all the screens except the frame. I have not come across great Stewart prices and I am at about max budget for the screen in the Carada/Da-Lite price range.

Last, anybody with a semi-light controlled room and a decent LCD display, please let me know your thoughts on White v. Gray. I have so much conflicting information that I'm now lost. Before I spend almost $1000 on a product, I'd like to feel like I have a reason for picking one over the other. Carada says go with Brilliant White, and some on AVS seem to have had success with that. General advice seems to Grey. Da-Lite's screen selection engine offers about 9 "fits" ranging from matte white, to bright white, to high contrast grey. WTF? How can every screen be recomended based on the 197 criteria they make you input?

Help!


Panny 3000 PJ, 118" Carada, Denon 3300, PS3, Axiom QS8, PSB 5T, B&W sub, levitating speaker wire
Re: Two Cents Wanted - AVR, PR, Screen
Zimm #265339 07/04/09 07:24 PM
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 Originally Posted By: Zimm

Help!


I feel your pain. I’ve been following this thread with interest as I’m also in the hunt for a projector and screen and feel like I’ve been chasing my tail for months.

You might consider calling Projector People

All of the feedback I’ve read on them is outstanding. Maybe they could help with some unbiased feedback on what screen will work best for your situation. Also some screen manufactures will send samples of their material which might help you check out how they will hold up to the light.

How is the Panny holding up. Seems like every projector out there in the 2k-5k range has some issue or another. I think I’ve narrowed my choices down to the Panasonic PT-AE3000 and the Epson 6500UB. However, AFAIR Epson releases their new models around September so I might wait to see what they have in store.

Have you used the lens memory feature on your projector much. I will be doing a lot of switching between 1.33 to 1, 1.78 to 1 and 2.35 to 1 and wondered just how well the lens feature worked.

Thanks for posting your experience, your thread is much easier to follow than the ones over at AVS.

Cheers,
Dean


3M80 2M22 6QS8 2M2 1EP500 Sony BDP-S590 Panny-7000 Onkyo-3007 Carada-134 Xbox Buttkicker AS-EQ1
Re: Two Cents Wanted - AVR, PR, Screen
grunt #265354 07/04/09 08:20 PM
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What, you don't have time to read 1,987 pages of multi-conversation-threads on AVS. Holy Cow, they need a better structure than just "Panny 3000 owners".

I got the PJ from Projector People and have nothing but good things to say about them. I had a multi-week email conversation with one of the sales reps, and he was very helpful and easy to deal with - no pressure, no B.S. (He said the Panny was a tad better than the Epson.) But, they sell a small selection of screens, so I felt like they were not the best source for unbiased opinion on that front. After further searching, perhaps they are, as I'm starting to think it does not matter much as long as the product is of decent build quality.

As for the lens memory, i have not used it because I have a full wall right now and Zoom is so easy that I have not taken the time to figure out how to use the memory. I keep thinking I'll wait until I have a set size to zoom to/from.

Finally, in case my experience helps, no problems with the Panny so far. I have been using it about 4 hours a night on average for an even split of BR, HD-Cable, and PS3 games. (Around 100 hours total I guess.) Bear in mind this is on a flat white wall.

BRs - stellar. At 120" screen size, the blacks on this projector (in a dark room) are much better than my DLP Samsung RPTV of 2005 720p variety. The black bars on 2.35 film are barely noticeable, but then again, the rest of the wall is white off-screen so the apparent contrast is enhanced I guess. Color pops, depth is very good. Not intensely bright, but natural. The settings are very good, and often I can't tell which I like better as all except Dynamic look really good with no obvious push. Waiting for the screen to really calibrate it.

HDTV - much more semi-light controlled for this source as I tend to watch BR's at night after the kids are asleep. Of course cable can't compare to BR. But with that limit, the pictures are very good. I'm constantly stunned by the quality of flesh. Black skin, for example, has a real depth of tone I was not used to seeing on my old TV. Sports are great, but worried a bit about fast action sports. A baseball moving from 3rd to 1st tends to flash 3 balls in flight. The PJ has about 5 settings for motion, but I could not cure it. I don't watch much baseball so I need to compare it to another broadcast, might have been a cable bandwidth issue. I have watched a few NFL replays from the NFL Network, and see no issues on motion there - that would have been a deal killer as LSU gets ready for another National Championship!!!!!

PS3 - If you are not a gamer, sorry, you are missing out. First Person Shooters on a 120" screen 15 feet in front of you is damn hard not to like. It is like being there. [Said from the comfort of my HT having zero real world appreciation for such an intense event that plays out every day so I can, in fact, sit on my arse playing games.] Asinine comparisons to war aside, the experience is like 3D compared to TV, your brain is just presented with something more like reality and that adds to the experience greatly.
Also, I notice less (if any) delay in video processing as compared to my DLP. There may be some delay, but way better.

Last, the manual sucks. It is the far end of the spectrum of crap from Denon. It is easy to understand, but tells you nothing. Many pages of explanations like this: "Dynamic Image Stabilizing Ion Control Thrust Inhibitor - this function toggles the Dynamic Image Stabilizing Ion Control Thrust Inhibitor on and off." Holy Crap, i would not have guessed that. Good luck finding out what it does to the image. Better have Google at the ready.

But for a small HT on a budget, I have to give it 5 thumbs up. At this point, it looks like the damn screen may cost as much as the projector. In other words, for less than a good 40" LCD TV you get a damn impressive wall of glorious 1080p. Hard to go wrong even if another projector is as good, or slightly better in some way.


Panny 3000 PJ, 118" Carada, Denon 3300, PS3, Axiom QS8, PSB 5T, B&W sub, levitating speaker wire
Re: Two Cents Wanted - AVR, PR, Screen
Zimm #265367 07/04/09 09:47 PM
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 Originally Posted By: Zimm

After further searching, perhaps they are, as I'm starting to think it does not matter much as long as the product is of decent build quality.

I’m with you here. Unless something drastic happens to change my mind I’m planning to get a Carada Precision Series 1.78 to 1 Brilliant White. I’m getting the BW since I can have total light/reflection control if I want it. Though this time I’m doing that incrementally rather than all at once (resulting in overkill) like in my apartment. After having complete darkness in my apartment I’m a firm believer in this:

 Originally Posted By: Paul Apollonio

In order to eliminate what Mr Holman calls cross-modality, (one sense modulating another) the lights are slowly turned down so we heard our sound demonstrations in complete darkness.


Audyssey DSX 10.2 Surround Sound Overview


 Quote:

As for the lens memory, i have not used it because I have a full wall right now and Zoom is so easy that I have not taken the time to figure out how to use the memory. I keep thinking I'll wait until I have a set size to zoom to/from.

Please let me know how it works out if you end up with your screen before I commit to a projector. I plan on having my projector on a stand just behind my seating (only one row for now) so I’ll have easy access to make changes.

 Quote:

First Person Shooters on a 120" screen 15 feet in front of you is damn hard not to like.

Big gamer and probably will be 1/3 use. I love my Samsung DLP but I want bigger for more immersion. I’m planning on a 142” diagonal screen sitting about 15 feet away. Again if you get your screen before I purchase I’d love to hear how the shadow details are. That’s been my one complaint about the DLP is that in many dark scenes in games things in the shadows are hard to make out.

About equal use will be up scaled standard DVDs. Haven’t been in a big hurry to get a BD player since I have a huge backlog of DVDs to watch most of which are animated and upscale very nicely.

Also equal use will be as a computer monitor for gaming. Plan to maintain the DLP or a wall mounted LCD for general use. Have you hooked it up to a computer yet. I only play strategy games on the PC so lag time shouldn’t be an issue and since the image size can be adjusted I’m guessing over/under scan isn’t a problem.

 Quote:

But for a small HT on a budget, I have to give it 5 thumbs up. At this point, it looks like the damn screen may cost as much as the projector. In other words, for less than a good 40" LCD TV you get a damn impressive wall of glorious 1080p. Hard to go wrong even if another projector is as good, or slightly better in some way.

The only thing that’s holding me back on the Panny vs the Epson is the ghost turd (dust ball) issues many people have had. Based on reading a lot, I think the Panny will be the best choice for image based on Projectorreviews.com comments that it has slightly better shadow detail than the Epson which I think will be more important for gaming than the slightly higher brightness and better black levels of the Epson. Of course the Epson also has issues as it seems like lots of people are having convergence and dead pixels problems.

Last edited by grunt; 07/04/09 09:49 PM. Reason: forgot the link

3M80 2M22 6QS8 2M2 1EP500 Sony BDP-S590 Panny-7000 Onkyo-3007 Carada-134 Xbox Buttkicker AS-EQ1
Re: Two Cents Wanted - AVR, PR, Screen
grunt #265427 07/05/09 07:20 AM
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Regarding the white vs grey issue... Grey will give you better black levels, white will give you better brightness. You're (unfortunately) going to have to choose which is more important to you. If you have ultimate light control you could probably go with grey. A good friend of mine has an Epson 1080UB (last years 6500UB) with a Carada white (normal one, not the higher gain one) and in total darkness it is definately more than bright enough.

Re: Two Cents Wanted - AVR, PR, Screen
Potatohead #265448 07/05/09 07:07 PM
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Grey is better for rooms with ambient light, but you loose gain with grey screens. There are a couple positive gain grey screens, one being Stewart’s FireHawk. There is a silver screen that’s high gain as well, but they’re expensive as hell ($5000). AVS sells Stewart at good prices. You might be surprised. If you have a totally light controlled room, then stick with white. When going with a 2.35 screen, you want to size it off of screen height. You can get away with a wider screen, but if you go too high, you will have a lot of eye strain.

Dean – have you considered the JVC RS-10?

Re: Two Cents Wanted - AVR, PR, Screen
michael_d #265529 07/06/09 03:15 PM
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Update, I watched Wimbolton, and ball flight did not render the problem i mentions with the baseballs (triple images). At 138 mph, I think that cures any concern I had about that. Must have been a cheap Cox bandwidth issue.


Panny 3000 PJ, 118" Carada, Denon 3300, PS3, Axiom QS8, PSB 5T, B&W sub, levitating speaker wire
Re: Two Cents Wanted - AVR, PR, Screen
Zimm #265563 07/06/09 10:09 PM
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Good to hear, AE3000 sounds like a good unit

Re: Two Cents Wanted - AVR, PR, Screen
Potatohead #265625 07/07/09 07:32 PM
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Ordered the 118" Carada Brilliant White screen yesterday. Once I get it up I'll report back - and send some pics for the visualy stimulated ilk. For whatever it is worth, I chose Carada because (1) I can't see much difference in the materials used, although Stewart has better terms, (2) Carada had very good service before the sale, with easy access to knowledgeable folk, and finally (3) every reference I could find to Carada was positive, while the volume was low. Stewart realy seems to have their stuff toghether, but all the THX certifications and the like just price it above Carada.

I'll let you know how it works out some time next week.


Panny 3000 PJ, 118" Carada, Denon 3300, PS3, Axiom QS8, PSB 5T, B&W sub, levitating speaker wire
Re: Two Cents Wanted - AVR, PR, Screen
Zimm #266135 07/14/09 04:56 PM
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Well, the Carada screen is up and looks great. With the screen, you can see the subtle differences between the various modes on the Panny 3000. It's fine with some ambient light, but have not tried it for daytime sports. But I'm happy with the purchase. Carada is very solid. The shipment was fast and trouble free. The build was easy, and the screen fits perfectly without a wrinkle or blemish. Images have more pop now, and the black trim works great to really set the image off as if on a TV screen. The darks stay nice and black even with the 1.4 gain - a plus for the Panny.
And by the way, 118 is huge in my room. I chose the smaller trim version to keep it as small as possible, and glad I did as not much room to spare.

I'll get some pics up later, but you get the gist - big white rectangle with black trim.


Panny 3000 PJ, 118" Carada, Denon 3300, PS3, Axiom QS8, PSB 5T, B&W sub, levitating speaker wire
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