Ok, I am really about ready to pull the trigger on this thing, but I have one final question. How much does the pq quality drop with lights on. I have a totally light controlled room. No windows at all, but I will have a xbox 360 hooked up, directv, dvd and bluray, hd dvd probably a little down the road. It will be ceiling mounted about 19 ft back. Screen will probably be 92 - 106. Whichever works best. I'll be sitting the same distance away most of the time. Will the pq (colors, black levels) be noticable difference to where I won't like the saturation. I love movies, but I also want to be able to play my xbox and watch football without having to have the lights completely off to watch it.

How much lighting are you talking about? Obviously, you would not want the main lighting on full blast in the same room. Now, if you have a little ambient lighting on say in the back of the room somewhere you should be fine.

For ex, sometimes I'm shooting a game of pool on the opposite side of my recroom while enjoying a DVD concert and it is fine. The more lighting you have on near the screen/HT area the more the picture can be altered.

These are HT projectors, not presentation (power canon) projectors like you might find at business meeting rooms. This is not something that affects just Sanyo projectors, but all HT type projectors.

The Z5 has some more output than my Z2, so I'm sure you will be fine, just don't crank up all the lights, or use a dimmer.

I have scone type lighting in the room. I have 6 of them on a dimmer switch. So would having these on at a level that would not seem dark be to high? I would like to be able to have people down to watch football games, but I don't want to have to turn the lights out and feel like I am in a cave all of the time. I notice with my tv that I already have, I have to boost the brightness to play video games on it. Would it be worse on the projector?

My son and I play his playstation II all the time, however, I don't turn the lights on in the immediate HT area between myself and the screen. Lights behind and off to the side would be fine I'm sure.

I guess I can't offer much advice in your situation. Even if I had some guys over to watch the game in HD, which I do from time to time, I never turn the lights on in the HT corner of the overall room. Over by the bar and pooltable area maybe, but not in between the projector and screen. It is not going to be a cave, the projector light keeps the room well lit.
Depending on how wide your room is, maybe some side lights dimmed to be not to distracting might work

ok, thanks a lot. I just really want that big screen effect, without sacrificing watching things the way I want too. I guess I could just buy it then return it if I had too, but I can't find any place that sells the z5 other than internet dealers with a short lamp return period. It is crazy. How can I evaluate something in one to 4 hours of viewing to see if it works correctly. I don't want to end up sending it back and getting a 15% restocking fee because I watched one movie. That's nuts.

I borrowed an XBox 360 from a guy from work, and I played it on my Z3 with 104" screen. The room has 4 sets of dimmable lights. Some right above the screen (always off when using the projector for anything), some wall sconces that I keep on really low, and then the ceiling has a "front" zone and a "back" zone. I leave the "front" zone off, and just turn the dimmer up a little for the "back" zone. The lights are recessed into the ceiling, and the two zones are split by a wooden beam (supporting the upstairs of our basement) so that helps to keep light seperated in the two zones. So I can have plenty of light for playing games, or whatever, and still have it somewhat dark at the screen. Having a flat black ceiling and wall that the screen is on, and dark blue carpet, and grey side walls help keep light reflection down...

Projectors are not meant, nor are they designed, to be/work like a giant oversized big screen tv. Meaning that they come with some limitations, and sacrifices have to be made.

If you have to have your room lit up like the bell of the ball, then you'd be better off sticking with a 60" - 65" display, because projectors simply are not made for that sort of enviroment. Projectors are for dedicated theater rooms, or rooms with very little light and or rooms with total light control. They're for true die hard movie/sport fans that desire and can create a cinema at home, not a living room type enviroment. Now there are some people who have their projectors set up in their living room, but they usually only use their projector at night, again, light control issue.

That said, some projectors do better then others with ambient light. However, none of them do very good with lights on between the projector and screen, like Randy was talking about.

And to add to this, the screen type helps out with ambient light. I watch TV / Movies with the lights on from time to time. I’m usually pretty busy, so most of the time I eat a late dinner sitting on the couch watching some boob tube then it’s off to bed.

Screens better suited for ambient light are a positive gain grey or silver and they work very well. Unfortunately, you may not like hearing how much they cost which is more than what the Z5 costs. I use an 8’ wide Stewart Fire Hawk G3 with deluxe boarder. It lists for about $2500 but you can find it a little lower than that. The best one is a Silverstar, but they run about $5000.