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Hey all,
I have the Z5 and had it ISF calibrated, 19' throw, 15' viewing from the screen which is a DaLite Cinemavision 1.3 gain and 96" diag. Dedicated HT with full light control. 4months old, 400 hours, no problems. PQ is stunning in all aspects being fed by Oppo 971H.

This is a smoking PJ regardless of how cheap it is. If I was picking a screen again I would go matte white 1.0 gain, just don't need all the extra brightness.
Chris

I have the Z2 with a DIY Dazian matte white screen (1.0). I would not want to go any brighter, heck I use low lamp mode also, which I highly recommend unless you don't have control of your light.

What did it cost to have it calibrated? Why didn't you just get a setup DVD like Avia, DVE, etc. and do it yourself. Heck, I've found that even with the THX setup on their movies I get it looking pretty nice.

I do have DVE and it looked really good. I found a guy that did it for $240 bucks and owns the Z5 and said what the heck?

The difference is night and day, if you saw the equipment they have you would understand, I suspect your grayscale tracking is so far off its funny , just for starters. I have watched the Eagles Farewell DVD at least 100 times(ok, I like them) and the light show isn't what i saw the previous 90 times, LOL. Not joking either, its just incredible, the colours now so rich and vibrant and the black levels are soooo..deep.

Folks, if you have a good PJ, its very much worth the money to get it done, you should see "Sin City" now, its out of this world...really, same with "Hellboy", eyecandy for us big kids....drooling...hehe

makes me want to go watch one right now
Chris

I wish there was an affordable way to calibrate a projector and get the same quality your talking about without having to pay for the service. I will tell you that the contrast is a hard one, as for some reason using the auto setup DVD's I really don't see any difference as I adjust up/down using the grids provided.

Right now I have the contrast at -15, brightness at -1, sharpness -4, Color mode using Low1 mode, that is all I can remember.

Randy, its impossible to achieve using setup discs. There are too many variables and settings on the PJ. Its also very difficult as you stated to set contrast correctly because it doesn't really show up on the test screens. For example, you didn't mention the RGB settings, the ISF guys use that to set grayscale, makes a huge difference.

As far as cost, I looked at it as a percentage of total investment. For me it was very small compared to my Emo "Big Dogs" for example.

Again I have to say that untill you see the difference, its hard to justify the cost, however this is not snake oil stuff, it is a very worthwhile investment.

Keep in mind that ISF calibration usually involves diving into the service menus, where you can really hurt the unit if don't understand what you are tweaking. That process usually includes the use of some fairly sophisticated/expensive equipment. The combination is why there is a charge for the service.

Having said that, buying that expertise will not be as painful if you view it on the basis of "dollars per hour of fantastic PQ from a unit that has been maxed out".

The ISF calibration, and the ambient light / screen choice (an art in itself) / distance to screen), combine to render the use of someone else's settings to be of questionable value.

Given the desired end result of the best PQ for the buck, you might want to scour the web (AVS Forum and Projector Central are two prett good sites) to see what users have to say about the projectors, screen choices based on ambient light, ISF calibration, etc. It can only help.

I was on the fence between a PJ and a plasma and opted for the plasma in January (58" Panny) mostly because of bulbs (plasma doesn't have any), finding the "right" screen, flexibility and most importantly - the "pop" relative to colors, blacks and details. However, had I chosen the PJ, I would have done the ISF calibration.

Hmmm, re-reading this post, I hope you can find SOMETHING of use before it puts you to sleep.

Read this review: http://www.projectorreviews.com/bestprojectors/1000-1500.asp

I'm a Panasonic guy. I just upgraded from the 900 to the 1000. That being said, if I was looking for a 720P unit, I'd be a tad bit nervous buying the Pany 100. User comments are mixed on this machine. Some folks are having a hell of a time with it working right, while others love it.

The Z5 looks to me to be an excellent choice. I would not be concerned that it does not have Pany's smooth screen. That was a cool feature, but is no longer really needed unless you like to sit about three feet away from your screen. I wish they would not have put in on the 1000, because it definitely does not need it.

If you don't mind single chip DLP's (don't get headaches from watching rainbows), the Mitsubishi HD1000 is an outstanding value and throws up a great picture. You are severely limited with mounting this unit though. But it's only $1000. I could get pretty creative to save a grand or so and still get a great picture.

Sure wish I could have my projector calibrated. No one around my parts that can do that unless I fly him/her into town. I have been playing with the idea of setting myself up to do that, but GAWD it's expensive. Those instruments cost some serious coin, not including the lap top and software....