Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater A couple of front projection questions....

Rick, if you put both hands out in front of your face about 12". Spread your fingers out, and wave your hands back/forth one on top of the other. This will give you a similar experience as to what it looks like. Beware, once you do this, you will forever see rainbows.

This sounds a lot like the time I told my buddy driving with me that if he held his head out the window, he would be able to brush his hair without a problem with static electricity on the brush.

I only see the rainbow effect in my peripheral vision when moving my point of focus from one side of the screen to the other.

Certainly explains the glancing lion in your avatar.

After seeing the rainbow, did any of you tear your television apart and look for the pot of gold?

No, but I hummed the melody of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". . .

I hum that whenever I'm in front of a urinal and having trouble starting.

To answer the question about screen size and throw distance...

You have to figre out how big of a screen you want, then figure out if you can mount the projector back far enough. Personally I wanted a 118" but the projector (Epson 6500UB) would be quite close (13' or so) and using almost all the zoom, so I opted for the 110". Once you know the size, you can use the Projector Central calculator to figure out if the throw distance you have will work. From there, you can then determine the screen gain you will need as the throw distance will affect the brightness. Personally I feel it is best to mount the projector on the closer side as you will get maximum brightness without using a higher gain screen which can hurt black levels.

I just got the 6500UB with the big rebate about six weeks ago. It will be interesting to see how the A4000 and 8500UB fare, I'm sure they will be great. My biggest gripe with the Epsons is that they are white... But not a deal breaker. Epson does have double the warranty as well.

Tater, actually the new Epson 8500U is looking really nice, Projector Central has a nice side by side review of both units and they seem to be quite close. I have read and have been told that the Epson does better in a room with a little bit of ambient light and the warranty is very good, a plus.

Of the DLPs I've read about, the Mitsubishi projectors looks nice but it looks like the Panny and the Epson units are really good bang for the buck units.

If money, say $6k or below were not an issue I wonder if that would change what projectors I *should* be looking at?

I'm at the very beginning stages of researching and do plan on taking my time to really figure out which projector would best work for us.

Do projectors require a dark room, or do they work ok in daylight, or otherwise well lit rooms?