Does anybody have any good ways to add ambient lighting to a home theater without destroying the PQ of a front projection system? any ideas would be great....I just traded my Benq W500 for the HD65 and watched Wall-e yesterday, my eyes felt a bit strained after the video..is this rainbow effect or the effect of the increase in brightness and colour??! the difference between those two projectors are surprising...:confused:

Ambient lighting works best when it stays off the screen. Lights behind the screen (if your screen is ceiling mounted off from the wall, as mine is), recessed ceiling lights, or even table lamps with shades all can work. Worst are lights that shine onto the screen and reflect back to the viewer, so just try to shade the lights and direct the light onto the floor, not toward the screen. If you can adjust the light intensity with a dimmer, all the better.
Especially if you have a retro reflective screen, like the High Power, ambient lighting from the sides do not affect the screen much, but lights originating from the seating position will.

Digity8 -- Your eyes being strained indicates that you have your PJ too bright (the "torch mode"). You need to switch to the Low lamp mode and you also need to calibrate your PJ. Depending on you source (SD-DVD or a BD player) there are a number of reasonabley priced calibration disc available. The new "Digital Video Essentials HD Basics [Blu-Ray]" disc is a good one and is available from Amazon (that's where I bought mine).

NOTE: The Brightness adjustment controls the Black Level, and the Contrast adjustment controls the White Level. Your White level is too high = eyestrain.

PS -- As TrickMcKaha said, you can always have some low level of ambient light on in the room, provided it is not shining on (or towards) the screen. However, that will not be the solution for running your PJ in a mode that is too bright (attack that problem first).

As Claus said, TOO BRIGHT!!!

You can use the THX Optimizer tool found on Pixar DVDs to calibrate your brightness and contrast too.

Light in the room must be kept OFF the screen. If you want some low light, you can use directed soft lights back in the seating area but it will affect your perception. Some people put a light or light rope behind the screen to create a glow around the edges of the screen.

Perfect guys, changed my settings...i'll see on the next movie how it looks. Thanks again