First of all I want to say Thank you! to everyone here who helped me with my research and answered all my questions I am extremely happy with the results.

I finally finished 'remodeling' my basement and it's now my home theater/home studio.

Here are some pics (sorry about the bad quality my camera is pretty old!):


















Just so you can get an idea for the "before and after" here are two pictures of what it used to look like

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/old2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/old1.jpg

(Don't mind the zombie in the first one and my dorky little cuz in the 2nd haha:) )

Here's one from a similar angle of the zombie pic(note the amount of ambient light during the day!:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/1.jpg

To the right as you first walk in my little home studio area:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/2-1.jpg

And to the left

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/3.jpg

125" screen Painted with plain white flat paint and it looks crazy! I used an ikea book shelf and laid it on it's side to house all the AV stuff under the screen and I ran 25' hdmi and component cables to the PJ under the rug.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/4.jpg

From the screen looking forward, You can see the little Boston acoustics speakers but they KICK the system more then fills the room easily!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/5.jpg

No flash to show the amount of ambient light during the day..and it really doesn't even effect the picture quality.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/6-1.jpg

I opted out of the ceiling mount and just put it on another ikea book shelf

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/7-1.jpg

My little home studio

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/8-1.jpg

From the couch

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/9-1.jpg

A few screen shots: (It looks MUCH better in person my POS camera doesn't really give it any justice)

HD cable

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/10.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/11.jpg

Standard def

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/12.jpg

Xbox360 (games and planet earth DVDrip)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/13.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/16.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/14.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/15.jpg


old school games look amazing too!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/18.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/17.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/19.jpg

I wish I had a better camera for HD screen shots they are very clear and crisp. also since taking these shots I've put black tape around the border of the screen and it really helps make the image 'pop' and looks a lot better.

Needless to say I'm VERY happy with my new PJ the quality is surreal! It basically looks like a 10 foot LCD screen. I am
soo glad I talked my girlfriend into letting me go with a PJ instead of a TV.


Although after getting it and setting it all up I realized how much the PJ will
be on and I'm starting to get a little paranoid about bulb life, it is our only 'TV' so between daily television and video games
with our alternating schedules I planned on about 6hrs a day which put
me at roughly 2000hrs in a year...I did not take into account the
shock factor of getting it and wanting to always watch it or staying
up late playing games on it...so far we've been averaging about 10hrs
a day!! The first day alone I put 18hrs on it(it came in the mail at
like 7am and I called out of work and literally watched
movies/TV/played video games...drooled ect until about 1am! Today alone I had it on for about 13hrs!! I got it on Tuesday and have already put almost 70hrs on it. (I did however just lose my Job this week so I've been home alot!)

I'm sure once the 'newness' wears off I wont have the urge to be on it as much but it will still get heavy use...still I doubt I'll have it on for 10hrs a day indefinitely but at the same time I don't really want to have to limit the time we're using it or stress over it so I did some math...let's say if for argument sake the PJ was on 10hrs a day that puts me at
around 2000hrs at 6 months a new bulb is $400 so if I break that down
it that's around $3 a day..that's really not bad at all, I'd spend that on
coffee in the morning with out even thinking about it. So I'm going to just
put like $20 a week away for a new bulb and I would mind replacing the
bulb twice a year...for the screen size and clarity and whole
experience its absolutely worth it!

Does anyone else use theirs as a main TV or just as occasional movie watching?

Also I obviously want to avoid any potential
issues like the infamous flicker problem ect, what is the best way to run the
bulb with this type of extended use? I have It in high(non eco) mode. And I general watch in either
'normal mode' 'cinema 2 or when I'm playing old games 'game' mode.
Anything I can do to avoid potential issues? I have the dynamic iris
and Light harmonizer on. is that okay or could that cause potential issues?

Any other tips tricks or advice??

nice setup, good job. That 1st pic caught me off guard for real.

Nice set up. What's the final screen size and and how far away are you sitting from it? I'm assuming smoothscreen is making that look so fantastic. ( ' :

Nice! I see your cat also approves :rolleyes:

a Jackson eh ;);)

haha sorry to catch you off guard..oddly enough those were the only two picture I had that were taken downstairs where you could actually see the surroundings...not to get to OT but that was my zombie costume for a zombie prom my girlfriend and I went to not sure if there are any other zombie movie fans here but if there are check out these pics of our finished costumes in link form because they are gross:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/3005822080_a222834508.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/ex_action_figure/3005821778_d155e3b58d.jpg

On the way there we stopped to get gas and when I went in the guy jumped out of his seat and frantically grabbed the phone before realizing it was a costume...He said he thought I was hit by a bus and was walking around in shock lol

Anyways, The final screen size is exactly 120 inches now that I have the black boarder up and we are sitting about 14 feet away and yes it looks amazing, no screen door effect and if I'm playing video games and it just me I'll sit on the floor about 9 feet away and it still looks amazing.

and ya of course my cat has to get involved in everything I'm doing haha I'm surprised he wasn't in all the shots, I have two one doesn't notice the images on the screen at all and the other one is incredible fascinated and sometimes scared by it.

Anyone else have any questions/comments?
Or answers to my questions about the heavy use I'm putting on the pj?

Great job!. My only suggestion is to paint that little ceiling area above the screen a flat black or gray to cut down on light bouncing back on the screen. I use mine as a regular tv for about 3-4 hours a day. Remember, if you are not using it the way you get the most enjoyment out of it then what's the point?

Sweet! Forget the Wii - you guys can play Duck Hunt! Woohoo!

If you think you will be continuing to put serious hours on your PJ, get the Mack warranty for the PJ and the lamps. You won't have to worry about it anymore.

PM the user here named mackcamera.

If you think you will be continuing to put serious hours on your PJ, get the Mack warranty for the PJ and the lamps. You won't have to worry about it anymore.

PM the user here named mackcamera.

I have just picked up an optoma hd65 after taking back an epson ex70, was worried about bulb prices but the blacks on the epson wasn't what I was looking for hence the hd65. Anyway new to the PJ scene myself and have seen the Mack camera warranty mentioned on here several times, Went to the website but there was nothing on there I could see about purchasing the warranty through the website. Is Pming mackcamera the only way to do this?

HELLO. the reason you cant find anywhere to buy is because we do not sell directly you have to go thru one of our authorized dealers. You can get it from a few different forum sponsers, notably tapeworks texas. If you have any questions about our service or need help finding a dealer you can PM me or i will check back on this thread.

Thank you for the information, will be getting the warranty tomorrow for the lamp. Will be nice having a three year warranty on the lamp rather than 90 days.

Cool set up

But...you really, really should darken that portion of the ceiling over the screen. Your image is being very compromised at the moment by the reflection from the ceiling which is one of the worst things you can do for a projected image; it's evident even in the screen shots how much light is being reflected back onto the upper portion of the screen.

If you paint it dark it should help quite a bit. Even better would be to line it with some dark material (e.g. velvet) since material tends to absorb light much better than paint and that white portion of the ceiling is so close to your screen.

Cheers,

hmm I didn't really think it was a big deal to leave that area white but ya maybe it is washing down my black levels a bit, I didn't want to paint it black because this is a condo and if we decided to move some day painting over it would be a pain. plus after painting red down here I'm sooo sick of painting! it's such a mess.

I could put material up there though... any idea where I would get it/how much it would cost or how I secure it to the ceiling? it would have to be something that is very thin since the image is cut so close to the ceiling in order for it to fill from the top to bottom it has to be.
Maybe I could get some kind of black tape instead??

As far as bulb warranties I really don't understand them...they don't seem practical. I could pay x amount to get a mack warranty who knows what kind of hassle I would get when I do need to replace my bulb, If I'm putting this much heavy use on my bulb of course it's going to go after around 2000hrs and it's just not logical that some company would just give you a new one for no reason they would be losing money, It seems more practical to me to just put away like $20 a week and pick up a new lamp eventually.

Thanks for the comments, I am enjoying my new set up soo much!

You could paint it a flat grey and that would help a lot and not be hard to paint over. You might find some cheap fabric at walmart to cover it. Otherwise try here (http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp?CATID=cat2699)

As far as warranties go, a three year warranty is $100 and users on this forum have had no hastels from MACK. Up to you though.

ya I think I'm going to go with a black fabric and I can staple it up or something.

As far as the warranty that sounds far to good to be true...I mean will they just replace the lamp just because I want them too? With the usage I'm giving it I'll need a new lamp every six months! Why would they do that for only $100? or is it just a one time replacement....I don't see how it's logical.

ya I think I'm going to go with a black fabric and I can staple it up or something.

As far as the warranty that sounds far to good to be true...I mean will they just replace the lamp just because I want them too? With the usage I'm giving it I'll need a new lamp every six months! Why would they do that for only $100? or is it just a one time replacement....I don't see how it's logical.

They will replace up to 3 burned out lamps in the three years. With constant use, you would be surprised how long lamps can last. They aren't guaranteed to last, but, many have gotten more than the stated lamp life from them with good results.

With the long use hours, you need the PJ warranty more since long hot hours can cause the polarizers to go bad early in some cases.

Welcome to the dangerous addiction of Home Theater!
If you think you're watching it a lot, just wait and see how much it grows on you!
Start plannning now for the additional infection of "Upgradeitus"
Seriously, isn't it great! Have you been showing it off to your friends yet! I just can't seem to get enough of mine, especially with all of the new movies coming out.
Keep up with all of us and let us know how you progress.....