Okay,

I am now shopping around for a projector and screen. I am shooting for a 140" diag 16x9 screen. I scrapped the 2.35 CH idea for the moment.

I would like to get a 1080P projector. I am looking at the following:

Panny AE1000U
Optoma HD81
BenQ W10000

According to the calcs at projector central, the benq will give a suitable brightness (12ft/L) with 1.6 gain screen.

My dilemma is that I'd like to use an AT screen (e.g. SMX), but that doesn't appear to have the necessary screen gain. It looked like Stewart (i think) has an ultramatte 150 that supposedly can use their microperf X2 material, but can't imagine that it would retain the 1.5 gain claimed by the ultramatte 150.

My question is:

What is a suitable Foot/Lambert level? I realize this is somewhat subjective, but what is reasonable 8,9,10,13, etc?

Also, are the calculators at projector central reliable?

Thanks,
WE

Check this quote (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9217791&highlight=foot+lamberts#post9217791) from Frank1492. I think the amount of light in your room affects the foot/lambert equation as well.

sds