I am thinking about purchasing this new Panasonic projector. I have downloaded the manual as well as read several reviews and the vertical offset is still a bit confusing.

I will be installing a 96" wide, 54" tall, 110" diagonal screen. The top of the screen will be about 8-10" from the ceiling. The room has 7 foot ceilings.

I will be purchasing a Chief Universal mount that is 2.5" tall. The PT-AX100U from the bottom to the center of the lens is about 2.75". So all together from the ceiling to the center of the lens will be 5.25".

This puts the top of screen between 3" and 5" below the center of the lens of the Panasonic. Will this work? If I am reading the Panasonic manual correctly (page 16) it appears I am OK but I certainly do not want to make these purchases and find out it will not work in my room

PT-AX100U Manual (http://panasonic.co.jp/pavc/global/projector/manual/PT-AX100/PT-AX100U.pdf)

it will absolutely work. that diagram on the bottom of p.16 says it all. you can have the pj up to 63% above or below dead center, meaning you could have the center of the lens above the top of the screen. by your description, the center of the lens is actually within the "footprint or window" of the screen itself. that's ideal -- I think it even says in the manual somewhere that the best image would be gotten if you mounted this thing with lens dead center to dead center of the screen -- thus no lens shift at all.

DLP pjs, like the mits hd1000 shoot the image up or down and have lens shift difficulties so they have to be placed considerably above or below the top (or bottom) of the screen. In your case, the pj would have to be about 18 inches above the top of the screen (and thus wouldn't work). You would be forced to table mount the mits 18 or so inches below the bottom of the screen to be able to use it.

Make sense?

You can mount the AX100 on ya mama within a half block of the screen and still hit the screen. LOL No joke.

Seriously, if you can't make the AX100 work in that setup, nothing will. You're well within tolerance of the AX100's ability to be adjusted.

The AX100 has no offset. It is centered lens-->center screen and is both vertically and horizonally adjustable to 63% (I think).

I am thinking about purchasing this new Panasonic projector. I have downloaded the manual as well as read several reviews and the vertical offset is still a bit confusing.

I will be installing a 96" wide, 54" tall, 110" diagonal screen. The top of the screen will be about 8-10" from the ceiling. The room has 7 foot ceilings.

I will be purchasing a Chief Universal mount that is 2.5" tall. The PT-AX100U from the bottom to the center of the lens is about 2.75". So all together from the ceiling to the center of the lens will be 5.25".

This puts the top of screen between 3" and 5" below the center of the lens of the Panasonic. Will this work? If I am reading the Panasonic manual correctly (page 16) it appears I am OK but I certainly do not want to make these purchases and find out it will not work in my room

PT-AX100U Manual (http://panasonic.co.jp/pavc/global/projector/manual/PT-AX100/PT-AX100U.pdf)

You can mount your projecor up to approximately 7" above the top of the screen and it will work perfectly. Calculated by 13% X 54" = 7"

So the AX 100U is not as flexible as some would like you believe. Take a 9' ceiling and want your screen idealy 25 inches from the ceiling you would have to mount your Panny on a stalk hanging from the ceiling. Not ideal in my book. If you have a ceiling 8' high the DLP with some offset is preferable if you want a flush mounting of your projector.

Depends on your situation.