From the looks of things and according to my room/screen specs (which are):

-Screen is 80" diag, 40" tall, top of the screen is 31.5" down from the ceiling...

I would have to mount the projector inverted about 24" down from the ceiling?? That thing will be two feet down in the middle of my room?? if so no can do...specced my other option, the Mits1500, out and it would need to be mounted a lesser 17" down from the ceiling, which I could stomach..

Can anyone confirm this?

Thanks!

you are correct, with the lens shift set to max, you would end up having the center of the lens at 24.3" from the ceiling. I would not run your projector at max lens shift either, so your looking at approx 26" lens center to ceiling.

How tall is your ceiling?

Thanks avzen, my ceiling is 9 feet tall...

what is wrong with running max lens shift? My PT-ax100u is ceiling mounted on a 8' ceiling hanging down 15" and my screen is 20" and this is almost max vertical lens shift but the picture looks great. Am I hurting something?

it doesn't hurt anything, but some people notice some slight PQ differences when using max Lens Shift on some projectors, I don't really notice any difference but some do.

since once its mounted you don't want to have to remount it again, I take the short route and figure in an extra inch to keep my lens shift from max, just in case, although it doesn't hurt anything physically to run it at max, and at 24" drop, what is 1 more inch to be on the safe side?

I have 92" ceilings and the projector will be another 6" below that, the 2' drop might make it more noticeable, but you will be surprised how little you actually won't. Also, can you move your screen 6" up? this might make the PJ less noticeable without affecting your viewing angle drastically.

You can always make a cardboard mockup and mount it with some string to get an idea how it might look in the room.

Actually the screen will be recessed into a 2.5 in deep nich and fits snugly...and therefor cannot be moved in any direction at all. I like the fake cardboard PJ idea and maybe it will be suffice for decent picture quality in the meantime ( ;
So yours is haning only 6" down from the ceiling? Would YOU be willing to have it hang two feet down?

K

if I had 9'-10' ceilings you bet I would let it hang 2 feet down, but on my 7' 6" ceiling its not possible, unless my back row wants a big section of the screen blocked.

But I prefer the picture of DLP, so if I had 9' ceilings I would probably go with the mits1500/3000 or the sharp3000, but my ceiling height doesn't allow for a PJ without lens shift.

I think the mock up projector will make the decision much easier for you, also take into consideration that the mits1500 is smaller as well as mounted higher up.

Also consider the lip of the recessed wall, will the angle of the projected image hit part of the recessed wall, so to prevent that you will have to have the projector within the bounds of the screen, or lower the screen a bit to prevent the wall from clipping the top of the image.

The wall niche is recessed a few inches so that the Screen Research screen and frame will actually sit flush with the rest of the wall when set inside...there will be no "lips" to worry about...will look very slick.

Thanks for the info and advice. Am waiting on a price for the AX100 via someone who works for Universal Pictures and gets Panny stuff super cheap....figure if I can score a deal (around $700 after the rebate) than I may go for it...otherwise it is the 1500 all the way.

Reason I may go for he Panny is that it is brighter and has no rainbow worries. However I don't think I will lose either way.