Well, I watched the first movie on the PJ tonight and the wife loved it. Looks like I am hooked now. Well now I need a new rec'r, upgrade the rear speakers, some lighting control..... well I don't know where this list will end.

Oh and I meant to mention that I moved the seating up to 11 ft and no SDE on the 104 screen.

Will post again.

Dave

Once you experience a good projector, there is no turning back. The Z5 is one of my favorites and I see quite a few projectors now and then.;)

wadja watch? pjs are the greatest!

Watched Transformers, I saw it at the Theater when it came out first and said that when I got the PJ I had to see this one again.

Picked up Top Gun in HD, so I will give that one a play later today.

Dave

Hi Dave, congratulations on your new pj!

Right now I´m on the verge to buy a Z5 myself. I´ll like to read about your impressions about black levels and brightness.

Thanks

I own a Z4 ,so I can only think how the Z5 looks. However, my Z4 rocks ,and the lamps are under 300 bucks to boot.

First impressions of the pj are great. I think it needs some tweaking. Would like to get the black bars on the bottom to look a bit darker, this is where I need to go next with some tweaking. I am hoping to get some feedback on what few adjustments I could make to improve that. I guess I need to watch a few more movies to see where it cam be adjusted.

There was a post there from Frank456 who is a PJ Tech, if Frank is reading in I wonder if he has any experience on a few adjustments that can be done with getting the black bars on the bottom darker.

Dave

I forget to say about the brightness, I am using the low light mode and it seems fine to me. I know I have read that the bulb will dim with time, so I guess it may have to be turned up a notch when that happens. The room I have is totally a HT Room, no windows. You can be in total darkness in the middle of the day. When the wife doesn't comment, I take that as a LOOK's OK To ME. I know I will be looking for ways to improve the image.

Anybody know to attach an image on these threads.

Dave

Imageshack.us to upload it, then copy/paste the "direct link URL" here.

I got mine as well, built my own screen using blackout cloth and I must say the results are fantastic, I never expected the image to look so clear and smooth. I have a throw distance of 18.5' and my screen size is 110", room is light controlled and I have a few screens to go with this although my camera stinks so the pics are not that great. They always say the pictures don't do this projector justice and I have to say they are right but here are mine anyway so you get at least some idea....

Pic 1 (http://www.2websters.com/gallery2/d/3706-1/SANY0213.JPG?g2_GALLERYSID=cc557a4c81d4d23ca45578f2f398ae1a)

Pic 2 (http://www.2websters.com/gallery2/d/3703-1/SANY0212.JPG?g2_GALLERYSID=cc557a4c81d4d23ca45578f2f398ae1a)

Pic 3 (http://www.2websters.com/gallery2/d/3700-1/SANY0208.JPG?g2_GALLERYSID=cc557a4c81d4d23ca45578f2f398ae1a)

First impressions of the pj are great. I think it needs some tweaking. Would like to get the black bars on the bottom to look a bit darker, this is where I need to go next with some tweaking. I am hoping to get some feedback on what few adjustments I could make to improve that. I guess I need to watch a few more movies to see where it cam be adjusted.

There was a post there from Frank456 who is a PJ Tech, if Frank is reading in I wonder if he has any experience on a few adjustments that can be done with getting the black bars on the bottom darker.

Dave

Congrats on the pj Dave! I've had mine for about 2 months now and boy, oh boy what a happy camper I am! :)

When it comes to PQ I got a major improvement by changing the HDMI to L2 in the Settings menu. I think this means that the pj can handle "enhanced" signals from your player if the player supports it. What it means in reality is that the pj can display more detail in darker areas. At least that is what changing the setting meant for me...

For white balance and gray scale I used THX Optimizer on a Star Wars DVD. No advanced tweaking I know, but it works for me...

Also, check out the Z5 tweak thread on the forum for more tips on how to improve PQ.

Good luck!

//P

Dave1: I second the recommendation on the Z5 tweak thread. Lots of experienced first hand users over there.:)

Hi Dave_1

Congrats and welcome to the PJ club.

First time PJ owner here as well....Im running on one month now on my Marantz VP4001 ( over 60 hrs already with zero issues) and am loving the whole PJ setup.

We watched Rescue Dawn last night and the wife sat the whole way thru and she's not a WW fan at all.

In my case, I already had a nice audio system (Polk Fronts+Center, Dayton Sub, Onkyo Rears) so I moved that from my 4 yr old Hitachi RPCRT TV to the new setup.

Still need to paint the walls and upgrade my rear speakers and replace my leather sofa with HT chairs:eek::eek:.

Here's a pic I posted in one of the screenshots threads here...my friend was over at my house this week and we were playing Call Of Duty 4 on my 120" and he said it was like looking out a window. Now he's researching on a PJ as well:D.

http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/9211/cod4lt8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

They always say the pictures don't do this projector justice and I have to say they are right but here are mine anyway so you get at least some idea....

Pic 1 (http://www.2websters.com/gallery2/d/3706-1/SANY0213.JPG?g2_GALLERYSID=cc557a4c81d4d23ca45578f2f398ae1a)

Pic 2 (http://www.2websters.com/gallery2/d/3703-1/SANY0212.JPG?g2_GALLERYSID=cc557a4c81d4d23ca45578f2f398ae1a)

Pic 3 (http://www.2websters.com/gallery2/d/3700-1/SANY0208.JPG?g2_GALLERYSID=cc557a4c81d4d23ca45578f2f398ae1a)

My! the Color of the ladies hair in pic 2 looks very black. Is your pic pretty accurate in what it is showing? If so, I could live with the Z5's handling blacks like that.....

It has taken some tweaking with about 100 hours on the bulb for the last few months and I have tweaked it about 3 or 4 times since I got it and have multiple settings saved and move back and forth, but I think this is my favorite one so far. The colors (although my camera sucks) are as they seem, the blacks are good because I adjusted them to be that way, I will have to post my settings as well and I can do that tomorrow I think as I will be home then.