Panasonic AE 3000 vs JVC RS10/HD350

Panny would be brighter in the brightest mode but JVC is still brighter in the best mode. Usually everyone watches most of the things in best mode. Panny is prone to dust blobs. JVC is sealed light path. JVC has significantly better contrast and the black leves are superior to Panny. I would go for JVC if you have a capability of controlling light.

The only thing I might add is that you may want to research the LCOS projectors for motion blur. I have a Pioneer FPJ1 (RS2 Clone) and the motion blur isn't very attractive when it comes to gaming.

I have zero problems with lag and motionblur with gaming from a 360 and PC on my JVC RS1.

Again 6500 is brighter in the brightest mode & similar to panny. But JVC would still beat both in brightness in the best mode. JVC is conservatively but accurately rated. Once you pair it with Dalite Hi Power I am sure it would put JVC in a significant lead over the others...

I have an Elitescreen Cinewhite 1.1 and recently got a 12"x12" sample of the Da-Lite high power and to my eyes I would definitely prefer it for gaming over my cinewhite screen. If the projector not too far from eye level the difference in brightness is about like comparing an LCD and last years plasmas in a Best Buy store. If I decide to go to a dedicated screen and put my plasma in a different room there's a good chance I'll want the DaLite High Power screen.

I had an AE3000, then sold it to buy a HD350....says it all really. Either of them need a decent room to get the best out of them though. White ceilings and magnolia walls will wash out the image with reflections (though the directional Dalite HP will help in this regard, plus you'll be able to use the minimum iris on the HD350 to get the highest CR).

I returned an Epson 6500 and replaced it with the RS10. IMO, the RS10 is better in every way except brightness. I have read several times here that the RS10 is brighter in its best mode, but that is not my personal experience. The 6500 is very bright in all modes. Its a decent projector and might be well suited for your situation. If you can manage to get a little light control though, the RS10 is a better choice overall.

I'm thinking down the road I may move my plasma to a different room and sell my motorized Elitescreen and get a DaLite HP screen. It is SO much brighter and makes it look more plasma like. I only have a 12" x 12" sample to go by and with my Pioneer FPJ1 it looks like absolute black levels would only slightly differ but color depth is lost. Regardless I like the brightness difference and since the sample is put on top of my current 1.1 gain screen I'm certain I have light reflection issues even though my walls are darker with flat enamel paint (although light beige carpet).

Have you compared your setup using the HP material with a standard white screen? If so just curious how much difference you see in color depth.

Not to butt in, but I have an HP screen (full size screen, not just a sample) that I've compared to neutral gain materials.

I find that color depth and detail really increases on the HP screen. I often couldn't believe how much color detail the much brighter HP image brought out. For instance, take the forests and fields in Gladiator. When I'd switch to the HP all sorts of different shades would come out in the foliage that would be much more muted on the lower gain screen.

One caveat is that I was using a projector that had a lot of hours and a particularly dim lamp, so the neutral gain screens were at a disadvantage to some degree.

But higher brightness does tend to increase the perceivable color vibrancy and detail, along with image sharpness, I find.

You do take a hit with black levels but if you have mixed scenes (bright with dark) most people don't notice it much. Although, being a black level fiend myself, I did tend to notice and sometimes I'd prefer the neutral gain screen.

I ended up not going with the HP screen because I am very sensitive to it's off-axis performance, where the brightness drops precipitously when off axis.
But if I wanted to impress someone with a projection set up, making it the most impressive, vibrant, sharp looking image I could, I'd use an HP screen.

I think it depends on the game. 3D games look great on my RS1. However put in a side scroller such as some old Nintendo games and things look rather, well, blurry!

I don't think I was very clear above, but I was only agreeing with the suggestion of a HP screen. I have a Beamax 1.5 gain Matt White screen myself, but it's not very directional, so I get reflections back and forth from my walls and ceiling, so I created my 'Bat Tent' which works very well....in hindsight a more directional screen might have been better in my room (lightish walls and white ceiling).

Understood. I should probably setup something like a "bat tent" sometime just to see how much room reflections I'm really getting. My room is mainly darked but with my ceiling being under 8' and the projector very closed ot the ceiling I'm guessing that's where most of my reflections are coming from.

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate it. So when you say off-axis viewing you weren't talking hot spotting correct? The image on there are uniform but vary depending on your seating. Is that correct?

On a whole, the DILA technology is superior to LCD. Nothing against Panny or Epson, it is a technology limitation. The JVC is indeed brighter than either IF the Panny and Epson are properly calibrated (which they are not anywhere near out of the box).

I have upgraded people from the Panny and Epson to the JVC, but never gone the other way, if that tells you anything.

I upgraded from 6500ub to HD350 and my experience has been inline with the reviews, i.e., the JVC is (considerably) brighter than the Epson in best mode. Just chiming in to point out that your experience is more of an exception than the norm.

You have no idea how much difference a dark ceiling will make. My dedicated room used to be white, with black velvet on the screen wall. I recently put black felt on the ceiling, and black velvet on all the walls. WOW! Major improvement. If you can't do the whole ceiling, or all the walls, even a few feet of black on the ceiling and side walls will make a big difference, and really bring the focus to the screen. I have a 9' screen and used to view from 8-9 feet. When I redid the room I moved the couch back to 12'. The screen actually looks bigger now that the room is totally black.

Art

My screen wall is dark as is the ceiling ( a deep purplish-burgundy). But I also have boxed in around a support beam and vents on both sides of the screen which left me with the effect of having a sofit per say right next to the screen on each side which drops down about a foot. Even the it's darker I have a feeling I'm getting reflections from it being paint (flat enamel) rather than material. I do have posters on the walls but I took them down and it made no difference. I wish there was a way to easily put something up to see what results I would get.

Not hotspotting. The brightness was generally uniform no matter where I sat.
However, the brightness drops off very quickly off-axis. A few seats over and I was noticing a distinct drop in brightness.

I prefer to have the same image quality from pretty much any seat in my room, so the HP wasn't for me.