How high (or low) to hang projector

I can't answer whether or not you are interpreting your numbers correctly, but my understanding of the panasonic projectors, indicates that at 5' to 6' you might want to consider setting it on top of a bookshelf at the back of the room rather than suspending it from the ceiling. I understand this is fairly common. My Panasonic AE900 sits about 5' from the floor (top of the screen is about 7' 8") in a shelving unit that also houses my DVD player and satellite reciever.

I just stared at the table and diagram for 15 minutes. Something is wrong. I would give a call to where you plan on buying the projector.
If you go to Panasonic.com and look up the manual for this projector you will find different instructions which will tell you you can pretty much put it close to the ceiling. Certainly above the top edge of the screen.

With lens shift as is available on this projector? I would not suspend it, I'd just shelf it high to the cieling.

I have not mounted a projector using amount since the advent of lens shift in LCD projectors. Years now.

I have the 3000u hanging from my ceiling so maybe I can help. Yes, that diagram is confusing and incorrect.

First, are you planning to use the automatic 16/9 <-> Scope zoom feature?

If yes, then the most you can offset the PJ is to the edge of the screen. By that i mean, if you plan to hang the PJ, and the top edge of your screen is 7' off the ground, the lens of the PJ has to be at about 7' or lower to make use of the auto zoom feature. (I will clarify, you can have more of an offset and still technically "use" the auto-zoom feature, it is just that with more offset than the top of the screen, when you zoom out to the scope setting the large offset will cause the image to shift too far down and will result in the scope image being shown on the lower part of your screen and the wall below it.)

If you do not plan to use auto zoom, you can have even more offset than just to the top of the screen. I believe you can have it as much as half of a screen height above the top edge of the screen (so the lens of the PJ would be a full screen height above the center point of the screen on your wall) but don't quote me as I'm not positive. If you trawl the huge 3000u thread I believe they covered this a few times.

Lastly, if I haven't made it confusing enough, as I said above you *can* still technically use the auto-zoom feature even if you have the PJ lens mounted above the top edge of your screen. It is just that every time you zoom in and out, you will need to manually dail in the lens offset to get the picture to raise/lower back in place to fill your screen (which kind of eliminates the "automatic" part, but adjusting vertical lens offset is still much easier and quicker than manually adjusting zoom or focus imo. So the auto-zoom feature would still have some merit.)

-Suntan

Yup, if you can keep the lens within the boundary of the top and bottom of the screen, you should be good to go for auto-zoom.

Do keep in mind though, in case you weren't planning to mount the PJ directly in line with the screen, the PJ needs to be centered on the screen (no right/left lens shift) to auto-zoom too. If it is shifted left/right, then the picture will slide off the side of your screen when you zoom in (you can always manually re-adjust it each time you zoom, the same way I described when the PJ lens is hanging above the top of the screen.)

-Suntan