Aspect Ratio - please help.

1.85 is essentially 1.78 (or 16:9) Not a lot out there in the 1.85 ratio.

You need to decide on a projector and room configuration before you can make this decision. The reason is that virtually all projectors are 16:9 and you get the wider scope ration either by zooming in to fill the screen while letting the overscan spill over the top and bottom, or by using a (very expensive) anamorphic lens and a projector that supports anamorphic playback.

The problem with the zoom method is that you didn't say 100% 2.35 movies, so next year when friends come over for the Superbowl, you will find the image spill over the top and bottom of the screen and you will need to zoom back out. This is painful unless you have power zoom. I would never recommend a 2.35 screen for anyone buying an Epson, Mitsu or any other projector without power zoom.

it will look just fine. Blacks on that PJ are supposed to be quite good. It'll be a non-issue for most. You could save even more money and just get the epson 8700 with free bulb too. Same projector.

Are you working with a custom installer? If not, you might consider the 8700 instead of the 9700. The 9700 is designed for custom install and has some extra profit built in. It includes a mount and a longer warranty, but otherwise is an 8700 with a different colored case.

If you are going 2.35 the anamorphic lens is definitely the way to go. However, as you found, it isn't cheap. When everything is set up properly, the anamorphic setup uses the full LCD panel, so you would get a higher resolution image. Letterboxing wastes part of the panel by displaying the black bars.

If you go with a 16:9 screen, you may want to consider velvet masking panels for the 2.35 material. The 8700/9700 is better than the 8350, but you will still see dark gray bars in the letterbox area. It doesn't bother me much, but it does for some people. Masking panels are a lot cheaper than anamorphic lenses though.

Also, a gray screen will improve on the black level performance and also allow a little more ambient light in the room. However, it does cut back on overall brightness. Shouldn't be a problem with this projector but it is something to consider.

I recently started keeping track of the movies I watched to see what percentage were in widescreen (scope) format. So far, of 14 movies, 12 were widescreen, about 86%. Still a small sample size, but I am surprised the ratio is so high.

Here are a couple of articles that may interest you:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/buil...pect_ratio.htm

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/2798

I run about a 50/50 split between scope and 16x9. I find the movies intended to be more visually appealing are almost always done on scope - Avatar aside.

Yes- 2.35 or 2.4. These have been mostly on DVD, with maybe a couple of HiDef pay-per-view in the mix. I suspect anything that's widescreen on DVD would be that way on Blu-ray also.

Just IMO - commercial cinemas have very large, wall sized screens. I believe this allows them to show older "classic" films (3:1) as well as letterbox as well as ultra wide like CinemaScope.

This is why we learned that a taller, more square screen is superior to the short height rectangular screens.

If you're concerned with the distraction of the scaling "black bars" that ALL projectors throw when content aspect ratio is different from the PJ's native aspect ratio then get a gray screen material and suffer the consequences of a LOT less light reflected back into the room/eyes of viewers and the black bars are almost invisible.

I enjoy old 3:1 films, made for NTSC TV 4:3, made for N.America HDTV 16:9 and very wide screen films and I've found that with a very tall and more square screen I can adjust the image to the best size regardless of content aspect ratio.

movies come in 1.85, 2.35 and 2.40. Personally, unless you have anamorphic lens or have memory lens like the Panasonic 4000, i would stay away from 2.35 screens. Between zooming and lens shifting, its a pain in the butt switching between aspect ratios

It's just a one button procedure viewing 16:9 material on a 2.35 screen with my Mitsubishi HC4000, and I have been told most all Mitsubishi home theater projector models will do the same thing.