Epson 3010 or 8700UB for my living room?

Hi,

I am looking at either projector for my room. Placement should work for both though of course the 8700 is more flexible.

I am maybe not a true cinephile in that I will watch content without requiring a perfectly dark room, and I am okay projecting on my wall for now. The wall is gray, and its main issue really is the orange peel texture which softens images up. I will get a screen at some point or refinish the wall flat and use some Screen Goo or other screen paint. As is, the screen is like this:



I do not need the 3D of the 3010, though my kids enjoy it but one of them gets nauseous (probably because we have to sit pretty close: 12' or 13' for a 110" display). So I can easily loose that. I also do not think that I need a split image/PIP as my only sources are Blu-ray or my computer, and when on the computer I already have the LCD as an another (albeit smaller) display.

I do like rich pictures and from the reviews I have seen the 8700UB is fantastic at its price point. I am trying to figure out if an 8700UB would work well for day use (gaming for kids and random shows) as well as evenings. My kids play during the afternoon so that's pretty important so that I can watch something else on the evenings I want to. My son plays FPS so a better lag (8700UB) would be good but the high lumens of the 3010 definitely work well now...

What do you think based on the pictures below? Thanks!

My room is quite bright except at night. Here are a couple pictures of the windows in it at 10 a.m. (Seattle gray skies):





I got a 3010 to try, and here is what content (random snapshots from whatever Hulu was trying to push at me) looks like at that time. The projector is not calibrated. The first picture is in Living Room (Eco) mode:



The second picture is in Cinema (Eco) mode and is much more washed out.



Finally here is an image taken at night that same day (the ceiling is pure white hence the reflection).



I'd rather not have washed out pictures like the second one. Can the 8700UB deal with my room during the day well enough? Will night be fine? (I'd assume so, but of course in summer night comes much much later).

I know this coderguy but am afraid that I wouldn't have a bright enough image for day viewing? What do you think? I have updated my post with pictures of my room (with a 3010 projecting).

Also, do the 8700UB and the 8350 offer comparable lumens? I can get an 8350 to try but no 8700UB.

Are you talking about the back and blue "plasma" on my white wall? It is a photograph (a big one, 120x160 cm) but currently it's protected under plexiglas so I understand the confusion.

I can only find one review which has lower numbers (2200 lumens) but those are still 25% higher than the 3010's number (dynamic mode).

I am also right in thinking that lumens for the 8350 and 8700UB will be the same? I am trying an 8350 next to the 3010 and well... it's much dimmer as expected.

I had the 3010 projecting this morning and even in dynamic light the image was pretty washed out. BUT I am okay with that, as in: if it's bright outside, let's go play outside. I pretty rarely watch movies, liking being outside more. I am sure that having a projector may change the balance but I don't want to turn into a "watch all the time" guy.

Ironically, I exchanged my 3010 which had a loud iris for another one, and since that one was an open box (with only 11 hours on the lamp), and because some promo I had on the first one was not valid anymore, the clerk adjusted the price down which was very nice. So I got the 3010 with an extra 2 pairs of glasses (so 4 pairs total) for $1,400 after taxes (some of that is in a gift card but still... it's usable money). That's not bad at all! So I need to figure out if the extra lumens and the cool auto-adjustment to ambient light of the AR100 are worth a slightly higher price and the loss of 3D for the kids and some cool features (speakers for example).

Is anyone working on a comparison of the 3010 and the AR100 with a living room setup in mind (since both are friendly to those settings, and the AR100 definitely made for that).