I've been enjoying a Panasonic AX200U for a few years now in my basement theater. After a few months of extensive remodeling we want to put a projector with an electric screen in our newly renovated living room/family room.
My intention from the beginning was to put a Panasonic 4000 in and have a 120" 16:9 screen drop in front of the television. Primarily movie watching but occasional sports and maybe a little tv now and then. I favor Panasonic because my 200 has been absolutely trouble free and a friend has been running a 4000 for two years now with zero problems.
Time to buy has arrived and I ran the calculator only to find out the 4000 will struggle with brightness for me. Throw distance will be 15' give or take a couple inches and the screen is slated to be 120" 16:9. Light control is no problem as viewing will be at night with blinds down and all lights off. If a table lamp is turned on during sports viewing we understand we'll sacrifice image quality but it won't be an issue.
I looked into the Panny 7000 to get more light but read about several issues with flickering. looked at the Epson's in spite of the fact I like Panny and would prefer a black projector (silly I know but we think it would look better in a living room) and I read about focus, convergence, and dust blobs.
Figured I'd jump all the way to JVC and looked at the RS45 only to see issues with those too.
Surprising as it may be my wife is ragging on me to get something in here and get it working but I'm stumped. I told her there are a lot of good projectors on the market but most seem to be a roll of the dice as far as getting a trouble free one is concerned.
Any help and comfort would be greatly appreciated. I'm still thinking the Panny 4000 with maybe a 1.4 gain screen but I don't want to wind up with an unusable screen in a few years if the projector gets upgraded.
I should mention that we have no real interest in 3D. In addition to a lack of interest my wife wears glasses and gets headaches watching 3D so if we would up stepping into a 3D projector the viewing would really be limited to 2D
My intention from the beginning was to put a Panasonic 4000 in and have a 120" 16:9 screen drop in front of the television. Primarily movie watching but occasional sports and maybe a little tv now and then. I favor Panasonic because my 200 has been absolutely trouble free and a friend has been running a 4000 for two years now with zero problems.
Time to buy has arrived and I ran the calculator only to find out the 4000 will struggle with brightness for me. Throw distance will be 15' give or take a couple inches and the screen is slated to be 120" 16:9. Light control is no problem as viewing will be at night with blinds down and all lights off. If a table lamp is turned on during sports viewing we understand we'll sacrifice image quality but it won't be an issue.
I looked into the Panny 7000 to get more light but read about several issues with flickering. looked at the Epson's in spite of the fact I like Panny and would prefer a black projector (silly I know but we think it would look better in a living room) and I read about focus, convergence, and dust blobs.
Figured I'd jump all the way to JVC and looked at the RS45 only to see issues with those too.
Surprising as it may be my wife is ragging on me to get something in here and get it working but I'm stumped. I told her there are a lot of good projectors on the market but most seem to be a roll of the dice as far as getting a trouble free one is concerned.
Any help and comfort would be greatly appreciated. I'm still thinking the Panny 4000 with maybe a 1.4 gain screen but I don't want to wind up with an unusable screen in a few years if the projector gets upgraded.
I should mention that we have no real interest in 3D. In addition to a lack of interest my wife wears glasses and gets headaches watching 3D so if we would up stepping into a 3D projector the viewing would really be limited to 2D
