Question about the AE2000

Take a look at the Carada screens (carada.com) or give AVS a call.

I would go with a 1.0 or higher gain (white). It is not a very bright projector in Color 1. With carada, I'd definitely go with the 1.4 gain. I preferred it over the 1.0 which, at that time, seemed to let a lot of light through.

The picture is very viewable in some ambient light in normal or dynamic with this screen, I like cinema 3 with the lights off for that true "movie" experience.
My throw distance is 12' 5"

In retrospect I wish I had gone 126"

I have a 92"dia BW Carada and the 2000U and its great do not go grey what ever you do.

I have a 100" Carada BW and I agree. Don't do grey.

Elio

Not to stray away form the thread and all, but since we're on the subject, I'm just curious to see what aspect ratio did you guys go with?

Living in the Middle East, my selection was pretty limited over 3 years ago and I went with a Dalite pull-down, but would like to upgrade to a Carada sometime soon.

Thanks.

http://store.proviewdigital.com/PT-AE2000U.html
http://www.projectorpeople.com/
http://www.carada.com/

I have mine ceiling mounted (from a 9 foot suspended/drop ceiling in my basement - projecting on a DIY 160" drywall screen painted a neutral gray (Easyflex N8 per Tiddler's formula) from a 18 foot distance. Plan to add a couple of pearlizing topcoats when I finally get the Folkart pearlizing medium. But I could even do without the pearlizing coats - as the picture is really bright and accurate colors. I am using the 'Eco' mode and 'Normal' picture setting. I also like the Cinema 1 setting. Dynamic is too bright.

My wall was originally white - and I painted the wall half gray to see if there would be a difference. The neutral gray brought out deeper blacks, richer colors. The 'whites' got muted a little (..very slightly) - but they were very bright anyways on a white wall to begin with. I am hoping the with the pearling coat the Whites will improve a tad.

Room is completely light contolled - but even with some ambient lighting - the picture looks amazing. You will have to re-calibrate the projector / picture after doing the screen gray (if you so choose) using DVD essentials or just a plain old THX set up menu in one of the DVD's. (ex. Pirates of the Caribbean and Finding Nemo have a THX set-up option)

I have it hooked to the Panny DMP-BD30 Blu-Ray player. Enjoying every second of it !!

speaking of avs

I was helping a complete newbie to set up a 10k HT and he got enough left for a vutec ss so i sent him to avs. He is a photography guy and a long time BH customer so he asked if avs a price match with BH is possible. avs reluctantly agreed but asked for the same amount back if he is to get a different frame, black he said. Discount Price is only valid for silver, black is extra.

He called BH and of course they knew nothing about that so i told him to get from whatever he felt right. He got a respond back from vutec support, they only have one standard color frame. I didn't dig much into it, my guess is velvet trim covered the border. He ordered one right away from BH.

I meant... i heard a lot of great thing about avs but this is ridiculous and i feel ashamed seding friends to a place that pulling price trick. Anyway, unfortunately for him, Vutec can't produce enough SS. It've been back ordered for weeks, the 10k setup is missing the only screen. I should have send him to Carada.

I was in your shoes recently on deciding on a screen for my Panny 2000U. My PJ is going to be ceiling mounted (8' high) in my living room with a viewing distance of 12'. I was looking for screens between 106"-110" and have some small ambient light coming in the room.

Hence I was considering:

1. Da-lite HCCV 110" (Perm-wall or Cinema Contour)
2. Carada Brilliant white (110")
3. Optoma Grey Wolf II 106"

I was really interested in having a screen with a dark wide border/frame of around 3" atleast. After doing some cost analysis I figured that the first two screens were too expensive with a proper velvet border of 3" (as of now). So ended up buying the Optoma Grey Wolf 106" (1.8 gain) screen from CircuitCity. Ya you read it right .... of all the places 'CircuitCity'. The reason being cost. Here's a sample of how much I spent:

<<a href="http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Optoma-GrayWolfII-Fixed-Frame-Screen-DF-GWII9106F/sem/rpsm/oid/177447/catOid/-13039/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do" target="_blank">List Price at CC> - 10% off coupon online from AAA.com - 2% Fatwallet cash back - $125 mail-in rebate from CC + Tax = Pretty good price

Now I have not yet installed it as my PJ is still on its way from the dealer and will get here early next week. I will try to post some pictures once everything is installed.

This screen is currently out of stock online as well as in-store at CC but gets in-stock once in a while (atleast on their website). I tracked it for a few days and bought it when it showed in-stock on their online system.

Since you have a 9 foot ceiling I would go with a 120 inch diagnal 16:9 carada BW. I only have an 8 foot ceiling and from viewing 14 feet away (first row) it's ALMOST too small with a 100 incher. Now, I could go bigger but I would have to move my front tower speakers to the sides of the screen.
Basically, with your setup you could go bigger especially with the 1080P rez, hence no SDE

Glad to see that someone else made the same choice with this PJ . I went with the Grey1.8 from FocusPix coz CC was out of stock on the GW2...

Screens are tough. All your really going to get input wise is what different people prefer.

I'd say go with White Matt and 1.3 gain. The real problem with higher gains screens in you gain virtually nothing out of it unless you mount the projector square center of the screen.

Grey screens tend to give odd looking whites to me, higher gain screens produce all sorts of oddities too.

After you gain more experience and see more different owners theaters you will start to get a feel for the type of screen you would actually prefer. Tough on the first time buyer without a lot of FP experience for sure.

If I were in your situation, I would carve out the money for a great screen and, if necessary, settle for a lesser projector. I'll soon upgrade to a 1080p PJ, but my current setup is an AE900 (w/2700 lamp hours) illuminating a 142" Carada Criterion Brilliant White 1.4 16x9 screen. Those sell for about $1200 delivered. The screen is almost three years old and is the same one I would buy today. PJs on the other hand quickly become obsolete. Have you considered starting with a 720p (like the AX200) and investing more in a screen? I would be in a bigger hurry to go with a 1080p PJ if the AE900 didn't throw such a nice image. I sit at ~13'.

Ok another update from me now .... you might have seen my post above about the Optoma GreyWolf 106" screen..... Well the update is that the screen has now been returned to CircuitCity.

I tried it with the Panny 2000 and although the colors were good, the brightness suffered and the screen seemed to dim the picture a bit. I could also see something similar to SSE (Silk screen effect) probably due to the glass beads from the screen. Anyways I was within CCs extended return policy dates so didn't have to pay any restocking fees, etc.. (got full refund)


So kjohn is 100% right .....

I myself have now ordered a 106" Carada Brilliant White for my Panny . I will post some more details once it arrives early next week.

i have the carada 114 bw with the ae 2000 i think anything bigger would have been to much it is perfect for my room 23 by 15 two rows of seating 14 ft and about 19 ft elevated everyone loves it

I told YA!!!!

I recently bought the greywolf 92" to go with my 2000 because i heard the grey screens are better for rooms with ambient light. I havent tried it yet-should be delivered next week-so I dont know how it looks yet.
My room is NOT light controlled and in fact has quite a lot of light during the day.
Would the grey be better for my situation or do you guys still recommend the white?