Fishman - boy, is your topic timely for me! I also did a search regarding flicker, in the high end threads yesterday morning, and found nothing. I have a Panasonic AE1000U, which is 49 weeks old, and which has three more weeks on warranty. My problem sounds slightly (well, maybe significantly) different from yours. I guess when we use the word "flicker", as its commonly used, we're refering to a quick, improperly variable light view - and in that sense, my problem isn't a flicker - my issue, which just started a week ago, is an intermittent slight darkening of the picture on the screen, and then a slight lightening, but not quickly, sometimes two or tree minutes between changes - and boy is it distracting, isn't it! Two nights ago my friends who had joined me spontaneously commented on what they were being disturbed by - this finally prompted my search here. I just spent 47 minutes this morning watching the beginning of another movie, and unlike a couple of nights ago, when the "flicker was obvious every two or three minutes, it may have happened (I'm not really certain) only once this morning.
From what I've read here so far, you've already received some potentially useful and valuable suggestions about locating the source of your problem. I would encourage you to read my long post to the end, as I may have something useful for you before I'm done.
I'm not certain as to why you are not able to make use of some of the suggestions which have been made to you so far. But to step back a moment, it sounds as if you've certainly ruled out the projector as a source of the problem, considering that Panasonic Service couldn't replicate it (and you have a new bulb to boot!). And I assume that your source players are not the problem, as from your discourse it sounds as if you've tried all three, with the same flicker showing up. Sooooooo, logically enough, you've identified what SEEMS to be left, the receiver, as the source of the problem. Well, that may be the problem for both you and me! BUT, it may not be. And before I get to another consideration, I have a question.
It has already been suggested to you that you connect one of your sources (the DVR, the Playstation, etc.), directly into the Panasonic Projector. For some reason of which I'm not entirely clear, this doesn't seem to be an option to you. If I read you correctly, your inablility to do this appears to be either 1) the impossiblity of moving one of your source components, 2) not being able to connect otherwise, because of the 35 feet distance, and a cable that's buried in the wall, or 3) the impossibility of hooking another input into the back of your projector. If the latter is the issue, I don't understand, as you must have some access to the inputs on the back of the projector? Or, you may be taking account of the fact that you only have the one very expensive HDMI cable buried in the wall!
Well, I hate to suggest another alternate to the receiver being the problem, but here it is. Could it be the cable!? I imagine your next step is to circumvent your receiver by plugging the back end of that 35 foot HDMI cable you have into one of your source 1080 players. If you still have the flicker, then it could well be the cable! And you could test that (I suppose), by placing one of your 1080 source players directly under the projector (I assume its on the ceiling), and connecting it to the usual HDMI input on the projector with any cheap 10 foot HDMI cable (even most HDMI cheap cables will work up to ten feet in length).
By the way, my next test will be to test the receiver as the source, by running around it, and if I still get "flicker" then I'll test my fifty-five foot in-wall cable with just the way I've suggested last, above.
I have spent the better part of four days during the latter part of last year studying HDMI transmission and the problems thereof. When we hear about such problems, its usually in connection with the cables themselves. And then we hear about either "sparkly" noise or no picture at all being caused by poor transmission over the cable. And usually it is the cable causing such problems - I must admit I've never heard of "flicker" being caused by such mis-transmission, but here is why it might be possible. The 19 separate conductors inside all HDMI cables are often connected in a rather tenuous way to their plugs and receptacles, and the latter being an issue in the projector/tv or the receiver or other source device.
You might also consider gently wiggling the back end of the HDMI cable where it connects to your receiver - if this momentarily corrects the problem (or makes it more immediately apparant or worse), then it could be either the cable or the receiver's internal socket connections.
That's all I have at the moment - I'll be back here within a day or two if I identify anything as a source of the problem on my end, and I hope you'll do the same.
By the way, if you or anyone else out ther is considering purchasing any HDMI cables, without reservation I would recommend Blue Jeans HDMI cables, which are a darned sight less expensive than the horribly overpriced Monster or even more outrageous products out there. As of even a few months ago, all of Blue Jeans' HDMI cables were the only ones built in this country instead of China - they're built by Belden in Indiana, using a new Belden patent for manufacture of the precision twisted wire pairs found in HDMI cables to assure that they maintain required capactance over very long runs - they meet the "eye" test in all cases! And no, I'm not associated with Blue Jeans.
