Ceiling Mounting the AE-700

In preparation for the purchase of either an AE-3000 or 6500UB, I have been moving around my 4+ yo AE-700. This past weekend, I purchased a universal mount from Monoprice and moved the AE-700 from ~20 ft (back of room shelf mount) to ~10.5 ft ceiling mount. My screen is 106" High Contrast Cinema Vision (HCCV), a gray screen rated at 1.1 gain, so I am just a tad too close to fill the entire screen. (Oddly it seems to fill horizontally but is a sliver too narrow vertically). This is my first attempt at ceiling mounting and alignment, and I would rather learn on the old than on a brand new one. The learning curve has been steep, but I am finally getting the hang of it and better understand how everything works.

What I have noticed is that the picture is definitely much brighter and has an apparent increase in sharpness. So far I am liking this change in mounting location, and I had someone ask me last night if I had purchased a new projector since it looked so much better. (I know I was stretching it to have the old projector that far from the screen).

Bottom line is that I can wait just a little bit longer now before the upgrade, and I don't think I would ever go back to shelf mount. Hopefully it will be an easy swap out when the new projector gets here.

What will it be: Panny 3000 or Epson 6500

The purchase of a new 1080p projector has been on hold all summer. The two main contenders are the Panasonic AE-3000 and the soon to be released Epson 6500U. The reviews of the 3000 are slowly rolling in, and they are mixed. They have made improvements in brightness and contrast, but it appears they haven't solved the dust blob issue. I have never had a dust blob on my SE-700, so I don't know if I have a cleaner environment, or if it is just luck of the draw.

The 3000 seems to have more user features, like the waveform monitor, zoom memory for 2:35 zooming, and color correction features. Some of these I would use, other features -not so much. If the Epson is quieter, less prone to dust blobs, and has a better brightness and contrast, I may be swayed to go that route. Predictions are that the Epson may be a few hundred more, but no street prices are available yet.

There is also the "Dark Knight" factor. I would like to have the projector installed and calibrated by the second week of December for the 'Dark Knight" movie night. The Epson looks like it will be delayed until around that time frame or longer. That might just be the thing that gets me to confirm the Panny purchase.

Until then, I keep reading and watching as all the information trickles in.