[nobby]

Folks

Advice please!

Seriously thinking of doing some big changes in my AV room nothing fully decided yet, but pondering on going anamoprhic with potentail projector change (JVC HD350) and new screen ...

Thinking of the PRISMASONIC solution including their 100" curved screen?

what are your thoughts, is it wise to go to 2.35 format or stick with 16x9 ... concerned with having black borders left and right but at the sametime think the benefits of anamorphic will be better. with the use of my radiance v.p. will this help at all?

i have a budget in mind and unless i got a super deal on an ISCO lens kit i believe this is not an option and the SONIC range is just about in my budget

anyone any advice on this setup would be greatly appreciated, or if any of you know of decent lens kits being offered up that might be better than the proposed solution please DO let me know

regards

[KelvinS1965]

I'm doing the 'poor mans' anamorphic (zooming using the lens memory on my AE3000) and I love it. I'm lucky in that my room is 14 foot wide so I'm not width limited, which is the usual arguement against going anamorphic. My 16:9 viewing is still about 98" diagonal so not exactly small and the side bars that you refer to are very black because they are not produced by the PJ, only lit by any reflected light off the walls, etc. In fact I've not got round to making any side masking as it's hardly necessary in my setup.

Your Radience should allow you to leave the lens in place all the time, should you wish, by stretching or squeezing the image in the appropriate direction for 2.35:1 or 16:9 films, with one button press. You can still remove the lens for 16:9 for 'purest' image quality, but many say that with a good lens and scaler they don't find it necessary. I'd love a Radience myself, to allow accurate colour gamut settings, plus the improved SD upscaling. Having only bought my AE3000 a few months ago and recently my custom Beamax screen, maybe I'd better be a bit more frugal.

I'm sure you'll get arguements both ways as it seems to be a very devisive subject, but hopefully someone who actually has a lens will chime in soon. If you deceide to give your Radience away to charity....I'm a good cause.

[warbie]

I can't help with advice, but would certainly go for a anamoprhic/2.35 setup if funds permitted. Bar the odd movie and tv show, the only 16:9 material I watch is video games, which tend to benefit from extra lumens and I end up reducing the picture size anyways. A cih setup with some kind of side masking would be the best of all worlds imo

There's some good thread in the avs forum cih section that are well worth checking out if you haven't already.

[nobby]

Originally Posted by KelvinS1965

Your Radience should allow you to leave the lens in place all the time, should you wish, by stretching or squeezing the image in the appropriate direction for 2.35:1 or 16:9 films, with one button press. You can still remove the lens for 16:9 for 'purest' image quality, but many say that with a good lens and scaler they don't find it necessary. I'd love a Radience myself, to allow accurate colour gamut settings, plus the improved SD upscaling. Having only bought my AE3000 a few months ago and recently my custom Beamax screen, maybe I'd better be a bit more frugal.

I'm sure you'll get arguements both ways as it seems to be a very devisive subject, but hopefully someone who actually has a lens will chime in soon. If you deceide to give your Radience away to charity....I'm a good cause.

Hi

many thanks for the response ... seriously looking into this ... however some of the prices re lenses are quite frankly ludicrous and with budget already stretched the prismsonic is effectively only just in my price range.

good to hear the radiance will come to the rescue in certain aspects, but i will be looking Gordan @ Convergent to do a re-calibrate on everything anyways.

as for 'giving' the radiance away ... NOT likely, not exactly cheap to purchase in the 1st place

will keep posted on progress

[nobby]

Originally Posted by warbie

I can't help with advice, but would certainly go for a anamoprhic/2.35 setup if funds permitted. Bar the odd movie and tv show, the only 16:9 material I watch is video games, which tend to benefit from extra lumens and I end up reducing the picture size anyways. A cih setup with some kind of side masking would be the best of all worlds imo

There's some good thread in the avs forum cih section that are well worth checking out if you haven't already.

cheers mate

will have a look for sure, too much reading sometimes does my head in and usually its best just to fire the question out agai. i guess with redoing my visual side of things again plus i have to change my screen due to it losing it tension after 6+ yrs ... the time is right to look at what options are available to me and if i can stretch the budget to meet the demands of anamorphic i will consider it but the likes of lenses by ICOS are well out of my price bracket ... paramorph was just as bad

[warbie]

Originally Posted by KelvinS1965

My 16:9 viewing is still about 98" diagonal so not exactly small and the side bars that you refer to are very black because they are not produced by the PJ, only lit by any reflected light off the walls, etc.

Hi Kelvin. If you don't mind me asking - how much did that screen set you back and what are it's dimensions?

[KelvinS1965]

Originally Posted by warbie

Hi Kelvin. If you don't mind me asking - how much did that screen set you back and what are it's dimensions?

I'd prefer not to publisize the price as with the exchange rate now I don't think it's fair on the suppliers, as I doubt they would be able to come close to it now. The size is as per my signature, which is 112" wide. This is equivalent to a 128" diagonal 16:9 screen, it's just that I don't have any black bars when watching 2.35:1 films.

[Gary Lightfoot]

I first went anamorphic some time back, initially with a Prismasonic lens, and then with a used ISCO II that came up at a good price (and sold the H1000). I think the Prismasonic lesnes are great value right now but used ISCO IIs could be had for around £600 a while back, so you might want to get the Prismasonic lens and then if you think an ISCO would be better, wait until a second hand one becomes available. The ISCO was better then the Prismasonic H1000 lens I had but I think the new lenses have improved.

I found that I didn't use the pass through mode much on the Prismasonic lens when I was watching 16:9 stuff, so when I eventually got the ISCO I used it as a fixed lens and just scaled 16:9 material horizontally to fit 16:9. You'd be hard pushed to tell the difference to be honest, and you only lose resolution with HD 16:9 material.

I made a scope screen from wood and blackout cloth to see if things would work OK and then bought some Draper M1300 material when I was happy with everything.

I'm currently without a projector since moving house, but I still have the ISCO lens and will be going 2.35:1 when I get round to the new cinema room. I don't think I could go back to 16:9 to be honest now.

Gary

[nobby]

Hi Gary

thanks for the response, much appreciated.

Good to hear the Prismsonic is a decent purchase ... at the moment an ISCO is way outta budget unless i got a second hand one but i have done a bit of diggin on different sites etc but not been in any luck ... so more than likely invest in the 1000 series PS is offering.

i could wait for a ISCO but how long for? i need to start making plans on way forward as i am looking into changing all aspects of my visual system pj, screen etc and need to get sorted

the whole reason why i am considering going to anamorphic and changing setup is to get more from HD ... will this not be the case with 16x9 formatting?

i would be happy to purchase the PS curved screen they offer as i would prefer a manufactured screen rather than a DIY one

good to hear that once u do this you don't look back, just a slight concern of losing pic quality when viewing HD source as this is what i want to improve with the new setup.

If you consider letting your ISCO go give me a shout sure!

thanks for the great advice ... much appreciated ... will update on progress as and when it happens

regards

Originally Posted by Gary Lightfoot

I first went anamorphic some time back, initially with a Prismasonic lens, and then with a used ISCO II that came up at a good price (and sold the H1000). I think the Prismasonic lesnes are great value right now but used ISCO IIs could be had for around £600 a while back, so you might want to get the Prismasonic lens and then if you think an ISCO would be better, wait until a second hand one becomes available. The ISCO was better then the Prismasonic H1000 lens I had but I think the new lenses have improved.

I found that I didn't use the pass through mode much on the Prismasonic lens when I was watching 16:9 stuff, so when I eventually got the ISCO I used it as a fixed lens and just scaled 16:9 material horizontally to fit 16:9. You'd be hard pushed to tell the difference to be honest, and you only lose resolution with HD 16:9 material.

I made a scope screen from wood and blackout cloth to see if things would work OK and then bought some Draper M1300 material when I was happy with everything.

I'm currently without a projector since moving house, but I still have the ISCO lens and will be going 2.35:1 when I get round to the new cinema room. I don't think I could go back to 16:9 to be honest now.

Gary

[Bert Coules]

This is just to point out for anyone interested that I have a second-hand (but perfect condition) ISCO II lens up on the Classifieds, here.

Edited to add:

The lens is now sold.

Thanks,

Bert