[jackuzi]

Hi all,

I've been dying to get into large screen viewing for ages now and last night bought a 2nd hand PJ. It's an NEC MT1000, got it for a fantastic price and couldn't be happier.

I have a couple of questions I'd be grateful if you could answer.

The lamp life is at 511 hours and the manual quotes changing it at 2000 hours/6 months. Should it be okay to delay changing it until the 2000th hour?

Can you recommend a good place (price wise) to get a new lamp?

Is it worth buying one now? I'm worried that as this PJ is nearing 5 years old, they may discontinue the bulb required for it.

I have made a screen out of an old coffee table!! hehe (yes really!!). The picture is unbelievable even before painting it white/grey. Can you recommend the best paint/covering I could use to improve the picture.

If anyones interested, I'll be taking some picture and will put them on a site soon.

Cheers all,

Glen

[Gary Lightfoot]

Paint half matt white, and the other Icestorm 5 or 6 (or all three) and see which one looks the best to you.

Then paint it that colour.

Gary.

[jackuzi]

Thanks for the advice, all 1 of you!! hehe only joking.

I went out and bought a litre of Ice storm no.6 today. Will try it at the weekend, glad I bought those paint pads off QVC now!!

I've also been looking around for a wall mount screen. Have found a 70" x 70" wall-mounted screen for £61.50 from Selectasize. It's heavy-duty material apparently??

Any ideas what this screen would be like?

Cheers

Uzi

[Gary Lightfoot]

I couldn't say, but it seems good value.

The advantage of a 'proper' screen can be the optical coating if it has a gain greater than zero. This can give the image more 'punch' than a painted screen, so may be better. Especialy if the pj is a low lumen one.

Is yours the 2100 lumen model? If so, I would think that you'd be fine with the paint, but for the sake of £60, it wouldn't hurt to see what the proper screen is like. Does it say what it is meant for? Slide or Cine film screens tend to be very grainy if the one I used was anything to go by.

Gary.

[jackuzi]

Hi mate,

The url for the screens is

http://www.selectasize.ision.co.uk/screens.htm

I can't find much info on the screens from this site. I have emailed the company for some more info.

My PJ is 500 ANSI lumens. Specs are here if you're interested

http://www.projectorsprojectors.com/projector6/9.html

Must say for nearly 5 years old and only costing me £375 it's the nuts. Might put a few noses out of joint here...but the only other PJ I've seen is an AE100 and it compares equally to that IMO.

Cheers

Uzi

[Gary Lightfoot]

Due to the low lumens, you'll probably benefit from a 1.3 gain screen or higher, a grey screen would help contrast but would be a lower gain. A 1.3 gain grey screen would be far more expensive thna your pj.

If you're already getting a good picture then I'm sure matte white would be an improvement on the coffee table!

The selectasize screen would probably be unity gain if matte white, so I'm not sure how much better it would be than your matte white paint. It might look nicer on the wall though.

If you're happy with the painted screen or the selectascreen, then stick with that. More expensive screens may give a better picture, but you'd really need to see them with your pj to see if they really warrant the expense.

Gary.