[dunkyboy]

Due to an unfortunate turn of events, I'm unable to get the NEC LT240 from the States like I'd intended. So instead I'm going to go for a Sanyo Z1. Anyway, it should be here tomorrow or Thursday, so I havea few questions.

How many Z1 owners out there have used a Z1 with a grey screen? For instance the Draper High Contrast Grey. Is the Z1 bright enough to still produce a nice image with a grey screen?

Also, what kind of filters have people been using? I noticed on that rather fantastic French site that, using ColorFacts for calibration, it was determined that the CC30R would be ideal. How does this look? Does it make sense to combine the filter and grey screen, or will that make the image too dim?

It may be worth noting that I plan to project onto an 8-foot (wide) screen, though I do have good light control in my room.

Cheers,

Dunc

P.S. - Apologies if these questions have been answered a bajillion times already, but I haven't been following Z1 threads (as I thought I was getting an LT240), and it's quite hard to search for past Z1 threads as the search engine requires words of at least 3 characters!

[severnsource]

Adequate brightness is rather subjective, and depends on the ambient light level, but I would not recommend a grey screen if you're going to use a filter and cinema mode.

I use a nine foot wide white (no gain) screen with my Z1 in cinema mode and a Hoya FLD filter, and the brightness is OK in a totally light controlled room. It would be too dim with a grey screen. In the unlikely event that a white screen was too bright, you could always use an ND filter.

Bill

[dunkyboy]

Thanks, I wasn't ever suggesting it would be too bright. My previous PJ was a 1600 lumen business PJ and that wasn't too bright (though it did look better with an FL-D...) That said, my friend across the hall has a Sharp PG-M20X and that is too bright without a filter - but that's a 1900 lumen PJ and his room is a bit wee so we have to sit pretty close.

Anyway, thanks for the info. I don't suppose you've tried it with a grey screen? If the combination of grey screen and filter is too much, I'd really like to know which of the two is better. I already have a matt white screen, and I can get an FL-D cheap. So the grey screen would be the bigger expense (and hassle) by far, at about £270ish. Would it be worth the outlay, or would I be better off just sticking with my white screen and a filter, and putting the extra cash towards a Lexicon?

The other question is - has anyone tried both an FL-D and a CC30R? Would the latter be too much? The aforementioned fantastic French site used ColorFacts to show that the CC30R can bring the Z1's colour to near perfection. Obviously I don't have the cash for ColorFacts so I'd be calibrating it by eye + Video Essentials (+ maybe AVIA if I can scrounge up a wee bit more cash).

Anyway, lot of questions, sorry for the epic length post(s)...

Thanks again,

Dunc

P.S. - What size threading does the Z1 have? I.e. what diameter filter do I need to buy?

[severnsource]

I haven't tried a grey screen. Thinking about it, it may be a better option if you've got light coloured decoration, the stray light does reduce the contrast very slightly, but as the blacks aren't that black I don't find it a problem.

Personally I'd go for the filter and a white screen.

I'd only use one colour correction filter. If you want less brightness use your colour correction filter and a neutral density filter.

In order to get accurate colours you need to have the right three primaries to start with, which I don't think the Z1 has, and you need to be able to adjust black level, gain, and ideally gamma, for each colour separately. The Z1 only has one user control per colour, so I would be very surprised if you could get accurate colour rendition out of it. In my view this is its biggest failing.

The Z1 doesn't have a filter thread. You use a 52mm filter in reverse, the internal thread provides a sort of interference fit on the lens; and then falls off when you try to adjust focus.

Bill

[dunkyboy]

Is there no way of getting into the service menu and adjusting R, G, and B bias/gain properly? Or is it just the relative controls in the regular interface? The French site (have a look: http://franckhc.free.fr/indexcorps_comparo.htm) seemed to imply that near-perfect colour calibration could be had with a CC30R and appropriate tweaking of the RGB values. I may have interpreted the data incorrectly, though (or maybe they have?)

Anyway, thanks very much for your advice.

For now I'm going to go with my white screen and an FL-Day filter. If I feel it still needs tweaking I might try the CC30R instead. If I'm still unsatisfied I'll give the grey screen a go, and play around with various combinations of screen and filter.

Thanks again,

Dunc

[avanzato]

I tried a sample of grey screen and it did darken the blacks but it was also .8 gain so the picture was dimmed too.

The light output of the Z1 isn't that big to start with and I think the combination of a grey screen and filter would be too much.