[jjb]

I was out-of-town for a few days but I am happy to see another fellow AV consultant has joined this post, he as offered some great advise, and as you can tell with any product their are different price points and features available. The main items I have advise my clients with after determining their budget, is how large of a viewing area are they considering, room audio/video setup and most importantly the ambient light factor contained within their viewing room. How much is controlled, color of the walls, # of doorway openings, do they want some lights on during their video viewing. Remember unlike TV's, Plasma's, Rear Projectors where you see the final product within a short distance from its source regardless of the above factors, a front projector must project thru the ambient light and reflect back the video source, then relect the ambient light. It is not to say that for optimal viewing a room must be completly dark like a movie theater. My only comments regarding viewing on a screen or home made surface (painted or other) is you have spent a fair amount to get the best possible projector for you budget, you should also purchase a professional built screen that matches your projector and ambient light conditions.  Hope this help's, would be happy to offer several options based on an analysis of your factors as indicated above, please email me with any specfics.

[Kevin P]

I'm not opposed to shrinking the screen size.   I'm not looking for the largest screen.  I'd rather have a professional looking appearance (because this is a demo room) than maximize screen size at the expense of quality.  The room is only 11.5"W x 19"D.    A seating position at 15ft is not a problem.    Probably the best listening position from an acoustics standpoint is around 13ft but I won't really know until doing some measurements.  

In terms of screen material I'm not looking for the cheapest alternative.   I'm looking for reasonably good results that matches the price/performance of my choosen projector and my room.  DIY approaches are just fine (or commerical ones).  The H31 sounds like it meets my needs more than any other value projector on the market.   All of my source material will be standard DVDs.   I don't have any HDTV content and the projector will almost never be used for daytime TV watching.   For me the spending another $1000 on the better models doesn't seem wise.   I'm really not that picky about video quality but I want something that looks professional for demo purposes.  

Also... I need a portable screen (maybe a second screen) for audio shows where I'll be using the projector.   Part of the reason for using a projector is the ease with which I can use it for audio shows.