Upgraded My Home Theatre

Hapatingjaky

New member
Well, I did something stupid today. One of the idiots that owns a company in the building I work at asked me about setting up a projector in his offices so that he can do presentations and such. I told him I'd bring in my BenQ W1080ST and set it up so he can decide what he wants to do. So I brought it in this morning set everything up and he was amazed by it. Then asked me how much? Told him $600.00, he refused but I could tell he really wanted it. I told him I'll leave it in here so that he can play with it for the day and I'll pick it up at the end of the day and I'll find something cheaper. I knew what was coming, at the end of the day when I went to grab it he had $600.00 for me. So I sold it and yes this is the same BenQ 1080ST that had the fireball fly out of it lol.

So I've been looking at the Epson Home Cinema 3000, thought price is good at $1400.00, meh why not. Called up the local MemoryExpress, put one on hold and headed out after work. Decided I'll stop in at the local Visions next door to MemExpress first just to see what they got. On display the guy had a BenQ HT1085, Epson Home Cinema 3000 and the Epson Home Cinema 5030UB. Told him what I was using it for, mainly movies, TV and the occasional PS4. So he showed me the 1085 and it was basically what I was using, showed me the 3000 which was a better picture then my 1080/1085 but better blacks, alot quieter and alot nice color. Then he showed me the 5030 and I was like DAFUQ!? Gaming was so ****ing smooth, watching Transformers AOE compared to the 3000/1080/1085 was like night and day like just phenomenal.

So here's the kicker, the 5030 is on sale for 2599.99, the 3000 is 1399.99, the sales rep gave me another $300 off, 2 pairs of glasses free and since he Impala is the shop for a tuneup he paid my cab ride across town to pick up the projector and back to my house. :up:

Now I have some setting up to do, since its no longer a short throw I have some re-arranging to do.
 
Gotta love competition eh? Look forward to seeing :Pics:

Tip to the wise, never discount London Drugs for Home Theater equipment. Manager specials happen on weekends and are purposefully done unadvertised ;)
 
I had to order some new cables as I had to move the projector back. Unfortunately I could not get to 200" like I had on my 1080ST at the same distance. I have to move it to min of 11' away. I ended up moving it back to 15' and hit 360", then adjusted it back down to 200". Best part its now behind my theater seating instead of on a table in front.

But I have run in to a few problems. One being the fact I needed to order a longer HDMI cable. I ordered a Redmere Cabernet Ultra CL2 40' cable to reach my Pioneer VSX-1128K from the 5030UB. The second issue is similar to the issue I originally had on the 1080ST which would be the image cutting in and out. Now this problem was caused by a few things, first off the 3' Redemere slim 18Gbps cable I had was a problem, I replaced it. Second I believe I needed to set the resolution to 1080p manually from the receiver instead of having it on pure. Third I think I may need to purchase a 5v powered extender through CAT6 to boost the signal. The issue I am having is identical but I think I may have kinked the 15' Ultra Slim Redemere cable I had purchased when I got the 1080ST so I bent the cable at the end where it meets the projector last night and I also reset my receiver and set it to 1080p. Signal never cut out.

What I want to do is get a new 200" screen, move the receiver maybe get the Pioneer Elite SC-91, HDPVR, Samsung Blu-ray player and my PS4 behind the theater seating with the projector. Purchase some new Redmere 18Gbps cables that are only 6' long cutting down on the cable length and any problems. Lastly purchase a Logitech Harmony Elite to control everything.

Its going to be awesome and I plan to go broke doing it.:D
 
PIC's were taken using my new Note 5:

The 5030UB
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The only true GhostBusters
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Loki
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Now I won't lie, it hasn't been easy setting this up. Firstly I still don't have a screen, I still need to pick one up but am having issues with what to purchase. Probably a 1.0g with a MATTE grey finish for both 3D and great for blacks and whites. This is probably going to end up costing another $2000 alone to find something with atleast 190" viewable.

The projector itself is awesome, very quiet at its default operation. But going off the menu's I was a bit confused as to some of the options as they are not the same as they are in the manual. For instance there is no ECO mode, contrary to what it states in the manual. All that shows up in the menu is NORMAL and EXTRA BRIGHT. Now does this mean Normal = ECO mode??? I don't know as I haven't been able to locate any info on this. Second there is a distinct audio/video lag unless you adjust settings. Now when I got this I watched Fast 7 on it and never really noticed the lag immediately. What is strange that I played some Mortal Kombat X on it and never noticed any audio visual lag. It wasn't until I watched Spy that I saw it all. But there are ways around eliminating it. Under the Frame Interpolation option you have 4 settings:

OFF ( best image quailty but slight audio visual lag )
LOW ( great image quality but very noticeable audio visual lag )
NORMAL ( good image quality but slight audio visual lag )
HIGH ( low image quality but zero audio visual lag )

After testing Spy and while watching Ghostbusters I began tinkering with the Frame Interpolation. I have it curretnly set to high as the audio visual lag really gets to me. Its something I did not experience on the 1080ST. Now I have offset the low image quality and basically got it back to the best image. Avengers and Guardians Of The Galaxy along with Transformers Age Of Extinction looked phenomenal. The other great thing about Frame Interpolation is the fact that it basically feels like a 480Hz TV ( OK I know there is no such thing as 480Hz or, 240Hz, or 120Hz etc on a TV, its a gimick and is faked on the processor inside the the TV ). The one major issue with this is movies with a lot of CGI/Special Effects look very fake. If you remember the Avengers 60FPS GIF posted in the Favorite GIFS thread from a month back that's pretty much what it looks like. There is also another setting that can be changed that can remove the lag as well. The option is called Image Processing and it has two options within it:

FINE
FAST

I've really not noticed any difference in image quality when adjusting these two. The default is set to FINE, adjusting to FAST eliminates the lag but it feels like 24FPS ( basically normal TV/Movies without the added feature of so called "higher Hz"... ). But changing this option from FINE to FAST also disables alot of other features like Frame Interpolation, Super Resolution etc etc. The other downside to using this option is the stutter with fast moving scenes ala action scenes or panning of the camera. You get the stutter which breaks the image and introduces some ghosting so I wouldn't recommend it.

Speaking of Super Resolution, this is one of the two options I had to adjust to crispen up the image once adjusting Frame Interpolation to High. Default is set to 3, I had to adjust to 5 or 6 to get it back as well as adjusting Sharpness from within the menu.

Lastly and this is still something I am working on is the fact that out of the box the image is very dark and needs adjusting. The 1080ST basically required little to know adjusting to achieve a great experience. I probably lucked out in this respect. The only thing I needed to adjust on the 1080ST was its color settings. The 5030UB on the other hand had the best color out of the two requiring zero adjustment in that respect.

I still need to grab some blackout cloth for the two windows in my man cave. With the image being so dark out of the box you do need a darkened room for this projector. But there are some options you can adjust in the menu's that do increase the brightness of the picture that can counter this. I have my office in the same room as my man cave, its a big ****ing room and I like to game on my PC while I watch a movie. Problem is the brightness of the U28D590 screen kinda interferes with the projector image when I am sitting at the desk. I will probably need a screen though to get rid of that and also adjust the brightness.

Looking at the Grandview Fixed Frame LF-PA 170" ( 148" Viewable ) Its the largest screen I can find that has a Gain of 1.0 and is a high Contrast grey. So I may have to drop down from 200" to 150" which probably won't be an issue, the boobs will just be smaller.
 
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You could get some pretty impressive performance by just painting the wall with the right paint. Considerably cheaper than a screen :)
 
You could get some pretty impressive performance by just painting the wall with the right paint. Considerably cheaper than a screen :)

No, I'd have to pull down the drywall and resurface and paint, the wall itself is uneven and noticeable, it would end up costing me more in material cost + paint even if I did it myself.
 
Very nice setup! :drool:

Projectors sure take home theaters to the next level.. if you have the space and money, it is amazing what is out on the market these days - tech wise.
 
Cool stuff! :up:

If I am not mistaken, you are using Klipsch speakers. What else are you using on the audio side of the setup?
 
Cool stuff! :up:

If I am not mistaken, you are using Klipsch speakers. What else are you using on the audio side of the setup?

Everything is Klipsch except the receiver. It's a 7.2 setup, dual 12" subs. Pioneer Elite SC-91 receiver. All Redemere 18Gbps cables.

I am going to add the additional two speakers for the 9.2 though.
 
Everything is Klipsch except the receiver. It's a 7.2 setup, dual 12" subs. Pioneer Elite SC-91 receiver. All Redemere 18Gbps cables.

I am going to add the additional two speakers for the 9.2 though.

Nice. :)

Will you be going Atmos?
 
Glare on the ceiling would drive me bonkers.. Have you thought about covering it in black cloth?
 
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Glare on the ceiling would drive me bonkers.. Have you thought about covering it in black cloth?

Currently have no issues with Glare from the ceiling it doesn't bother me at all.

But I did however have an issue with a screen I ordered. Measured out my surface are as to what size I could do under the bulkhead. Went to visions this weekend and went over a few screens with them. Was going to order the GrandView LFPH-135. Problem is they had none in stock. So I looked at the LFPH-150. Went over the measurements and was assured it would fit. Setup the install for today. Took a half day at work and rushed home just in time to be told it wouldn't work.... :bleh: I was a little upset after giving my measurements to the guy at Visions ( not the same guy that I had dealt with over the projector ). Pretty much it sounded like the guy I had dealt with over the screen is a known problem...

So this evening I get a call from the guy that sold me the projector, turns out he's the manager of the store. Told me he can order me the LFPH-135 but it won't be here till January :rolleyes:... He then gave me other options, I can go for the LFPH-120 1.0 Gain, smaller then what I currently have on the wall. Or he can order me a Cinema Choice 133" 0.9 Gain. He's going to give me a call tomorrow with a bunch more options to choose from.
 
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