Not sure what you are trying to achieve - a sketch would help. Any reason one shouldn't use keystone? > If you have an arrangement in which you can use a fixed screen you can mount the screen so that the top of the screen leans toward the projector and tilt the projector so the lens is pointing slightly upward and thereby avoid a keystone correction. It makes for a more complex and unconventional installation, but I think it can be a great way to do make use of a good projector that just lacks a lens shift. > [QUOTE=Paul GA|Oct 6, 2005 3:21:34 AM] The Mitsubishi xd450u has 2600 lumens (high bright mode), xga resolution, and 2200:1 contrast, and a dvi with hdcp, but only has a 2X color wheel, but unless you are particulary sensitive to rainbow artifacts it is a beautiful, bright machine. I could see the rainbows when I first go the machine (when I was really looking for them), but I haven’t noticed one in a long time. For me the 2X color wheel is not an issue at all. It is particularly good at color accuracy (skintones), that is if you have it set in the sRGB mode. If you don’t have sRGB turned on the color accuracy suffers greatly, but turn it on and it’s fantastic, never see an orange or yellow skin tone again, it is always dead on accurate. Using the sRGB setting does sacrifice a little brightness, but considering how bright the xd series projectors are that's a small consideration. I have one of these set up in my living room projected onto a 148" 3:4 screen with good ambient light control and it looks beautiful (at least I think so). If you don't need a dvi input you can save several hundred dollars if you go with the xd400u or if you need even more light output the xd480u. Also considering the 5000 hour lamp life (in economy mode for the xd450 and xd480, the xd400 has only one brightness mode and lasts 5000 hours) it is a very economical machine to own. A less prominent feature that I really like is that it has a sealed light engine, meaning that there are no air filters to change or clean and that no dust can enter the path of light inside the projector so it requires little maintenance. For the money it is hard to beat. For some people I think the biggest downside will be its throw angle if they want to ceiling mount it. If you invert the projector the top of the screen will be several inches lower than the centerline of the screen. So unless you are willing to make a keystone correction or use a tilted fixed screen you will end up with the top of your screen being several inches lower than your ceiling and depending on the type of mount you select maybe a couple feet. This could be the limiting factor on the size screen you can use. If you have a high ceiling or a vaulted ceiling this becomes less of an issue and allows you to mount the projector higher where it may also be a little less conspicuous. Also remember ceiling fans really like to get in the way. If you have an arrangement in which you can use a fixed screen you can mount the screen so that the top of the screen leans toward the projector and tilt the projector so the lens is pointing slightly upward and thereby avoid a keystone correction. It makes for a more complex and unconventional installation, but I think it can be a great way to do make use of a good projector that just lacks a lens shift. Don’t mount the projector more than 15 degrees out of level (Mitsubishi claims that doing so can result in premature lamp failure this is also true with many other machines). I know that the xd400u xd450u and xd480u were not really designed to be home theater machines, but they do a good job of it for a good price. By the way use the get bids feature on projector central you can almost always get a better deal that way than by just looking at prices online. Another thing you might consider if you can wait a little while is buying either the xd460 or the xd490 when they come out (I think they are scheduled to be available around November 2005). They will have the new chip from Texas Instruments featuring the brilliant color technology which is supposed to dramatically improve color reproduction while being efficient at transmitting light. And according to the find projectors section of projector central they will have a lower suggested retail price than the xd450 and xd480. Which if they sell for as much below msrp as the current xd series and they do what they are supposed to, they will be hard to beat. [/QUOTE]

I cannot get my projector to play DVDs. Can anyone help? It projects slides and even .avi files OK. I use it with a Dell Inspiron 2650 laptop. The DVD appears on the laptop, but not in the projected image. My email is syrdavid@postmaster.co.uk (I posted this message 10 days ago in the portables forum but got no replies)