Projector and Screen recommendations

Looks like I can get a Daylight B screen for under $200
Which entry prijector should I get?

Some of the better priced and well received 1080p projectors come from mitsubishi. The 4900 and the newer 5500 They both have a $200 rebate right now, and can be had for under $1800. Sanyo also has one of the lowest priced 1080p PJ's, though the model # escapes me. Three sites to peruse for reviews are projectorcentral.com, projectorreviews.com and Avsforum.com.

I like the Panasonic units. Good price and great picture. If you are projecting to a light colored wall you may want to wait on the screen til you have the projector installed. That way you can decide on the screen size that you like after you see the image. I have one in a bedroom system and like it just on the white wall. You'd be surprised how good that can look.

Be aware, in any event, that you will have to control the light to some degree when viewing.

If your room is "not real dark", and you want to do this at "rock bottom prices" . . . then you really should be looking at a plasma. But I'm a quality-over-quantity kind of guy. If you're still going to do projection, the least you can do is to avoid a few very common pitfalls.

First, make sure you're using the correct type of screen for your application. If the projector is going on the floor or a table, then you can use a retro-reflective screen - these are the common, cheap glass-bead audio-visual screens. But if it's going on the ceiling, then you MUST use an angular-reflective screen, or the only time the picture will look good is when you're standing on a ladder. A good screen also hangs flat . . . tab-tensioning is IMO a good investment if the screen is retractable. If your room isn't very dark, then there are a couple of grey-coated gain screens on the market that make a huge difference, i.e. Stewart's "Firehawk" (and the Da-Lite equivalent). You will want an actual 16x9 screen - having the picture framed in black makes the contrast appear much greater than the 16x9 projection area in the middle of a white field.

Second, make sure that the projector's optics will work for your application - that is, double-check the throw distance AND the vertical offset and make sure that the projector and screen will work together in the place you're planning on putting them. Avoid having to tilt the projector (creates a focus discrepancy between the top and bottom of the screen) and using the electronic keystone adjustments (increases scaling artifacts).

And third, put up the SMALLEST screen you think you can tolerate! Brightness follows the inverse-square law, so making the picture somewhat smaller (i.e. from 100" diagonal to 82" diagonal) makes it much, much brighter.

If you get a good screen of reasonable size, and make sure that all of the projection geometry is set up correctly . . . this will make a MUCH bigger difference in picture quality than whether or not your projector happens to have "1080p" printed all over the shipping carton.

Kirkus,
I want to mount the screen behind a window valance to pull down in front of a bank of windows, so when you say "you MUST use an angular-reflective screen" are you saying it must pull down and stablized on an angle in line w/ the projector or viewing? Or are you saying the screen is angular-reflective in design?

I can easily be satisfied with a 67"-80" screen w/ 12' viewing distance. Is this satisfactory and what do I need to look at in a projector for this size? I'm thinking of a coffee table projector is is ceiling mounted better?