Is calibration services for DLP set worth it?

Absolutely worth it. Will bring out the best your DLP is capable of. I have a DLP as well. $300 sounds cheap, I believe I paid a bit more. That was last December. May be a bit more competitive now. I suppose, like Krellcoda said, the claibrator is the key. I live in the NYC area and finding quality is not difficult. Just a little homework required. fwiw, warren :)

for what it's worth - the Sony SXRD is the best projector on the market. i wouldn't bother with DLP when you see what that thing can do. and it's not *really* an LCD like you have listed, it's a modified LCOS.

Some stores will offer this service with the purchase of an extended warranty. I know Samsung has a dedicated person to do this for Circuit City. BTW, I highly reccomend the warranty... it saved me $800 to replace a lamp and ultimately paid for a brand new TV due to further problems.

Thanks for your inputs. The actual cost is $350 and I'm told this is really the only guy in the area doing this service. I have heard great things about the Sony SXRD but haven't found a decent place to view them. Best Buy has them but the display was a terrible setup. Lights shining on the screen and crappy input quality. Nothing looked good in that store. I'll look some more although I did really like the Mits 52".

Besides the calibrator training credentials the test equiptment must also be regularly calibrated and traceable to NIST.