Projector

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.....thank you Unsound, that link was very informative...now I can move my chair a foot closer to the screen.
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Just revisited this thread. Mitch, I stand by my 7/20 post. I suspect your judgement of a high quality picture differs from mine, but perhaps the OP would be satisfied with your picture, which I suspect I would judge washed out and lacking in detail. In my view a projected image should give nothing away to the image of a plasma or LCD display, except greater sensitivity to ambient illumination. Visit the screen shots at AVS.

db

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DB, He can get a very good projector that will show a great picture on a 150 inch screen for his $2,000 budget. And no, the picture will not be washed out or lacking in detail. Those projectors are out there, he just has to do his homework. Before I did my own home theater I thought that I had to spend megabucks for a good projector. After a lot of homework, legwork, trial and error I finally got there. You have to see the projector itself.....the prices and specs don't tell the whole story.
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I am looking into a projector. I know it does not look as good as Plasma or LCD TVs but I like the fact that the screen can be 150 inches large.

Just thought I'd update this thread with my recent experience.

The above statement is no longer correct - provided you can get a totally dark room (make sure walls/ceiling are not white) and you do not make the projector work too hard (very long throws on a massive screen).

I recently got a Panasonic PT-AE4000 and I have a totally dark room, with a 13 feet throw on a 120" screen.

The picture quality exceeds both my HD Plasma and my HD LCD flat screen TV's - significantly in the case of the LCD - black levels are simply astonishing (my big fear was black levels but it was unfounded with this projector)

We watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire BD last night with the kids - this movie has well over half an hour of extremely dark scenes. No problem at all - perfect black levels with no loss of information.

Anyway for folks who thing that a projection screen can never look as good as a Plasma or LCD - that paradigm has finally been broken.

I am so impressed with this projector that I thought I'd update this old thread even though Audiogon is an audio website...

Shadorne,

I think of you mostly as an audio guy, but thanks for reviving this thread. Several years ago, I bought a used Sony VPL-50 (Pearl) projector; it's native resolution is 1080p. Our carpenter built a 100" 1.3 screen using commercially available screen material. Sources are a PS3-80 and a DirecTV HD-DVR, both through a DVDO Edge processor. I use recessed ceiling lights on a dimmer for ambient lighting, so we don't sit in bat cave darkness, but little light impinges of the screen. Black velvet covers the ceiling above the screen, and charcoal carpet covers the wall expect for the screen. The picture quality is at least the equal of the several Sony XBR LCDs we have in the house. We use our projector for TV and film viewing

db