Have you considered Front Projection? If my basement was finished, I would do it in a heart beat.

 

Isn't front projection like a movie theatre setup? screen and projector?

Never looked in to it, is the resolution good? Lighting need to be dim?

 

A friend of mine has a front projector which is 1080 something which is equvilant to HDTV. I dont have all the specs, i know it ran him bout 2gs with a 9ft screen included!!

Anyways heres my updates. Yesterday I hit up CC and BB and just shot the breeze with some of the sales assc. there. Supposedly DLP is more complex since there are more moving parts inside the TV, such as a color wheel and other things, they said its very advanced but do to more moving parts might not be as reliable. So i moved on to the LCD Sony set which was next to it, and you could tell right away that the picture was just that much more crisp. Every salesman i talked to said that LCD was the way to go since there was no issues on burn in, and it would be more reliable cause of less moving parts. The life of the LCD bulb that he gave me was 80,000 hours. Anyway theres a Sony 51 or 52 inch LCD on sale at best buy for 2849.00 the same set is at CC for 2999.00. I have my heart set on that set, simply because its an LCD, and its 80lbs heavy, and only 16" deep. Plus ive heard good things bout sony tvs, and the rest of everything in my house is Sony!! It even has a slot built in for your sony memory card! Which is a nice little added bonus.

 

Lighting does need to be dim which can be the biggest hurdle to cross. However, after that everything else is in your favor like cost, bang for the buck, and wow factor. There are very good HD capable projectors for 2k or less and there are some even better ones for more than 2k. Just depends on what you're willing to spend. Runco makes the best PJs and I don't think you'll disagree if you see one in action.

 

Found these two

Sony Big Screen TV KDF55WF655
Sony Big Screen TV KDF55XS955

on this page http://www.abtelectronics.com/category/17.html

they bouth are very similar, but one is rear projection and the other just says projection....

 

Brad,

I hate to say it, but if you're going to go with rear-projection, there are way better TVs out there than Sony. It's tough to match them in the direct-view/tube market, but they lack quite a bit w/ rear projection. The two best in the business are Pioneer and Mitsubishi, hands down. Although, I think Pioneer might have stopped making rear projections but there might still be some lurking around the stores for cheap. Some other brands worth checking out are Hitachi and Toshiba.

 

Good luck, just don't forget to check the viewing angle against what you plan for seating in the room! (Some of us have them old-fashioned setups with a TV in one corner, and couches and chairs all around the other walls and corners...which doesn't work too well with some LCD and Projection-style systems) Though it sounds like you've already done some homework.

-Justin

 

If you are heading to ABT, I suggest talking to my friend KC and let him know Ray send you. He will be able to help you getting a good deal.

 

Dlp, Lcos, and lcd are all projection, unless PJ, you're talking about crt projection, which I didnt even mention as those tv are piece of c**p....
Anyway Shift it was 8000 working hours not 80000, belive me I should know I train a lot of those guys, and I guess he made a mistake or maybe U heard him wrong.
Anyways I can still get better prices on those sets than any one else, for example a Toshba 52" DLP with newest dlp chip(hd2+) I can get for U guys for around $2400
Its this one:http://www.abtelectronics.com/script....php3?id=16242
LCD still has a lot moving parts, we get around 30% more lcd in service then dlps.
Oh, and on lcds black will be dark grey, not balck like on dlp.
Ps, for these tvs U dont need dark room to watch them, they're bright enought to be watched in daylight.

 

Now im confused..... LCD or DLP?