So I'm looking for the best picture....

[misterkit]

Last week I was in a A/V retailer shopping for my next toy and I wanted to get some opinions from those who have gone through this recently.

I'm interested in going big. I'm building a home theater room and am really interested in going with a 10 foot wide screen and a pj (something less than 10k) combo. They gave me a demo on a sony pearl with a 96 carada screen. I wasn't super impressed.

So my question to all of you is this - Are you trading image clarity and quality for size? I noticed that the plasmas and LCD's in the 50-70 range have a really nice picture. I realize that you have to make tradeoffs here, but did I just get a bad demo?

[jonnythan]

Out of curiosity, what was the lighting like in the demo room?

I haven't seen many projectors, but of the ones I've seen, if you have a dark room they can look phenomenal. If you don't have a dark room.... well, your blacks will be as black as the screen, and that usually ain't too black.

[misterkit]

I probably should add - the demo room was light controlled and very dark. The room I am building will have total light control.

[jcPanny]

If you have light control in your HT room, then a 1080p front projector is the way to go. Check out this comparision of the new models on projector central.
http://www.projectorcentral.com/1080p_summaries.htm

Note that the Sony Pearl has a "soft" picture and is at the bottom of the list perfromance wise. I have read good things about the new JVC. At $5k, you would have plenty left for a nice Stewart, DaLite, or Crada screen and a BluRay or HD-DVD player.

[misterkit]

The new JVC was one of the units I was considering.

So if I level the playing field, which image would be better? A 70" sony bravia (for example) or a 70" projects rs1/hd1 image?

I'll take a look at the link you posted.

[LEVESQUE]

My JVC HD-1 (RS-1 clone...) paired with a 110" Da-Lite Hi-Power screen is like a giant plasma.

Paired with a Toshiba HD-XA2 (HD-DVD) and a Pioneer Elite BDP-HD1 (Blu-ray) at 1080p24, the picture quality is unbelievable.

Colors are a little bit oversaturated on those new JVCs, but it's not worst/better then the Sony Pearl and Ruby I've seen and used. It's exactly the same CIE charts. You can't tweak the grayscale alot, but on the 2 HD-1 I've tried, the grayscale was nearly flat OOTB (dE less then 1 all across).

Great projector for the price. I've seen the Sharp 20K and a 3 chips 1080p DLPs (Vidikron) in the last 2 weeks, and the JVC HD-1 is easily on par with those, and in certain situations, it's better (for alot less $...).

[misterkit]

excellent - sounds like I just got a bad demo then. I'm really looking forward to the first day I sit down and watch some good high def material!

[Pheaton]

Hi,
I recently watched a demo of the Epson 1080p Pro and it had a very nice sharp picture and is in the same price range as the Sony and JVC. I would recommend giving it an audition. I also saw a Sim2 Domino 80 (1080p) and it was stunning. The colors, brightness, and the clarity were amazing, BUT it is $10k. Since that sounds like the top of your budget, that might not work for you. (It won't for me;) ) Good luck with your purchase.

Pheaton

[misterkit]

10k is getting close to the top of my budget, especially for a first time pj buyer. I will see if I can get an audition of it someplace though as it would be good for comparing.