The whole whack of 3LCD projectors coming out this year look very impressive. From Panasonic, Sanyo, Mitsubishi, Epson and others - the level of performance and the lowering of prices has really been impressive!
I'm just really glad to see that over the past couple of years, Epson has decided to really compete, not just in performance (which has always been among the best of the 3LCD crowd), but also in price now (which wasn't always the case).
Last year, the Epson 1080UB was arguably the best 1080 resolution 3LCD projector and it took a good jump up in price to find a better 1080 projector. Even Sony's SXRD models were arguably only a tiny bit better and it was pretty much took the JVC D-iLA models (at a significantly higher price) before there was something clearly better than the Epson.
This year, it looks like the same will hold true. Epson's 7500UB (Pro installer version) and 6500UB (home/internet retailer version) would appear to be the cream of the 3LCD crop. Although Panasonic's AE3000U is looking mighty impressive at a very agressively low price point.
In the end, what you should really take away from this is that - in the right room environment - front projection has become the absolute highest value. If you think about the cost of a > 55" flat panel, you can get a screen WAY larger than that for a lower price with front projection now. And best of all, you'd give up virtually no picture quality these days! You do need a dark room - that is an absolute must and the only real caveat. But if you have that, front projection is golden!
