I know this thread is old but for anyone searching for info...
I have owned CRT, CRT RP, LCD, DLP RP, DLP FP, and LED-LCD but no plasma yet.
Firstly, DLP front projectors are used ALOT in cinemas! They are also used in conference rooms around the world. Infact the company I work for has dozens of them in various conference rooms. They are really very reliable, changing the bulb is not hard nor all that expensive. I've read of people have issues with the color wheel or light engine but I personally have never seen that issue on any of the units we have at my company or the rear projection units I own. Some people reported a rainbow effect in older DLP units, but new ones run the color wheel at much higher speeds negating that issue. Most of them support 3D as well, at no cost.
I picked up a 58" Toshiba DLP RP years ago, used, for $800. I replaced the bulb once after approx 2yrs use. It had started to flicker. ($179 and a screwdriver) It was only a 1080i set so I moved to a 60" Mitsubishi 1080p DLP RP shortly after that. But that old Toshiba DLP RP TV has continued to function perfectly at my mothers house for years now. I've had zero issues with the newer Mitsubishi DLP RP unit. I replaced the bulb after a couple years ($100 and a screwdriver). Again, it hadn't blown but did begin to flicker, predominantly when you first turn it on.
During this same time span I've had various (albeit smaller) LCD televisions die. None of them died of a panel or backlight failure; They all died of control electronics failure.
As far as picture quality...
DLP units don't suffer from image retention, ghosting, or blooming. With a little work calibrating the unit you will get great color accuracy, a uniform picture, and pretty solid black levels. Off angle viewing is not quite as good as an IPS LCD panel or a Plasma, but it isn't as bad as an older LCD (or the old CRT rear projector units). Sharpness is not an issue to my eyes; I use my Mitsu 60" dlp as a PC monitor everyday @ 1920x1080. You will need to use driver scaling to properly fit a PC input to the TV though.
No projection unit is going to offer the deep black levels of a GOOD plasma (anyone else watch hdtvshootout?). Local dimming LED-LCD's also have great black levels. However the current generation of local dimming units suffer from blooming issues. Take a look for a youtube video of one of the LG local dimming sets, horrible blooming! Speaking of which, not all plasmas are equal! The current gen of LG plasmas have HORRIBLE black levels. (i'm talking to you LG pz950 series!).
I've looked (heavily) at replacing my DLP unit with a plasma or local dimming led-lcd. And after weeks of research and viewings I found that to get a better picture than the Mitsubishi DLP, I would need to spend quite a bit of money. The only sets I've seen with a significantly better picture are the high end Sharp Elite LED-LCD (w/ local dimming), the Panasonic Plasma, or to a lesser extend the Samsung plasma. Even those have their issues. The Sharp Elite seems to have a color accuracy problems. And the Panasonic plasma has a limited bright level that gives off a somewhat yellowish white. None of the non local dimming LCD units offer better black levels (to my eye anyway). Vizio local dimming sets are well reviewed but still have blooming issues and serious reliability problems. LG sets are rated as very reliable but have questionable picture quality across the board. Samsung units are rated fairly well in both picture quality and reliability but they are nearly as expensive as the better rated Panasonic units.
Sony likes to produce edge lit led units which, although slim, typically have uniformity issues. They also don't have the black levels of a local dimming set or plasma.
DLP is also 20-30lbs lighter than a similarly sized LCD or Plasma unit. The power consumption of the Mitsubishi DLP set is rated around 190watts as I recall, not bad at all.
