As many others are, I'm struggling with a decision on a display. Actually, I've been struggling with it for almost a year now. Here's the story thus far...
The first display I tried was the 52" Mitsubishi DLP set. The set was absolutely gorgeous, save for the black level not being the greatest. The reason I had to ditch it is because I am rather susceptible to the rainbow effect and it was giving me eyestrain and headaches. If it hadn't been for that, I would have almost certainly kept the set. If I could only turn down the refresh rate on my eyes...
The next set I tried was the 37" Sharp LC-37D43U LCD. After seeing the image quality/upconversion that the Mitsubishi did, the Sharp just looked terrible. The picture from my Marantz DVD player at 480p (which is what I'm going to be using for a while) just didn't look that good.
Since it seems that Mitsubishi has a really good algorithm for image processing and conversion, I decided to try another Mitsubishi set, this time the 37" LCD. The picture quality was as amazing as the DLP set. What killed this set as an option is that once I got off-axis horizontally the colors and black level went whacky, just like older generation LCD monitors did before they really worked on the viewing angle issue.
So now I sit here wondering what to do. DLP sets are out of the question due to my eye sensitivity. I really like the Mitsubishi image processing algorithm, so I would love to get a Mits set, but that doesn't look like a possibility until they (if ever) introduce their laser powered DLP sets. I prefer to stay away from the regular CRT sets due to size and weight. I live by myself so I don't have anyone readily handy to help me move it, plus my TV stand is not enclosed, so it would kind of stick out like a sore thumb. Finally, a plasma set may work, but I do live at about 7,000' in altitude and I will also be playing some games, so burn-in is a concern.
Getting back to the rear projection units, I've been considering the 50" Sony SXRD set, but the green blob issue has really turned me off. Also, one day in a store I saw a 50" Sony SXRD and noticed a very strong yellow haze in the lower right corner of the screen. Not exactly a good feeling.
I have been giving a little bit of thought recently to possibly trying a front projection setup, but I have a couple of limitations. First, the projector would almost certainly have to sit on my coffee table which is approx. 6' from the wall it would be projecting on. Kind of close, but not too big of an issue. The main issue is ambient lighting. At night it wouldn't be an issue as I can make the room totally dark. During the day is another thing. My living room has one smallish window and a patio door. Both of them have curtains with another think, plastic curtain behind them that does cut out some of the light, but during the daytime, especially around sunset, the room does have a fair 'glow' inside of it.
For reference, I watch mostly movies and have a good quality 480p DVD player. I will probably upgrade to BluRay or HD-DVD sometime in the future, but I'm kind of standing back from that for a while. I may get TV service, but I'm not a heavy TV watcher. I will also play some games, particularly some for several hours at a time.
Anyone have any suggestions or ideas? I know I've been through pretty much everything already, but I'm just really stumped at this point if I should give in and try something else or just hold out and wait for a new technology in a year or two.
