Be careful taking advice from Randy….thanks to him, my HT budget got doubled.
I haven’t got a lens yet, but I’m planning my theater to accommodate one. Randy will get you lined out Constant Height Systems and screens.
As far as projectors go, it really depends on how much you want to spend. If your set on 1080P and plan to jump into the HD DVD / Blue Ray fight, the Ruby seams to get touted as the best one out for the money. I think they run about 10K, but I’m not real sure. All I know is I can’t afford one.
So, the next financially responsible step down (according to Mike) would be 1080i / 720P. In this resolution, there are currently three projectors that are leading the pack with price point and performance. Each has pro’s / con’s. 1- Sanyo Z4, 2- Panasonic 900au, 3- Optoma HD72
All three of those can be found for about $1500 and I don’t think you could go wrong with any.
The Optoma looks like a great projector for Constant Height systems (Randy will surely tell you all about them). The reason being, it will vertically stretch the digital input. The Panny will only stretch the Component input. One con that I know of, is it is limited with mounting locations.
The Panny has what they call “smooth screen” technology. Laymen’s explanation for this: smooth the lines between each pixel. I have yet to get mine hooked up and running, but the Panny gets a lot of praise. It’s supposed to be very easy to set up and mount because it has a great zoom and lens shift. A draw back with the Panny is that it is somewhat of a “short throw” projector. Anamorphic lenses work better with long throw projectors (the constant height thing again).
I don’t know much about the Sanyo other than it should be a dandy if it’s as good as the Z2 or Z3.
