I've looked a little further into projectors and found a few things. There is not much available at the brick and mortar level. I had hoped to be able to see one of the low end projectors to see what I would be getting in the way of image quality. No such luck. The best place I've found so far is an hour away and has two demo rooms, but only equipped with mid to high end projectors.
Screens appear to be a whole other can-o-worms, ranging from DIY to "you want WHAT??". Again, there does not seem to be any place where I can even compare low end to high end manufactured screens.
I did get a chance to see an Panny ae7000 in action and it is significantly better than what I have not in terms of black levels and contrast. The salesman offered it to me for $2,400 because its "a year out of date now". Um, gee, thanks.
So, my options are:
1. 50-60" plasma @ $1,100 to 1,500 all in (Samsung)
2. LED in the same size range at close to the same price
3. BenQ 1070 with some sort of screen for anything from $1,300 to 1,900 all in depending on the screen I choose.
My impression is that, unless I go up to something like the Panny ae8000 I'm going to give up black level and shadow detail even to an LED TV.
All that said, the biggest question I have now is what difference an inexpensive vs mid-line screen makes.
Any advice would be appreciated.
