mdrew,
Keep in mind that ALL projection systems in your price range will look better when in a dark room. Are you going to alway watch TV in the dark? What about when entertaining friends?
Just something to think about...
As for standard cable or satellite on a 106" (or abouts) image... If you have digital cable, you should be OK. Regular cable TV will just be too grainy for that size of image. My problem when I hooked up my DISH signal to it was that I didn't have the receiver hooked up to my projector, but instead rerouted the signal over coax through my house, and then through an old VCR (to act as the tuner so I could get to "channel 3" and then to the projector. It was FAR from the ideal source signal of the DISH network. Again, you should be fine with satellite or digital cable if directly connected to your home theater gear.
Sirquack is correct that the bulb will last about 2000 hours (more or less depending on the settings you use on your projector). A bulb for my Z3 will run me about $300-$350 depending on where I get it from. That is down about $100 from where they prices were a year ago.
