FWIW, I have the 6500UB and it has been great, although I only have about 350 hours on it. Picture quality is utterly fantastic. I had some family over the other day and they were completely blown away.
With that said, I love Panasonic product as well, but the Epson in Canada is much more reasonably priced comparitive to the US market.
It does look better with lights off, of course. I do watch sports and what not sometimes with some lights on, and it looks alright if the light doesn't reflect right onto the screen which completely washes out any blacks or darker colors. When the lights are off there is enough reflection off the screen to see where you're going in the room if that concerns you.
