What’s your screen Phil? You might be surprised to find you’ve been BS’ed. I do not know of any grey screen with a true 1.8 gain. My Stewart Firehawk is ‘supposed’ to be a 1.3 gain. It’s not, I’ve measured it at 1.15. Please don’t post pics. Screen shots are a complete waste of time and effort.

Rick –

Sounds like you may have a preference for an image with more of a film look to it then. One of the desirable traits of DLP (desirable to those who like it) is that 3D look you are describing because DLP has a much higher ANSI contrast ratio than LCD, LCOS or DILA. The white outline however is calibration related. Try turning down your sharpness controls and see if it helps that.

As far as other brands, there are many. All have their pro’s and con’s, and it really comes down to which ones you can live with, and which ones’ you can’t.

I have a preference for LCOS projectors, which are JVC. They have the best native contrast ratio of all projectors with the exception of CRT. I like blacks to look black and not grey. The entry level JVC RS 15 (also 550) is one heck of a machine. If you think you might get into display calibration, the RS 25 has an outstanding CMS. The RS35 is basically a RS 25 with higher quality control and hand selected parts. I’ve been very happy with my RS20 and you can find them used for under $4000. Great projector.

The Sharp 20K is a great projector. You can find used Marantz VP15si’s for great price too.

It really depends on what float your boat. That’s why I suggested you spend some time looking at a few different projectors, take some notes then talk about what it is you like and what it is you don’t like. Then we can narrow it down for you instead of just giving you a recommendation for the cheapest projector out there.

There are only two internet based projector reviewers I pay attention to. Greg Rogers and Art Feierman. Art runs /owns Projector Reviews. http://www.projectorreviews.com/1080p-projector/index.php

If you have a subscription to Wide Screen Review, Greg Rogers does a fantastic job reviewing projectors. http://www.widescreenreview.com/