I've been researching projectors for the past several years. As far as reviews go it seems that you should look towards JVC, Sony, or Epson in that price range to give you the best picture for your money. If I had the money right now, it would be a tough choice between a JVC and Sony, though I would probably go with a JVC. The JVC's seems to always have the best performance in terms of contrast level and black levels, which to me is the most important feature for a display in general. Okay, making sure that the projector is bright enough to give you a good picture for the screen size is probably equally important, but there isn't too much difference there with these three brands in this price range.
I'm waiting to hopefully move into a more permanent house (not a rental) before I get a projector. I was hoping that JVC and Sony would try implementing LED lamps successfully at reasonable prices by then. The biggest obstacle seems to be that they just aren't as bright as the current technology, which limits the size of your screen to have a nice picture. But the possibility of not having to change the bulb every 1000 to 1500 hours and having the picture change within that time would be amazing. Unfortunately I don't think that we will have good JVC and Sony projectors with LED lamps anytime soon. All the manufacturers have been busy giving everyone 3D, that most people don't want. Now they are moving to 4K. Which is exciting, but there probably won't be much content to use with it anytime soon.
I agree with most of what you have said here Nick. My understanding is, there will be some LED projectors out in the market place, in two, to three years. My guess is, it would be three, to four years after that before we see the pricing pull back some, to where they would be about 20-30 percent more expensive than the same equivalent projector of today.
There is also laser projector technology coming as well, but at a much greater cost. I also will be purchasing a projector within the the next 6-12 months. AS cost effective technology comes our way, I like most, would be entertaining an up grade to my then current projector, that I haven't even purchased yet.
