Projector VS some other type of HDTV

Sedona, it may be too ambitious, but another option is a CRT projector. They are VERY cheap now, and will likely provide a better image than any other option. I use a Marquee 8500 and (you can now get a nice one for $2k on videogon) and it far exceeds any of the displays that any of my friends get with their 'modern' projectors - one of my friends just bought a new $4k DILA projector (after much research) and the picture isn't anywhere near the same league that I get out of my CRT projector. The main downside of the CRT though is that you either have to pay to have someone professionally set it up and calibrate it (about $1k in expense) or you can learn to do it yourself (like me) - which is a bit of time and effort, but fun, if you like the technology and treat it as a hobby. I would love to get a digital projector for the convenienct, but so far they are very far from what my mid-end CRT does.

Hi Chadnliz, I do generally agree with your comments about CRT, but just a few points to add - the Marquee CRT projectors are still being made by a company in Florida (http://vdcds.com/products/crt/8110-8500-9500.html - they make them for the military flight sims). The Marquee models have absoutely tons of spare parts available - partly because they've still been making them for the last few years. The Marquees are highly modular, so you can just pull out a board and swap in a new one etc. if you ever need one replaced, and prices have tumbled. New tubes used to cost about $600 but are far less now. The current market prices for CRT stuff is very different from even a year or two ago. I don't use any scaler - I just use a PC for the source (with a Blu-Ray drive).

I do agree though - it is a bit of an investment of time and effort and has its frustrations - it's not for everyone. Still, it was well worth it for me though - the quality difference is so big in my opinion that I think it will be a few more years before I can be convinced to switch to a digital (In fact I hope to upgrade to a new CRT in a year or so - a Marquee 9500, which would be about $3.5k). The projector provides me a lot of 'tweaking' fun too, kind of like analog. It was a long learning curve for me to get set up (I may have invested 50 hours + in getting stuff figured out), but it was a fun ride, and one I would recommend to anyone who has the bit of motivation and interest. I'm not technical, but thanks to online forums like avsforum I now know enough to be dangerous ;-)