I am looking into a projector. I know it does not look as good as Plasma or LCD TVs but I like the fact that the screen can be 150 inches large.
Just thought I'd update this thread with my recent experience.
The above statement is no longer correct - provided you can get a totally dark room (make sure walls/ceiling are not white) and you do not make the projector work too hard (very long throws on a massive screen).
I recently got a Panasonic PT-AE4000 and I have a totally dark room, with a 13 feet throw on a 120" screen.
The picture quality exceeds both my HD Plasma and my HD LCD flat screen TV's - significantly in the case of the LCD - black levels are simply astonishing (my big fear was black levels but it was unfounded with this projector)
We watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire BD last night with the kids - this movie has well over half an hour of extremely dark scenes. No problem at all - perfect black levels with no loss of information.
Anyway for folks who thing that a projection screen can never look as good as a Plasma or LCD - that paradigm has finally been broken.
I am so impressed with this projector that I thought I'd update this old thread even though Audiogon is an audio website...