Which projector for a home theater set up?

Thanks for the reply. While my budget restrictions are not terribly strict, I am trying to keep the cost of just the projector below $3000. Nevertheless, $2500 would be ideal.

CEDIA convention has just passed. Think of it like buying a car at about this time of year (+/- a month). The 09 models come out means get a deal on an 08. Same thing with PJs, so keep your eyes peeled for big sales and deals.

That being said, here are four to take a look at. Possibly in order, in fact:

Epson 1080 UB. Make sure its UB
Panasonic AE2000U
Sanyo Sanyo Z2000
BenQ W5000

The 1080 UB is of very high value, however it suffers from QC consistency. Particularly panel alignment and white field uniformity. What this translates to is that calibration will be quite different unit to unit.

While the stated lumens are high on this, you should only expect 250-300 lumens in a calibrated state, as it comes pretty off from desired calibration.

As you may guess from what I am saying, different PJs are closer with stated specs than others. Different PJs come closer to a calibrated state out of the box than others.

All that being said, the 1080 UB would be the front runner for me at this budget.

hope this helps.

only talking with my personal preference in mind.

I think the new Pana 3000 coming in october is really cool. over budget, at least msrp is.

It will have programmable presets on focus points. I would love to have an anamorphic/2.40 screen. My Rs-1 is manual zoom and focus so ... meh. Id have to think pretty darn hard about it I suppose. My PJ has amazing PQ imo.

Thanks for the suggestions.
I was read in a review that the Epson 1080 UB shows more "digital noise" than the Panasonic AE2000U. I have a vague understanding of what "noise" is, but how much of a factor is it in this case? Will it really hamper my viewing experience? Also, does the Pro version of the Epson really justify its higher price compared to the Home version? I do need the ceiling mount, but I am pretty sure it's not worth the extra $1000.

please research the following resources:

Projector Central
AVS

I also think its a good idea to call up some vendors. Try Projector People for instance. Perhaps Visual Apex as well.

Happy hunting, and let us know what you end up with.

but after looking around a little more, it seems like the nearly unanimous choice points towards to the Epson over the panasonic and the other projectors you listed based off head to head comparisons. I'll have to check out the projector's image quality in person if they have it available at a local retailer though.
I'm going to need to have it ceiling mounted though. Where can I go about purchasing one that I know will be compatible with the Epson? I found that they have a Pro version that comes with the ceiling mount, but I don't want to pay an additional $1000 for that version. I'm not sure how it works, but there's no wall mount compliance standard or anything mentioned in the specs on the Epson website so I don't really know how to go about it.

Ok, so I obviously didn't look at the specs hard enough because it doesn't have the listing for the wall mount. Sorry for the mistake.