About 15 years ago, I was into front projection heavily and spent a lot of time and money on the hobby. During that period, 720p was as good as it got at anything resembling a reasonable consumer price point. There were some CRT-based projectors that could do 1080p, but they were the size of a small car and expensive to set up and maintain. I think the best projector I owned was the Sharp XV-Z12000 DLP; I’d never seen a display that could be dialed in so precisely (it offered full control of both primary and secondary colors in the user menu, which was unheard of at the time, and absolutely nailed D65 and Rec 709 after calibration).
There was very little HD content available via cable, however. I had a D-Theater deck that I got free as part of a dealer promo, but ended up selling it because I knew 1080i on tape was a dead-end format, so I spent most of my time watching DVDs. I had a 92" screen (80" x 45"), which is fairly conservative by projection standards, and the limitations of 480p material are readily apparent even at that size. The best discs at the time looked very good when upscaled and projected, but any flaw in the transfer at all was immediately noticeable. I often spent more time critiquing the picture than watching the movie.
Since the image quality was frequently lacking at that size, I decided I wouldn’t be happy until 1080p projectors were affordable and HD content was available on disc, so I sold my entire setup (which consisted of an Anthem AVM-20, a couple Rotel amps, and M&K THX speakers) and got out of the hobby. I’ve been getting by with a 50" plasma and more conservative 2-channel setup since then, but I think front projection and source materials have both improved enough that I could get back into a much larger image and be happy with it. I suppose I’d have to get used to elevated black levels again, but I think the sheer impact of having such a large display coupled with a powerful sound system more than makes up for that one shortcoming.
I’ll probably be moving in a few months, so I’ll be making sure the new place has enough space to accommodate a projector for sure. I was hoping laser-based LED projectors would’ve been more affordable by now, but even a bulb-based 4K model is more than comparable to a theatrical projector in terms of overall fidelity. Have to jump in at some point and just enjoy it.
