Technology: Project A Little Better

Robert Fowkes owns more movies than your local video store. His collection tops 6,000 titles--from "Citizen Kane" to "Crash." Of course, he needed a really-big-screen TV. A few years ago, while reconstructing his house, he built his own theater room. He now slumps back in cushiony seats purchased secondhand from Radio City Music Hall. And how does he watch most movies? Fowkes, a retired professor from New York, relies on a good old-fashioned projector. OK, not too old-fashioned. The images are projected digitally onto a screen through a machine that costs $11,000. "It provides the most realistic movie-theater experience," Fowkes says.

Flat-panel TV screens like plasmas are still the hot buy for most American living rooms. But for the smaller market of film buffs who crave screens larger than 65 inches, digital video projectors offer the best picture quality for your dollar. The question is, How many dollars are you willing to spend? The cost of the technology, which at one time hovered in the same range as a nicely loaded new car, has been dropping steadily. The average price tag for a digital projector is now $2,529, down from $4,447 in 2003, according to the NPD Group. Sales figures, by comparison, have shot up--about 13,000 units were sold last year, compared with less than half that number in 2003. "It used to be that you had to go to a specialty store," says Gary Merson, editor of the HDTV Insider Newsletter. "Now they're everywhere."

Many of the new projectors are offering added features, like built-in DVD players. A good system for newcomers is the Epson MovieMate 25 ($1,200; most systems at amazon.com ), which also plays CDs. You also get an 80-inch screen (in other models, they're sold separately). But the projector still lacks the visual clarity of, say, a real multiplex theater. Enhanced definition, or ED, projectors have higher resolution--480p (the progressive scan, or sequential lines on the screen). The InFocus Play Big IN72 ($1,300) offers five video inputs for VCRs, DVDs, videogames and PCs.

One of the main advantages of the projection technology is that it would never burn an image onto the screen, which remains a problem in flat-panel plasma displays. The higher-end models are ready for the next generation of DVD as well, including Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats. Keep in mind that, in terms of resolution, the jump between 480p and 720p is huge. The higher, the better. The 720p Optoma HD72 ($2,000) is really good at delivering a clear and bright picture, even with some ambient light in the room.

Mitsubishi's HC3000 ($2,495; buy.com ) turned heads when it was introduced late last year. It's the first projector to come to market with Texas Instrument's BrilliantColor technology, easily casting a 120-inch image by increasing the brightness by about 25 percent with no visible increase in color saturation. It's also our favorite. But if you want to take the show on the road, this month also sees the debut of the portable SharpVision XV-Z3000 ($3,500). It weighs only 8.8 pounds and projects to a screen size of 300 inches. That's like having your own drive-in.