This is the first projector I've ever owned, but I've spent the better part of a year with my eyes open for the project that I'd give this designation. About 3 weeks ago, I finally found it. This Sharp projector made the score card on all of my minimum standards for what I wanted in a projector. 720p native resolution, HDMI output, keystone correction, and DLP technology. It runs a bit large, at just over the size of my college chemistry book (which is a beast, let me assure you) and about as heavy, at a nice 8.8 lbs solid. The projector has average luminosity, at 1000 ANSI lumens; I would have prefered closer to 2000, but having the projector run only $800 was a fantastic deal.
So let's begin the review of the projector itself. It is stunning, to say the least. There is no automatic keystone correction, which I was disappointed about, but at least it offered manual correction! This comes in handy because it actually allows you to position the viewable image almost anywhere within the projected space. This is VERY good because this projector produces an extremely LARGE picture. At only 9 feet away, it is speced to put out a 100" diagonal image. I have it sitting about 13 feet away from the wall. This image bleeeds off the wall edges. But with the manual geometric keystone, I can specify exactly where I want the image, and shrink it to actually fit on the wall. So it actually does quite a nice job. The inputs the projector has is quite nice, with at least 6 inputs, one for HDMI, two for HD Component, one for composite, one s-video and one for VGA. 720p is quite acceptable, too, for screens of this size. However, once you start getting over 100" diagonal measure (which I currently have) you really do start to wish you had even more than 720p... 1080i or 1080p would do wonders with images this size.
The size of the image this projector gave out was unexpected for me, but thanks to the manual geometric keystone, it wasn't a problem. Another thing I wasn't expecting was the fan noise of this projector. It's slightly loud under the default settings, however, you can set it to "MOVIE MODE" which cuts the noise in half. If you put up a decent home theater sound system, you won't be able to hear the fans over your speakers.
So I'm currently playing the poor-college-student-card and projecting my image onto a bed sheet. I picked up the highest thread count, whitest, queen-sized bed sheet from Walmart and fixed it onto my wall using cuts of styrofoam blocks. I used the styrofoam blocks because there were things on the wall, such as a thermostat, firealarm, and door bunts. The styrofoam gave it just enough space away from the wall to keep the sheet even, and hovered just over these miscellaneous objects. The bed sheet is only 300 count. In the future, I may take a trip to Bed Bath & Beyond to find a better sheet... one made out of slightly more reflective material, and of a higher thread count. For those considering this same route, get the highest thread count you can find, because even 300 bleeds a lot! I think you could use 300 as a rear-projection screen, it bleeds so much!
But all in all, I am very happy with the purchase. I am not looking forward to the moment, some 2000 hours-of-projector-use into the future when I have to shell out $300 to replace the lamp, but until then, I've got a nice home theater with a screen about 150" diagonal to enjoy.
ARF, signing out.
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