This will be my first projector. I have created a home theater room in my basement. The room is totally light controlled and my first row of seating is 14 ft back with second row 19 ft back. I will be watching about 70 % blue ray movies and 30 % hd sports. I will be purchasing a carada bw 1.4 gain screen. The screen will also be in 2.35 ratio. I would like a screen in the 136 Diagonal 2.35 range which would be masked down to about a 110 screen for 16.9 viewing. I would like to spend around $5000 for the projector and will add lens later. I am a little concerned with some of the dust problems on some of the projectors. I have seen the sony black pearl and like the picture but am concerned if it will be bright enough...I would appreciate any recommendations on which projectors will give me a great picture with my setup. I also have only read positives about purchasing and calibrating services through Jason T and that would be a short drive from Buffalo. Again thanks for any input and recommendations.

I'm in a similar situation as you, and the answer I keep hearing is the JVC-RS1x or JVC-RS2 (a little pricier). The RS1X should have better brightness, but RS2 has better contrast and other features. I've never seen either one in action yet, though.

In the pricerange you're talking about I don't think dust is an issue, I believe most projectors in that range have sealed optical paths.

I guess since I've been pounding the objective measures lately you'll probably want to know how many lumens you need going in, that's pretty easy to do. You want a screen that's 125" x 53", that's 46 sqft. SMPTE recommends 12 ftL and Lumens = Screen Area * brightness / gain, so:

46 sqft * 12 ftL / 1.4 = 400 Lumens

Of course you'll probably want a bit of a "buffer" since lamps dim as they age, probably 150-200% of that number so 600-800 Lumens is probably what I'd shoot for in a projector.

The RS1 is probably the only LCoS machine that will get you close to that, other options (DLP) would be the IN83 (DC4 version of the IN82). The IN82 can be setup anywhere from about 200-1100 Lumens fully calibrated based on your iris choice. If I had 8 or 9' ceilings I'd probably have an IN82. The BenQ W20000 (or W5000) might be another option, the W5000 has been measured up to 600 lumens. I haven't followed the Epson but I think the 1080UB might be in that category too.

But heck if you're that close to AV Science, my recommendation would be to call them, talk to them, and then maybe see if they'll demo your top 2-3 choices for you. I wish I could reasonably do that.