I'm not very familiar with the PJ side of home theater, most of what I've learned is by reading these threads. I'm trying to select a projector for a large, high end conference room and I assume some of the things I'm looking for are the same things you're looking for. The exceptions I'd think would be trading a bit of PQ for more lumens and a more 'commercial' design (long hours, oblivious users), but we do want 1080p. I don't have an exact budget but let's say < $10K, room is ~ 30x40, lighting will be 'controlled'. I'm thinking screen size should be around 110-120"? Content would mostly come from HTPC and include PowerPoint, multiple split-screen video and HD video conference, PC apps, standard and Blueray DVD.

So including the recent products shown at CEDIA would you have any specific model recommendations for this purpose? (must be installed by mid-December) Thanks for your ideas.

That sounds like a small screen for such a big room. Even if you don't go much bigger than 120" you'll still want as many lumens as possible for presentations etc.

One problem - there's a real lack of affordable, very bright 1080p projectors.

The 5000-lumen Mitsubishi FL7000U/HD8000U (http://www.projectorcentral.com/Mitsubishi-FL7000U.htm) would be ideal but that's a little over-budget. The brightest "1080p" in-budget is the 3200-lumen Canon WUX10 (http://www.projectorcentral.com/Canon-REALiS_WUX10.htm). It's LCOS & 1920x1200 resolution (16:10) would be perfect for the PC/presentation side but would complicate screen choice. It's also so new no-one knows if it's any good yet, although it's based on a well-established chassis.

All other sub-$10000 1080p options are barely half the brightness if you exclude the Optoma HD81-LV (http://www.projectorcentral.com/Optoma-HD81-LV.htm) on reliability grounds (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=891002).

Good luck hunting, I'm in exactly the same market. Cedia brought us no new options I'm afraid.

Update: Another 1200p model rather than 1080p, but this might be suitable:

Dell 7609WU (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&sku=224-1655&redirect=1) specs:
DLP, 1920 x 1200, 2700:1 contrast, 3850 lumens, $5000.


Shame the lens throw makes it unsuitable for my room :mad:

This is new but might be just what you are looking for...

Optoma EP1080 (http://www.gadgetsngizmos.org/tag/optoma-ep1080/) 1080p, 3500 lumens DLP Projector

Launching in the coming weeks.

HTH

^ Nice find thanks, I hope their reliability issues are now resolved. At that price (listed at ~2700 euros) I might well risk it despite needing to use a mirror to extend it's throw.

(I use a mirror from this supplier (http://www.vacuumcoatings.co.uk/Autocue-FSmirrors.html) to extend my Sanyo PLV-70's throw - surprisingly it doesn't seem to detract from the image quality much, though lightspill does brighten the room a lot.)

Edit Found some Optoma conversion lenses that change existing throws. Their 0.8x model works for me whereas the OP may need the 1.2x model for his very large room.

How does 1920x1080p, 3500lm, 2000:1, 1-chip with 2x 5-segment color wheel and <$8k price point with <$300 lamp cost sound?

We mostly specialize in HT stuff thus likely the reason you dont' have a lot of posts. You might check www.projectorcentral.com for models.