From what I've researched on these boards, the 1000 is brighter but the 3000 has better contrast, deeper blacks, possibly better color. I will be using this in a somewhat light controlled room, but I would like to have some daylight, and or lighting in the room during viewing. This is going to be a secondary HT/Playroom for the kids. So figure allot of daytime Nickelodeon/Animated DVD viewing. Spongebob must be displayed in all his yellow glory ;)
Then at night if we are lucky the wife and I can enjoy a good movie, prob Comcast on demand. Three kids don't allow for allot of serious/critical movie viewing. Of course this will be the spot to watch any sporting events due to the size of the screen. 100" diag.
I know the 1000 is cheaper, I'm looking at a 3000 used, so its only about 3 or 4 hundred more for the 3000. I leaning toward the 1000 thinking I will need the extra brightness during daytime viewing. Any thoughts or opinions would be much appreciated.
Thanks


Jeff

Your analysis is dead on from what I understand (having only experienced the HD1000u, my new pj). The 3000 is the superior imaging projector, but depending on what you're coming from, I'm in love with the hd1000 and think (almost impossibly) that both the contrast and brifghtness are huge improvements over my last 2 projectors. The hd1000 is going to be more plasma-bright and awesome for kids stuff (had veggie tales on for my son, it was fantastic in 'sports mode' in mixed light).

To me, having not watched a ton of stuff on my hd1000 yet, I'll comfortably say the contrast is totally good enough where I'm not frustrated that I'm missing detail in dark scenes (only seeing halves of faces for a third of a movie got pretty old with my previous business projectors). 'Good enough contrast' couldn't be more subjective, but for me that's what the hd1000u delivers, even with some ambient light (as opposed to my old ones even in darkness). I'm in turn thrilled and think the value proposition is hugely in favor of the 1000. Plus if you're like many of you what you really want is a bright 1080p for $999, so saving that $300-400 now helps you justifying dumping the cheaper mits in 2-3 years when 1080p is in this price bracket.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=748775

I will be using this in a somewhat light controlled room, but I would like to have some daylight, and or lighting in the room during viewing.

If your going to be viewing with ambient light in the room get the hd1000. If you can control the ambient light then get the hd3000. The white segment will really help give you the 'pop' with some light in the room. The hd3000 could work too with its iris open and bulb in bright mode. Also a high contrast gray screen will help too.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=748775


Thank you so much for this link. :D I don't know why I didn't come across it before.
I'm leaning toward the 1000 for the daytime brightness, but then again, I will be using a relatively small screen 80x45, 92 diag i think? I believe this lends itself to the 3000 giving a brighter picture due to the small size of the screen, The projector will be aprox 12.5 feet from the screen. So maybe that will make up for not being as bright as the 1000? I'm afraid that during the day I will wish I had the 1000 and at night the 3000. So I just need to figure out where the most viewing will be done and go with that. Sounds logical no? I need to do some more research on screen type, gain, material. It looks like this makes a huge difference with the picture. If
If I wasn't going to have kids playing in the same room, I would just get a 65 inch plasma and be done with it. But that would be to easy. Back to the forums... :rolleyes: