I hope someone can help with my final decision about which projector to buy. I'm down to two, the Sony VPL-HS60 and the Panasonic PT-AX100U. Are there any reviews out there that compare the two? It looks to me, for viewing mostly movies, I may have to sacrifice the ansi lumens (2000 with the Panasonic with a 6000:1 contrast ratio) for the contrast ratio of 10000:1 of the Sony(1200 ansi lumens) please help....

How close are you sitting? What Screen Size?

I had a panasonic and loved it. Zero problems.
but I was scared of all the negative reviews posted on this forum about it.
The panny is a light cannon but I personally wasn't comfortable with the long term reliability of that projector, so I swapped it out for a Sharp Z12000 Mk2 (being delivered today).

There are many folks happy with the panny and reporting no problems. But I wouldn't recommend it simply because of the many folks that are reporting issues.

I have a Panasonic PT-AX100U and I love it. I didn't let the negative stuff scare me off because I believe that there are many more Panasonics out there not showing any major problems. I did a lot of research before purchasing and it seems most projectors in this price point have some issues at some point. Yes the Panasonic did seem a little more then others but with all the great press and what it offer I would guess it has to be one of the top selling projectors.

The Sony was also on my short list but it lacked at least one feature I wanted (vertical stretch for CIH). If I was thinking about buying now and wasn't in a hurry I might consider waiting for the new model Sony. Considering the price (if you don't need the stretch mode).

I sit 10' from the screen and the projector will be 14' from the screen. The screen is 96 vintage draper (it was high end at the time) that I used for my old infocus 620. It is a 110'' diagonal screen. After I posted this I learned there is a new Sony that also looks good, the VPL-AW15??? I think it is the HS-60 replacement??