I am not new to projectors, but the unit I have is a true dinosaur, and I haven't been seriously tracking the progress in front projection until recently, so I think I might as well call myself a newbie.

I bought an InFocus LS 110 when it was still considered a "hot" projector, and have been happy with its performance and reliability ever since (that kind of explains my user name). I was never truly tempted to upgrade when the 720p machines came out. However, now that 1080p is here, I have been keeping an eye on these projectors, and will definitely upgrade the next time the bulb in my InFocus dies. Being a fan of DLP, I was very, very close to making up my mind to go with an Optoma HD80, but then I read about all these great new 1080p projectors being shown in CEDIA 07. Now it seems that making a decision is more difficult than ever. First of all, now that the LCD or LCOS machines have improved so much in terms of contrast (50000:1 for the Epson 1080UB! ), I wonder if DLP still holds any edge whatsoever. Should I stay loyal to DLP and go with an InFocus IN82 (or just stay with my original choice of the Optoma HD80), or should I switch camp and go with the Epson Home 1080UB or the Mitsu HC6000? Secondly, so far I've been limiting myself to projectors under $5k, but should I just bite the bullet and go for something in a different class (like a JVC RS2, for example)? Would the performance difference be significant compared to the sub-5k machines I listed above?

Thanks for your help.

There are two types of contrast ansi and on/off.

On/off is the difference between a 100% dark image and a 100% light image.

Ansi is the difference between light and dark in the same image.

LCDs have high on/off contrast so scenes that are almost completely dark have good blacks (a night sky), but once you have a scene with both dark and bright images (a campfire at night, for example, lcd contrast suffers.

Now, ansi contrast has improved on LCDs but it's still not as good as DLPs.

You also should not mistake LCOS projectors, like the JVC RS1/2 and the Sony Pearl, for LCD. LCOS does have good ANSI contrast and in some cases better than DLPs.

You also should not mistake LCOS projectors, like the JVC RS1/2 and the Sony Pearl, for LCD. LCOS does have good ANSI contrast and in some cases better than DLPs.

I've been told the RS1 has a lower ANSI contrast than DLPs (DLPs have about 500:1, while the RS1 has about 350:1).

Thanks guys. It seems that DLP is still the way to go then (with LCOS a close second). Then, perhaps the Optoma HD80 is still the best choice in terms of cost vs. performance? It got a great review on ProjectorCentral. The other DLP machine I'm considering, the InFocus IN82, is about 2x the price of the Optoma (Optoma is $2700, while IN82 is expected to be about $5400). Is the IN82 worth all the extra bucks?

questions like that can only be answered with your own eyes

If you have a 5K budget, wait for some of the comparisons (e.g. RS1/IN82) which should come out fairly soon. I agree with gwlaw99, everyone has their own opinion regarding the "Is it worth the extra money?" question. None of those opinions applies to you.