I have a deadline to make a decision on which projector replacement to get. I'm torn between LCD and DLP and would love the opinions of the esteemed AVS Forum panel.

My projector room is 14x10 with 2 small windows with blinds, that allow a fair amount of ambient light during the day. I'm projecting on a 100" screen and feeding the projector through component (although there's a hdmi port on my directtv box that I haven't tried using.) Most of my content is dvd or sub dvd quality, and a bit of the DirectTV HD content.

I've owned Infocus 4805 and Panny AE900 before. I preferred the picture on the Infocus for non HD content, but since its a native 480p projector maybe that's an unfair comparison. I liked that the AE900 was really quiet (the Infocus was disturbingly loud in comparison), and much brighter, which made daytime viewing more tolerable.

My main criteria are image quality when watching movies at night, noise and decent viewing during daytime.

I'd like to get your opinions on the Optoma HD7100 vs Panny AX200U. I'm kind of leaning to the 7100 because of the image quality issue.

Do a quick search for the primary 7100 thread on the over $3K forum before you buy. I recall that at one time there were serious bulb issues with the 7100, and I don't know if they were ever resolved.

If your going to get the 7100, just spent the extra $100 and get the 7300 that comes with the scaler, look in the greater then 3k forum and search for 7300 thread. You can get it from a place where thats the opposite of oldegg =P

I'm not sure I know what a scaler is. Does it upscale 480p content to 720p? How does the result look?