very simple question about the Sony HW50

The HW50 is my first projector but I will tell you my experience is that ANY light washes out the image of a projector (this is not specific to the HW50). Mine is in the basement with total light controlled environment and even turning on the lights on a dimmer swithc a little bit impacts the image. It is a very high lumens projector so I assume that something with lower lumens would suffer even more from ambient light. I would imagine that having multiple windows would wash out the picture a lot for any projector. Coming off a Panasonic VT Plasma, it was much less impacted by lights.

No front projector works well with ambient light, IMHO. Look at your screen in the lighted room. That is your black level. That white screen is the blackest black you'll ever get. It's just not acceptable, especially in this day of ultra high contrast projectors.

If your going to calibrate the 5020 and use the calibrate mode then it will be worse than the Sony. If however you use the bright modes on the 5020 it will put out more light than the Sony. The Sony from what I have read outputs more light then the epson when calibrated.

I plan on getting the Sony. I do not have a light controlled room, but I plan to get blackout curtains and my projector will be ceiling mounted 10-12 feet away which should be fine.

If you plan to not black out you windows and have a ton of ambient light then you really need to look into getting something like a black diamond screen. I saw a demo with the 5020 in a space with windows using a normal white screen and you could barely see the Image. When they put the black diamond in place it helped a lot. However it wasn't miracle and still looked bad in my opinion.

If you can control some of your light and get it moderately dim I think either projector will do well.

I had an isf engineer I had calibrate all my Tv's in the past come to the house and give me opinions.

My room is upstairs in an open area. I have three windows. Right now with just the normal shades I can get the room during the day moderately dim...but nothing close to dark. I think the solar screens i have installed really help. Right now i have a 73 inch dlp tv and can watch just fine during the day with no glare. if i open the shades it becomes unwatchable. At night I can get that room pretty close to pitch black if I turn all lights off upstairs.

The isf calibrator said with good blackout shades and painting the room a darker color I should be fine. It won't be ideal but would work for things like watching normal tv. Obviously for serious watching I will be restricted to night time watching.

Now if I were to spend the extra cash and get something like a black diamond screen tv viewing during the day in that room would be pretty darn good according to what I have been told and seen in person. When I saw a demo of the black diamond at best buy I had them open all the curtains and turn the lights on...that was pretty close to what my room looked like during the day. It looked pretty darn good. In fact I would say it matched what I already have during the day with the dlp....maybe even better. My ultimate goal is to get the black diamond but that's 3 to 6 months down the road. For now a cheap elite screen will be in place.

To be truthful with you...I was also going to go with the epson. But after seeing the Sony in person it just handles motion better to my eyes. I watched the epson closely viewing an action scene and it drove me crazy. My wife and everyone else in the room had no idea what i was talking about. I didn't get that with the Sony. I tried 3d on both and took the glasses off on both within 2 minutes. I can't stand it in theaters and same with the home theater. I guess I am just sensitive to it all. It looks so juddery to me...like it is dropping frames when any movement happens. When a scene has someone talking And nothings going on it looks fine to me.

So with that said, if you have viewed the epson and like it then go for it. I am only going with Sony because what I saw with action. If I didn't see the motion issues I would be buying the epson now. I would actually prefer it because of the price my isf guy is actually trying to convince me to look at a dlp...but I haven't been able to find anyone locally with a good model to show off.

As to throw distance and all that I am not the person to ask. I plan on getting a 106 inch screen. From want I read the Sony doesn't loose much on brightness when zoomed in or out. I am going to rely on my isf installer to make the proper decisions on placement and all that jazz

When I say cheap I mean something like an elite screen. Something I won't feel bad about getting rid of or selling super cheap once I get enough funds for a better screen. Heck I actually have a 10 year old da-lite pull down in my garage I may end up using until then.

I talk about the bd screen because its the only one I have seen in person that can compare. I saw the fire hawk as well but it was in a room with no ambient light at all. The bd screen I have seen with lots of ambient light were very impressive. They did show some sparkling when the lights were off...but it didn't really annoy me that much. I figured I could live with that over the stuttering I noticed with the epson. And again don't let the stuttering I saw get to you. I have stared at computer monitors 8hrs everyday for over 20 years now so I notice things like that. I held onto a 20 inch CRT monitor at the house for many years before I saw a LCD I could live with.

I will try to get some pics of my area soon. It will probably be wed at the earliest.

THAT's the experience I have been trying to get across to people. Motion on the Epson just drove me nuts. Nice to know I wasn't the only one!