Unless you are very sensitive to motion handing the 5040/5050 do an excellent job with 2K material. If there is a dealer in your area check one out (or perhaps even a forum member that owns one and lives close). As far as overall performance under $3k you won't find better than the Epson.

Some 4K projectors, such as the TK800M are optimized for sports viewing and the IQ of 1080p upscaled to 4K (in the projector) is certainly no worse than 1080p native.

TK800 review with a focus on sports:

TK800M review:

Looks like the BenQ TK800M may be the best projector for what I'm looking for..plus the price is very reasonable!

I looked long and hard at the TK800M before I bought my UHD50. I just couldn't make the TK800M work in our condo because of the limited zoom range ( we have concrete ceilings and the projectors have to be wall mounted or fit under the coffee table) and lack of lens shift. I tested the very similar Viewsonic PX747-4k (refurb) and I was quite impressed with it, but it had some refurb imperfections and I returned it. The TK800M probably has the best combination of brightness, colour and cost and it seems very impressive. Here's a review:

https://www.passionhomecinema.fr/blo...is-de-gregory/ (use google translate).

I think you need to dig a little deeper and learn a lot more about projectors. Projectors are limited as to their throw distance and where they can be placed in relation to the screen. Some like the TK800M are very limited and others like the Sony are much more flexible. You haven't even mentioned what kind of room size, screen size, lighting control and a lot of other factors. Cable TV is so compressed to cram in so many channels that when blown up to a big screen it can really look bad. The more expensive projectors have a lot more processing power and can help to clean it up some but as they say crap in crap out. I dropped cable
years ago because it was virtually unwatchable on the big screen but I am a movie fan and watch no sports. Maybe some of you sport fans can chime in and tell you more about different projectors cleaning up poor broadcasts. I have read the Sony is very good at it but have only personally seen movies played on one.

The Benq ht5550 is terrific with cable sports. Well at least baseball, which is what I watch.

It's going in my basement..the basement is basically the perimeter of my house. The "area' that my setup will be is about 11' wide and as deep as I want. So, hanging the projector at distance I need and aligning it perfectly with the screen shouldn't be an issue. I hear you about cable tv being compressed...I'm doing as much research as I can. But as far as I read...the consensus seems to be for watching sports (cable with 1080 broadcast), dedicated 1080P projectors are the way to go. 4K "is not worth it" since it will make 1080P look worse. Thanks for your feedback!

Hopefully everything you watch is nice and bright. Once it isn't the lackluster contrast is going to be painfully apparent.

What issue did you run into? Was it not being able to align projector with screen or distance needed to hang projector to screen? Both?...

I'm about 6 months out on buying a projector. Just doing my research. I'm not sold on anything right now.

That's great to hear! Do you feel it does as good a job as say a 1080P television? How does it handle cable overall and 4K content?

Let's go Mets!

Because of the concrete ceiling the projector has to mount near the rear wall ( 14.5ftW x 18.5ftL x 8ft room) and the zoom range just wasn't quite enough for that, and without lens shift and the limited zoom I couldn't make it work under our coffee table either (but the UHD50 works perfectly there at 12ft8in from the screen). With a drywall ceiling I would have had no problems and I am looking closely at the TK800M to replace our W1070 in our vacation home. I'll have to move the projector mount a few feet back to get the image size I want there, but that's not a problem with the drywall under joist ceiling.

The tv I usually watch on is the TCL P605, a 4k model. There is no deficiency watching cable on the Benq. I watched some old Good Times episodes and Cosby episodes and as long as I kept the shows in the original ratio, it wasn't painful to watch. That surprised me. I've been lazy with the 4k, but I finally watched Glass and it was beautiful. I'm a Cubs fan, so I'll have to root against you tonight.

4K streaming of sports is likely to become much more common in the near future and is available now for selected events and streaming providers.

It's ON! Haha Honestly though, I'm just happy that the Mets are actually playing relevant games this late in the season. Good luck...may the better team win.

Enjoyed the game and glad we won.

Good game Sir. How did it look on the 5550?

We have our top guns going the next 2 games...gotta win em.

I just shipped my Benq for a firmware update so I had to watch on the telly. Looked good when they were being pounded by the Nats past weekend.

I'm one of the few Ma'am's on this site

FIOS has the Louisiana Iowa game in 4k today. Recording the game with my Tivo Bolt. Looks amazing on the Benq.