Jim - points well taken. Thank you for disclosing that you are on the Runco payroll.
My point was, and still is, that my Plus UP1100 WITH an outboard scaler,(HTPC, Quadscan...), is still going to be $10,000 less than the RUNCO VX1C. Will it equal the Runco? Each person needs to make that judgement for themselves. For me personally I could not see a $10,000 difference.
Don't get me wrong, I still think there is a market for Runco products. For those who want a good product, with no effort on their part for a premium price.
If you follow this forum you will find that does not match many members here. Folks here are willing to do lots of research, tweaking and mix and match products to equal or surpass the quality of Runco at many times half the cost. If every consumer was willing or interested in doing this Runco would lose a whole lot of business. You know it, I know it and Sam Runco knows it. I live in the Pacific Northwest where there are lots of software guys willing to plunk down big bucks for Runco's and Sony G90's. More power to them if that's how they want to spend their hard earned money. That's not me or the majority of folks here at the Forum.
On a bigger scale I think Sam Runco will be challenged to question his business model in the next few years. Digital projectors simply do not require the amount of dealer support that CRT's do. As digital gets better, and it will, CRT's will shrink as a percentage of the home theater market. That will leave the high mark-up/high margin model Runco has so successfully used to sell CRT's in a very tough position.
Now back to the original topic, I agree the Runco DLP's do provide a better picture than the LCD's. Reed.