Sony CX-1 - any good? Can get one real cheap

I bought one last week from electrified.com for $1885 shipped to Ohio from NJ in 3 business days. They guaranteed same day shipping and they did. I used Ken and he was very nice and knowledgeable. As far as the Sony VPL-CX1, it's a decent projector in my newbie opinion. I have it projecting on a heavy, matte, white canvas/duck cloth bought from Walmart 9 feet X 5 feet stretched and sandwiched together on 4 10 feet wooden rods (2 for top and 2 for bottom) giving me a 10 feet diagnonal in a 16:9 ratio. The projector can do 110" at 14 feet. I have it on a wall-mounted shelf on the back wall 53" from ground. The image it project is bright enough for dim-light viewing (who watches movies with lights on anyway?) Daytime scene is watcheable with lights full on but night scene is not nice unless light is dimmed by 3/4. You can see the screendoor effect at 6 feet but not at 13 feet (where my couch is which is directly below the projector). The fan noise is perceivable although not distracting especially with normal movie volume. You can find its full specs at www.sonypresentation.com (550 lumens, XGA, 2000 hr UHP bulb, LCD 0.7" X 3, remote, 36 db fan noise, side exhaust, S-vid/composite/RGB/Component (with special $70 15-D VGA to component adapter cable), 4:3 panel with 16:9 capability (still will have letter-box black bars but looks better), max proj. size of 150" (due to low lumens), 1.3 zoom lens). I personally like it for the money. Sure I'd like the brighter or more expensive units (Sanyo PLV-60, Sony WH10T, etc.) but for the money this is great. I chose it over the DLP units for the cheaper, cooler, and longer-life bulb, Sony 3 year warranty, and lack of light leakage or rainbow effect. I have this unit hooked to a 50 ft. S-video cable by Belkin silver series ($25 shipped from cdw.com) hooked to a SD-6109C Toshiba combo receiver/DVD. I'm sure the image can be improved with HTPC or component cable but I'm holding off for now. The picture is crisp, bright, colorful, good contrast, smooth, just like the movie theater. It's better than my regular RPTV but is not as good as HDTV or HTPC on my computer monitor. Then gain I have the image blown up to 110" diagonal so you expect some degradation of the image. This unit and its relatives (CS1, CS2, CS3) had favorable reviews also by "professional reviewers". Bottom line is I would buy it again. For another budget consideration the Infocus LP425z (900 lumens, SVGA, DLP, 1000 hr Metal Halide bulb) can be had for around $1500 but the cost of the bulb $400 and its shortened lifespan will catch up with the Sony over 5 years. The other thing is the metal halide bulb tend to dim over time (1/2 the lumen at 500 hours use for 1000 hr-rated bulb). So unless you keep buying new bulbs every 18 months (2 hours/day X 365d/y), you may not get max brightness. The UHP bulb has a more consistent brightness over its life. The Canon LV5100 has also received good reviews for around $1800 (LCD, SVGA, 700 lumens). The Epson 50c has good reviews also. So if you're on a budget this is a great unit to get started into FPTV. Again this all is just my subjective, newbie opinion so please no flames.


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Huey ;-]