Thanks for the info Hobart, will check it out at the DEMO store you mentioned. I reviewed a few sites on the internet and have pasted below some more links for anyone that is interested. Have to say, for 50-80k, and accepting the few minor inconveniences-installation, planning layout-placement, heat flow & cables, deciding on screen size, bulb lifespan, and having to darken the room a little to view it-front projectors are clearly the way to go. Everybody who got one raves about them, their friends get jealous, and their kids want to watch toy story. I know that TW houses are generally small, and that people don’t have the ability to make a room into a seperate AV theatre-but in a way, this is a reason to opt for fp as well. Save the space on the CRT, get a wall screen and some speakers, a ceiling mounted fprojector, and one has a 90-100 inch across movie quality picture.
forums:
avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdis … forumid=68
hometheaterforum.com/htforum … forumid=72
AE500 review (seems quite a step above the AE300):
audioenz.co.nz/2004/panasonic_ae500.shtml