Sony VPL-PX40

[scorezero]

Hi,

anyone know much about the Sony VPL-PX40? Its light output looks impressive, but I'm worried that it's native res is 4:3, not 16:9. I plan to use it for cinema (of course!) and I'm not sure exactly what I'll lose if I get the wrong ratio.

One more question: this projector is 3500 lumens, and from what I've read, that's excellent. Although I have roller shutters on my lounge windows and can effectively make the room very dark during the day, I'd like a projector that will still produce a bright enough picture without my having to do this...what sort of lumens should I be looking for a minimum of?

Any sites, reviews, comments etc. would be greatly appreciated!!

[andw]

Well, I'm only newly looking into all of this, but from what I gather...
Your black levels on the screen are important, and your black is only ever going to be as black as your screen...
Therefore, if you are going to have light in the room, and projecting onto a whiteish sort of screen, you will end up with washed out pictures.
(although Sony is close to releasing a 'black screen' projector screen which is literally black, and rejects ambient light, but not RGB from a projector. This means that you can use it in reasonable ambient light. - of course the speculated price of it is around the $US2000 mark)
If you are going to be doing a lot of cinema, you should probably go for a native 16:9 projector, otherwise half of the projected image will be letterbox bars.
Anyway that's just my gleanings / opinions...

edit: p.s. this seems to be a good place for opinions etc of projectors / screens etc... http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=9 hours and hours of good reading

[scorezero]

Thanx ANDW for your reply.

You're right of course about balck levels...sooo glad the roller shutters came with the house!!

The black screen for Sony sounds unbelievable...I guess it means that people out there with relatively low output machines will be able to enjoy very high contrast pictures!! (If they can afford the screen!!) I think I'll wait until I see one on eBay!

The Sony projector I'm asking about looks quite impressive spec wise...I don't really mind the 4:3, AS LONG AS I can zoom the black bars out! If I can fill a 16:9 screen with all picture, I'll be happy. :D