It is a very good projector for watching sports, movies and even playing video games. The moderate price allows anybody in the market for a new TV to consider this projector. It will also appeal to the TV seeking crowd because of its incredible light output. Statistically, it is said to put up 2400 lumens, which is almost twice what the average for other projectors on the market today. Granted, if you wanted a projector strictly for movie watching, you might look at another model, but the versatility of the HD71is unmatched.

Although it may not be the best projector ever released, I don’t want to make you think that it’s not an incredible machine. Watching movies on it is an absolute treat, but there are greater projectors for this task. Black levels are also better than acceptable, I might even go so far as to say great, but they don’t really push the boundaries of other projectors in this price range.

The Optoma HD71 is a projector that I highly recommend for those just getting into the niche. It is an extremely bright projector that does its job very very well and is incredibly versatile. It is the perfect projector for anybody who wants to watch movies and television but may also want to play some video games or deliver presentations. If you look around, you can find some really good deals on this incredible projector.

The picture is incredible and looks very life like due to its incredible handling of contrast. The colours are even more stunning than the contrasts it produces and this alone makes the HD8600 truly wonderful to watch.

The interchangeable lenses are a huge plus and allow you to put it basically anywhere in your theater and get the size of the picture you want. The Lens Shift feature they have is basically flawless as well and is perfect for adding last minute adjustments to your picture.

That is not to say that this projector is perfect though. Features like the PureMotion, which tends to be less than completely accurate and a bit jerky, maybe should have been left for next years model and given a little more polish. Similarly, the PureDetail goes a little bit overboard with the edge enhancement and tends to make the picture look unreal and cluttered at the edges.

Although the extra little options may not be perfect, the HD8600 is absolutely stellar at projecting an incredibly stunning picture onto basically any surface. Picture quality here is unmatched by anything else they’ve ever produced and you’d be hard pressed to find another projector in the entire market that you like better. When this projector is calibrated properly, you have one of the best HD home theaters money can buy. Good show ol’ boy.

It does lack the powered zoom and focus features of other comparable models but keep in mind that these other models are comparable not because of their prices, but because of their performance.  The Epson Home Cinema 8100 is incredibly easy to set up and use for basically anybody and its value is unparalleled making it one of the most consumer friendly projectors ever released.

The Epson 8100 is an incredible achievement with no real flaws that I can discern. Although it is the little brother to last year’s Epson 6100, it outperforms it in every single way to the point of surprising nearly everybody in the industry.  What’s more is that it does all this at a much cheaper price to boot.  It is one of the best ways you can spend money on a home theater projector and one of my favorites to come along in a long time.  Please, pick up this projector if it is in your price range because I guarantee that you won’t regret it.

It is incredibly simple to project a beautiful image on a black screen in broad daylight with these types of numbers. The lamps are two high-output 330-watters that are actually 20% more efficient that their previous models. The PLC-XF1000 projector is said to produce an image with a contrast ratio of 4,000:1 and make use of an improved QuaDrive optical engine that allegedly adds a so-called “Color Control Device to the conventional 3LCD system” for control of yellow light independent of the other colors.

This product is made for outdoor displays or digital signage and it shows.  There isn’t much in terms of resolution for this projector as it pumps out only 1024×768 pixels and has an Active Maintenance Filter to reduce maintenance costs and labor thanks to its unique cartridge replacement system. The Sanyo PLC-XF1000 is slated for release in December and will retail for $24,995… without a lens…

What really sets these high end projectors apart from their cheaper counterparts are the little extras you get that make the projector much more versatile.  The PT-AE3000U features a 2.0 times zoom that is capable of casting a 120-inch image on a screen from an incredible distance of only 3.6 meters. The projector also makes use of its red rich lamp to increase the overall luminance efficiency of the picture.  It also has a high precision optical lens unit, Panasonic’s Pure color Filter Pro and Smooth Screen Technologies, and a dynamic iris to give you even more leeway. Panasonic has even included their new Frame Creation 2 feature which aids in creating sharp and clear images when fast moving scenes are occurring.

The PT-AE4000U makes use of VIERA Link and has two programmable 12V trigger terminals.  Panasonic also made sure it had three HDMI terminals for basically anything you could ever want to plug into the projector and gave it support of x.v.Color and Deep Color just to make sure you were happy.

Keep in mind though, that as the camera shifts between the two screens, some brightness may be lost for a couple seconds while the camera lens adjusts.  Also, when the video is compressed into flash video for the web, there might be some artifacts visible.  These artifacts are strictly the byproducts of the compression and have nothing to do with the way the projectors perform.  There are problems with filming projectors work but I think this video does an incredible job of comparing the two projectors visually which is not a luxury most people are afforded.

So what does it all come down to?If you are looking to get into the full HD home theater projector market but have a limited budget, you can spend $1000 and get a 1080p 300-inch picture with really good black levels in a small easy to transport case, if you’re willing to sacrifice features.  On the other hand, if you are looking at upgrading to a full HD theater projector with an incredibly crisp image, some flexibility in how and where you install the projector due to a 2x zoom and lens shift, then the higher end LCD home theater projectors are what you are looking for.

Personally, I think that if you were to spend $999 on an Optoma HD20, a projector that’s truly worth the $999 price tag, you might as well spend the extra $300 and get a $5,000 projector in the Viewsonic PRO8100. I have said it before but this is in my opinion the best price going for a quality home theater projector.

If for some reason you have an aversion to ViewSonic, or you simply don’t have the extra $300 to drop on it, here are the links for the most popular high end LCD and entry level DLP home theater projectors.

High End LCD Home Theater Projectors

• Viewsonic PRO8100 (My favorite deal going right now. A $5,000 projector for $1,300)
• Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 6500UB(also a great projector for the price, but the price is twice as much)
• Panasonic PT-AE3000U(this one is a fan favorite for a reason, there isn’t a single rating less than five star on Amazon)

New Entry Level DLP Projectors

• Optoma HD20(seems to be the favorite, but it’s the only one currently shipping)
• Vivitek h3080FD(my pick for entry level DLP HD projectors, from stats only)
• BenQ W1000(big fan of BenQ and really looking forward to this little guy’s arrival)

You’ve got your new home theater projector and you want to take advantage of its 1080p full HD capabilities with the most impressive movies ever released on blu-ray. Lucky for you, I just spent a bunch of time building a list of the first 20 blu-rays you need to pick up.  Seriously, hours picking these movies and putting them in an appropriate order all for your benefit. Granted, this list may be personal preference, but I’m usually right. Also, as you will notice right away, this is by no means the best 20 movies in the world, just the best 20 to watch in 1080p on a massive screen. I bet you can guess a few of them, but I bet there’s a few you have never heard of either. Without further ado, let’s get this list under and then over with.

#20 Transformers

Yeah, I don’t care which one you watch, they were both God awful films.  The two films were absolutely unbearable for a reviewer to sit through for so many reasons but they did get one thing right. The visuals are absolutely stunning and basically benchmark the whole digital special effects industry.  I just hate these movies so much.

#19 Stardust

Stardust has to be my favorite fantasy movie of late and possibly all time. It is paralleled only by the incredible “Princess Bride” in my mind and is on this list because I absolutely love the world it takes me to. There’s just something about a fantasy movie with the attention to special effect detail. It makes me feel all tingly inside.

#18 A Clockwork Orange

This one also makes me feel all tingly inside too but for other reasons. Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” is in my opinion a cinematic masterpiece that deserves to be seen on the big screen over and over again. This film doesn’t boast insane special effects, but it dies contain some of the best and trippiest pictures ever put to film. It’s absolutely beautiful.

#17 Watchmen

It seems that people either love this film or walked out in the first 20 minutes. I am on the love side, let me assure you. Already being a big fan of the novel, I was waiting eagerly and patiently all year for this one. I was so excited to see it that I dragged the wife through the dodgy end of Patras while we were travelling in Greeece. If you’re on the hate side, you still have to admit that it is one of the most visually stimulating films of the year.

#16 Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

This is probably one of my favorite animated films of all time. The art team at SquareEnix rivals anything at Pixar. They are capable of producing absolutely jaw dropping imagery that is studied the industry over. There’s really nothing that comes even close to the fight scenes in this movie, they are absolutely brilliant. I’ve included a video of the movie below seeing as this is one of the less popular ones on the list, I figured a few people wouldn’t have seen it.

#15 Blade Runner

Blade Runner is a movie that I thought about for months after watching it for the first time. I absolutely love this movie because of the themes and future settings that are the backbone of this movie. Themes in this movie shadow very closely the premise of the Ghost in the Shell series, of which I am a large fan as well. Harry Ford is pretty awesome too; I don’t think there’s a SF role he couldn’t do.

#14 Star Trek

J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek is easily my favorite of the series and you’d be hard pressed to find anyone say different. He breathes new life into the dying franchise with this incredible story and does it with style. I’m not a very big Abrams fan either. I haven’t liked anything he’s done in the past so I wasn’t holding out much hope for this. He really shows his film making talent and puts beautiful images on the screen with some of the best special effects in Hollywood.

#13 Gladiator

A classic tale about a not so factually correct Roman gladiator, but hey, it looks cool. I think the thing that sets this movie apart from every other ancient Roman movie is the sets. You actually fell like you are back a couple thousand years cheering with the rest of the public in the stands of the Colosseum. The fight scenes are indeed incredible, but I think the real visual pleasure is the setting and sets created for this landmark movie.

#12 The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz was my favorite movie when I was a kid. I loved the surprise ending; I just thought that it was so tricky. I also loved all the characters because I guess it appealed to me back then. If you want a real visual adventure, boot up the projector, roll up a fatty, and put on Dark Side of the Moon. It will absolutely blow your mind.

#11 Sin City

Sin City is another one of those love it or hate it movies. I really love Sin City because it’s less of a movie than it is a moving comic book. Robert Rodriguez does such an incredible job at transferring these classic Frank Miller stories to a new medium and he sets the stage for future projects of the sort. Watching Mickey Rourke pound some guys face in while being covered in blood has never looked so beautiful.

#10 300

300 uses the same green screen technology as Sin City did but for another Frank Miller novel. Zack Snyder pulled it off miraculously and it was only his second movie. Granted, 300 lacks plot, it’s basically just fight after fight, but it is also one of the masterpieces of modern cinematography.

#9 Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse now is often regarded as one of the best films of all time. It’s one of those films that everyone has seen time and time again and is perfect for leaving running sans audio just as something visual and beautiful to look at. The scene where Sheen is coming out of the water right before he meets with Brando sticks in my mind as one of the most beautiful moving pictures ever made. I guarantee you too have a piece of this movie forever burned onto your brain somewhere.

#8 Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

Another Japanese film that the masses may not have seen. The animation in this film puts Hollywood techniques to shame it is so beautiful. Most of the scenes are drawn by hand and then enhanced with digital backgrounds and other little tweaks so it is a mixing of old and new animation techniques. Below, I’ve posted my favorite scene in the movie which is an absolutely stunning parade.

#7 2001: A Space Odyssey

Another Kubrick masterpiece is 2001. This is another movie that you can just throw on without the audio and be pleased by it. Last time I threw a party I just put it on all my televisions, monitors and my projector, people kept commenting about how they liked it. I think of it kind of like a fish tank, fun to look at but doesn’t need to make noise. It’s also a lot cheaper…

#7 Saving Private Ryan

Truth is, I finished this list then remembered about this movie. I really couldn’t leave it out seeing as it truly is one of the best representations of the second world war ever put on film. The audio in this film is at least as stimulating as the incredible visuals. Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg really left nothing untouched and truly created a masterpiece with this film. The two would get together later as well for the HBO series “Band of Brothers” which parallels “Saving Private Ryan” in every way, but gives us a much longer story line. This is clearly one of the greatest achievements in cinematic history. I didn’t want to push Transformers out of the list or get rid of anything else, therefore, you are left with two #7’s. Deal with it.

#6 The Lord of the Rings

You knew it was going to be on here but maybe you didn’t know which one I was going to pick. With this franchise, though, you really can’t pick a single movie. The plot wouldn’t be complete with just one of them and neither would the experience. These movies are much better with the sound pounding as hard as your neighbors will let you pound it. Make sure that you have the volume up when the thousands of orcs are charging in battle at the rest of the middle-earthlings. This is some absolutely beautiful film making.

#5 The Fifth Element

The Fifth Element is the classic “take pictures of how your projector performs” movie because of it’s beauty. The colours are so vivid and the settings so beautiful and unreal. This is the reason I give Bruce Willis credit and I believe one of the best science fiction films of all time.

#4 The Dark Knight

Oh yeah, this douche is gonna put The Dark Knight in his list cause everyone else did. While it is probably the single most hyped movie of all time, some of it is justified. Heath Ledger gave us the performance of his life and I think actually drove himself mad for this role. I think Bale was in this movie too but can’t quite remember. Like it or not, The Dark Knight has it all: fight scenes, fast cars, incredible heights, explosions, and Maggie Gyllenhaal!

#3 Baraka

You don’t need the music in this film per se, but it does really add to the eerie and surreal setting. Baraka is a film of cinematographic excellence and relies almost entirely upon that. Even though no words are spoken during the length of the film, it does have a fairly strong theme. It manages to show us the effect that humanity has on Earth from a gorgeous point of view but warns us about what we are headed for. These are some of the best pictures of our world and civilization ever put on film. If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend you watch it.

#2 Blue Planet: Seas of Life

I liked Blue Planet more than I liked Planet Earth, so what. All you have to do is throw on “The Deep” and put it on repeat because there is nothing as incredible as some of the creatures discovered when we send humans somewhere they’re not supposed to be. This series is so inspiring and educational because of the beauty the photographers are able to capture. I can’t say enough about it.

#1 Star Wars

You didn’t see it in the rest of the list. You feared it might be number one, but was hoping I would put something else here. Too bad. There’s nothing quite like the feeling I get when I throw Empire on a “140 screen and crank the volume. It makes me feel like the first time I saw it. Oh, and this doesn’t include episodes I-III; I deny the fact that they ever happened.

I’m sure I’ve upset some fanboys out there so if I forgot something that you definitely think deserves to be on the list, or some piece of grabage that needs to be off it, leave a comment.

All that being said, I look forward to this low-end 1080p projector more than any other this year. According to BenQ’s released statistics, it doesn’t quite measure up to the HD20’s contrast ratio, but as I’ve said many times before, and will say many times in the future, you simply can not trust manufacturer’s statistics. All three of the sub $1,000 DLP 1080p projectors sport the TI DLP chip so they are all very similar. Where they will differ though is in lenses and basically everything else that goes into making a projector.

I really can’t get enough of the case. Look at that faux leather texture on the silver part of the casing; it is stunning. The W1000 is by far my favorite of the cheap 1080p projectors aesthetically but we’ll have to wait to see if it outperforms the Optoma HD20 and Vivitek h3080FD. All three projectors should be on the market and shipping to happy households by the end of October but we should be able to compare the W1000 to the HD20 on October 5th. Be sure we’ll keep you posted.

The Viewsonic PRO8100 mocks others with it’s incredible 1080p resolution, 2Fine liquid crystal panel, the ever impressive silicon optix reon-VX high perormance video processor sporting the Hollywood Quality Video stamp of approval. It makes for stunning HD movies, videos and television while letting you control it with IR and RS-232 remotes for absolute unification with your current system. The PRO8100 also makes use of ViewSonic’s Percision Colour System technology to provide a very advanced and customizable colour tuning studio that is capable of 3D colour management, auto contrast and 33 levels of gamma correction. Among the other input ports on the back are two HDMI 1.3 and two component video inputs to make sure you can get everything plugged in.

My guess is that ViewSonic wants to take a nibble at the low priced 1080p projector pie. As the name behind the product gets better, the prices do get higher though. Vivtek stars us out with the h308FD at $999, followed by Optoma with the HD20 at $1099 and now ViewSonic with the PRO8100 at $1,346.06. I have to say that the ViewSonic PRO8100 is the best projector that you can buy for under $1,500. This is one of the best deals in home theater projector history. If you were looking, you’re not anymore. Go pick it up.