Sony - VPL-HW40ES

Buy a used Sony. The hw40es and up are great 1080p pj's that are quiet, easy to install and throw a great image.

Save a little bit more Look for a used Sony hw 20,30,55,40,45,65 I got a hw40 for 200eur! You can’t beat the performance with anything in this price range!

My Sony VPL-VW10HT was 1366 x 768 3-chip LCD as well. The Infocuses were 720p and 1080p single chip DLPs, respectively. The Sony 40ES was a 3 chip 1080p SXRD (DILA). The JVC NX5 was a bulb based 4K 3 chip DILA. The NZ500 is a laser based 4K 3 chip DILA. It has much better overall contrast (blacker blacks and brighter whites) compared to the NX5. It also has a much improved ANSI contrast. Great projector!

There are mostly a lot of recommendations on here for BenQ HT1075, TH575, W1070 DLP projectors. If you can find a good used Epson LCD, or BenQ DLP you would be much happier. I personally have a used Sony LCoS (1080P/3D) that I have had no issues with and use daily as a TV for hours. I got mine on Ebay a few months ago. I tend to be frugal with such purchases and researched projectors for about a year, but for me it was not a priority; just a fairly rare treat.

My first projector was a Sony SXRD 1080P in 2007: $10,000 USD. Bulb replacements cost $900-1000. When it finally gave up the ghost in 2017, I purchased another Sony SXRD 1080P: $1800 USD with \~$100 bulb replacements. The picture is better. Cost for projectors has definitely gotten cheaper for more, but TVs are a true mass market item. As other posters have indicated, the market for projectors is tiny compared to the market for TVs. Companies will create products and compete if they can sell millions, but not as much if they are looking at tens of thousands.

So, I play ps5 on a Sony sxrd 1080p projector on a 100” screen. I’m moving off a projector. I’ll tell you why. At the time 100” anything tv wise was stupid expensive. But now you can get a 4K screen for $1.5K or 2.5K. You will get better gaming out of that. My projector has game mode etc. But a TV with vrr, hdr etc will look and play better and you can play with the lights on! So I was going to upgrade to 4K with a Valerion, benq x3100i etc. but as I priced that vs a huge back lit screen at 100” and less in size for me it will be a better deal. Now if you want over 100” PJ is the way to go. But mind you, now you need to add screen cost to that and depending on the lighting in your room that screen could be pretty expensive. I know we are all PJ people here. But there are other options. I’m waiting it out to Black Friday and see if I can get a 100” mini led screen for a good price. Hopefully 240Hz at 1080p and 120Hz at 4K with all the bells and whistles.

I have bought multiple projectors off shopgoodwill.com to get me started, a 1080p Sony projector is in our gazebo, in the basement I have two 1080p Epson projectors and one Christie that I didn’t pay over $40 each for. You can get decent deals when auction times end at off hours. I even got a perfectly working (remoteless) Denon X2600h for about $230 shipped from there. Check it out!