Projection Television

While flat-panel plasma TVs are busy hogging the press, reviews say the best value in a big-screen TV is a projection television. And while old-fashioned CRT-based models are big and bulky, newer-technology LCD, DLP and LCoS projection TVs are now crowding into the market. These microdisplay models have big screens, but they are less bulky than CRT televisions, with depths of only 15 inches or so (a couple of the newest models have a depth of only 7 inches). While 15 inches is significantly thicker than a plasma screen, a 50-inch big-screen rear-projection model costs less than half the price of a 50-inch plasma TV.

I found some good testing and reviews on projection units at Consumer Reports. Though the individual write-ups are not as detailed as reviews from Sound and Vision magazine, Home Theater magazine and Stereophile Ultimate AV.com, Consumer Reports tests the largest sampling of CRT and thinner microdisplay big-screen TVs. CNet.com is a little behind right now in keeping up with this category. There are a dozen models listed or previewed at CNet, but editors haven't gotten to fully evaluate them. I also found good, if sporadic, reviews for projection TV at computing publications like PC Magazine and PC World.

I saw some mixed reviews for the Epson Livingstation LS57P2 (*est. $3,400). This 57-inch LCD high-definition projection television sets itself apart with some unique features. The Epson HDTV comes with an integrated photo printer that spits out 4 x 6-inch photos from memory cards. You can also freeze and print images from the TV in some circumstances. In addition, the Epson comes with an external CD-burner, so you can burn image from memory cards to a CD. Reviews say that the printed photos won't win any awards, but they're not too bad overall. As a TV, however, the Epson isn't so successful. Though the big-screen image is bright, with rich color, the dark scenes are not dark enough, and blacks appear more gray than inky black. Editors at PC Magazine say this projection TV has a strong green bias which couldn't be totally corrected. While some reviews say the Livingstation shows promise as a multitasking projection TV, others say the image quality is not yet there.