Peyton300TD,
I had a Panasonic rear projection 60" - for about 2 weeks... the quality was lousy and the set dominated the room. I am very fussy, a true pictophile.
You're right to go to front projection, but don't buy LCD - the screendoor effect is horribly primitive and you'll never improve it.
DLP is miles better. There is some screendoor effect with SVGA. but you will get maximum results if you run your projector through a dedicated computer rather than a DVD player. I've had this setup for several years now, and the quality can't be faulted.
Go a step further and buy what I have - the Infocus X1 (
http://www.projectorcentral.com/infocus_x1.htm). It's only $1,000 to $1,500 depending on where you source it, and it'll give you exactly what you want.
This Infocus is a SVGA 800x600 pixel projector with 1000 ANSI lumens of brightness and 2000:1 contrast. If you know nothing about projectors, take it from me, this is all you need and more.
But the best part is that the cooling fan sound is barely audible from 6ft away, and the bulb life is a whopping 3,000 hours. That's like 3 hours every night solid for 3 years.
It has a zoom lens - absolutely essential for getting the picture just right, and a bunch of other stuff too numerous to remember.
This is my 3rd front projector, and it is cheaper than the rest but hugely better... it is superb.
Connecting it through a computer DVD is important because though it is touted as a home theater projector, it is still partially designed for business desktop presentations. The computer power does amazing things to the quality of almost any presentation projector, and is the picture-quality equivalent - I kid you not - of buying one 10 times the price.
You get silky smooth, filmlike quality from your DVD's this way.
Here's a photo of mine with the Infocus ceiling mount. I project onto a 8ft diagonal table screen which sits in front of my cabinet-based 42" plasma.
But a caution. Once you've gone to a large screen with this setup, you'll never go back!
Ken Silver
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~1993 SL500, glistening triple black, xenons:
http://www.kensilver.com/SL
~1999 SLK 230 Kompressor, silver /black, CD, immaculate (my wife's)