I think it is a very good projector for the price, at least for my needs. I don't watch any HDTV yet. I saw a little bit of it of my X1 when I bought a tuner and it looked very good. Not as clear and detailed as something with a higher resolution would show, but the X1 scales it surprisingly well. Anyway, I use it for mainly DVD watching so the resolution matches my needs. Using a component----->VGA adapter makes my X-Box look very good too. I am projecting a 92" 16 X 9 image and sit about 11 feet from the screen. I'm not sure I'd go much bigger, but I know there are other users who do. The colors are very vibrant and bright scenes look very good. Although, sometimes the darker scenes don't show up too well. This also depends on what time of day I am watching. I don't have 100% light control in my room. But, I can make it dark enough during the day where the image is very watchable, save for a few dark scenes. I also have a higher gain screen which helps. If you click on my HT site link in my signature I have a few pics of what my room looks like. I am pretty sure that in the What's it Look Like In Use section is where I have some pics of the room with ambient light not totally controlled. Although the bandwidth of the site isn't high, so you may get kicked out for an hour!
Overall, for the price, I love my X1. I'd definetly buy it again. I am not sure of the alternatives because I don't know how firm you are on your price. If you go up to $1500, a few more options open up.
I don't know how much you know about projectors so I'm going to let you know some things to consider when shopping for one. If you know all of this, ignore me!
Where are you putting the projector? What kind of light control do you have? What are you going to use it for? Are you subject to DLP rainbows? Is LCD a better option? What's the lumen output? What's the contrast ratio? What's the bulb life? How much are replacement bulbs? What kind of warranty do I get? Are there any rebates available? What kind of inputs does it have? What kind of screen am I going to use?
These are just a few to get you started.
I would also use the Search option of this site because there are a lot of threads about this projector as it was the hot thing last year, especially when the price dropped. You'll probably even find threads with other options for projectors to consider.
Hope I helped!
George
