I've been thinking of buying a projector to put in my living room. I would love to have a much bigger tv (currently only got 32") but they cost far too much. That's why i'd love to buy a projector instead. I've heard that the size of picture you can achieve with this thing is amazing.

The things I would like to know are:

-- how sharp is the picture compared with a high quality tv
-- where does the sound come from? do you need extra equipment for this?
-- what is the ratio of distance from wall to size of projected image.

Cheers

1) Depends. (RE Cinema projectors, e.g. 16:9) Some are optimised for NTSC and othes for PAL, And some for neither. Playing back PAL on a projector optimised for PAL will give you a very clear picture. There are also technuques for getting the best out of NTSC too on a PAL projector since the resolution of NTSC is lower than PAL.

2) Many projectors do have speakers. But lest be serious here. Would you drink champaing at burger king? Obvioulsy you are going to need some sort of sound system. even if is hooking up your dvd player and STB to your stereo.

3) My room is aprox 3 metres in length and i get a screen which is between 2.5 & 3 metres diagonally. Obviously this will vary from projector to projector, and there is a "zoom," on the lens to help you vary the size.

Bought a Panasonic PT AE300 last month for £850. £2000 RRP Real bargain if you ask me.