Panasonic PT AE500U

Back to the present: Front LCD projectors for home theater are no big deal—there are several models to choose from, and prices have dropped considerably as competition from single-chip DLP technology has stepped up. In fact, the majority of front...

Back in the day (well, around 1999, to be exact), Sony's introduction of the VPL-VW10HT front LCD projector was big news. It was the first widescreen front LCD projector with true HD resolution—three 1.35-inch, 16:9 panels with 1366x768 pixels.

By more than $1,000, this projector is less expensive than the average price of the RPTVs in our February 2004 HDTV Face Off. Granted, you need to buy a screen (there goes that $1,000), but you'd then have the same resolution as half of the TVs in the...