Re: Projector opinions
I'm not an expert, but I've been shopping too. If you're trying to throw 30' with a resultant 10' X 10' image, that's going to require a longer lens than comes with most small projectors.
Projectors seem to have the same "pick two" issue of many things in life: Brightness, resolution/quality/lens flexibility, price.
For a high quality image in moderate lighting at those screen sizes, I would prefer north of 3000 lumens. I've used a 4500 lumen projector on a 9X12 screen that looked really good. 2000 lumens on a 7.5X10 screen in the same room was very inadequate.
On the cheap end of things - less than about $5000, you have to pick either brightness or resolution. There are a number of very decent XGA projectors in the 4000-4500 lumen range for less than $2K. There are a couple "crossover" home theater projectors that are native 1080P (1920X1080) for less than $2K, but the brightest I can find is 2800 lumens - the Panasonic PT-AR100U.
Lots of projectors can "handle" HD input and many have HDMI inputs, but that doesn't mean the output is HD - it just means the projector will downscale the HD image to whatever fits on the screen - 1024X576, or something like that.
Also note that digital image size adjustments and keystone correction usually are done by scaling the image on the LCD rather than mechanical/optical means, so this further reduces your resulting resolution if you have a less than optimum throw angle.
If you want both brightness and HD native resolution, you're going to need to spend $4K for the Epson PowerLite Pro Epson PowerLite Pro G5450WUNL Projector - Product Information - Epson America, Inc. plus lens - this projector is sold without a lens, so add $1300 to the base projector price (which is where the $4K number comes from). If you're truly serious about getting the right projector for that particular situation - 30' throw to 10X10 screen, you may have to do something like this anyway, as I'm not sure of the availability of inexpensive projectors with the throw distance you need. They may exist - I haven't researched that.
As to quality and the price range of the projectors you linked to - I'm not sure that you will get what you want for the price range you are suggesting. I'm placing an order for the Panasonic PT-AR100U today, which is the least expensive true HD projector I can find with a somewhat usable brightness.
Edit - just looked more closely at the throw range of one of your links - you might be OK for a 10' screen at 30' throw distance, but you're going to have some trouble if you ever want to do rear projection - the zoom range of most of the little projectors is pretty minimal, so you'll be struggling to find 30' behind your screen.
