If your room is "not real dark", and you want to do this at "rock bottom prices" . . . then you really should be looking at a plasma. But I'm a quality-over-quantity kind of guy. If you're still going to do projection, the least you can do is to avoid a few very common pitfalls.
First, make sure you're using the correct type of screen for your application. If the projector is going on the floor or a table, then you can use a retro-reflective screen - these are the common, cheap glass-bead audio-visual screens. But if it's going on the ceiling, then you MUST use an angular-reflective screen, or the only time the picture will look good is when you're standing on a ladder. A good screen also hangs flat . . . tab-tensioning is IMO a good investment if the screen is retractable. If your room isn't very dark, then there are a couple of grey-coated gain screens on the market that make a huge difference, i.e. Stewart's "Firehawk" (and the Da-Lite equivalent). You will want an actual 16x9 screen - having the picture framed in black makes the contrast appear much greater than the 16x9 projection area in the middle of a white field.
Second, make sure that the projector's optics will work for your application - that is, double-check the throw distance AND the vertical offset and make sure that the projector and screen will work together in the place you're planning on putting them. Avoid having to tilt the projector (creates a focus discrepancy between the top and bottom of the screen) and using the electronic keystone adjustments (increases scaling artifacts).
And third, put up the SMALLEST screen you think you can tolerate! Brightness follows the inverse-square law, so making the picture somewhat smaller (i.e. from 100" diagonal to 82" diagonal) makes it much, much brighter.
If you get a good screen of reasonable size, and make sure that all of the projection geometry is set up correctly . . . this will make a MUCH bigger difference in picture quality than whether or not your projector happens to have "1080p" printed all over the shipping carton.
First, make sure you're using the correct type of screen for your application. If the projector is going on the floor or a table, then you can use a retro-reflective screen - these are the common, cheap glass-bead audio-visual screens. But if it's going on the ceiling, then you MUST use an angular-reflective screen, or the only time the picture will look good is when you're standing on a ladder. A good screen also hangs flat . . . tab-tensioning is IMO a good investment if the screen is retractable. If your room isn't very dark, then there are a couple of grey-coated gain screens on the market that make a huge difference, i.e. Stewart's "Firehawk" (and the Da-Lite equivalent). You will want an actual 16x9 screen - having the picture framed in black makes the contrast appear much greater than the 16x9 projection area in the middle of a white field.
Second, make sure that the projector's optics will work for your application - that is, double-check the throw distance AND the vertical offset and make sure that the projector and screen will work together in the place you're planning on putting them. Avoid having to tilt the projector (creates a focus discrepancy between the top and bottom of the screen) and using the electronic keystone adjustments (increases scaling artifacts).
And third, put up the SMALLEST screen you think you can tolerate! Brightness follows the inverse-square law, so making the picture somewhat smaller (i.e. from 100" diagonal to 82" diagonal) makes it much, much brighter.
If you get a good screen of reasonable size, and make sure that all of the projection geometry is set up correctly . . . this will make a MUCH bigger difference in picture quality than whether or not your projector happens to have "1080p" printed all over the shipping carton.