I am asking exactly the same question as kingtj.
Several online websites (check pricerunner.co.uk and ebuyer.co.uk) are now only asking £370-£380 inc VAT and delivery. This is clearly silly money for a 16:9 native 854 x 480 PJ.
I would hazard a guess that Toshiba are just on the point of replacing this model, but still want to answer the question
Is it a good buy at £380 ?
Having spent the last 24 hours reading up I thought it was worth summarising what I have found:
Good points for the ET1 .....
- More than £180 cheaper than all other 16:9 native PJs i.e. the Epson EMP TW10H
- Fairly well reviewed at projector central.com, and these people bought for around £750+ only a few months ago
- Some fairly good print reviews - check out homecinemachoice.com. Only criticisms are really in comparison to models which were and still are selling for £800+
- It has a quality Faroujda DCDi De-Interlacer - this means it will work quite well with interlaced sources - e.g. Sky and Freeview
- It has a standard SCART input - makes for easy and cheap(er) cables to link with your XBOX, Playstation, DVD players etc.
- It actually looks quite nice - good for obtaining planning permission from your partner
- It is really quiet -28 dB (claimed) top draw in the <£800 class
And the bad points
- Cost of lamps this is bad cant find them for much under £200. Does not compare well with the Epson TW10H (about £150) or top end <£1000 like the Hitachi PJ-100TX (only £135). £200 is just about acceptable if your lamp makes 2000 hours but not so fine if it goes on day 92 of its 90 day warranty! And you can find horror stories of 3 lamps in 12 months but if you search hard enough this is the case for almost all PJs. If you do buy the Tosh then make sure you thoroughly test the front edge of your lamps bathtub curve by using the PJ lots in the first few months
- No zoom - Well actually a fixed x1.25 zoom plus what Tosh call a digital zoom which actually shrinks the picture back to x1.0. Using this feature would be madness as it throws away resolution (it turns off normally active pixels at the edges of the panels) and stretches the picture into the pixels that are left. This is just bonkers. However you can work around this, provided that you can put the projector exactly where you want it but see below.
- Very short throw lens i.e. pre fixed zoom. This is good for small rooms, but is limiting if like me you have a fairly big lounge in which to fit a PJ. Given the limited brightness (700 ANSI claimed), resolution the screen size sweet spot is about 70-80 diagonal (16:9).
- Digital Keystone correction almost inevitably stuffs the image with such a short throw fixed lens. For me ceiling mounting would in theory be better in my room but is not really an option as even the 15 degrees of digital Keystone would not be enough to get the picture in the right place. Hence I would end up with the PJ on a coffee table about a metre in front of me. Not really ideal (or do others disagree ?)
So to summarise
.
Should you buy ? Think it through.
How long would you have to wait to afford another WVGA PJ ? probably quite a long time as even though prices are dropping all the time, £380 is too low for the suppliers to go so expect low end LCDs to stay about £650 - £750 discounted retail price. But, in 12 months time you could knock me over with a feather if you cant get 720p native with DVI / HDMI for that sort of money. Dont say I didnt warn you !
So you want it now well do understand the compromises (see above) before you jump. The good points are really quite good. For me the noise level will be important. DLPs will always struggle, especially as they do need 4x colour wheels to get rid of the rainbows. Screen door is really not an issue for the screen size / viewing distance I am aiming at although I accept I will not be getting true home cinema.
Dont worry too much about the lamps, but perhaps you should consider buying a spare complete PJ (after all they are only £370 once you have paid for delivery on #1). And I would be surprised if you couldnt sell it (with an unused lamp) on ebay in 6 months time for around £300 (provided lamp #1 is still going strong).
And me well I am off to order one (or two) !