After almost two years of waiting I ordered the 990/7500 combo. At the current pricing and no freight how could you pass it up? As a bonus I added the LFM-1 EX.
I hope Gonk is ready for a new barrage of questions. I have been reading this forum for quite some time now so I know of a lot the "quirks" the 990 has but I am sure I can come up with something new. Can't wait.

Good luck with you new stuff. My TV is very close to yours. What are your thoughts about the Sony LCOS HDTV's?

So far I have no complaints. Excellent contrast, good blacks great color. I did set up the display with both DVE & Avia and I think that really make a difference, especially for DVD's.
I haven't made the leap into the HD foray yet but I have seen a Blu-ray demo using your display and it was gorgeous!!!!!

Yeah, the SXRDs are pretty good units as long as you aren't dealing with the defects some of them have had.

I have first generation 50" XBR SXRD and like it a lot. Think it's the best technology out there right now for large displays, although black levels could still be improved...eventually I want to upgrade to a 70".

Thankfully I haven't had any more problems related to yellow stain/green blotches since they came out and replaced my display engine. Was also nice of Sony to extend the warranty on the engine out to 3 years.

Girlfriend keeps wanting to move the couch back further and I keep telling her "buy me a bigger TV and we can move the couch back".

50" just isn't big enough.

I have seen the 70" XBR SXRD and all I can say is WOW!!!!

FYI: the Sony SXRD is pretty much dead from a HDTV stand point. Sony will bring our a couple of different price points this year but nothing new.
Sony is looking towards LCD and other technologies......

From a projection standpoint, LCoS is certainly not dead. I haven't heard of anything that will replace that and DLP in projection type displays anytime soon.

And projection is still where you get the best bang for your buck in the larger screen sizes...60" and up. At 50" they are nearly to cost/performance parity with DLP and LCoS.

We've been waiting for the promise of thin screen technologies like SED and OLED for a while, but the promises have yet to be realized.

Now we just need Sony to come out with a laser or LED fired LCoS (SXRD) display and that will take the bulb replacement cost out of the equation as well.

But you are right, eventually the rear projection technologies will fall out of favor and be replaced with something else. People want thin displays and front projection, LCD, OLED or some other types of technology are the only way to achieve this.

I really think they've reached the optical boundaries for depth of rear projection displays...as in they aren't going to get much thinner...Shimmering Screen Effect was already an issue with the 1st gen LCoS displays and only gets worse as they up the mirror angle.

I just don't see anything overtaking LCoS price/performance wise for at least another year and perhaps as long as 3.

I think you are correct. I had a chance to chat with a Sony rep a few weeks ago. They were demoing their new Blu-ray player(BDP-S500) and it was connected to an LCD display and the rep wanted to move it to the SXRD next to it because he felt the quality of the picure was much better!
Who knows what the future will bring? Maybe HD halograms!!!!

I'm interested in seeing where OLED may go, but I'm not expecting it to happen soon. For projection (front or rear), I agree that LCoS is a very strong contender. It's also an excellent example of how long it can take for a new display technology to reach the market. LCoS was promised as the next big thing for several years before it started to materialize in any displays, in a manner eerily reminiscent of SED's history.