Wow, the difference is pretty amazing. Not really the resolution - although the increase there is nice, there's really no sources for HD content yet in Finland and the benefit there is just in a smoother upscale and post-processing. However, it's hard for me to rank whether the 50% improvement in brightness and contrast or the near-silence of the projector's fans (it's a bigger unit with bigger and slower fans) is the bigger improvement, both being REALLY noticeable.

Anyway - really happy with the purchase. I was actually going to buy the latest Sanyo, the PLV-Z4, since I've been pretty happy with the old projector and the reviews have been great, but what settled it was the "free" replacement lamp offer Videotykki had for the Hitachi. Lets see how long I'll be sticking with this one..

Decided to upgrade the HTPC with a Geforce FC 5200 video card as well. Upgrade, you say? Yeah - it's FX, it's passive-cooled, and it's faster than the NForce2 onboard Geforce 4MX, which had also been unstable for a while already. Worked a bit on the cooling setup as well, cleaning fans, redesigning case airflow and adjusting fan speed control. The box is still too loud for my tastes, but before Conroe CPUs are available, I don't think I can significantly drop its heat output.