[BluRay]

As a film studies teacher, I show a lot of movies in my class. I've been working with an ancient TV, but my dreams came true this new year and I've been given permission to select a projector which the school will buy and put in my room! I don't want one of the clunky Dell's that are in all the other classrooms - I need something with quality that will last. What would you guys suggest?

[gundyrat]

Will you be using this with lights in the room on occasionally?
are you looking for widescreen 16:9 or 4:3 as the native aspect ratio?
what type of screen will you be using?
Whats your budget?
what are you doing for audio
Is this going to be set on a cart and put away or moved a lot or mounted from the ceiling?
My guess is your going to be using SD DVD's so HD isnt a priority

You should take a look at the Epson Moviemate line
Epson Moviemate 60
and review
www.Projectorreviews.com
This is an all in one type projector yep I know I'm not a big fan of all in one anything BUT..... this is an exception as it's a unique product that also offers external connectivity so your not limited to just the the built in DVD player
Another great thing about Epson is there lamps are about as cheap as they come when it come time to replace them.
Epson also builds there own LCD panels thay also supply Panels to other manufactures like Panasonic
the native resolution is 960 x 540 slightly better than a standard DVD not quite HD but is HD compatible.
the next choice would be the recently released Epson 705HD
this is a 1280 x 800 native data or 720P video
Review
projector reviews
Epson 705HD
neither of these are ultra high contrast but for your intended purpose they both should meet your needs.

[BluRay]

Because the school administrators are lazy, they haven't required anything of me and are leaving me to decide what I want in a projector. The Epson MovieMate 60 one you linked looks right up my alley in terms of funding! Especially if I can find a provider who discounts for schools/teachers. It will be mounte to the ceiling (so I'm not constantly setting it up) and I'll probably buy external speakers to go along with it. Thanks for being so helpful!

[gundyrat]

If your wanting to mount from the ceiling your not going to be able to do that with the 60 because the DVD player cannot be inverted its more for a shelf or cart setup
the 705HD can be inverted for ceiling mounting you would need a DVD player or use a Computer or laptop and some speakers
also with the 705 you would get a bit more flexabilty in mounting with a usable zoom range
There are other manufactures that probably have something similar like Optoma but I also took lamp replacement cost into account and like I already mentioned they are they cheapest to replace
as an example the Optoma HD65 would also be a good choice however the lamp is $370 to replace versus $199
Amazon
and a review from a different source
Projector Central

[pattypatty2010]

If you are looking for a good 720P projector for watching movie and playing games Optoma HD65 definitely a good projector to consider. The picture is great.
For under 1000$ you can't really go wrong.