The blacks were even blacker than the Epson Powerlite that we already really liked, and the sharpness of this projector at its full 1080p was remarkable.

Making matters even more interesting was the $5000 anamorphic lens attached to this baby (see gallery), stretching the video out to a positively cinematic 2.35:1 aspect ratio. To get it there, you must have special squished anamorphic content, and to really do it right, you need the Silicon Optics external video processor (for another $3K), stretching everything out cleanly with no distortion.

Yikes, that's a total price of over $10K, but who said getting a picture that's better than your local cineplex was going to be cheap? Still, it's the lowest price for a setup like this we've seen, and worth it.

How does it work?

It does that by first electronically stretching the picture vertically, covering those pesky black bands at the top and bottom. So far, the image is distorted, so it takes it a step further and stretches out the image using an anamorphic lens. That way, it's the perfect 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Neat trick, but it's not cheap.

The SIM2 Cinema Flex is $3195, and $5995 for the motorized version, and it only works with SIM2 D80, Grand Cinema HT3000, and C3X projectors, starting at around $6000.

Plus, it's making that image wider and less tall for those glorious 2.35:1 images, and that might be the wrong shape for your screen. If that bothers you, you can get screens that automagically expand and contract with the aspect ratio. So this is a high-end endeavor, no matter how you slice it. But there's nothing quite like seeing a movie projected in a darkened room, perfectly replicating that cinema experience. – Charlie White

Product Page [Sim2, via Sci Fi Tech]