Somehow, my husband and I have gotten into the habit of hosting movie nights. I don't know whether it's because none of our friends or family members have home theater surround sound, whether it's because we have a lot of movies on DVD that our buddies haven't seen, or whether my husband's treasured popcorn recipe is the main attraction. Regardless, we've gotten used to curling up on the sofas, dimming the lights, and settling in to enjoy the hair-raising effect of the THX intro played at full blast.

Somehow or other, our filmophile leanings gave me an idea. This year, why not have folks over for an Oscar party? We can watch the red carpet arrivals, giggle at this year's sobbing honorees, and cheer for — or object strenuously to — the Best Picture winner.

I figured we might hook a couple other folks, even though the Academy Awards are always on a work night and always run late. But I didn't expect that we'd end up hosting a bunch of people on a Sunday night. And once I pictured them all huddled around our smallish TV set — 27 inches isn't bad when there are two of you, but it starts looking pretty tiny in a crowd — I realized I needed to take action.

Enter the InFocus ScreenPlay 4800 DLP front projector — and exit all my preconceived notions about why I would never buy one of these things for myself. I have to admit it: after one night of use, I was a changed woman, and spent the next day boring my coworkers with tales of huge screens, sharp pictures, and intense viewing experiences. There is nothing quite like these projectors. But I digress.

Even if I didn't plan to own one, I've been intrigued by front projectors ever since I first saw the ScreenPlay lineup in action — and Mark Fleischmann's recent review of the 4800's big brother, the 5700, just increased my curiosity. The 4800 doesn't have the native widescreen aspect ratio or higher resolution of the 5700, but it is said to provide a crisp, impressively large picture. So I took this $1300 DLP projector model home for review.