Whoa, did Black Friday come early this year? Whatever the case, this is a seriously awesome deal on a 720p plasma. Just make sure to act fast, because it expires today.

Originally posted at The Cheapskate

Gizmodo Gallery ’09 is in full swing in NYC, open daily now through Sunday. If you haven’t swung by—or just can’t because it’s too far away—here are some of the attractions and interactions that you’re missing:

One of a kind Thriller themed headphones.

Amazing geek gadget and console themed iPhone cases!

Classic arcade games! Some with beer kegs inside!

Near electrocution!

Magic Mirrors!

We have Beatles Rock Band going, the new Halo game—on a 103-inch Panasonic plasma TV.

Live musical Tesla lightning coils!

Palm, Apple, RIM, HTC and more: The greatest smartphones of our time, together in a live Battlemodo of your own devising.

MakerBot: The only open source 3D printer to play Daft Punk tunes.

The ChefStack machine spits out 200 pancakes per hour, all you do is add batter and press Start.

Apple created this console for Bandai in 1996—42,000 units sold, and the product was killed. Come marvel at Apple’s biggest failure.

Feeling inspired? Why not make some magic on our Lego wall? We have 30,000 bricks at your disposal, and plenty of space left for your brick mastery.

Try your hand at shredding on the Prism Laser Synth-Guitar. It bleeps and bloops with the best noisemakers out there.

3D Etch-a-Sketch: All those linear childhood imaginations come to life, now in three dimensions.

The Jackoon Artbot spits roams around its canvas, dropping paint spots as it sees fit—ultimately acting like a robotic Jackson Pollock.

Pioneer’s freshly unveiled CDJ-2000, the latest and greatest in CD Turntables. DJs, come give it a hands-on for yourselves.

There’s a lot more on display than what you can see here, so try to make a trip down. If you really can’t, take a look at some more fun stuff in the NY Times tour of Gizmodo Gallery.

Gizmodo Gallery 2009 Details
Groupe
267 Elizabeth Street
New York, NY 10012

The Gallery is open now through this Sunday, September 27th

Hours of Operation:
9/25 Friday
12-8

9/26 Saturday
11-8
9-? – Live Musical Performance

9/27 Sunday
11-6

Read more about our Giz Gallery 09 here, follow @gizgallery on Twitter and see what else we’ll be playing with at the event. And special thanks to Toyota’s Prius — without their sponsorship, there would be no Gizmodo Gallery.

If you’re creating a home theater, then you’ll undoubtedly ask yourself the question, “Should I get a projection screen and theater projector, or should I just get an HDTV?” There are several pros to home projectors. For instance, you can pay up to $9,000 for the new 65-inch Panasonic plasma TV or you can spend $2,500 on a 61-inch Samsung rear-projection unit. Economically, it makes sense.

Also, projection screens fit up against the wall and maximizes more space in a room, and the screen and projector won’t mess with the acoustics in your room like a big clunky television set might, so your home theater will be perfectly calibrated with this type of system. Here are some factors to consider when shopping for that perfect, home theater projector.

digital projector
One point to consider when looking at projectors is what aspect ratio do you want? “Aspect ratio” refers to the shape of the video image. For instance, most TV sets have aspect ratios of 4:3 (4 units wide, 3 units high), whereas HDTV standard models have an aspect ration of 16:9 (16 units wide, 9 units high).

If you view a lot of classic films or DVD TV series, then a 4:3 configuration may be preferable to you; it’s easy to shrink a larger picture down, with black borders to account for any discrepancies. However, most home video projectors are being marketed in the 16:9 ratio. If you watch a lot of HDTV or wide screen DVD, then a 16:9 ratio makes sense.

The one drawback is that viewing 4:3 content on this massive unit will make the display look tiny and even if you stretch the frame to fit the screen, the resolution won’t be as good. There is yet a third choice for wide screen movie aficionados; the 2.35:1.

projection screens
For instance, Lord of the Rings, Tombstone and Star Wars are all set wider than 16:9. A “constant image height” setup can stretch the image out to its ideal size, although you will need to purchase a 16:9 digital projector along with an expensive anamorphic lens to accomplish this task.

Next, you’ll need to choose a resolution and brightness for your projector. Resolution refers to the clarity of the picture and it can be as low as 854 x 480 or as high as 1920 x 1080, although most consumers choose 1280 x 720, which lets you view HDTV and Blu Ray discs perfectly. When considering projector lamp brightness, be aware that brighter is not better.

Brightness is measured in ANSI lumen rating and foot-lamberts. In a dark room, luminance of 12-22 fL will provide comfortable brightness for you. If you still have some ambient light filtering into the room, then screen luminance of 30-50 fL will compensate for any loss of contrast due to the room’s natural lighting.

The most high-end format on the market is the 1920 x 1080, which doesn’t require any scaling and gives you the sharpest picture, with virtually no pixel shape visible.

theater projectors
Lastly, you’ll want to check out contrast specifications for your home theater projector. The bare bones contrast level is 2000:1, which is just enough black level and color saturation to avoid a muddled picture. Many consumers have a 5000:1 projector, which provides good definition on a midrange unit.

For top-of-the-line color saturation and definition, you’ll want a 10,000:1 contrast for the best shadow detail. While this may sound very confusing, often times, you can get someone to come out to your house and calibrate everything just right to be sure you’re getting the most out of your home theater experience.