$300-ish Calibration system for Projector and Computer (photography)

[mtbdudex]

My Home theatre room has a SonyVW60 which was never calibrated by any meter, only blu-ray disc onscreen.
(btw I'm on my 2nd bulb with about 300 hrs on it.)

Since Oct-2009, when I bought my CanonT1i, I've really taken Photography as another hobby.

I'd like to get a "decent" Calibration system for my Projector and Computer (current is iMac 27" ).
I use Aperture 3 and Adobe CS5 for my Photography stuff.

Looking here, this seems a decent system for my $300-ish budget.
Spyder3 Elite™

Display Calibration for Professional Photographers and Studios

Spyder3 Elite™ was designed for the way photographers work, bringing a new level of color control to imaging. This powerful solution gives photographers the tools to trust the colors on the screen, for reliability and consistency on each of their LCD, laptops, and projectors. Award-winning Spyder3 hardware, with innovative new software features, makes this the ultimate solution for any serious photographer.

You asked and we’re delivering some hot new features just for you, with the richest feature set we have ever offered! New 4.0 features include monitor quality analyzer, display graphing compared to sRGB & Adobe RGB, enhanced iterative gray balancing and automated brightness adjustment.

I've read this FAQ, CurtPalme.com Forum Which Meter Is Right for Me? , which ranks the Spyder low.

Spyder meters typically deliver results that are unpredictable. This is true for the Spyder 1, 2, and 3. In tests and discussions with pro calibrators we've found that approximately one third of Spyder units seem to be very accurate, the next third are slightly off, and the last third are considerably more inaccurate. Unfortunately there's no way to know how your Spyder unit rates unless you have a known accurate meter to compare it against. The reason for this disparity in accuracy is that Spyder units are not calibrated at the factory as they come off the assembly line. Therefore most calibration experts do not recommend that Spyder meters be used as you simply don't know what sort of results to expect.

For those that have (or used) the Spyder 3 elite for front projector and computer screen were you satisfied by its ability?
I appreciate your help in me making an informed decision, I know nothing about this but can learn.


Earlier today I spent 20 minutes on the phone with "Lou", http://www.spectracal.com/contact.html, he's their "Home Theater Enthusiast Sales" person and very knowledgeable in Projectors/TV/Computer monitors.

He gave me different options with pros/cons with:
X-Rite i1Display 2 Colorimeter, $250 meter + software
http://www.spectracal.com/i1Display-2.html

x-rite DTP-94 , $448 meter + software
http://www.spectracal.com/DTP94.html

we also talked about the ColorMunki and how it fits in as a calibation device for the meter itself when used with the lower cost eye one D2 ($100 rental/month), due to the iMac has a LED LCD display, the DTP-94 can handle that display type already.
http://www.spectracal.com/ColorMunki.html

I've got some more thinking to do.....lots of info he gave me.
Yea, 2 years using my PJ w/o it being "really" calibrated, and never for computer....better late than never.

Again, your advice, wisdom, lessons learned, etc appreciated.