Tonight, I saw a movie I shot projected on a digital projector. For the most part, I was not thrilled. Granted, some of it, and only some, was shot under rather flat lighting, but overall I was not thrilled by any.

I would like to know if digital projectors (not the fancy ones that some theaters have, this was something less fancy, projected on a 20 foot or so screen, if I had to guess) have some kind of limiting characteristics to them that a computer or NTSC monitor doesn't. It seemed that it had a desaturated look to it, as well as having a lower ability to distinguish between different colors and different levels of lighting within a scene (even differences that looked fairly obvious on a monitor looked almost accidental on the projector).

Anyone feel me on this, or am I just a raving lunatic?

>>>not the fancy ones that some theaters have

Well I think it all has to do with the quality of the projector. I've used a $125,000 DLP projector that produced stunning images on a 40' screen. I found that if I "put my nose against" my 17" LCD monitor it looked pretty similar to the projected image. There certainly was no loss of saturation. On a smaller scale, did you see this review in DV Magazine http://www.dv.com/reviews/reviews_item.jhtml?category=Archive&LookupId=/xml/review/wright1103? However, with the Epson PowerLite TW100, the color ramps were almost perfect. I had to look very closely in order to detect any deviation at all, something that usually happens even with CRT monitors. In terms of color reproduction, the PowerLite TW100 was actually better than most properly calibrated CRT monitors.
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Overall, the PowerLite TW100 produced an outstanding image. Apart from the $4499 price tag, this projector is the best I've tested so far. If video quality is paramount, and for video pros that's really all that matters, the PowerLite TW100 is almost perfect.

I haven't ever seen one of these, but my point is that I don't see how you could generalize about the quality of video projectors anymore than you could about cameras. The cheap ones, the older ones, units that aren't properly adjusted, and those that aren't really optimized for video will probably be disappointing. Did you note the make and model of the projector that was used to screen your movie?

No clue. It's whatever they have at the screening theater in Houston's City Hall. Not actually "my" movie; it was one that I DP'd on.