Well worth it!!October 9, 2006 5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I've been using this projector for 6 months now. Not just for movies but regular tv (also HDTV) and xbox 360. I have about 600 hours on the bulb. A few times the unit didn't want to turn on and I thought the bulb had burned out (see other reviews) but I let it sit for a couple of minutes and it turned on with no problems. In my opinion, DVD's, xbox and the HD channels are projected beautifully! I never knew a projector could look so good. With the price of this projector continually falling, the deal just gets better and better. My neighbor spent $3,500 on a 50" plasma, I don't think his picture (HD) is any better than mine and less than half the size (my screen is a 120" widescreen). I spent a total of $2,400 for my projector, screen and cables. Even if I have to buy 2 bulbs a year it will take over 2 years before I equal what he paid and I've still got twice the screen size! I'll take that anytime!! We are very happy with this unit, quiet, clear picture, better price!
excellent construction, so-so imageJune 2, 2006 6 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is not a noisy unit, that I can tell. Ceiling-installed is completely "invisible" to the audience. The only time I hear the fan is after turning the unit off.
Outstanding out-of-the-box calibration, did the AVIA, but it required minimum variation; nevertheless I can't say I'm thrilled with its image, haven't experienced a DLP or a 480, so it isn't a fair judgement, it's only based on my expectations.
It does not look like a DLP would be much darker, this unit is dark enough for me, I only wish image was better, but again, signal is DVD 480.
I was strongly inclined to buy some 480 DLP and ended up deciding for the 720 LCD for its price after rebate and all the reviews, also because it promised a projected image larger than other DLPs and my room is relatively small.
No screendoor effect, I guess, but again, no video expert here. Image seems a little bit pixeled or blured sometimes, specially around edges and legends, mainly when I start watching a movie. After a couple of minutes, either my eyes get used to it or the movie action highlights colors and sharpness and make that impression go away. High quality movies, such as Star Wars, look remarkable.
Loved the remote, easy navigation menu, rapidly learned to handle Panasonic and non-Panasonic devices.
HOME THEATER NIRVANAMay 10, 2006 42 out of 42 found this review helpful
The bottom line with this player is that it runs circles around virtually any LCD, Plasma or DLP TV setup you'll ever see at those big-box electronics stores. AND it's cheaper than any of them! It is as good (or bad) as the quality of the signal you feed into it.
Now, I won't go into all of the technical details but I want to tell you what is the optimal setup for this projector, consistent with being budget conscious. I have spent countless hours studying this and experimenting with the various setup parameters, so I humbly offer you the benefit of my research. My pain, your gain (ha!).
My primary use for the projector is to watch my extensive DVD collection. I have also fed it a standard TV signal but, as mentioned, it is so revealing that is shows the deficiency of such a signal. I will eventually connect it to an HDTV signal, but for now it is strictly used for watching movies on DVD.
I have the Panasonic PT-AE900U connected to an OPPO OPDV971H player via a 5-meter DVI to HDMI cable. The Panasonic sits on a shelf behind my viewing area 45 inches above the floor and just about dead center relative to the center of my Model C Da-Lite 119-inch diagonal HDTV, high-contrast matte white screen. One word: OUTSTANDING.
Of course, this is just for the video end of things. I have the Oppo connected via digital optical out to my Denon Dolby Digital receiver and 5.1 speaker setup.
The Panasonic's 1280x720 panels are made to display HDTV 720p in native format. There are two ways to achieve this with the Oppo using its DVI output: Set the Oppo to feed the Panasonic a 720p signal, in which case the Oppo does the upscaling; or feed the Panasonic a 480p signal from the Oppo and let the Panasonic do the upscaling. Feeding the Panasonic an Oppo-upscaled 1080i signal is also possible, but this yields no benefit since the AE900U would then have to downscale the previously upscaled signal. In real-world tests this doesn't look good, either.
Feeding the Panasonic an Oppo-upscaled 720p signal looks terrific - even better than feeding the Panasonic a 480p signal from the Oppo and letting the Panasonic do the upscaling. The difference, though slight, is noticeable. I have A/B'd the images and the Oppo 720p feed has better contrast and more detail. However, such a signal input then limits the zoom options available to you from the Panasonic. Certain widescreen/letterboxed non-anamorphic movies were distorted, unless you played them exactly as projected by the Oppo (at about 66% the screen size) with no zoom. Using the Oppo's zoom feature to fill the screen produced terrible results.
For such movies I fed the Panasonic a 480p signal from the Oppo and let the Panasonic do the upscaling. Voila! Scaling in the Panasonic is accomplished with proprietary Panasonic video processing electronics. The end result is superb. Additionally, feeding the Panasonic a 480p signal from the Oppo allows you greater flexibility with the Panasonic's zoom feature. This allows me to fill my 119-inch diagonal screen. With the Panasonic, zooming -- when desired -- still produces an outstanding image.
There are numerous, almost endless, ways to setup the video to your own taste insofar as fiddling with the brightness, contrast, etc., on both the Panasonic and the Oppo. My experiments show that the optimal, most accurate picture was achieved by leaving the Oppo set to its default settings and setting the Panasonic to 'Natural' which, according to the AE900 manual, is 'To reproduce the color of the image faithfully from the image source.' Assuming the DVD was properly mastered, this is exactly what I want to see. I was watching movies as diverse as 'Finding Nemo', 'Out Of Africa', 'Jeremiah Johnson', 'Spartacus', 'Father Goose', 'The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (B&W) and some classic 'Star Trek' episodes, and ALL looked absolutely gorgeous! It is clear that, when being fed a direct digital signal from the Oppo DVD player as outlined above, the 'Natural' setting is the one to use. Whatever is on the film is exactly what is reproduced - period. All other modes are useful only if you are feeding it some other type of signal.
The Panasonic PT-AE900U, when setup as I have outlined, produces a stunning 119-inch diagonal picture in my very small (12' x 12') apartment living room. It is hard to imagine that it could be improved upon. For the price -- especially with the current rebate -- this is a NO-BRAINER! Watch your friends, who spent 2-3x as much on a screen half to one-fourth the size, drool with envy when you blow them out of the water with a crystal-clear 119-inch image!
ENJOY!
Great projector for the price.May 7, 2006 15 out of 15 found this review helpful
This is not a technical review: I can't do justice to some of the excellent reviews on this product from sites like projectorcentral.com, ultimateavmag.com, and audioholics.com. Unfortunately, those sites didn't fully answer the question I wanted to know: Should I buy THIS projector, and is it a good fit for how I want to use it?
I can't answer that question here, but what I can try to do is give you an impression of what it's like to really own and use this projector.
I've had it for about a month, and I'm very happy with my choice. I have it set up in a book shelf, throwing a 104" wide 16:9 image with a throw distance of ~12 feet. I'm using the projector in my basement rec room. There are several windows in the room, but I have heavy drapes which we can close to block most of the ambient light in the room. So, I usually run the projector bulb at low power. For a video source, I'm using an old Toshiba DVD player - nothing special - that I bought for $99 about 5 years ago. I haven't tried the HDTV format yet because I don't watch TV much. I'll probably give this a shot when football season starts again.
Until this weekend, I'd been projecting on a blank, white wall. I found the the overall picture quality to be good, but the colors weren't quite as strong as I wanted them, and there was a lack of sharpness from time to time (the wall was kind of lumpy. Your results may vary.) Yesterday, I installed a DA-LITE Tensioned Advantage Electrol with the High Contrast Da-Mat screen. This dramatically improved the image quality and color saturation. I'm not saying you HAVE to install a screen to enjoy the projector; just that the PT-AE900U is good enough that it might be worth the investment. You will see a difference.
I've just moved into a new house, and the Rec Room (where I'm using the projector) is doing double-duty as the "junk room". As a result, I've rearranged the layout of the room 4 times since the projector arrived (and before I installed the screen). I've grown extremely fond of the ease with which I can adjust the image size, and I have grown to LOVE the lens shift feature (a little joystick you can use to reposition the image. You've got to see this to believe it!) At one point, I had the projector in the corner of the room, throwing a 96" image on the center of a wall about 17 feet away (image center ~3.5' lower than the center of the projector lens), with NO KEYSTONE adjustment required!
Another thing I like about the projector is how quietly it runs. In a previous house, I had a cheap DLP projector from Dell. It did a decent job (within its limits), but it was LOUD. Not quite "OHMIGOD, there's a 747 taking off in my Basement!" - but close. I don't have that problem with the PT-AE900U. One of my configurations involved setting the projector up on a coffee table. Other than the fact that I had to make some keystone adjustments, the arrangement worked fine. With the bulb set to low, I didn't hear a thing. Even with the bulb set on high, the fan noise (which came on after ~45 minutes) didn't distract from the movie.
There projectors which throw a better image out there. I made a lot of trips to high-end consumer A/V shops in the DC Metro area, and I've seen some images that put the PT-AE900U to shame. It would also be nice if the projector had a 12V trigger so I could lower the screen automatically when the projector came on. Ultmately, it's a question of price for quality. To get a better image, you need to plan on spending $5,000 or higher for the projector - but it doesn't stop there. To really see the improvement in the image, you'd better plan on spending at least $2500 (plus installation) for a screen, and ~$800 or so for a DVD player that can send a signal to take advantage of all the whiz-bang features of a high-end projector. Unless you have money to burn, or you recite the strengths and weaknesses of Faroudja versus HQV chipsets as a hobby, save your money. Get the PT-AE900U. You'll like it, and you'll find a way to configure it for what YOU want to do.
Finally, kudos to Amazon on my product order. Great price; great service.
Read before you buy!March 24, 2006 10 out of 33 found this review helpful
This unit is outstanding if you don't mind spending $300 every quarter on new bulbs. I used PT-AE900 for less than 3 months (less than 400 hours) w/ normal picture setting and fan speed...and then the bulb burned out. Panasonic's tech support line is joke. I spent one hour trying to get a human being on the phone who could process my warranty. I spoke with five people and only one mentioned 3 months/500 hour warranty for the bulb. However, he was in commercial area not consumer and told me to call yet another number. The bulb is SUPPOSED to last around 3,000 hours but in my case it lasted six times less. If you plan on using this projector as your primary video output, don't waste your money and spend a little more for a plasma. at $1,999 this unit is a bargain until its real cost catches up - an additional $1,200 per year.
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