Hey guys looking at both of these projectors -

Do you think I would see 2K difference in Picture Quality from the Sanyo to the Panasonic PT-AE1000U?
I will be in a light controlled enironment (basement), projector about 18' from the screen and seating distance of about 10'.
I will primarily be watching sports and other HD programming from DirecTV. Also plan on jumping into the HD/BlueRay waters soon.

My initial thoughts are to purchase the 720P projector now and wait 2/3 years for the prices to come down on the 1080P's.

Thanks in advance,
John

Hi John,

I thought about the 1080P vs. 720P, and I decided to go with the PLV-Z5 myself. Mainly due to cost, I figured for the 5K it will cost to buy a 1080P projector now, I could buy 2-3 projectors over 2-3 years, one PLV-Z5 now, and when the bulb dies/dims, I can go out and buy a 1080P projector and by then prices of a really good one will be around the $2-3K range or less. The new 1080P projectors are really expensive now because they're new to the market. But you have to remember things always improve over time, so the 1080P projectors will only get better and cheaper. I also figure in 2-3 years time that blu-ray and hd-dvd will have much more material and the drives and movies will be a lot cheaper to buy as well.. so at this point I really won't be using all the resolution anyway.

But this is just my opinion, hope that helps.

Edward

Hey guys looking at both of these projectors -

Do you think I would see 2K difference in Picture Quality from the Sanyo to the Panasonic PT-AE1000U?
I will be in a light controlled enironment (basement), projector about 18' from the screen and seating distancce of about 10'.
I will primarily be watching sports and other HD programming from DirecTV. Also plan on jumping into the HD/BlueRay waters soon.

My initial thoughts are to purchase the 720P projector now and wait 2/3 years for the prices to come down on the 1080P's.

Thanks in advance,
John
I was in exactly the same boat as you are in now - and did just that, bought the Z5, will wait until 1080p is where 720p is now, pricewise.

My setup is nearly identical to yours -basement, pj at about 16', sitting around 12', and I love it. I bought the Toshiba HD-A2, and have Verizon FIOS HD. It's awesome!

Hey guys looking at both of these projectors -

Do you think I would see 2K difference in Picture Quality from the Sanyo to the Panasonic PT-AE1000U?
I will be in a light controlled enironment (basement), projector about 18' from the screen and seating distance of about 10'.
I will primarily be watching sports and other HD programming from DirecTV. Also plan on jumping into the HD/BlueRay waters soon.

My initial thoughts are to purchase the 720P projector now and wait 2/3 years for the prices to come down on the 1080P's.

Thanks in advance,
John
If anything can convince you to save your cash this will (this is the second of two similar tests by these guys):
720 vs 1080 blind viewing test - shootout (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=799340)
I'm also in the same boat as you. I seriously considered buying a $4-5k 1080p projector but I really can't find any good reason to do so right now. The $1500 projectors give a nearly indistinguishable picture for a fraction of the price. Sure, they may not last as long as the more expensive 1080p projectors but then again in a couple years you'll have all that invested savings to use to buy a much better 1080p projector at a smaller price.

Besides, until 1080p media becomes readily available there's really not much to watch anyway. In a year or two that will all change so I'm just planning the 720p projector (AX100 or Z5) to be a stop-gap purchase.

I've been able to do an analogous comparison with LCD TV's. Microcenter had 2 46" Sony LCD TV's next to each other, running the same HD program. One was a 720p model, the other was a 1080p model. I was standing about 5-6 ft away (which is about 1.5-1.8× screen width), and I couldn't really tell the difference. First, I thought the 720p model looked slightly sharper(!), then realized that it was 720p and thought the 1080p model looked slightly sharper, then decided that really, I couldn't see an appreciable difference (except in the price tag). Similar story with 2 46" Samsung LCD TV's at CompUSA.

I don't argue that one may be able to see a difference between 720p and 1080p displays, but you have to focus and concentrate to see it. And if you're so intent looking at one small portion of the image in order to find the difference, you're likely not paying much attention to the whole image, nor enjoying what you're watching!