I just ordered the AE2000 from Costco today..... normally I wouldn't buy TVs from Costco because of their new return policy, but I had about $600 in Costco gift cards that I wanted to use....

Wow - where can you get a better return policy than Costo? I buy anything I can from them. Easiest place to return something that I have ever dealt with.

Have you ever tried to return anything to BestBuy? On the rare occasion I buy something from BestBuy I just figure once I walk out the door it is mine forever!

I just ordered mine from Costco with the 92 inch fixed greywolf screen.
This is my first projector setup ever, so hopefully they work well together.
Should be here in 2-3 days.
Where else can you get a 90 day return policy on this stuff?

Wow - where can you get a better return policy than Costo? I buy anything I can from them. Easiest place to return something that I have ever dealt with.

Have you ever tried to return anything to BestBuy? On the rare occasion I buy something from BestBuy I just figure once I walk out the door it is mine forever!

+1, wouldn't buy electronics from anybody else, particularly projectors. 4 hours to decide if you want to keep it ? what a joke. Some would slap you with 20% restocking as soon as you open the box. AVS is a welcome exception -- 15 hours/30 days is reasonable return policy.

I just ordered mine from Costco with the 92 inch fixed greywolf screen.
This is my first projector setup ever, so hopefully they work well together.
Should be here in 2-3 days.
Where else can you get a 90 day return policy on this stuff?

Hope you used their express shipping option -- somehow 2 day air is same cost as ground -- go figure :D

It came up as $90+ for the express shipping. So I went with the free shipping. Being in Central California probably wont be any longer since its coming from southern Cal.

It came up as $90+ for the express shipping. So I went with the free shipping. Being in Central California probably wont be any longer since its coming from southern Cal.

Interesting, somebody probably discovered their little goof and fixed it -- mine shipped from TN to CO, 2nd day air no extra charge, right in time for Xmas :D

Mark another happy owner of this unit courtesy Costco :). UPS took forever to deliver it though, but it was double packed and all that and seems to be working great.

For some reason their GW2 screens are more expensive than other places and I bought the similar Grey1.8 from FocusPix.

The setup isn't complete yet, but it looks great from what I have seen so far...

Well, I had an odd occurence with my Panasonic PTAE2000U. I got it, hooked it up, and to my surprise... none of the HDMI inputs were active. At first I thought it may be a bad HDMI cable. I got no signal from any of the three inputs. I hooked my Toshiba HDA35 and Samsung BD1400 directly to the projector after my 35' HDMI wouldn't work. Still no picture. I then tested the same cables and players on my Sony A300 SXRD TV. Everything worked just fine. I called Panasonic technical support. They were baffled and have since contacted "Heartland" in Kansas. Apparently, this is their customer service center. I bought the projector from Projector People. They have been kind enough to allow me to ship it back to them. They will check it out and send me a new one if this one is truly defective. So what do I do? Send it back to Panasonic? Or go with Projector People?

For what it's worth, I did my research for months prior to making this purchase. This projector had the perfect price and performance point for me. I don't think there is another projector at this price range that I want. I guess I just got a lemon.

I guess it would help if you knew which route would be faster, but I would suspect that dealing with Panasonic could be faster. Shipping costs need to be factored in. Will Panasonic or the store help with that?

I guess it would help if you knew which route would be faster, but I would suspect that dealing with Panasonic could be faster. Shipping costs need to be factored in. Will Panasonic or the store help with that?
I don't know what Panasonic's stance is on shipping. The technical guy thought that I'd have to ship it at my expense. Projector People are supposed to email a PrePaid shipping label, but I haven't gotten it yet.

I keep checking Costco online and have yet to see this PJ listed. All I get is the AX200U. I've held off waiting for Costco but I can't find it!

wow, costco didn't have it yesterday morning, then they had it yesterday afternoon, now already gone...either they have limited supplies or this is a hot seller!

I don't know what Panasonic's stance is on shipping. The technical guy thought that I'd have to ship it at my expense. Projector People are supposed to email a PrePaid shipping label, but I haven't gotten it yet.
OK. The fine folks at Projector People have graciously sent me a prepaid shipping label to send the projector back. I guess it really pays to buy from a reputable dealer. Panasonic expected me to ship the projector at my own cost. No brainer, I guess. I'll keep you posted on the HDMI issue.

I picked up an AE2000U over the holidays and it's working great with my zoom method CIH setup, 120" DIY Designer White laminate screen. Convergence is great but there is some color uniformity issues with the filtered mode. The problem goes away when you switch to normal mode.

Do many others have uniformity issues only with the filter in modes like Color1? It isn't terrible but I can see it watching B&W movies and during certain movie scenes.

Anyone know if Panasonic will be demoing this PJ at CES next week in Vegas?

Question for 360 AND PS3 owners with the AE2000..

I noticed that the 1080p output from the 360 is slightly blurry compared to the PS3's output of 1080p. I notice this in the main menu, movies, games, etc. the PS3 is sharper. Is this a setting in the 360 not set right? When I set the 360 to 1080i, its sharper.

An update from a first "run" owner. Replaced an HS10. Blacks are better than expected. Brightness is good for now (50 hrs). Having 3 HDMI inputs...Priceless.
No uniformity or convergence "problems" aside from slight blue fringing on menu screen text.
Standard def and BD or HD-DVD, couldn't ask for more for the price in Color 1. Hard to imagine further calibration would be helpful. Beats calibrated HS10 hands down on flesh tones. To able to see the quality of the film transfer in upscaled SD or BD is to me something special at the price point. I could see replacing the bulb every 150 hrs. if that is waht it takes. Happy New Year!
ganman

OK. The fine folks at Projector People have graciously sent me a prepaid shipping label to send the projector back. I guess it really pays to buy from a reputable dealer. Panasonic expected me to ship the projector at my own cost. No brainer, I guess. I'll keep you posted on the HDMI issue.

After reading about the PP customer service I decided to ditch all the back checking on Costco and order from them; which I did about an hour ago! Super nice guy on the phone was very helpful, picked out a mount that fit my setup, and offered a number of excellent suggestions. I hope it turns out well...can't wait!

I picked up an AE2000U over the holidays and it's working great with my zoom method CIH setup, 120" DIY Designer White laminate screen. Convergence is great but there is some color uniformity issues with the filtered mode. The problem goes away when you switch to normal mode.

Do many others have uniformity issues only with the filter in modes like Color1? It isn't terrible but I can see it watching B&W movies and during certain movie scenes.

I too have noticed this slight uniformity in the filter modes. It's barely noticable and, as you said, goes away in normal mode.

I too suffer from uniformity. green and pink colors all over. I'm on my second AE2000 from projector people both with this problem. PP say it's within spec so If I want to return I must pay the $100 for shipping with insurance myself. Wondering if I should swap for new epson. Would love a side by side comparrison.

Well, I had an odd occurence with my Panasonic PTAE2000U. I got it, hooked it up, and to my surprise... none of the HDMI inputs were active. At first I thought it may be a bad HDMI cable. I got no signal from any of the three inputs. I hooked my Toshiba HDA35 and Samsung BD1400 directly to the projector after my 35' HDMI wouldn't work. Still no picture. I then tested the same cables and players on my Sony A300 SXRD TV. Everything worked just fine. I called Panasonic technical support. They were baffled and have since contacted "Heartland" in Kansas. Apparently, this is their customer service center. I bought the projector from Projector People. They have been kind enough to allow me to ship it back to them. They will check it out and send me a new one if this one is truly defective. So what do I do? Send it back to Panasonic? Or go with Projector People?

For what it's worth, I did my research for months prior to making this purchase. This projector had the perfect price and performance point for me. I don't think there is another projector at this price range that I want. I guess I just got a lemon.

JBran,

I had the same thing happen to me. I hooked it up and none of the HDMI ports seemed to work. I took my 35' BlueJeans HDMI cable and plugged it into my TV and the cable worked fine.

My setup has the back of the projector pretty close to the wall. I thought that maybe the bend of the HDMI cable might be causing the problem. So, I pulled my projector off the shelf and plugged in the non-bent HDMI cable. Walla...it worked.

However, I later found out that it wasn't the fact that the HDMI cable was bending.....what was later confirmed by trial and error is that whenever the HDMI cable was not plugged STRAIGHT in....it would not work. If I plugged in the cable the exerted some downward pressure on the cable....the signal would cut off.

I fixed this by propping something under the HDMI cable to hold it steadily straight out of the projector. Works fine now.

I too suffer from uniformity. green and pink colors all over. I'm on my second AE2000 from projector people both with this problem. PP say it's within spec so If I want to return I must pay the $100 for shipping with insurance myself. Wondering if I should swap for new epson. Would love a side by side comparrison.

that's why I have stopped ordering from Projector People. It is unacceptable that the customer has to pay for return shipping on a defective/substandard projector. :mad:

Question for 360 AND PS3 owners with the AE2000..

I noticed that the 1080p output from the 360 is slightly blurry compared to the PS3's output of 1080p. I notice this in the main menu, movies, games, etc. the PS3 is sharper. Is this a setting in the 360 not set right? When I set the 360 to 1080i, its sharper.

I take it you're using component cables for the 360? Or do you have an Elite with HDMI? For the PS3 are you using HDMI?

IF you are comparing component to HDMI, that could be part of the difference. But I've also noticed some softness on the 360 over VGA. Note that the 360 will scale everything to your output resolution (most games are 720p, so outputting at 1080 means the 360 is upscaling). On the other hand, the PS3 will switch resolutions to match what it's playing - 720p for (most) games, 1080i/p for Blu-Ray, etc. So setting the 360 to output 720p and letting the projector do the scaling might help.

I found last night that I got a smooth, artifact free picture for SD cable when sending 480i to the projector, but lots of artifacts if the Comcast cable box does 480p or HD resolutions.

JBran,

I had the same thing happen to me. I hooked it up and none of the HDMI ports seemed to work. I took my 35' BlueJeans HDMI cable and plugged it into my TV and the cable worked fine.

My setup has the back of the projector pretty close to the wall. I thought that maybe the bend of the HDMI cable might be causing the problem. So, I pulled my projector off the shelf and plugged in the non-bent HDMI cable. Walla...it worked.

However, I later found out that it wasn't the fact that the HDMI cable was bending.....what was later confirmed by trial and error is that whenever the HDMI cable was not plugged STRAIGHT in....it would not work. If I plugged in the cable the exerted some downward pressure on the cable....the signal would cut off.

I fixed this by propping something under the HDMI cable to hold it steadily straight out of the projector. Works fine now.

Thanks for the input. I tried a couple of short (3') HDMI cables as well with the same result. I shipped the projector back yesterday. I will post the results when I get my unit back or they send a new one. I sure sucks to be without my projector. This is my first projector and I have waited years to have this set up. Now I've got the room set up with no projector. Time will tell......

deleted

If I can see red on top of every white line and text from 13ft away from a 108" screen is that within specs??

ALSO when I am watching cinemascope aspect where the top of the image become black borders there is a red stripe and where the bottom meets the black border its a green stripe.

THEN on white text on my desktop when my HTPC is hooked to the panny all the text is blurry due to red/green shadowing on it.

Is this all normal on a projector or does it seem a bit more than it should be??

When watching video its not noticable unless white text or subs, the video looks good. Wouldnt it look better if I had better convergence?

If I can see red on top of every white line and text from 13ft away from a 108" screen is that within specs??

ALSO when I am watching cinemascope aspect where the top of the image become black borders there is a red stripe and where the bottom meets the black border its a green stripe.

THEN on white text on my desktop when my HTPC is hooked to the panny all the text is blurry due to red/green shadowing on it.

Is this all normal on a projector or does it seem a bit more than it should be??

When watching video its not noticable unless white text or subs, the video looks good. Wouldnt it look better if I had better convergence?

If you can see individual pixels where one or more colours, red, blue or green is more than 1/2 pixel or even over 1 pixel away from the other colours, then, to me, that's not acceptable. Sure it will not be too bad from seating distance, but it is so much sharper when the pixels are closer in convergence. Pixels should have all three colours no more than within 1/2 pixel off of one another in convergence. Of course, all projectors, and even individual units of each model of projector will vary, and others may say what they feel is acceptable or not, but I find that once you are more than 1/2 pixel off, it looks poor. Some projectors allow adjustment. If a pixel is 3/4 off to the right, and you move it one pixel to the left, then it could then be only off by 1/4.

Will the ae2000 be able to light a 150" screen in a light controlled room?

Will the ae2000 be able to light a 150" screen in a light controlled room?

That depends on the gain of the screen -- It is plenty bright for my 126" 1.4 gain screen, but for 150" you will need a higher gain screen, something in the range of 3.0+ should do the trick ;)

Will the ae2000 be able to light a 150" screen in a light controlled room?

It should be fine! I have my Panny 2000U ceiling mounted from a 9 foot suspended/drop ceiling in my basement - projecting on a DIY (16:9 widescreen) 160" drywall screen (Yes - its huge :-) painted a neutral gray (Easyflex N8 per Tiddler's formula) from a 18 foot distance. I am using the 'Eco' mode and 'Normal' picture setting. I also like the Cinema 1 setting. Dynamic is too bright.

So far the ae2000u is performing well for me. No convergence issues yet( as I had with the Epson Pro Cinema 800). 1080p/24 looks great! "Cinema1" mode looks the best, for my environment in dark room viewing. Very quiet fan (even sitting beneath the pj) in Eco-Mode. Sufficient lumen output, on 92" 1.0 gain screen and being only 60+ hours into usage. Great blacks and still have detail! Cheers!

I find that on a white flat painted screen, cinema1 works better than color1. Color1 gives me some black crush.

Ok along the same note, dvi to hdmi cable worked some times, projector people said I needed a HDCP compliant video card. I am running an nvidia 8500 gt hdcp (which should not matter since no HD disks) but no signal. Computer runs fine on my sanyo plv4. No signal to this projector. Do I send it back and exchange it?

I think the HDCP part is a bit of "hogwash". Do you get a bootup display at least? I noticed that a lot of PJ support people resort to the "video card not HDCP compliant" excuse a lot.

I'm using a 6600GT AGP card with a DVI to HDMI cable as well (single link), from Walmart in fact, and I can watch my HDTV that isn't HDCP compliant because its broadcast from the 6600GT.

I suggest trying another source that is HDMI-HDMI if possible before sending it back. I believe back and forth is $100 shipping that can be charged to you if the PJ is not at fault.

If someone is looking for one at a discount send me a PM

Someone doesnt like their AE2000?

Ok along the same note, dvi to hdmi cable worked some times, projector people said I needed a HDCP compliant video card. I am running an nvidia 8500 gt hdcp (which should not matter since no HD disks) but no signal. Computer runs fine on my sanyo plv4. No signal to this projector. Do I send it back and exchange it?

Running 7300LE non-HDCP card (DVI to HDMI 35' cable) without any issues -- I would try to connect some other device (DVD player ?) to PJ HDMI to confirm that this is PJ issue before sending it back.

Codes for Panasonic 'Power On' and 'power Off', (they also work with the Panasonic PT-AE1000E). Hope this works.

Power On

0000 0070 0000 003A 0081 0041 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0ABD

Power Off

0000 0070 0000 003A 0080 0041 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0ABD

ok tried two cards (video) no start up on either. Hdmi to hdmi from a dvd does work. But why no computer dvi to hdmi (cable is good)

ok tried two cards (video) no start up on either. Hdmi to hdmi from a dvd does work. But why no computer dvi to hdmi (cable is good)

The fact that HDMI from DVD player works fine pretty much points to HTPC as a source of your problem, saves you trouble of sending PJ back just to find out that the new one has the same problem -- it is extremely unlikely that it is caused HDCP issues as PJ People suggested -- I would try to upgrade drivers and play with video card settings, you mentioned that it was connected to Sanyo 720 PJ before so it maybe outputting signal in resolution/refresh rate that is not supported by AE2000 (check manual for supported resolutions and refresh rates).

Hope this helps, Davie.

man this is problematic, I set the refresh rates and resolutions to the manual but it still does not work. This is the second video card tried. It worked for a while then stopped.
Plus why would it not at least show the bios startup info?
Ghost in the machine

I ordered an AX200 from Projector People about 3 months ago and within the first 6 hours it developed a fairly large hair somewhere inside. I called PP and they said there was nothing that they could do so I quoted their "30 day policy" off of their website and they changed their minds. They shipped another AX200 to me and when it arrived I shipped my first one back. The problem with the second one was convergence, I could not even get it focused, and PP said (after viewing photos I sent them) that it was within spec. So I figured it had something to do with the AX200 being fairly cheap, and I ordered the AE2000. The change from 720 to 1080 (Blu-Ray discs) is huge and the picture is amazing. The only problem now is that I am at 87 hours and already devoloped my first DUST BLOB. The convergence on this one is not too bad and I really do not want to send this one back as well, so has anyone else acquired dust blobs and how do we get rid of them?

Someone in this thread posted how he took care of his dust problem, I cannot verify as I do not have a projector yet.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12501773#post12501773

Any help for this neubie will be totally appreciated:Room 22' x 17' x8', Screen size 92" diag., Light controll, very good. Seating distance from screen about 15-16'. Room is shared with serious 2ch music system therefore speakers cannot be any further apart than 7-7.5', limiting screen size to 80" width(92" diag.)

1- Does utilizing the vertical shift affect image quality? With only an 8' ceiling I am concerned that ceiling mounting the projector aprox 16-20" off the ceiling will create a head banging hazard.(screen top 14" from ceiling) Can I mount it directly on the ceiling and use vert. shift without losing image quality?? Obviously, the further away from the screen, the less vert. shift would be necessary.

2-When one approaches the limits of the throw distance for a particular screen size, what starts happening to image quality.

3- Is there any advantage to placing projector as close as possible to screen within acceptable throw distance?

4- Does anyone utilize there projector for total TV and movie watching? I would like to avoid utilizing a drop down screen, but cant find a way to get a small plasma/LCD into the room as well for general TV viewing( news, etc..)without one. (Wife doesn't want any TV in other parts of house)

5- In reality, just how noisy is the fan? Could I place it just above the seating position without distraction?

Many thanks in advance for any help here. Jim

Any help for this neubie will be totally appreciated:Room 22' x 17' x8', Screen size 92" diag., Light controll, very good. Seating distance from screen about 15-16'. Room is shared with serious 2ch music system therefore speakers cannot be any further apart than 7-7.5', limiting screen size to 80" width(92" diag.)
I have similar room dimensions with a 106" screen sitting 14' away.

1- Does utilizing the vertical shift affect image quality? With only an 8' ceiling I am concerned that ceiling mounting the projector aprox 16-20" off the ceiling will create a head banging hazard.(screen top 14" from ceiling) Can I mount it directly on the ceiling and use vert. shift without losing image quality?? Obviously, the further away from the screen, the less vert. shift would be necessary.
You shouldn't lose any image quality.

2-When one approaches the limits of the throw distance for a particular screen size, what starts happening to image quality.
If you're at the short end of the throw range, then you'll get max brightness, but less contrast and more chance for hot spotting (less even light distribution). If you're at the far end of the throw range, you'll get minimum brightness, but max contrast and the most even dispersion of light, and the focus may be a little more even depending on the optical qualities of the lens.

3- Is there any advantage to placing projector as close as possible to screen within acceptable throw distance?
Yes, you get max brightness.

4- Does anyone utilize there projector for total TV and movie watching? I would like to avoid utilizing a drop down screen, but cant find a way to get a small plasma/LCD into the room as well for general TV viewing( news, etc..)without one. (Wife doesn't want any TV in other parts of house)
Some folks do, but I use a drop down screen in front of my plasma. I love having the brightness of the plasma to watch ball games or TV with the shades up or lights on, and then being able to watch the pj on the big screen. And I don't particularly like watching some things blown up that big, like the news. But it can be done and certainly some people here do so.

5- In reality, just how noisy is the fan? Could I place it just above the seating position without distraction?

It's not noisy at all. Mine is about 4 feet over my head when seated. I can't hear it at all.

I'm a newbie and was wondering if anybody knew how reliable the Waveform feature is to calibrate?

I start with the factory settings and switch to Cinema 1 - Then I used the test pattern found on "Digital Video Essentials (DVE)" that looked like:

http://www.audioholics.com/tweaks/calibrate-your-system/digital-video-essentials-dve-review/dvecolorbars.jpg/image_mini

Then used the single line scan (B) on one of the two lines and use the Auto Adjust. Afterwards, I have to turn down the brightness a couple notches based on the Pluge pattern.

But I start wondering because the contrast level is set to +32 which seems to be extremely high.

Is this adequate? Is a +32 Contrast somewhat normal? or do I need to dig under the seat cushions to fork out some dough for a ISF calibrator to come by...

Equip:
Stewart Firehawk SST 110"
Panasonic AE2000 - duh
Sony Playstation 3 - for Blu Ray/DVD playback

I take it you're using component cables for the 360? Or do you have an Elite with HDMI? For the PS3 are you using HDMI?

IF you are comparing component to HDMI, that could be part of the difference. But I've also noticed some softness on the 360 over VGA. Note that the 360 will scale everything to your output resolution (most games are 720p, so outputting at 1080 means the 360 is upscaling). On the other hand, the PS3 will switch resolutions to match what it's playing - 720p for (most) games, 1080i/p for Blu-Ray, etc. So setting the 360 to output 720p and letting the projector do the scaling might help.

I found last night that I got a smooth, artifact free picture for SD cable when sending 480i to the projector, but lots of artifacts if the Comcast cable box does 480p or HD resolutions.

The 360 is an Elite so I'm using HDMI for both. But I suspect that the menus of the 360 is upscaled to 1080p but sourced at 720p - so youre prob right.

Its just seen in the menus so I just wanted to check if this is common. I rather keep it at 1080p for the 1080p HDDVDs rather than scale.

man this is problematic, I set the refresh rates and resolutions to the manual but it still does not work. This is the second video card tried. It worked for a while then stopped.
Plus why would it not at least show the bios startup info?
Ghost in the machine

None of the 3 HDMI ports give you any video at bootup? That is pretty weird. With my HTPC plugged in and on, the PJ always syncs to that port when I power it up. Does it select the right port at all when you power up the PJ?

What kind of HDMI to DVI cable is it? Maybe you want to try another cable before returning the PJ.

None of the 3 HDMI ports give you any video at bootup? That is pretty weird. With my HTPC plugged in and on, the PJ always syncs to that port when I power it up. Does it select the right port at all when you power up the PJ?

What kind of HDMI to DVI cable is it? Maybe you want to try another cable before returning the PJ.

I would second that it does not sound like its the projector sounds like it not getting the signal. By the way guys does anyone know what deinterlacing chip is in the Panny.

I'm a newbie and was wondering if anybody knew how reliable the Waveform feature is to calibrate?

I start with the factory settings and switch to Cinema 1 - Then I used the test pattern found on "Digital Video Essentials (DVE)" that looked like:

http://www.audioholics.com/tweaks/calibrate-your-system/digital-video-essentials-dve-review/dvecolorbars.jpg/image_mini

Then used the single line scan (B) on one of the two lines and use the Auto Adjust. Afterwards, I have to turn down the brightness a couple notches based on the Pluge pattern.

But I start wondering because the contrast level is set to +32 which seems to be extremely high.

Is this adequate? Is a +32 Contrast somewhat normal? or do I need to dig under the seat cushions to fork out some dough for a ISF calibrator to come by...

Equip:
Stewart Firehawk SST 110"
Panasonic AE2000 - duh
Sony Playstation 3 - for Blu Ray/DVD playback

+32 Contrast is extremely high.
Cinema 1 (or Color 1) settings should be very close to accurate. I suggest going back to the default and just adjusting Brightness with pluge.

Codes for Panasonic 'Power On' and 'power Off', (they also work with the Panasonic PT-AE1000E). Hope this works.

Power On

0000 0070 0000 003A 0081 0041 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0ABD

Power Off

0000 0070 0000 003A 0080 0041 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 000F 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0030 000F 0ABD

Thanks Andy,

Any other codes? like direct input mapping (composite 1 & 2, HDMI 1, 2, 3,...) or color modes? (the 3 assignable FN buttons don't generate specific codes, they always generate the same 3 codes, its the projector that interprets them differently depending on what is assigned in the menus)

I'm about to pull a trigger on this projector. I'm intrigued by the idea of prepurchase inspection that some vendors offer, since I am very concerned about uniformity and convergence (lot of HTPC use anticipated). However, I am also concerned that once I ask for a pre-inspected projector, I'll get one of those many open box returns. Am I being paranoid?

Anyone know where to purchase the optional cable cover ET-PCE2000?

http://panasonic.co.jp/pavc/global/projector/products/ae2000/accessories.html

Ok Im Just Too Lazy To Read Through All This. So I Want To Know If This Is A Good Projector For First Person Shooters Like Halo And Call Of Duty?

Any Xbox 360 game I've played on it looks great in my book.

Gears of war and Heavenly Sword and Halo 3 Multiplayer were all awesome. Halo3 single player was making me a little sick walking through the jungle, so I had to move to the back row, where it was awesome. My front row is at 6' from the 120" screen, so you should be very pleased.
Heavenly Sword on a 120" screen is a bit hazardous cause the drool mucks up the controller. ;)
Warren.

Anyone know if this PJ is on display anywhere in the SF Bay area? I am willing to drive pretty much in N.Cali. The Magnolia in Emmeryville only has an Infocus

Thanx,

Mike

Anyone know if this PJ is on display anywhere in the SF Bay area? I am willing to drive pretty much in N.Cali. The Magnolia in Emmeryville only has an Infocus

Thanx,

Mike

I'm in San Mateo if you want to come by. We'll be watching the Warriors in HD tonight :eek:

I'm in San Mateo if you want to come by. We'll be watching the Warriors in HD tonight :eek:

So YOU'RE the ones watching the Warriors!

Go Spurs. Go AE2000.

Doh! I almost forgot...http://www.cine4home.de/ has a really long review up of the ae2000...I don't Spraken ze Deutch much but I was looking at the brightness/contrast tables...2-3K native and 22K on:off is looking pretty darn promising as is the 1200+ lumens (and the CIE color chart looks like a pro video monitor's, impressive). Wonder how much higher the Epson 1080 UB will be...it better be higher as it doesn't have auto-zoom/focus/animorphic stretch plus other functionality. Sorry if this has already been posted.

So YOU'RE the ones watching the Warriors!

Go Spurs. Go AE2000.

What's up with your Spurs? They get beat by the Warriors twice and they lose to Detroit at home tonight. Could the Dynasty be crumbling?

Mike Rich, sorry, the Warriors game is actually on tomorrow(Friday) night. I guess that was a little wishful thinking on my part.
E-mail me at 'bbelton@infopartners.com' if you wanna come by. I've got some hi-def DVDs/PS3 games that you could preview as well.

I'm about to pull a trigger on this projector. I'm intrigued by the idea of prepurchase inspection that some vendors offer, since I am very concerned about uniformity and convergence (lot of HTPC use anticipated). However, I am also concerned that once I ask for a pre-inspected projector, I'll get one of those many open box returns. Am I being paranoid?

Maybe a little paranoid. :D.

Just make sure you go to a reputable dealer like Projector People or the AVS Store.

Elio

Just let the AVR-3808CI pass 1080i to the Sharp and have the Aquos do the deinterlacing. The 3808 will pass the signal untouched if you tell it to do so (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12613453#post12613453).

In spot checking this volumous thread I note that there are many folks purchasing the 3808CI in spite of the bad reviews regarding 1080i de-interlacing from CNET, ZDNet, et al. I have Dish Network VIP 622 (1080i) feeding a HDMI input to a Sharp 65D64U (1080P). I am certainly no expert on HDTV issues but it sure seems like the 3808 would give a significantly and noticeably poorer picture than the TX-875 with my set-up. Am I overlooking something?

I understand the AE2000u to have a good on board video processor. I am trying to find a receiver to meet my needs. The Denon 3808ci may have issues with upconverting 1080i to 1080p. In the thread I quoted above, it was recommended to send the signal as 1080i to the display.

I am wondering how the AE2000u would handle the 1080i signal. Would/could it upconvert it to 1080p? If it could, would I have any PQ issues?

Anyone here upgrade to this projector from a 720P DLP (such as the Sharp or equivalent)? If so, any comparative comments appreciated.

I understand the AE2000u to have a good on board video processor. I am trying to find a receiver to meet my needs. The Denon 3808ci may have issues with upconverting 1080i to 1080p. In the thread I quoted above, it was recommended to send the signal as 1080i to the display.

I am wondering how the AE2000u would handle the 1080i signal. Would/could it upconvert it to 1080p? If it could, would I have any PQ issues?

The deinterlacer in the 2000 is very good. The source material would have to be very demanding before artifacts would be seen that detract from your enjoyment. 1080i sources such as a cable box and my HD A2 player are deinterlaced to 1080P very well indeed. The HQV processor in my Samsung 1200 BD player may be a better deinterlacer. I would need to to toggle between 1080i and 1080P output to see if there is a difference.
ganman

Maybe a little paranoid. :D.

Just make sure you go to a reputable dealer like Projector People or the AVS Store.

Elio
What do places like Projector People do with all the returned projectors? Do they get sent back to the factory?

What ceiling mount is everyone using for this PJ?
And where did you get it?
And do you recommend the one you have?
I am looking to mount mine in a couple days.
Any advice would be great!

Anyone here upgrade to this projector from a 720P DLP (such as the Sharp or equivalent)? If so, any comparative comments appreciated.

I haven't actually upgraded, but Panasonic Australia have lent me an AE-2000 for a week to evaluate, so I've had lots of time to play with it.

My own projector is an AX-100.

Comparing the AX-100 to the AE-2000:

1. The AE-2000 has a MUCH better optical system than the AX-100 in all critical areas of performance.

The lens on the AE-2000 has "High Fidelity Projection Lens II" inscribed on the front ring... and they mean it.

Offset adjustment: the image is close to perfectly rectangular, even at extreme lens offset.
I need to use a lot of lens offset. I am projecting to a 120" 2.35:1 screen from ~15'. My projector is mounted aligned with the top of the screen and 18" to the left (call this "way above and to the left" of center). On the AX-100 this is close to the limit of the joystick adjustment of lens offset. With my AX-100, due to this marginal setting, there is noticeable distortion/keystoning in the image shape at the opposite corner - "bottom right" - to where my projector is mounted.

The first thing I noticed about the AE-2000, mounted in exactly the same spot as my AX-100, is that this distortion/keystoning no longer exists. The lens system seems to work as well at the margins of offset adjustment as it does closer to the default settings.

No more jerky movement in offset adjustment.
The offset adjustment mechanism itself is excellent. Comparing it to the AX-100 is "chalk and cheese". The adjustment - comprising separate H and V finger-wheels (as against a single joystick) - is smooth, precise, repeatable (although manual) and has no "memory" (it stays where you set it and doesn't bounce after you release your finger).

Power zoom and focus
These features speak for themselves. Lovely to have, and adjustable in very fine increments by just tapping the remote control keys momentarily. Excellent.

HD 1080 signals: AX-100 v. AE-2000:
Although it is a 720 projector, the AX-100 does a great job with 1080 signals in all areas except where ultra-fine detail is combined with sloping edges, e.g. type fonts in credits, long shots of skyscrapers with lots of windows etc. This is understandable... there has to be some trade-off, or else why go full 1080? In these challenging situations, with the AX-100 you see some aliasing as a result of the projector's interpolation from 1080 down to 720 and its less dense (921,600 v. 2,073,600) matrix of pixels.

All of this aliasing is eliminated with the AE-2000. No aliasing at all. Titling is strong with sharp non-aliased edges. Buildings with diagonals mixed with verticals and horizontals come out crystal clear. A leap in quality of presentation. You're watching a hi-definition, cinematic quality movie with the AE-2000, not just a really sharp TV.


2. Contrast, Brightness and Absolute Black levels

Contrast:
Contrast is improved over the AX-100, even in dim scenes. This manifests as an appreciably improved "richness" in the image.

Blacks
Blacks are not absolute... you can still see vestiges of "gray bars", but I must stress that these are only about a third as bright as they are in the AX-100. The improvement in absolute black levels is significant. Much better than the image at my local cinema. Blade Runner, despite all its dark scenes, was a knockout, as was Unforgiven which was shot seemingly (in parts) with a 20 watt bulb for lighting. Both of these tested the AX-100's black reproduction, especially Unforgiven, but both passed with flying colors on the AE-2000.

Shadow detail:
Due to the better blacks, shadow detail is vastly improved. My test for this is the scene in King Kong where Kong is first sighted in full face. The screen fills with his face in ultra high detail, key-lit directionally only by the fires coming from the village: a good test... directional lighting, shadow detail with lots of reds and yellows. Result: excellent. You could see every hair in even the deepest shadow areas, but blacks held their depth.

Brightness:
As to brightness, this may not be a fair test, as my demo AE-2000 unit has less than 50 hours on it. Putting this to one side, the 1500 lumen brightness specification combined with the much improved blacks as an anchor delivers wonderful immersion at this stage of the projector's life. My lamp setting is "ECO-MODE", no boost necessary, with all picture adjustments set to "0" for 99% of movies. My screen is a stock-standard 1x white. Even though I am using an anamorphic lens which reduces brightness by about 30% compared to an un-morphed 16:9 image, there is more than adequate brightness in all types of scenes.


3. "Waveform Monitor" Function
... a favourite of mine. This is an insert type window that allows you to see what the projector's processing engine is receiving after PIC mode tweaks in a traditional "waveform monitor" format, familiar to anyone who's been near a TV studio.

On the screen you can see what is made of this signal. One film in particular (a black and white from the late 1930s) appeared washed-out in the shadows and generally dull. Using the waveform monitor I was able to see that the blacks - straight off the DVD, that is - weren't black... they bottomed-out at about 15%. Whites weren't white either: pure white was clipped at around 75%.

I used the "AUTO ADJUST" feature to anchor the blacks at 0% and to push the clipped whites to where they should be: 100%.

The improvement in picture quality and viewability was stunning. The auto-adjust of levels took about 10 seconds, a far, far shorter time than it would have taken me to manually adjust the image. Contrast was bumped up to 32 (as some have mentioned above), but this was in the context of a dull picture to start with. Brightness was reduced as well to pull down the "blacks" in the movie to a real black. But this wasn't all, several of the gamma settings - color brightness and contrast plus low and midge range monochromatic were also auto-adjusted when I checked the setting on the ADVANCED MENU sub-menu of the PICTURE menu... all in 10 seconds! Sensational and, most importantly useful in the extreme for those times when a movie has less than ideal signal quality dimensions. The WAVEFORM monitor, in combination with AUTO-ADJUST is, to me, now a vital feature.


4. Color Aberration
Less than +/- a quarter of a pixel anywhere on the screen using a grid pattern (white grid on black background).


5. "Screen Door" Effect

The AE-2000 has killed-off "Screen Door":
Pixel boundaries were visible only from 18" (sic: inches) away from a 50" x 120" CIH screen (and that's with my reading glasses on). Not even a slight issue at any reasonable viewing distance over 3' (we sit at 12'). You can literally put a cushion down on the floor 4' or 5' in front of your front row of seating and watch a movie at about a 70 degree viewing angle (up real close, in other words) and the only limiting factor appears to be the actual detail of the film base of the movie itself (grain, incorrect focus pulling etc.), plus how good your neck is at craning from left to right and back again, not any digital artefacts from the projector itself.


6. Use with an anamorphic lens: CIH
Sometimes, at least in theory, projection optics and anamorphic optics have the possibility of conflicting. Not in this case.

I use a 4 element, color-corrected cylindrical anamorphic adapter of my own design and making. With the pixels so small to start with and the AE-2000's screen door minimization, the pictures compared between 1.78:1 without adapter and 2.35:1 with adapter were indistinguishable to the naked eye. Edge-to-edge sharpness, great contrast and no interference by the adapter in with the native projection optics.

The improvements Panasonic have made in their complex native optics have in no way impinged on the quality of the anamorphic picture as projected.

The image remained rectangular with only 10mm (0.4") of pincushion added, and no distortion at the corners opposite my projector's extreme mounting position (set out in section #1 above).


7. Fan Noise
Couldn't hear it at all (even standing next to the unit I had to put my hand in front of the vent and feel the exhaust breeze to see if it was working).


Conclusions
Although this post doesn't list all the features of the AE-2000, and doesn't document every single improvement with hard numbers, I can say that, looking at the sum of the parts, the AE-2000 is a significant improvement on the AX-100 1280 x 720 projector.

Image detail and clarity is greatly improved (obviously) by the extra resolution, but also by the better contrast, much deeper blacks, more comprehensive adjustment features that take the hard work out of making an average quality picture sparkle.

Optics and associated mechanisms are an all-round leap in quality and ease of use... from motorized zoom and focus to finely tunable lens offset. There is no interference or conflict between projector optics and anamorphic optics (at least with the anamorphic optics I designed myself). Focus, sharpness, clarity and contrast are maintained with anamorphic adapter either "in" or "out" of the projector light path.

Panel registration is excellent and even all over the screen.

I'm sure there's plenty I've missed, but having a good, long week with the AE-2000 has shown me what I've been missing out on all this time. I guess if you're prepared to spend $20,000 or more for a top of the range 3-chipper you might pooh-pooh my enthusiasm for the AE-2000, but the quality and performance you get from this projector at a street price of under US$3,000 is quite stunning.

Thanks Bob,
Excellent comments as always. Your attention to detail and your ability to write clearly is appreciated.

The WF monitor function is definitely a plus - just like I've never left work. ;)

I've narrowed my upgrade choices to the VW60 and the AE2000. I've spent time with the SONY but none with the Panasonic and hope to before I make my final decision. Should you get the opportunity to see the 60 let me know.

Glad to see you are actively participating again, particularly your recent forays into the CIH forum.

ted

tvted, just curious to know why you've ruled out the epson and mitsubishi from your options...

This Will Be My First Projector So Should I Get The PT-AE2000U Or Buy The Cheaper PT-AX200U For About Half The Price

tvted, just curious to know why you've ruled out the epson and mitsubishi from your options...

Anamorphic stretch primarily. I've a UH380 - I stretch SD with an HTPC using ZoomPlayer, & ffdshow. I've no scaler that can handle Hi Def optical.

Sony wins: native CR and a sealed optical path, pleasing shadow detail and good uniformity, worth the extra for me as here in Canada prices delta is closer than in the U.S.

ted

This Will Be My First Projector So Should I Get The PT-AE2000U Or Buy The Cheaper PT-AX200U For About Half The Price

No-one can tell you the answer to that question.

As my post above outlines, the AE-2000 is a great improvement on the AX-100/200 series, but whether it's worth the money is something only you can know.

The AX-200 would deliver a fine picture, though, for a first-time projector buyer. Nothing wrong with it at all, even for 1080 presentations. I use an AX-100 myself, one model back from the 200. But the AE-2000 is definitely better if you want to make the investment. As you get used to your AX-200 (if you buy one) you will start to notice - not "flaws" - but trade-offs. Reading these pages can make you envious or leave you feeling left out of the mainstream. It's up to you to decide how much that slight unsettled feeling and lack of top performance compared to full 1080-in/1080-out is worth.

Thanks that helps alot

Any recommendations for Canadian shoppers on best place to purchase AE2000U.

Purchasing state side is not my first choice as I don't live close to any large US cities. So I can't just jump in my car and drive over to purchase or for warranty issues.

Cheers

has anybody used this projector with the PS3 for 1080p/24 use?

I've played several movies so far - and one thing I've noticed is that I can't seem to notice the smooth panning that is usually associated with 1080p/24. In fact, I would notice it in the "extras" like in 300 or Rocky Balboa.

While playing - I do check the projector menu and it does show 1080p/24 signal being used.

Anybody else have this problem?

My third AE2000, and as you can see, it still has shadding issue
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/4017/pae2000wv2.jpg

Maybe I'm unlucky, but i'm definitively annoyed.

Thanks panasonic for the reliability of your products :rolleyes:

Sorry, I can't tell what this shading issue is. What should I be seeing in this pic? Maybe it is my laptop screen that is the problem.

Sorry, I can't tell what this shading issue is. What should I be seeing in this pic? Maybe it is my laptop screen that is the problem.

Top left is blu-green and bottom right is reddish. I think it's probably more correct to call this uniformity issue.

Uniformity has been haunting Panny for quite some time now. I can remember complaints when I owned the AE900 and I'm sure it was around before then. Which is really too bad as the AE2000 sounds like a great machine.

Unfortunately I don't think you will find the perfect pj out there, especially at this price point. I think we have grown spoiled over the recent fallout of 1080p prices and have our expectations set pretty high. Now don't get me wrong, I find that uniformity pic unacceptable, but I think we are nitpicking these current crop of pj's a little too much. It was only a few years ago that this type of performance would have cost you well over 10k. Look at the VW100. That was the pj to beat in it's day and look at it's specs. Horrible throw range, no lumens to even begin to light up a fairly large screen (without going to something with insane gain), and a replacement bulb that required you to take out a second mortgage on your house.

I have to agree. The uniformity on my Epson 1080p was A LOT worse than that. Overall, I'm not going to worry about anything unless it affects my picture during normal viewing. I'm not going to put up white screens, gray screens, or test patterns to go looking for faults that I'd never see during normal viewing. You're just begging to be disappointed with any projector if you do. But that's JMHO.

I agree with you. My AE2000 has two minor uniformity issues, neither of which I can see in normal viewing. I've spent far too much time trying to see them when I watch movies that I've not enjoyed using the thing as much as I should. I'm through with nitpicking. My AE2000 has bright, beautiful picture that's a huge improvement over my now sold AE900.

Top left is blu-green and bottom right is reddish. I think it's probably more correct to call this uniformity issue.

Gotta wonder if this noticeable in normal viewing (i.e. a film, etc.) rather than blank screen.

Thought I'd post & subscribe to say I just ordered mine from PP. My first projector and will be doing CIH with Prismasonic lens, with SMX screen. Will post details of everything after this weekend is done.

Hope it is as good as everyone is saying!

Uniformity Issue

Try it on 'Normal' and see if it goes away. My slight uniformity issue is only with the color filter modes. It's only noticable in black and white movies (or in some Planet Earth polar scenes if you look for it) so I just switch to Normal for those since they don't need the spot on Color1 mode.

Try it on 'Normal' and see if it goes away. My slight uniformity issue is only with the color filter modes. It's only noticable in black and white movies (or in some Planet Earth polar scenes if you look for it) so I just switch to Normal for those since they don't need the spot on Color1 mode.
I don't think it has anything to do with the color filter. The eye is more sensitive to color variation in dimmer areas, so it's probably a side-effect of Color1 having lower light output. Try a 40-50 IRE field in Normal mode, and check if it's there.

EDIT: Also, correct grayscale calibration is important to spot errors of this type. A blue grayscale (default settings in Normal mode) will make the entire screen so blue it's hard to detect.

I own a AE2000U and it's got dust blobs issue and was fixed by Heartland. BTW, their service was excellent, they received my unit on Monday and was back to me on Thursday. I just want to point out something i found on this projector that i think it could be a flaw for user who use this projector on ceiling mount . If you look at the bottom cover you'll see there are couple small vents near the filter corner. Through these little vents you can actually see the circuit board inside, when you ceiling mount this projector these open vents will be facing up and can somehow draw and trap dust particles into the unit and cause the dust problems. I've covered mine with a breathable cloth, just in case.

I own a AE2000U and it's got dust blobs issue and was fixed by Heartland. I just want to point out something i found on this projector that i think it could be a flaw for user who use this projector on ceiling mount . If you look at the bottom cover you'll see there are couple small vents near the filter corner. Through these little vents you can actually see the circuit board inside, when you ceiling mount this projector these open vents will be facing up and can somehow draw and trap dust particles into the unit and cause the dust problems. I've covered mine with a breathable cloth, just in case.

Interesting. Would be curious to know if most people with dust blob problems with this projector are ceiling mounting. Perhaps the dust blobs are less of a problem for those who are shelf mounting?

Interesting. Would be curious to know if most people with dust blob problems with this projector are ceiling mounting. Perhaps the dust blobs are less of a problem for those who are shelf mounting?
Would make for a good poll. For the record, I've had Panny pjs for about 4 years now, always shelf mounted, never had a dust blob.

I shelf mounted mine, in an extremely dusty room. I had just finished sanding drywall and everything in the room was covered in dust. Pretty stupid to fire up the projector in there, but that is how I roll. :) Anyway, no dust blobs.
I can't see any defects with my projector. The blacks aren't what I would like, but everything else is amazing.
Warren.

Interesting. Would be curious to know if most people with dust blob problems with this projector are ceiling mounting. Perhaps the dust blobs are less of a problem for those who are shelf mounting?

Would make for a good poll. For the record, I've had Panny pjs for about 4 years now, always shelf mounted, never had a dust blob.

Agreed, I've always wondered the same as well...

Shelf-mounted, no blobs so far.

Shelf mounted,50+ days(and nights),lots of dust in a room...zero dust blobs:)

60+ days no special treatment hung on ceiling no blobs. ;) :D

OK. The fine folks at Projector People have graciously sent me a prepaid shipping label to send the projector back. I guess it really pays to buy from a reputable dealer. Panasonic expected me to ship the projector at my own cost. No brainer, I guess. I'll keep you posted on the HDMI issue.
For the record, Projector People called me and confirmed the HDMI defect in my projector. They offered to "quality check" the new one before they sent it. I appreciated the offer and accepted. The new projector arrived on Friday. I got my new projector in less than a week! I installed it Saturday and WOW! My first AE2000 must have been defective. This one is certainly brighter. I couldn't understand all the fuss about ""Color 1" since it looked too washed out. However, this one gets it right! "Normal" seems too amped up now. I watched Bourne Ultimatum and 3:10 to Yuma this weekend in HD and my 106" DaLite High Contrast Cinema Vision screen. I'm gonna need a catheder to keep from leaving my movie room! I can't say enough about Projector People or this projector.

Hi guys.

I hate to post thits, but searching for the right notes in this 72 page thread is tough.

My PT-AE2000U is turning itself on. Has happened 2 times now. I come home from work and see that the projector is on.

Fixes?

Hi guys.

I hate to post thits, but searching for the right notes in this 72 page thread is tough.

My PT-AE2000U is turning itself on. Has happened 2 times now. I come home from work and see that the projector is on.

Fixes?

Find out who is in the house watching it:D Sorry, but I don't know other than turning of the power switch after the fan has cooled down this would keep it from powering back on.

good luck.

:)
Ill have to start doing that....

The reason I posted is that I remember somebody else having the same problem. There are just way too many pages to scroll through.

I was hoping to hear that there may be a fix for this is all.

On the projector comming back on?

There is a way to derf the power off and this will seemingly happen. The projector never really shuts off and it only blanks for a little while and then throws video again.


On my Ae1000U it's happened to me a few times powering it off when I am very very tired. I know I did not hit the right buttons, but the projector blanked so I went on to bed only to find it on and throwing video again wen I awake.

Hi guys.

I hate to post thits, but searching for the right notes in this 72 page thread is tough.

My PT-AE2000U is turning itself on. Has happened 2 times now. I come home from work and see that the projector is on.

Fixes?

Kids? Family members? What about the remote, or a universal remote that you may have programmed the ON function into. Could it be lodged in a sofa chair and pressing ON somehow?

I posted this on the JVC RS1 forum, but I hope someone here can help me as well. I saw a demo of the RS1 at the EHX expo in November. Loved it. Didn't love the price. Last week saw a demo of the Panny 2000U at CES. The specs have the RS1 at a lower lumens # than the Panny, but damn my eyes -- the RS1 looked brighter to me! Okay, so it wasn't a side-by-side comparison. Okay, the comparison had a couple of months between 'em and I'm just going off of memory, but could this possibly be? Both demos were in black boxes with no ambient light. What gives? Any help is appreciated. Maybe I need to visit the eye doctor.

It is impossible to do a comparison months apart. There are too many differences: high/low lamp mode, lamp hours, calibration differences, material, screen gain, etc, etc.

Knowing all that, I guess my question is: given all the variables, is it possible that the JVC could give off a brighter image than the Panny, even though it has a lower lumens rating? One element in common is that both demos were in black box rooms w/no ambient light.

Hi guys.

I hate to post thits, but searching for the right notes in this 72 page thread is tough.

My PT-AE2000U is turning itself on. Has happened 2 times now. I come home from work and see that the projector is on.

Fixes?

Is it always you turning it off?

The reason I ask is that someone else might not know that you have to hit the power button twice to turn it completely off. If you hit it once, the yellow light is flashing and it will come back on. If you hit it twice, the yellow light is solid and it turns off (like reset and shutdown on a computer.)

I haven't actually upgraded, but Panasonic Australia have lent me an AE-2000 for a week to evaluate, so I've had lots of time to play with it.

...

Panel registration is excellent and even all over the screen.

I'm sure there's plenty I've missed, but having a good, long week with the AE-2000 has shown me what I've been missing out on all this time. I guess if you're prepared to spend $20,000 or more for a top of the range 3-chipper you might pooh-pooh my enthusiasm for the AE-2000, but the quality and performance you get from this projector at a street price of under US$3,000 is quite stunning.

Bob, that is a great review and matches my experience 100% going from a 720 dlp.

My *only* complaint is that I have to be in front of the pj to turn it off and on. The entrance to my room is in the back of the room. The manual says to point the remote at the screen, but that doesn't work even with a 1.4 gain screen and the PJ 14' away.

A small inconvenience for the image quality, but a hassle nonetheless.

This guy (the AE2000) is in my top two positions for my upgrade from an AX100 (which apparently I'm about the only one in the world that's completely satisfied with his, BTW). It's probably on the top, quite honestly, based mostly on my experiences with my AX100.

The problem is the second position machine; the 1080UB. :(

Until I buy this guy, I'd much prefer not to have to read through +-2200 posts to decide where I am.

If someone would be so kind, what's the general concensus on the AE2000 given the past history of the Pany home line?

Does it suffer any of the problems so many AX100 owners experienced? Any new ones?

What's the general concensus on convergence on these guys out of the box?

Is it yesterday's news now since it's been out for a few months?

Is the Ax3000 just around the corner given the speed at which Pany seems to give birth to these things? LOL

If you had to do it all over again, would you still buy the AE2000 or maybe the UB (assuming pricing was basically dead even)?

What about the "4 hours a day" usage thing on the AX? Is it still a part of the AE's warranty?

I really like the specs and features of the AE given it has vertical stretch (for CIH/no external scaler to buy for big $$$) and several other features it has including the side by side picture adjustments. Problem is, the general concensus seems to be that the new kid on the block is gonna be the new one to beat (the UB). I wish Art would get his review done! :(

My AX falls under the old cliche, "It's mine and it's paid for." Am I really gonna get the wow factor out of this upgrade (to either one). For ~3k, I want WOW! I mean REAL "WOW!". If I'm not going to get it, maybe I should wait for the gen 4/5's.

I get the "If you don't like what's out there, wait a couple of weeks..." thing and I know you can wait yourself to death playing that game. I bought one of the first HDTV's ever sold to anyone on this forum back in 1999 and I've been playing that game since day one. LOL

Is it time to pull the trigger?

Comments?

Thanks,
bob

Is it always you turning it off?

The reason I ask is that someone else might not know that you have to hit the power button twice to turn it completely off. If you hit it once, the yellow light is flashing and it will come back on. If you hit it twice, the yellow light is solid and it turns off (like reset and shutdown on a computer.)

Thanks for the responses.

Only the 3 of us at home. My son found it to be on when he got home from school. Remote is a Harmony 880, and sitting in its cradle. I do remember hitting the off button twice.
The prior evening, I watched a movie, shut it down afterwards, etc. and went to bed. However, before I started the movie, I picked up the remote to use it. For those of you have have the Harmony, you know that the Assistant starts up, you push the button, and all the devices are activated per the programing. When I picked up mine, it did not default to the Assistant. Instead it was stuck on a device. I shrugged it off, went through each device and tured them on one at a time. When it came time to shut down, and the Assistant was not fuctioning correctly, I went through each device on the remote and shut them down. Put the remote in its cradle, and left. I'm wondering if the Assistant had anything to do with this. Maybe it sent an 'On' command to the projector?

This may be the wrong thread for me now, but, has anybody else had odd happenings with their 880?

I assume you've got a macro set up on your harmony to send two power commands to the ae2000.

It's easy enough to confirm that it's been shut down by seeing the solid yellow indicator. If it's flashing, of will come back on.

Ya, so far it has worked pretty well. It does send 2 off commands, and shuts the projector down.
I was just wondering, since the Assistant was not behaving properly to begin with, that maybe it send another power command... turning it on.

Knowing all that, I guess my question is: given all the variables, is it possible that the JVC could give off a brighter image than the Panny, even though it has a lower lumens rating? One element in common is that both demos were in black box rooms w/no ambient light.

From what I have read on AVS (did not see side by side) RS1 is a much brighter PJ -- it is rated at 700 lumens but these specs are true to real life movie watching experience (movie mode, 6500K). Most users get around 600 lumens range from RS1. Panasonic (and most other manufacturers) artificially inflate their numbers, one can probably get rated 1500 lumens in Dynamic mode, but once you get to 6500K color 1 mode you will probably get around 400 lumens or so. So, if you are going to be mostly watching movies and care for accurate colors, RS1 will be about 50% brighter.

Having said that, I use my AE2000 on 126" Carada BW (1.4 gain) in dedicated light controlled HT and I am very ahppy with brightness. YMMV.

HTH, Davie.

Knowing all that, I guess my question is: given all the variables, is it possible that the JVC could give off a brighter image than the Panny, even though it has a lower lumens rating? One element in common is that both demos were in black box rooms w/no ambient light.

Absolutely, the JVC's 700 lumens are actual lumens after D65 calibration (best mode)and it doesn't have a super bright mode...the Panasonic is only 1200 lumens in an extrememly inaccurate color mode at the widest zoom setting...calibrated for "best mode" Art at Projectorreviews.com got 388 lumens. In a nutshell, yes, when set up for movie watching the JVC should be brighter than the AE2000, but the AE2000 can be tweaked extensively to give much more light for daytime viewing (Cine4home.de recently got 1300+ for the Panny at max settings).

Hi guys,
I searched for the answer to this on this thread and didn't see one. Does the AE2000 have the required scaling to take your 2.35 stretched image back to 1.85 (or 1.78) without removing the animorphic lens...I guess it would be a vertical compression mode? This would alleviate the need for a $1000 sled...

Thanks,

I got my PJ yesterday.
Man it looks good!
I had a 70" Sony LCD 1080i before.
Now I have a 92" 1080/24p signal going on.
I put Cars in on Bluray and it looks awesome and its only projecting on my beige wall.
My screen came in today so I will be setting that up tonight.
I will take some pics after its done.
Very happy with this PJ so far!!!

Hi guys,
I searched for the answer to this on this thread and didn't see one. Does the AE2000 have the required scaling to take your 2.35 stretched image back to 1.85 (or 1.78) without removing the animorphic lens...I guess it would be a vertical compression mode? This would alleviate the need for a $1000 sled...

Thanks,

Passthrough usually requires you have a lens which goes from it's horizontal stretch back to no stretch. If you took a 16:9 dvd and wanted to leave the lens there, but watch normal, you'd have to do a horizontal squish with the video, and you'd be defeating the whole process for 16:9. You'd use less of your lcd panel, less of your bulbs brightness, and then you'd have black bars on the side. Otherwise, I'm not sure what you mean.

Hi guys,
I searched for the answer to this on this thread and didn't see one. Does the AE2000 have the required scaling to take your 2.35 stretched image back to 1.85 (or 1.78) without removing the animorphic lens...I guess it would be a vertical compression mode? This would alleviate the need for a $1000 sled...

Thanks,

The AE2000 does vertical stretch.

Just pulled the trigger on this projector. Projector People have a $100 off on this projector with their football sale.

Hi guys,
I searched for the answer to this on this thread and didn't see one. Does the AE2000 have the required scaling to take your 2.35 stretched image back to 1.85 (or 1.78) without removing the animorphic lens...I guess it would be a vertical compression mode? This would alleviate the need for a $1000 sled...

Thanks,
I could easily be wrong here, but I don't know of any pj that does that. The AE2000 is one of few that does the vertical stretch to be able to use an anamorphic lens.

I'm considering a CIH setup and my plan was to get the Prismasonic lens with the passthrough feature. So to watch 2.35 movies, I'd use the Panny's vertical stretch and the Prismasonic lens horizontal stretch. To go back to 1.78, I'd take off the Panny's vertical stretch and set the Prismasonic back to Passthrough mode. There's even a model with a remote. That way you don't need a sled to move the lens in and out of the path.

To be fair, it's not that hard or expensive to move the lens. I had my Hitachi TX200 and Epson TW1000 shelf mounted and I just put the lens in front of the projector when I used it. It was easy .Although I could have made a really specific sliding gadget or made a fitted spot on the shelf to put the lens into so it was perfectly aligned everytime, it seemed to work fine for me to move it. To each their own. It really is something to see 2.35:1 at full width and height using a lens. Even with the 720p projector it looked amazing.

My *only* complaint is that I have to be in front of the pj to turn it off and on. The entrance to my room is in the back of the room. The manual says to point the remote at the screen, but that doesn't work even with a 1.4 gain screen and the PJ 14' away.

A small inconvenience for the image quality, but a hassle nonetheless.

That's weird. It works fine for me to point the remote at my 1.4 gain (Carada BW) screen, and my projector is mounted back at about 17'.

Guy

Ya, so far it has worked pretty well. It does send 2 off commands, and shuts the projector down.
I was just wondering, since the Assistant was not behaving properly to begin with, that maybe it send another power command... turning it on.

Had a problem like that with an air conditioner. Took the batteries out of the remote and realized no more problems. Guess the buttons were sticking or something. Hated that air conditioner up until then.

Anyone using a P2000 with a Stewart Firehawk? I have a grey firehawk (not the G3 I think) and I wanted to know if the Panny will work well on it?

Thanks,

And what about the new and improved RS2, which posts a lumens rating of 600? Still brighter than the panny?

Interesting. Would be curious to know if most people with dust blob problems with this projector are ceiling mounting. Perhaps the dust blobs are less of a problem for those who are shelf mounting?

We got our AE2000 in December. Since then we have 200+ hours on it and no dust problems. It is ceiling mounted less then 12 feet away from a bathroom that is being remodeled (which, by the way would have been done by now if we hadn't gotten the projector,LOL) I took the door off the bathroom because of the dust. We are very happy so far!

And what about the new and improved RS2, which posts a lumens rating of 600? Still brighter than the panny?

Yes, 600 > 400.

Just got the Costco email:

Costco to offer $100-off on the Panasonic AE2000 week of 1/28...
making it $2599 with free ground shipping (but add tax)

don't buy from forum sponsors unless the final price is less than
$2599+tax.... since Costco purchase will automaticlally be covered
for 2 years.

guess this means I'll be returning mine and re-ordering at the lower price!

link to the AE2000.. still at the old $2699 price for now...
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product...se=&lang=en-US

I will try to pricematch first since getting a new one will involve taking it down from ceiling mount, packing, adjusting image on a new one. Then there is always a risk of getting a new bad unit. On the other hand, new bulb and re-start of warranty is always welcome :)

Just pulled the trigger on this projector. Projector People have a $100 off on this projector with their football sale.

Just got a call from Stacey at PP regarding this projector. I asked for pre-shipping inspection to check for uniformity and convergence since I am very sensitive to those defects. She says that 2 projectors they checked show 2 pixel off convergence, and even though they are within Panasonic spec, thought that I would be disappointed with the projector. She's trying to steer me towards the Epson 1080UB since convergence on those projector are apparently better than the Panasonic (she says that QC told her 20 to 30 projectors in past month have had poor convergence). What to do...:mad:

Anyone using a P2000 with a Stewart Firehawk? I have a grey firehawk (not the G3 I think) and I wanted to know if the Panny will work well on it?

Thanks,

I always thought that screen choice is more dependent on your viewing environment rather than projector, unless there is an issue with lack of projector brightness where one will need a higher gain screen -- if you have white walls or ambient light then grey screen is a good choice, white screen is better for dedicated light controlled theaters.

Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong :)

Well, preference is actually the biggest factor. :)

Gry can be a good choice for those that feel the need to get better looking blacks out of their projector.

Aside from that? Gain is really the other biggie, especially these where people are going bigger and bigger and the projectors just aren't delivering more and more lumens to keep up.

Anyone using a P2000 with a Stewart Firehawk? I have a grey firehawk (not the G3 I think) and I wanted to know if the Panny will work well on it?

Thanks,I'm using the AE2000 with a Stewart Firehawk G3. It all depends on how big your screen is. My screen is a 2.40:1 53" x 127". When I use it with the UH380 HE lens, it is not quite bright enough for me. But when projecting 53"x 95" 16:9 material without the HE lens (which looses 30% brightness) it is just right.

My screen gain is around 1.25, but its fall-off causes the ends of the image to be darker when watching scope images at 12 ft away. I also have the problem of very sparkly whites and more contrast than I need for this projector. Therefore, I am getting the Stewart ST 130 G3 material to replace the Firehawk in the same frame. Hopefully, this will smooth things out and get a more evenly projected brightness at 1.3 gain too. We'll see.

I must say I will miss the Firehawks ability to not need side masking when watching 16:9.

Just got a call from Stacey at PP regarding this projector. I asked for pre-shipping inspection to check for uniformity and convergence since I am very sensitive to those defects. She says that 2 projectors they checked show 2 pixel off convergence, and even though they are within Panasonic spec, thought that I would be disappointed with the projector. She's trying to steer me towards the Epson 1080UB since convergence on those projector are apparently better than the Panasonic (she says that QC told her 20 to 30 projectors in past month have had poor convergence). What to do...:mad:

Apparently 3 more projectors they checked had similar convergence issues. I can't believe that all these projectors are really this bad (2 pixel misconvergence) or we would have had a riot on this forum. What is going on?

Apparently 3 more projectors they checked had similar convergence issues. I can't believe that these projectors really this bad (2 pixel misconvergence) or we would have had a riot on this forum. What is going on?

Not good! Presumably a lot of people are ordering projectors and simply not noticing the misconvergence--ignorance is bliss, perhaps, but if they saw the picture next to one with proper convergence they might be upset.

Apparently 3 more projectors they checked had similar convergence issues. I can't believe that these projectors really this bad (2 pixel misconvergence) or we would have had a riot on this forum. What is going on?

Try Costco, they have 90 day return on AE2000 plus they will also return your membership fee if you are not happy. Maybe PP got a bad batch of PJs. I got a pretty good unit from Costco :)

I'm using the AE2000 with a Stewart Firehawk G3. It all depends on how big your screen is. My screen is a 2.40:1 53" x 127". When I use it with the UH380 HE lens, it is not quite bright enough for me. But when projecting 53"x 95" 16:9 material without the HE lens (which looses 30% brightness) it is just right.

My screen gain is around 1.25, but its fall-off causes the ends of the image to be darker when watching scope images at 12 ft away. I also have the problem of very sparkly whites and more contrast than I need for this projector. Therefore, I am getting the Stewart ST 130 G3 material to replace the Firehawk in the same frame. Hopefully, this will smooth things out and get a more evenly projected brightness at 1.3 gain too. We'll see.

I must say I will miss the Firehawks ability to not need side masking when watching 16:9.

Thanks for the feedback. I love the pj, but the wife will not allow me to get a new screen and pj now.
My screen is only 100" diagonal..do you think I will lose a lot of brightness?

At 100" the AE2000U should be fine even if it had a bit of negative gain as some of the firehawks do.

To be fair, it's not that hard or expensive to move the lens. I had my Hitachi TX200 and Epson TW1000 shelf mounted and I just put the lens in front of the projector when I used it. It was easy .Although I could have made a really specific sliding gadget or made a fitted spot on the shelf to put the lens into so it was perfectly aligned everytime, it seemed to work fine for me to move it. To each their own. It really is something to see 2.35:1 at full width and height using a lens. Even with the 720p projector it looked amazing.
Hey Chris! So you're saying it wasn't real difficult to position the lens properly each time? Since I've never had one, I was just assuming it would take a lot of futzing each time to get it right. But if it's not a big deal, then I could just stand up on the couch and move it in/out of the path by hand.

Thanks for the feedback. I love the pj, but the wife will not allow me to get a new screen and pj now.
My screen is only 100" diagonal..do you think I will lose a lot of brightness?100" should be fine for brightness. I forgot to mention that throw distance will also affect brightness, so closer is better. Mine is at 17 ft.

At 100" the AE2000U should be fine even if it had a bit of negative gain as some of the firehawks do.I think you are thinking of the Grayhawks.

I could just stand up on the couch and move it in/out of the path by hand.

That's what I do. The trick is getting it set up once so all you have to do is re-center the image horizontally subsequently. Heck, right now my lens is propped up on a stack of plywood sitting on top of my HTPC which is positioned under the projector (till I upgrade and build the new and improved setup, which is waiting for the right projector to exist)

C

Not good! Presumably a lot of people are ordering projectors and simply not noticing the misconvergence--ignorance is bliss, perhaps, but if they saw the picture next to one with proper convergence they might be upset.

I don't know. 2 pixel misconvergence is a lot. I think that would be visible even with regular movies (during titles and anything with high contrast). I wonder if PP was just checking all the open box units. I think the worst misconvergence that's been posted on this thread has been at most 1 pixel off.

I don't know. 2 pixel misconvergence is a lot. I think that would be visible even with regular movies (during titles and anything with high contrast). I wonder if PP was just checking all the open box units. I think the worst misconvergence that's been posted on this thread has been at most 1 pixel off.

Or its just an excuse because they are temporarily out of stock... (someone had to be the skeptic here :D) Love my PT-AE2000, maybe a 1/4 pixel out of convergence only noticeable when you have a white 1 pixel wide hairline on mine. I find it hard to believe that a reputable company such as Panasonic would let out that many A-stock projectors that have convergence issues.

I just purchased the AE2000U c/w Cheif RPA universal mount.

I have a 9' ceiling and was trying to read through the manual to determine how low the projector needed to be mounted.

My current projector had to be ~3" (going from memory) above the top of the screen (without keystoning). I am finding it difficult to find what the AE2000U recommended set-up should be for ceiling mounting. I am willing to have the projector lower if it improves or avoids PQ.

A little push in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!

I just purchased the AE2000U c/w Cheif RPA universal mount.

I have a 9' ceiling and was trying to read through the manual to determine how low the projector needed to be mounted.

My current projector had to be ~3" (going from memory) above the top of the screen (without keystoning). I am finding it difficult to find what the AE2000U recommended set-up should be for ceiling mounting. I am willing to have the projector lower if it improves or avoids PQ.

A little push in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!

From manual page 16: "You can place the projector where the projector lens is up to 100% vertically off-center from the screen and the
adjust the image position with the Lens shift dial • Vertical"

What that means is that you can go half the height of your screen above the top of your screen. Or if it easier to understand you can go full height of your screen from the center of your screen.

More practical example: if your screen is 54" high then you can mount it 27" above the top of your screen.

A practical advice: if you have to use extension for your RPA-U mount (the same I have) then don't buy it online, Home Depot sells 12" long 1.5" diameter galvanazied pipe with NTP thread for $5, fits RPA-U perfectly. They will also cut and re-thread it free should you want it shorter.

HTH, Davie.

With the 2 pixle convergence issue... how do you check this? Is there a default setup screen to check this on? I'd like to take a look at mine.

In addition. With Panasonics optics manipulation to remove any screen door effect, how do you see if a pixel is miss-aligned or not? Would'nt there be some 'blurring', or built in miss-alignment to coverup the lines between the pixles anyhow?

Thanks

I think I got a dust bunny problem. There is a faint white dot, roughly
the size of a baseball just right of the center of the screen. I see it
whenever the screen image is dark.

Can anyone tell me how to get rid of it? The exterior of the lens is
extermely clean, so I guess the dust bunny is inside somewhere? :(
Thanks for your help! :)

I have attached some 1080p LCD convergence test images to help out.

I have an AE2000U from PP. Ordered late Nov 2007, and I had it bench-tested prior to shipping.

Like others have mentioned, my convergence is about 1/2 pixel out between the corners with the center of the screen. Meaning, if I focus the corner, then focus the center, I am "2 taps" of the focus button away from a perfect alignment in the center. 1 tap, and both are near perfect. The differences are so slight, usually I am second guessing myself during the process.

99478

I have attached some 1080p LCD convergence test images to help out.

I have an AE2000U from PP. Ordered late Nov 2007, and I had it bench-tested prior to shipping.

Like others have mentioned, my convergence is about 1/2 pixel out between the corners with the center of the screen. Meaning, if I focus the corner, then focus the center, I am "2 taps" of the focus button away from a perfect alignment in the center. 1 tap, and both are near perfect. The differences are so slight, usually I am second guessing myself during the process.

99478
I would be perfectly happy with 1/2 pixel misconvergence. Maybe I should take a chance on a closed box from middle of the pile.

My *only* complaint is that I have to be in front of the pj to turn it off and on. The entrance to my room is in the back of the room. The manual says to point the remote at the screen, but that doesn't work even with a 1.4 gain screen and the PJ 14' away.

A small inconvenience for the image quality, but a hassle nonetheless.

That's weird. It works fine for me to point the remote at my 1.4 gain (Carada BW) screen, and my projector is mounted back at about 17'.

Guy

Some remotes are more powerful than others - my MX-700 is an IR-cannon.

It would be worthwhile to just try new batteries in the remote and see if it works then.

DE

xradman....Just looked at your setup...150" screen and your projector is how far back...15 feet maybe more..???? Room seems to be multi-purpose and relatively bright decor.

I'm not sure the AE2000U will have enough output to make you happy, especially when using the Color1 mode.

I'm temporarily using a 15' throw onto a 100" painted (white flat ceiling paint) piece of drywall, in a completely dark room, and it is quite good, but could be better. Any ambient light in the room does have an effect on blacks.

My actual room is like yours, but dark Oak paneling and I have a Carada 100" BW screen ready and with a 12' -13' throw. This will give me enough brightness in Color1 mode for daytime sports viewing and a bit of an edge as the bulb dims over time.

Just my thoughts...

xradman....Just looked at your setup...150" screen and your projector is how far back...15 feet maybe more..???? Room seems to be multi-purpose and relatively bright decor.

I'm not sure the AE2000U will have enough output to make you happy, especially when using the Color1 mode.

I'm temporarily using a 15' throw onto a 100" painted (white flat ceiling paint) piece of drywall, in a completely dark room, and it is quite good, but could be better. Any ambient light in the room does have an effect on blacks.

My actual room is like yours, but dark Oak paneling and I have a Carada 100" BW screen ready and with a 12' -13' throw. This will give me enough brightness in Color1 mode for daytime sports viewing and a bit of an edge as the bulb dims over time.

Just my thoughts...
I guess it depends on what your coming from. I am currently using a clone of JVC G10 D-ILA projector with ~ 600 hours on the bulb. I watch movies in complete darkness and it's bright enough for me. Everything that I have researched tells me that AE2000U is going to be brighter than my current projector even in Color 1 mode. If not, then I'll start messing with Normal mode (I am very surprised that no one has posted any custom settings for normal mode when it puts out twice the light as Color 1). If that doesn't work, then I'll get a HP screen. But I don't think I'll need to go to that extent.

From manual page 16: "You can place the projector where the projector lens is up to 100% vertically off-center from the screen and the
adjust the image position with the Lens shift dial • Vertical"

What that means is that you can go half the height of your screen above the top of your screen. Or if it easier to understand you can go full height of your screen from the center of your screen.

More practical example: if your screen is 54" high then you can mount it 27" above the top of your screen.

Thank-you. I had read that. I was concerned with losing PQ. I guess as long as I stay within those parameters, there will be no PQ issues. :cool:


A practical advice: if you have to use extension for your RPA-U mount (the same I have) then don't buy it online, Home Depot sells 12" long 1.5" diameter galvanazied pipe with NTP thread for $5, fits RPA-U perfectly. They will also cut and re-thread it free should you want it shorter.

HTH, Davie.

Great tip! Cheers

... (I am very surprised that no one has posted any custom settings for normal mode when it puts out twice the light as Color 1). If that doesn't work, then I'll get a HP screen. But I don't think I'll need to go to that extent.

I agree...you think someone would have posted some settings for Normal mode by now.. Maybe we're all too spoiled by Color1 mode to spend the bulb hours required to get it dialed-in. Or, worse scenario... maybe you just can't get there from here. :(

I agree...you think someone would have posted some settings for Normal mode by now.. Maybe we're all too spoiled by Color1 mode to spend the bulb hours required to get it dialed-in. Or, worse scenario... maybe you just can't get there from here. :(I definitely use Normal mode all the time. I have it dialed in to look exactly like Color1 mode (at least to my eyes), only much brighter. I'll post the settings if I remember to write them down the next time I watch a movie.:rolleyes:

Does anyone know what the setting of "special" (as opposed to Normal) for Auto-adjust in the Service menu does? I was afraid to try it yet. Thanks.

I definitely use Normal mode all the time. I have it dialed in to look exactly like Color1 mode (at least to my eyes), only much brighter. I'll post the settings if I remember to write them down the next time I watch a movie.:rolleyes:

Does anyone know what the setting of "special" (as opposed to Normal) for Auto-adjust in the Service menu does? I was afraid to try it yet. Thanks.

Please do. I think bunch of us would be very appreciative. My projector arrives from PP today. I will let you know how it looks.

CareyP > Yes ! Please post your settings for Normal. It would be a great help to get us in the ballpark, then fine tune from there.

xradman > ...was that the doorbell?.... :)

I use Normal all the time too. I calibrated it using Avia and the THX Optimizer on my Star Wars DVD's. And after just watching The Fifth Element on Blu-ray this morning, I gotta say I like the brigthness a calibrated Normal mode adds without losing any shadow detail.

I use Normal all the time too. I calibrated it using Avia and the THX Optimizer on my Star Wars DVD's. And after just watching The Fifth Element on Blu-ray this morning, I gotta say I like the brigthness a calibrated Normal mode adds without losing any shadow detail.Please post yours and I'll post mine as well. I'm sure variations in projectors, screens, source material and personal taste will show different results, but it would be interesting to compare. I used Avia too, but then tweaked from there using real BD and HD material.

The hardest part I've had is getting the whites not to be crushed. It seems I'm always playing with that to keep the peaks at 100% or below. This may be more exaggerated because of my high contrast screen, which I will change soon enough.

On the most simplest adjustment, normal has a lot of contrast so I have mine just down a bit on both contrast and brightness both at -8. But when I went back to Cinema1, I felt my eyes can relax while watching. But normal is by far most plasma like.

On the other hand why do PJ manufacturers assume you're using a screen? I have a flat white painted wall and its been said that its about 1.0x gain. I'm not saying use a flat wall but 1.0x would be a nice starting point for PJs? I believe both cinema and color modes assume you are using some type of screen that provides gain of more than 1.0x.

I have the ae2000, and am in LOVE with it. I've got it projecting onto a 100" Elite EZ-Frame HC Gray (1.0 Gain IIRC, or 1.1) screen. When watching the projector, there are no other light sources in the room. It's attached via HDMI to a PS3 and I've got about 16 blu-ray movies for it. It looks fantastic with every last film I've tried on it, as well as with games, though I'm not crazy about the built in scaler when the PS3 switches to 720p mode for a game.

I've noticed a lot of you talking about using Color1 or Color3 or Cinema1 for the color mode, and am curious as to why? The calibration seems to me to be nearly perfect out of the box while running on Normal color mode, with ANY of the "color" or "cinema" options being far, FAR too red and/or yellow and way too dark. To me, Normal mode has the gamma, brightness, and color combination that's nearly perfect for any of the films I've watched on it, and every other mode is way, way off.

What am I missing? Why are you guys using Cinema1, Color1, Color3 or what have you?


Brian

I have internal dust blobs problem that was described in other posts.

Is this something I can remove by myself or do I need to return
the AE2000 and get a new unit?

Thanks! :)

What am I missing? Why are you guys using Cinema1, Color1, Color3 or what have you?
Brian

Depending on your screen again, some may get white crush with normal. I do but just slightly so I dial it down. I also notice that whites in normal mode is very hot. Its bluish so its way above D65.

I have internal dust blobs problem that was described in other posts.

Is this something I can remove by myself or do I need to return
the AE2000 and get a new unit?

Thanks! :)



Some more daring PJ owners use a can of compressed air to blow the dust out. But this may require opening your PJ to the light path and void your warranty. So most times it means a trip to the service center.

Some more daring PJ owners use a can of compressed air to blow the dust out. But this may require opening your PJ to the light path and void your warranty. So most times it means a trip to the service center.

Thanks! :)

I'm still within the return period, so I guess it's time to exchange it for
another unit...

Thanks! :)

I'm still within the return period, so I guess it's time to exchange it for
another unit...

Are there any other problems such as convergence, uniformity, etc other than dust blob? If not you might exchange yourself with one that does. But I personally dont know how well the service centers remove dust blobs without affecting anything else.

Are there any other problems such as convergence, uniformity, etc other than dust blob? If not you might exchange yourself with one that does. But I personally dont know how well the service centers remove dust blobs without affecting anything else.

Thanks for the advice! :) I think I'll think it over carefully before doing anything.
The AE2000 that's hanging on my ceiling is almost perfect! No issues at all...
nothing that other have descrbied so far....

EXCEPT for the dust blobs issue. It's not really a big problem, yet, as I only
see two of them... one tennis ball sized and one baseball sized. (projected
on a 133" screen) They only annoy me during dark scenes...

You're absolutely correct, if I exchange it for another new unit, I may end
up with other issues....

:)

Thanks for the advice! :) I think I'll think it over carefully before doing anything.
The AE2000 that's hanging on my ceiling is almost perfect! No issues at all...
nothing that other have descrbied so far....

EXCEPT for the dust blobs issue. It's not really a big problem, yet, as I only
see two of them... one tennis ball sized and one baseball sized. (projected
on a 133" screen) They only annoy me during dark scenes...

You're absolutely correct, if I exchange it for another new unit, I may end
up with other issues....

:)

Another ceiling mounted projector got dust blobs !!!

A new review has just been posted at ProjectorCentral, with comparisons to the AE2000 and the JVC RS1...

Epson Cinema 1080 UB (aka EMP-TW2000 )

http://www.projectorcentral.com/epson_cinema_1080_ub_review.htm

:D

Depending on your screen again, some may get white crush with normal. I do but just slightly so I dial it down. I also notice that whites in normal mode is very hot. Its bluish so its way above D65.

The only time i've noticed any white crush was when using the auto iris in a predominantly dark scene that has a couple small bright elements. I really ought to get an HD calibration disc though and check some of this out a little more thoroughly.

My friend has a cinematographer's spot meter -- could that be useful in perfecting the calibration?

As far as the white being bluish, I feel that the "Dynamic" mode is overly blue/blue-green, but to me the white on 'normal' feels natural, and the white on the color or cinema modes feels noticeably orange and dingy. I could easily believe that my understanding of what D65 white is supposed to look like could be off... but I don't like it if it's supposed to look like what "Cinema 1" gives me.

I always run my LCD & CRT computer monitors at D65 and Cinema 1 feels far warmer than those displays.

I use Normal all the time too. I calibrated it using Avia and the THX Optimizer on my Star Wars DVD's. And after just watching The Fifth Element on Blu-ray this morning, I gotta say I like the brigthness a calibrated Normal mode adds without losing any shadow detail.

Nice! Please share your settings!

I've got a 118" Carada Brilliant White screen and I'm using my AE2000 in Normal mode with the lamp power also at normal. Using Avia's calibration disk and the THX Optimizer on my Star Wars DVD's, this is what I believe gives me the best picture.

Brightness: +3
Color: -8
Tint: +3
Color Temperature: +3
Gamma Mid: -1
Gamma Low: -1
NR: 0

I like my whites bright. My HT room is dedicated with dark walls, a fabric covered ceiling, and no windows. The projector is shelf-mounted 19.5 feet from the screen. I'm waiting for a Blu-ray calibration disk similar to the Avia DVD because I think I'll be able to get a little more tweaking from the superior whites, blacks and colors.

I'll be interested to see what other people's Normal tweaks are.

Today I've watched the Blu-ray editions of The Fifth Element and War. Damn I love the picture this projector throws.

I'm sure we'll see a lot of different settings from people. I have a 127" wide Firehawk G3 2.40:1 screen. My bulb is set to Econ mode, Iris ON, HDMI normal (non-expanded):

The numbers I haven't touched in a while:

Tint: -4
Color Temp: -2
Brightness Green: -1
Other RGB's at 0

and then there's:

Color: -7 (-8 may work too)
Contrast: -1
Brightness: +3 for HD/BD to +8 for some SD DVD's
Gamma High: 0
Gamma Mid: 0
Gamma Low: +1
NR: 0
MPEG: 0


I just can't keep from playing with some of the adjustments depending on source material. I am fighting a very contrasty screen right now. The settings that affect color though seem to match what Color 1 gives. My whites are not bluish with these settings. YMMV :D.

I got the projector delivered via FedEx 2 day from PP, but it got here overnight and in my hot hands around 6PM. I also took delivery of brand new HD-XA2 HD DVD player this afternoon. After upgrading the FW to 2.7, I hooked it up to my brand new Denon AVR-3808CI (also FW upgraded to 1.57) and fired up the projector.

I checked the uniformity and convergence using HD DVE disc on XA2 and 1080P HDMI output from my HTPC. There is faint uniformity gradient going from slightly red on left side of the screen to bluish green on the right side (with the projector ceiling mounted. The convergence was within 1/2 pixel throughout, but there was noticeable chromatic aberration on the right side of the screen. The individual pixels had faint comet tail to the left on the right side of the screen. It was only noticeable on the calibration patterns and not during any movies or windows desktop. All in all, very acceptable. No dead pixels anywhere. The brightness on Normal setting was way, way brighter than my old JVC G10 D-ILA projector. Even on Color 1 setting, the brightness was better. The blacks were also better than my old projector. The fan noise was audible in a completely quiet room, but not noticeable once the movie started or when HTPC was on.

My quick and dirty calibration using HD DVE contrast/brightness settings showed brightness to be right on. I had to increase the contrast setting to +12. This may have something to do with how I had set up the XA2 video output. I initially set the Enhanced black level to "On" and AE2000's HDMI to "Normal", but I am not certain that this is correct.

1080P24 output on both the XA2 and HTPC passed correctly through 3808 to the projector without any handshaking issues. I was also able to bitstream Dolby TrueHD from XA2 to 3808 without difficulty (except when XA2 is set to bitstream advanced codecs, it kills the digital optical output). I am a happy camper, and I want to thank Stacey, Gene, and all the folks at Projector People for going the extra mile to put this projector in my hands.:)

Just got a panny ax200 a month ago, and was pretty satisfied with it until I saw a friend's 1080p PJ in action. I immediately returned the ax200 and got an ae2000 instead. The ae2000 blows away the ax200 in black levels and sharpness. There goes the ax200's "1080p imitation" for me...

Thanks! :)

I'm still within the return period, so I guess it's time to exchange it for
another unit...

If you want to try, xamphear made a complete tutorial on how to blow dust out of the Panasonic AE2000:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12501773#post12501773
Good luck.

Hi guys, I am planning on buying the PT-AE2000U for my basement home theater. What I am trying to decide now is, what type of screen to pair the projector with.

My room is 12' wide by 19' deep. I plan on placing the projector on a shelf at the back of the room so the throw distance will be pretty long, about 17' with a slight offset. I have total light control and dark walls, though the ceiling is currently white. I plan on using a 92" screen that will be a manual pull down. I have been looking at the matte white screens but, I'm wondering if that will give me enough light due to the long throw distance....

I really like dark movies such as Underworld, etc and movies would be my primary usage. I'm very open to suggestion as this is my first projector purchase :)

Hi guys, I am planning on buying the PT-AE2000U for my basement home theater. What I am trying to decide now is, what type of screen to pair the projector with.

My room is 12' wide by 19' deep. I plan on placing the projector on a shelf at the back of the room so the throw distance will be pretty long, about 17' with a slight offset. I have total light control and dark walls, though the ceiling is currently white. I plan on using a 92" screen that will be a manual pull down. I have been looking at the matte white screens but, I'm wondering if that will give me enough light due to the long throw distance....

I really like dark movies such as Underworld, etc and movies would be my primary usage. I'm very open to suggestion as this is my first projector purchase :)

I am currently projecting on to a painted wall about 12 feet wide from ~16.5 feet back. It is plenty bright. If you are only going to project onto a 92" screen, you can use anything and it will be bright enough.

I keep reading in the reviews (both of the AE2000 and the Epson Home/Pro 1080 UB) about the AE2000 having an anamorphic vertical stretch. Can someone tell me the benefit of having this? What does it do? Does it take the original aspect ratio and stretch it to fit a 2.35:1 screen? And if so, what is the benefit of that?

I ask because both reviews of the 1080 UB seem to count that as one of the AE2000s more noteworthy benefits.

I keep reading in the reviews (both of the AE2000 and the Epson Home/Pro 1080 UB) about the AE2000 having an anamorphic vertical stretch. Can someone tell me the benefit of having this? What does it do? Does it take the original aspect ratio and stretch it to fit a 2.35:1 screen? And if so, what is the benefit of that?

I ask because both reviews of the 1080 UB seem to count that as one of the AE2000s more noteworthy benefits.

What that means is that AE2000 can vertically stretch 2.35 ratio movies to fill the entire 1.78 ratio panel. The actors will appear tall and thinner. Then if you attach an anamorphic lens to the front of the projector, the lens will horizontally stretch the picture to the appropriate 2.35 ratio. The benefit over simply zooming the picture is that you get the full 1080 vertical resolution (interpolated).

Hey everyone...

The Panny AE2000 will be my first projector and I have a question regarding setup.

How many HDMI, component, vga, etc. cables do you run from your component rack to the projector?

I know the AE2000 has 3 hdmi inputs and 2 components...but should i actually run 3 hdmi cables even though I have an onkyo 705 that has 3 hdmi inputs?

I was just wondering since it would suck to try and add more cables once I patch up my ceiling.

Thanks!

I got the projector delivered via FedEx 2 day from PP, but it got here overnight and in my hot hands around 6PM. I also took delivery of brand new HD-XA2 HD DVD player this afternoon. After upgrading the FW to 2.7, I hooked it up to my brand new Denon AVR-3808CI (also FW upgraded to 1.57) and fired up the projector.


Congrats on the nice system! I'm a generation behind on all that stuff, but with the exception of the XA2 (dang format war :mad: ) am heading in similar directions on everything else. Still debating an Onkyo 705 versus a Denon.

I only run one and use a monoprice switcher for video. However, I'd say run a decent sized conduit if you can, or if it will work in your circumstances a pull wire or heavy string that you can use to pull more cables.


Hey everyone...

The Panny AE2000 will be my first projector and I have a question regarding setup.

How many HDMI, component, vga, etc. cables do you run from your component rack to the projector?

I know the AE2000 has 3 hdmi inputs and 2 components...but should i actually run 3 hdmi cables even though I have an onkyo 705 that has 3 hdmi inputs?

I was just wondering since it would suck to try and add more cables once I patch up my ceiling.

Thanks!

Hi guys, I am planning on buying the PT-AE2000U for my basement home theater. What I am trying to decide now is, what type of screen to pair the projector with.

My room is 12' wide by 19' deep. I plan on placing the projector on a shelf at the back of the room so the throw distance will be pretty long, about 17' with a slight offset. I have total light control and dark walls, though the ceiling is currently white. I plan on using a 92" screen that will be a manual pull down. I have been looking at the matte white screens but, I'm wondering if that will give me enough light due to the long throw distance....

I really like dark movies such as Underworld, etc and movies would be my primary usage. I'm very open to suggestion as this is my first projector purchase :)

If you still haven't purchased the projector yet, and you like dark movies, you might wanna read these two reviews...

http://www.projectorreviews.com/epson/powerlite-home-cinema-1080UB/index.php
and
http://www.projectorcentral.com/epson_cinema_1080_ub_review.htm

Thanks for the heads up on the Epson. Those reviews definitely have given me something to think about :)

Thanks for the heads up on the Epson. Those reviews definitely have given me something to think about :)

You'll be happy with an AE2000 as well as either of the Epson's, I'm sure. I love my AE2000--I just finsihed Kingdom of Heaven on Blu-ray and am in awe of the picture quality. Now is an amazing time to buy a projector. With so many good models on the market, you can't go wrong. Just make sure you pick the best one that suits your set-up needs, and you'll be in for a great time.

A practical advice: if you have to use extension for your RPA-U mount (the same I have) then don't buy it online, Home Depot sells 12" long 1.5" diameter galvanazied pipe with NTP thread for $5, fits RPA-U perfectly. They will also cut and re-thread it free should you want it shorter.

Rats, I forgot to order the ceiling plate when I ordered my ceiling mount assembly. I went to the Chief web site and the CMA-105 4" ceiling plate (http://www.chiefmfg.com/productdetail.aspx?AccessoryID=190) looks pretty simple. I am just going to have a friend make one of these. Just looks like a piece of plate with four holes and a 1-1/2" NPT nom diameter half coupling for the pipe to thread into. Let me know if I am missing anything here.

As far as the distance from the ceiling to the projector goes... the viewing area of my screen is 44" high, therefore, with using the vertical shift feature, I should be able to have the projector mounted a maximum of 22" above that (per the manual). My question is this, has anyone see picture quality issues by following this method?

- My ceiling height is ~102"
- My screen measurements are as follows:
- (H) Height of screen 44"
- (B) Height of screen to bottom of floor 25"
- (T) Height of top of the screen to ceiling is 33"
- (FP) Height of AE2000 (Center of lens). Projector is 5" high = ~2.5"
- (M) Height of chief mount = ~1.75"
- (MC) Height of ceiling plate = ~2"
- (V) Max vertical shift 22" (H/2)

Here is my logic:
EL (extension length): T - V + FP + M + MC (33-22+2.5+1.75+2) = 4.75" long extension to go between ceiling plate and projector mounting bracket.

The projector would be 13.5" from the ceiling to the BOTTOM of the projector.
4.75(EL) + (2.5(FP) x 2) + 1.75(M) + 2(MC)


Please let me know if I have missed anything here. :confused:

Rats, I forgot to order the ceiling plate when I ordered my ceiling mount assembly...You can get a flange for the 1 1/2" pipe at Home Depot for a few dollars. That's what I have always done, though now I mount my RPA-U directly to the ceiling.

I've just noticed something and I'm wondering if anyone else is having this problem.

I'm watching the Patriots game on FIOS HD DVR at 1080i60 out. On left side of the picture, there is a 2 or 3 line wide picture missing. This can be seen as a vertical line of mismatched picture. This is on all HD channels on FIOS, but not seen with HD DVD or PS3 Blu-ray 1080p out.

I checked my Samsung HL-S6187 upstairs with similar FIOS HD DVR, and this anomaly is not present. Anyone else see this?

I've just noticed something and I'm wondering if anyone else is having this problem.

I'm watching the Patriots game on FIOS HD DVR at 1080i60 out. On left side of the picture, there is a 2 or 3 line wide picture missing. This can be seen as a vertical line of mismatched picture. This is on all HD channels on FIOS, but not seen with HD DVD or PS3 Blu-ray 1080p out.

I checked my Samsung HL-S6187 upstairs with similar FIOS HD DVR, and this anomaly is not present. Anyone else see this?

Apparently this is a known problem on the FIOS box. What a bummer. Solution is to change the resolution to 720P or to use component output.

Buy a Tivo :) Problem solved!!

Can you zoom the picture or use the Overscan setting so you don't see it?

Sometimes on HD channels when they have a 4:3 HD image (commercials, TV shows, etc.), there is annoying black and white flickering line at the top. Setting Overscan to +1 got rid of this completely, because now it's in the black border around the screen.

Can you zoom the picture or use the Overscan setting so you don't see it?

Sometimes on HD channels when they have a 4:3 HD image (commercials, TV shows, etc.), there is annoying black and white flickering line at the top. Setting Overscan to +1 got rid of this completely, because now it's in the black border around the screen.

You can, but this is not your typical underscan problem. In the FIOS HD DVR with HDMI 1080i output, the picture is missing 3 or 4 vertical lines in left side of the picture. The entire remaining image on the right is then shifted over and remaining 3 or 4 vertical column on the right is then replaced with a green line.

The overscan setting on the projector will shift the picture and make it bigger so none of that appears. The lens Zoom function will zoom the picture size itself, although the green lines, etc. may still be visible in your black border.

The projector basically has 0% overscan, so we see everything that doesn't show up on TVs, which typically have 3~8% overscan. We even see the black bars on the 1.85:1 movies.

The overscan setting on the projector will shift the picture and make it bigger so none of that appears. The lens Zoom function will zoom the picture size itself, although the green lines, etc. may still be visible in your black border.

The projector basically has 0% overscan, so we see everything that doesn't show up on TVs, which typically have 3~8% overscan. We even see the black bars on the 1.85:1 movies.

This is not just a simple underscan error like you see sometimes with certain channels and programs. The missing columns are not the left most columns on the picture. However, they occur about 100 columns in, so if you have a diagonal line going through this area, there would be a short break in the line. To get rid of this, you have to set the overscan to ~5%. Furthermore, it's not seen on component output or 720P HDMI, just 1080i HDMI. It's an error in FIOS HD DVR rendering the image.

okay, didn't realize the lines were that far in -- I thought they were on the edge.

I've got a 118" Carada Brilliant White screen and I'm using my AE2000 in Normal mode with the lamp power also at normal. Using Avia's calibration disk and the THX Optimizer on my Star Wars DVD's, this is what I believe gives me the best picture.

Brightness: +3
Color: -8
Tint: +3
Color Temperature: +3
Gamma Mid: -1
Gamma Low: -1
NR: 0

I like my whites bright. My HT room is dedicated with dark walls, a fabric covered ceiling, and no windows. The projector is shelf-mounted 19.5 feet from the screen. I'm waiting for a Blu-ray calibration disk similar to the Avia DVD because I think I'll be able to get a little more tweaking from the superior whites, blacks and colors.

I'll be interested to see what other people's Normal tweaks are.

Today I've watched the Blu-ray editions of The Fifth Element and War. Damn I love the picture this projector throws.


Color Temp at +3 does not give you too much blue?

Color Temp at +3 does not give you too much blue?

Not to my eyes. But as I said, I like my whites bright.

Most people like colors a certain way. What's attractive to one, can be way off to another.

Had an insane weekend of building my SMX 120" CIH screen, installing and setting up all my Klipsch THX Ultra2, my Prismasonic FE1400R and of course this projector. Let me break this down into categories:

1.) The box arrived. I was like. HMMMM, that is an awfully big box for a projector. This is my first home theatre projector but am used to business projectors, little Dells, HP's, etc. This thing is gigantic. Just for other people who don't know, this thing is bigger than my H/K AVR 635 receiver. It was bought from PP with the 100 off football special.

2.) Mounting. I knew I wanted to mount it pretty far back because I was doing CIH and you want a longer throw ratio. Mine is mounted back about 18' from the screen. The mounting bracket used was the CB100 from Prismasonic. I can say that is one industrial piece of equipment, very nice. I'll skip the CIH stuff here and focus on the projector.

3.) Turn on. Turned on the projector when mounted and hooked up a PS3 for Bluray. However it was set out of the box about blew me away. This thing is crisp, bright, precise, one word...AMAZING!!

4.) Detailed viewing. After the initial WOW factor of how awesome this thing is, I went through TIVOHD OTA, Bluray, Mac Mini with Video_TS for upconverting at 1080p 24 Hz. I am blown away by this projector. I can't see much fault with it. To me it is hard to tell much of a difference between Color 1 and Cinema 1. I think I like Cinema 1 slightly better. In comparing this to my 2 other HDTVs, a 61" JVC 720p LCOS and a 40" Panny RPLCD 720p, I'd say the picture is about as clear as each of those, which I just still can't believe.

More to come, I still don't have my RF remote setup, nor have I tested any convergence which seems to be a problem with these projectors. Though I'd say I'm a pretty critical viewer so I'd guess this unit does not have any problems. I do not see any color shift from low to high when displaying plain white image. My build date was Dec. 2007.

More updates and pics to follow.

Rats, I forgot to order the ceiling plate when I ordered my ceiling mount assembly. I went to the Chief web site and the CMA-105 4" ceiling plate (http://www.chiefmfg.com/productdetail.aspx?AccessoryID=190) looks pretty simple. I am just going to have a friend make one of these. Just looks like a piece of plate with four holes and a 1-1/2" NPT nom diameter half coupling for the pipe to thread into. Let me know if I am missing anything here.

As far as the distance from the ceiling to the projector goes... the viewing area of my screen is 44" high, therefore, with using the vertical shift feature, I should be able to have the projector mounted a maximum of 22" above that (per the manual). My question is this, has anyone see picture quality issues by following this method?

- My ceiling height is ~102"
- My screen measurements are as follows:
- (H) Height of screen 44"
- (B) Height of screen to bottom of floor 25"
- (T) Height of top of the screen to ceiling is 33"
- (FP) Height of AE2000 (Center of lens). Projector is 5" high = ~2.5"
- (M) Height of chief mount = ~1.75"
- (MC) Height of ceiling plate = ~2"
- (V) Max vertical shift 22" (H/2)

Here is my logic:
EL (extension length): T - V + FP + M + MC (33-22+2.5+1.75+2) = 4.75" long extension to go between ceiling plate and projector mounting bracket.

The projector would be 13.5" from the ceiling to the BOTTOM of the projector.
4.75(EL) + (2.5(FP) x 2) + 1.75(M) + 2(MC)


Please let me know if I have missed anything here. :confused:

I had the same issue as you when I ordered my Chief mount. They really should set up their utility a bit better in that regards (for people like me who'd never mounted a projector :). Outside of that, the mounts are really slick.

I ended up buying a 6" and 12" pipe from Chief and the ceiling mounting plate (8' ceiling and center of screen is 63" to the center from the ground). I ended up using the 12" pipe and using vertical shift. I see no problems at all with the picture after using the vertical shift (Just make sure your horizontal is dead on if you can).

Your screen height from the floor seems a bit low to me, but I like to look up just a bit to see the center of the screen personally.

The extensions and plate have a fairly large notch/hole cut in them to accommodate your HDMI/Component cables nicely.

I bought the extensions and the plate here:

Black 12"
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?shs=CHCMS012&ci=0&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=productlist.jsp&A=search&Q=*&bhs=t

White 12"
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?shs=CHCMS012w&ci=0&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=productlist.jsp&A=search&Q=*&bhs=t

Black 6"
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?shs=CHCMS006&ci=0&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=productlist.jsp&A=search&Q=*&bhs=t

White 6"
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?shs=CHCMS006w&ci=0&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=productlist.jsp&A=search&Q=*&bhs=t

And the ceiling mount:
Black
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?shs=CHCMS115&ci=0&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=productlist.jsp&A=search&Q=*&bhs=t

White
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?shs=CHCMS115W&ci=0&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=productlist.jsp&A=search&Q=*&bhs=t

I had time to finally sit down and watch the football game (Patriots vs. Chargers) and a movie (Oceans 13) with this projector.

Other than 1080i HDMI issue with the FIOS box (I switched over to 1080i component converted to 1080p via Denon 3808), the projector was fantastic. The projector was bright enough in Normal mode to watch the game during the late afternoon dusk on a painted 150" wall. Previously, I could not do that with my older projector. I did not notice any display or refresh lags.

At night, I watched Oceans 13 on HD-XA2 at 1080P24 passed through Denon 3808. I noticed that if the player was turned on prior to the receiver, the player would default to 1080P60. Cycling the power cycle in the receiver restored the 1080P24 setting. The movie looked exactly like I remembered it from the Toshiba HD DVD demo stand at Best Buy. They have the HD-A30 connected to 40" Toshiba 1080P LCD, and one of the things that really stood out to me was the excess film grain on this movie. AE2000U faithfully recreated that exact look. The projector had the right pop and resolution that I had been looking for. I am very impressed to say the least.

For cheap well made mount, I would recommend

http://www.mountdirect.com/.

http://www.mountdirect.com/v/vspfiles/photos/NPL-2T.jpg

They were local, so I dropped by to check out the mount and extension. The NPL series mounts are all metal (seemed like steel or iron, not aluminum) and very heavy duty. The matching 11-18" adjustable extension is also made out of same heavy duty metal and has a notch cut out for passing cables. The mount comes with all necessary screws, bolts, allen wrenches, and even includes a cover for the ceiling plate.

The total cost for the mount and extension came to $60 for local pickup. I am a very satisfied customer.

I bought the extensions and the plate here:

Black 12"
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?shs=CHCMS012&ci=0&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=productlist.jsp&A=search&Q=*&bhs=t



For $5 Home Depot has 12" long 1.5" diameter galvanized pipe with NPT thread -- paint it black and it looks exactly like the one from Chief -- plus HD will cut it and re-thread for free if you need it shorter. Pick this ceiling plate for the money saved on extension:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000JME014/themussou0285305-20

At night, I watched Oceans 13 on HD-XA2 at 1080P24 passed through Denon 3808. I noticed that if the player was turned on prior to the receiver, the player would default to 1080P60. Cycling the power cycle in the receiver restored the 1080P24 setting.

I've found that it I turn on the projector, then receiver (also a 3808) and finally my disk player, I have no problems with HDMI handshake or settings changing on me.

Is there any indication on when a rebate might come out on one of these?

I'm hoping that the Mitsu 4900 price will put downward pressure on the ae2000, and also the 1080UB.
My theater won't be ready until April, so there's no rush...

I've noticed a number of people complaining of poor pixel alignment on the AE2000... and thought I'd share my observations from my unit.

When I first got the projector I set it up in the living room, almost perfectly centered on the screen both horizontally and vertically -- just barely using the lens shift. I took note of the fact that the pixel convergence was nearly perfect, certainly nothing to complain about at all.

We modified one of our bedrooms with duvetyne and fiberglass insulation to block out the light and sound from the windows, installed the projector mounted on the ceiling, and the screen vertically centered on the opposite wall.

The projector is placed almost as close as you can get to the screen while still able to project a 100" image, and the vertical lens shift is nearly all the way to one extreme in order to align the picture onto the screen.

After configuring the projector in this manner, I can no longer focus the picture perfectly. The chromatic aberration from using the far edge of the lens is so bad that it vertically separates each pixel into about three, such that you can almost make out distinct red, green and blue subpixels.

On the lens focus test pattern, if I get the horizontal lines focused, the vertical ones are blurry, and vice versa.

If I were able to move the projector back farther and use some of the zoom function, or drop it down from the ceiling about 2 feet, it would shift the aim of the image such that more of the center of the lens would be used.

The edges of the lens are always the worst part, and should be avoided if possible. Unfortunately, I think I'm stuck with using the projector this way.

Brian

Earlier in the thread I saw a mention that this projector would be $100 off at Costco starting on 1/28. I've looked around, and can't find confirmation of this anywhere. Is it in the coupon book, and I just missed it? Thanks!

Earlier in the thread I saw a mention that this projector would be $100 off at Costco starting on 1/28. I've looked around, and can't find confirmation of this anywhere. Is it in the coupon book, and I just missed it? Thanks!

It was a promotion in the email from what I understood -- I'll wait for 1/28 and check their web site.

$100Huh???

Huh???

Sorry, I forgot an important word in my post. I fixed it. :D

After about 150 hours, I am now seeing a shimmering white-ish/blue cloud at the top center of the image in dark scenes. It is very noticeable when viewing letterboxed content since the cloud is in the top black bar. Most of the descriptions of dust in the various threads sound static, where this is more of a cloud that is blowing in place. Thanks for any advice. Aside from this, the projector works beautifully. But this problem makes dark or letterboxed content almost unwatchable.

After about 150 hours, I am now seeing a shimmering white-ish/blue cloud at the top center of the image in dark scenes. It is very noticeable when viewing letterboxed content since the cloud is in the top black bar. Most of the descriptions of dust in the various threads sound static, where this is more of a cloud that is blowing in place. Thanks for any advice. Aside from this, the projector works beautifully. But this problem makes dark or letterboxed content almost unwatchable.Sounds like a dust ball (or bunny?) is caught in the optical path somewhere and is blowing in the wind of the fan. To test this, set the projector on high altitude and see if it "shimmers" faster. Sounds like you will have to blow it out of there.

I am having problems from a mac mini with 1080p 24hz. I am getting a 'jitter' about every few minutes. This mini is a C2D 1.83 with 1GB of RAM and will play everything I throw at it, so I don't think it is a computer problem.

I am going DVI-HDMI. Any thoughts? I am loving this projector but boy is this annoying. It seems to go away at 60hz but the picture is not as good.

Thanks.

I am having problems from a mac mini with 1080p 24hz. I am getting a 'jitter' about every few minutes. This mini is a C2D 1.83 with 1GB of RAM and will play everything I throw at it, so I don't think it is a computer problem.

I am going DVI-HDMI. Any thoughts? I am loving this projector but boy is this annoying. It seems to go away at 60hz but the picture is not as good.

Thanks.

It is not a projector, rather video card issue.

It would help if you tell us about your video card, but I have a strong suspicion you are using Nvidia series since I am experiencing the same jitter that you are describing -- I posted this thread on Home Theater forum but unfortunately no feedback, it appears 1080/24 is not that popular. :confused:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=978249

According to this post it does appear to be bug in Nvidia drivers issue:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12619168#post12619168

Apparently one solution is to switch to ATI -- I know for sure one user on this thread who is/was successfully using 1080/24 from ATI 3850 to AE2000:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12596067#post12596067

Another option (I hope) is to use VMR9 renderless, it obviously limits your software options. I am going to test VMR9 renderless solution tonight (now that I can play HD/BD from MPC) and will let you know the results tomorrow morning.

HTH, Davie.

The mac mini uses neither, it uses Intel GMA950 built in graphics. I am trying to test with the Panny bd10A right now but since I bought it open box and no remote I am hobbling my way through the Harmony database trying to get into the menu to test it at 24hz. I will report back shorlty with the answer but I suspect you are probably right.

EDIT: It appears this Bluray player does not do 1080p 24hz so I don't have anything else to test with for now.

The mac mini uses neither, it uses Intel GMA950 built in graphics.

I suggest you ask on Home Theater forum instead -- you might get lucky. Also try VMR Renderless trick, maybe it helps with buggy Intel drivers too :D

I have had this pj for a couple of months now. It has over 400 hrs on it . My son plays x box way too much. It has been trouble free until sunday when i had a dozen people over to watch the Patriots game. During the game it began to flicker. I remember reading about this issue with panasonics so i switched to normal mode. The flickering stopped for about 1 hour than it was back. I have not seen any yet on dvds from my toshiba a20 using a hdmi cable. It is there however when playing xbox or watching cable, both using component cable. Also my emotiva processor is used for switching for the component cable. The dvd players with hdmi are switched manually. I am going to experiment with different configurations to determine if it is the pj or something else causing the flickering.
Any input from amyone else that has had this issue would be appreciated.

After about 150 hours, I am now seeing a shimmering white-ish/blue cloud at the top center of the image in dark scenes. It is very noticeable when viewing letterboxed content since the cloud is in the top black bar. Most of the descriptions of dust in the various threads sound static, where this is more of a cloud that is blowing in place. Thanks for any advice. Aside from this, the projector works beautifully. But this problem makes dark or letterboxed content almost unwatchable.

Has your screen become reflective? Does the dust cloud move with you if you move sideways? -- if so could be screen reflection - something I have had as well -- a challenge to clean I can say.

Interested to hear.
Cheers

I ended up using the 12" pipe and using vertical shift. I see no problems at all with the picture after using the vertical shift (Just make sure your horizontal is dead on if you can).

This is good news. I have a 8" and 10" long pipe to test out this weekend.

Your screen height from the floor seems a bit low to me, but I like to look up just a bit to see the center of the screen personally.

Some time ago I tried to measure my eye level while sitting. I think it was 40". Then I took my screen height, which is 45" and divided this by three. I had read you want your eye level to be at the bottom third of the screen. I have never really tried it at any other level. Our screen is motorized, so I may just try it at different heights. :)

And the ceiling mount:
Black
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?shs=CHCMS115&ci=0&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=productlist.jsp&A=search&Q=*&bhs=t

My brother is a welder and made a bracket for me for free :D. Can't get much cheaper than that. I am thinking of cutting a hole in the pipe and top flange plate to run cables through.

I replaced my Panasonic 900 with 2000. I like it
1. no banding
2.better convergence
3.better white uniformity(except some redish area in dimmer cinema mode)
I watch sports and notice some motion blur. It has fast frame option but it does not solve the problem very well.
How does this option work? Does it take away from the quality? What is the response time of the lcd panels?
Thank you

Just an update, my Bluray player did not flicker at 1080P 60hz and neither did my Mac mini at 1080p 60hz, so this looks to be a mac mini 24hz issue, not a projector problem.

I am thinking of cutting a hole in the pipe and top flange plate to run cables through.

Isn't pipe supposed to have a hole in it ? :D

You will like the result -- ran my cables through the pipe and could not be happier -- very clean look. :)

I just bought this projector and can not find the closed captioning (subtitles for hard hearing).

I have gone through just about every button on the remote and still can't find it. I even looked on the web, but couldn't find it either.

Does anybody know how to put the CC on with this projector? I would really like to have it.

With no tuner? I believe CC is a function of your source tuner. How were you getting it or not getting it before you got the projector?

Sorry but you'll have to turn on CC on whatever device you are driving the projector with.

I thought I was.

On my other small CRT TV, there is a button on the CRT TV remote to turn on/off CC.

I haven't changed anything on my satellite TV receiver, so I don't know what Im doing wrong. I use satellite TV receivers to connect to my projector and other CRT TV. The CRT TV has a button on the TV remote for turning CC on/off, but the projector does not, so I don't know how I'm supposed to turn CC on with the projector that does not have any button for CC.

I thought I was.

On my other small CRT TV, there is a button on the TV to turn on/off CC.

I haven't changed anything on my satellite TV receiver, so I don't know what Im doing wrong. I use satellite TV receivers to connected to my projector and other CRT TV. The CRT TV has a button on the TV remote for turning CC on/off, but the projector does not, so I don't know how I'm supposed to turn CC on with the projector that does not have any button for CC.

You need to turn on CC on your satellite TV receiver. The projector does not have a built in tuner, so there is no CC button. Check you satellite TV receiver remote or menu for CC option.

"You need to turn of CC on your satellite TV receiver." ??

I know where the CC On/Off menu is on my satellite TV receiver, and I guess you are saying to turn off the CC in my Satellite TV menu, which I will do now, but does not make any sense to me.

How is turning off CC in satellite TV receiver menu going to turn the CC On?

It doesn't make sense, but I will do it now.

EDIT: OK, I did it. I turned CC Off from my satellite TV receiver menu and still get no CC subtitles. Then I turned CC On from the satellite TV receiver menu and still get no CC subtitles. I know its not the receiver, because I disconnected the receiver from the Projector and connected the receiver to the living room CRT tv and I press the CC button on the CRT TV remote and wallah, CC appears.

So, I don't know what else to do. Can anyone else confirm that they have CC subtitles working and appearing on this projector?

I have a bad feeling that there is no way to have CC on with this projector, but I'll wait until somebody can confirm it for sure.

I was reading that there are other models of Panasonic projectors with some type of Closed Caption decoder built in, but I see no mention of it with this model.

Its hard for me to believe that this projector could be marketed without this very useful feature, but maybe there is a way around it.

Does anybody know how to get the CC to work with this projector? I would really appreciate it.

So I got my 2000 mounted and my screen in and it looks awesome!
I have a question though.
When watching Comcast Cable i am getting a strange phenomenon in the bottom corners.
This doenst happen when watching blurays or HDDVDs-only cable tv.
Its kind of like arcs of light-almost like a rainbow, but not different colors.
Its happening over the tv signal coming from each bottom corner.
The best way to describe it is it looks like ripples in a pond starting in each corner and then spreading inward into the picture. I dont know how else to describe it.
Anyone else have this problem or know how to fix it? Or is it a defective PJ?
Again, other sources look awesome. No problems with BD, HDDVD, or SDDVD Playback.
This is TV signal only- and moreso with the HD channels.

So I got my 2000 mounted and my screen in and it looks awesome!
I have a question though.
When watching Comcast Cable i am getting a strange phenomenon in the bottom corners.
This doenst happen when watching blurays or HDDVDs-only cable tv.
Its kind of like arcs of light-almost like a rainbow, but not different colors.
Its happening over the tv signal coming from each bottom corner.
The best way to describe it is it looks like ripples in a pond starting in each corner and then spreading inward into the picture. I dont know how else to describe it.
Anyone else have this problem or know how to fix it? Or is it a defective PJ?
Again, other sources look awesome. No problems with BD, HDDVD, or SDDVD Playback.
This is TV signal only- and moreso with the HD channels.

Are you using a different connection for the cable box (ie Component vs HDMI)?

I have a bad feeling that there is no way to have CC on with this projector, but I'll wait until somebody can confirm it for sure.

I was reading that there are other models of Panasonic projectors with some type of Closed Caption decoder built in, but I see no mention of it with this model.

Its hard for me to believe that this projector could be marketed without this very useful feature, but maybe there is a way around it.

Does anybody know how to get the CC to work with this projector? I would really appreciate it.

Just an idea, but what aspect are you using? If you are using zoom mode the CC would be hidden by the zoom. I had this problem one time until I realized what was happening.

I have a bad feeling that there is no way to have CC on with this projector, but I'll wait until somebody can confirm it for sure.

I was reading that there are other models of Panasonic projectors with some type of Closed Caption decoder built in, but I see no mention of it with this model.

Its hard for me to believe that this projector could be marketed without this very useful feature, but maybe there is a way around it.

Does anybody know how to get the CC to work with this projector? I would really appreciate it.

I just turned on CC from my directv satellite reciever. Projector shows CC fine (CNN, CNN Headline).
Your satellite reciever must have CC. Beginning 1 July 1993 all recievers and TVs(13"and larger) with tuners must have CC. Like others explained since the Projector is not a tv but only a monitor it is not required to have CC. I can help you more to open CC if you have a Directv reciever.

I have a bad feeling that there is no way to have CC on with this projector, but I'll wait until somebody can confirm it for sure.

I was reading that there are other models of Panasonic projectors with some type of Closed Caption decoder built in, but I see no mention of it with this model.

Its hard for me to believe that this projector could be marketed without this very useful feature, but maybe there is a way around it.

Does anybody know how to get the CC to work with this projector? I would really appreciate it.


If it worked that way before, it should work that way now. There is nothing really different about how the projector recieves video from yuor sat box -vs- any other HD display.

Maybe you were using an SD display before? Not sure here.

after reading this thread.... it sounds like the AE2000U is not your best bang for your buck.

the RS1 is better than the AE2000U... and the Marantz 12S4 is better than the RS1.... and they all cost about the same. see what I mean?

note..... the 12S4 would be a refurb.

Yes, the comcast box is hooked up via component and th others through HDMI all into my Marantz 7001 and then HDMI to the PJ. No upconversion going on in the receiver.
So could it be some kind of processing/upconversion to 1080p going on in the PJ that is causing the effect?

after reading this thread.... it sounds like the AE2000U is not your best bang for your buck.

the RS1 is better than the AE2000U... and the Marantz 12S4 is better than the RS1.... and they all cost about the same. see what I mean?

note..... the 12S4 would be a refurb.

The Marantz doesn't do vertical stretch tho.

Observing dust issues in my HT has taken this PJ off my list, leaving me with exactly zero that do what I need still (in my price range).

C

To hoerman4:

I'm in "Just" aspect mode. I tried the other modes and still get no CC. Are you using this same projector?

I really don't understand how this satellite receiver can give the CC on my CRT TV but not with this projector.

To DrA:

Thats extremely nice of you to want to help me. But I don't have a Direct TV sat receiver. I have a Viewsat Extreme, which I disconnected from the projector and connected to a CRT TV, just to test, and can confirm that CC does appear on the CRT TV. I just don't understand why it's not appearing with the projector.

To JOHNnDENVER:

I don't really understand what you are saying. This projector is HD.

The other CRT TV is definitely not HD. Its a crappy 19" Walmart TV.

I just don't understand why I can get CC on the crappy TV but not on the projector. What else could I do?

Yes, the comcast box is hooked up via component and th others through HDMI all into my Marantz 7001 and then HDMI to the PJ. No upconversion going on in the receiver.
So could it be some kind of processing/upconversion to 1080p going on in the PJ that is causing the effect?

With the Comcast box, you have to turn off the cable box and press the Menu button on the remote. When you do this, you'll get a white screen with some options - output resolution for HD channels, non-HD (I suggest 480i or 480p for use with this projector). Below that is a CC option, and this is where you have to turn it on/off with the Comcast cable boxes.

The whitish/blue cloud does not move as I move, so not a reflective issue. The only thing that affects the cloud is if I change the fan speed to "low", from "high". The cloud stops shimmering. Now it is just a static whitish/blue cloud. (I wonder if it was a bad idea to run the fan for high altitude, a recommendation from a post in another thread to keep the projector cool. Perhaps it just blows the dust around). I have tried varying the zoom and focus from min to max to see if the cloud changes. I have also tried all of the color modes. But no change. I guess I'll pick up one of those bellows-based camera cleaners and try blowing on the LCDs.

All the hype of the AE2000 has turned into a FLOP. I am not here to shoot down the AE2000.. but I am here to express my opinion and to let other potential owners know they may want to wait it out to get something that has a good air filter system built into the PJ. or a PJ with a sealed Light path.

I also have a dusty HT.

The Marantz doesn't do vertical stretch tho.

Observing dust issues in my HT has taken this PJ off my list, leaving me with exactly zero that do what I need still (in my price range).

C

All the hype of the AE2000 has turned into a FLOP. I am not here to shoot down the AE2000.. but I am here to express my opinion and to let other potential owners know they may want to wait it out to get something that has a good air filter system built into the PJ. or a PJ with a sealed Light path.

I also have a dusty HT.

Do you even have the projector or are you basing your statement by reading an internet forum?

Of course the posters here have issues. Thats what the forum is, for people to go to that experience issues / problems. Read any other PJ thread an youll see a slew of problems. Its like 1% of the market share.

It would be hard to believe that the issue with dust causing screen artifacts is only affecting 1% of the user base. My projector is 6 weeks old and I have an artifact that now makes watching any content with letterboxing or dark scenes very distracting. This is a real problem that Panasonic must address in future revisions of the device. For now, Panasonic should provide instructions for safely cleaning the projector. This is a consumer device, sold at Costco and Circuit City. (I purchased mine from ProjectorPeople and asked them via email for advice on cleaning the camera. I have received no response, so I'm guessing they don't want to get involved). There is no instructions in either the user manual or service manual for addressing this problem. Therefore it is not part of routine maintenance for the consumer. (for example, cleaning the air filter every 100 hours IS routine maintenance and documented in the user manual). It certainly could not be expected that consumers would ship their camera to a Panasonic service center every two months for cleaning. Although this camera produces a beautiful image on my 126" screen, it would be hard to recommend without a clear solution for dealing with this problem.

To hoerman4:

I'm in "Just" aspect mode. I tried the other modes and still get no CC. Are you using this same projector?

I really don't understand how this satellite receiver can give the CC on my CRT TV but not with this projector.

To DrA:

Thats extremely nice of you to want to help me. But I don't have a Direct TV sat receiver. I have a Viewsat Extreme, which I disconnected from the projector and connected to a CRT TV, just to test, and can confirm that CC does appear on the CRT TV. I just don't understand why it's not appearing with the projector.

To JOHNnDENVER:

I don't really understand what you are saying. This projector is HD.

The other CRT TV is definitely not HD. Its a crappy 19" Walmart TV.

I just don't understand why I can get CC on the crappy TV but not on the projector. What else could I do?

Your hooking the box up via the exact same connection?

I have never heard of that tuner / box so I am going to bow out now. The CC has to be handled by the box, I think HD boxes that work with CC have special handlng features to make it work.

All the hype of the AE2000 has turned into a FLOP. I am not here to shoot down the AE2000.. but I am here to express my opinion and to let other potential owners know they may want to wait it out to get something that has a good air filter system built into the PJ. or a PJ with a sealed Light path.

I also have a dusty HT.

I put an air filter over the bottom of the projector (top of the projector when ceiling mounted) on only air holes without a built-in filter. There is some anecdotal evidence on the AE2000U thread that dust blob only happened on ceiling mounted projectors and that this unprotected hole may be the culprit. We'll see what happens.

CapeAV, I dare you to go to an owners home and watch something on the AE2000. It's a great machine, but so seem all of the under $5000 projectors on the market this year. Yes there are some problem units, but for reference check out the Epson 1080UB thread. The few problem units are starting to crop up there too. Like any product there are some problem units, but overall most owners are happy with their purchase.

With the reports comming in? I am so glad I mounted my AE1000U right side up. Still on the cieling though. I dropped a shelf using plant hooks and chains from the cieling, I have just enough room to get my chubby fingers to the lens shift dials.

All the hype of the AE2000 has turned into a FLOP. I am not here to shoot down the AE2000.. but I am here to express my opinion and to let other potential owners know they may want to wait it out to get something that has a good air filter system built into the PJ. or a PJ with a sealed Light path.

I also have a dusty HT.

I am having lots of fun with my 126" plasma look-alike image from this FLOP every night in my HT :)

All the hype of the AE2000 has turned into a FLOP. I am not here to shoot down the AE2000.

:confused:

I am having lots of fun with my 126" plasma look-alike image from this FLOP every night in my HT :)

I think calling it a flop is a bit of a stretch. :)

It makes a tough race where otherwise it might be no race at all. Only the HD-80 (and the Benq W5000 if it shows) exist in this price range with anamorphic stretch. Only the AE2000 (from the sound of things) does the 1080p/24 handshake correctly.

It just has me waiting to upgrade still - I was about to go 720p when 1080 dropped below $3k street, causing me to pause. So I'm living with an X1 still. :) In the mean time I'm upgrading the rest (screen is in pieces while I mount the new SeymoreAV AT screen, after which I'll do the crossover work on the new in-walls I'm putting together...) Maybe if I wait long enough I'll save enough pennies to go Marantz 15S1...

C

I figured out my problem.
The white ripple effect was due to my sharpness settings.
I calibrated the PJ last night with the Digital Video Essentials HDDVD.
The waveform feature is awesome for this. I didnt even have to use the filters.
Anyways, my sharpness was tuned way up, and the problem was solved by turning it all the way down, where it should be anyways.
I am very happy with this PJ. Picture is spot on now. Beautifull!!!
My wife was saying too, "where else can you get a 92" plasma for under $3000?"

You can get a nice Pioneer 50" Plasma for $2500.

You do NOT need a dedicated HT for the Plasma.

so for some of us... the Plasma is the way to go.

I figured out my problem.
The white ripple effect was due to my sharpness settings.
I calibrated the PJ last night with the Digital Video Essentials HDDVD.
The waveform feature is awesome for this. I didnt even have to use the filters.
Anyways, my sharpness was tuned way up, and the problem was solved by turning it all the way down, where it should be anyways.
I am very happy with this PJ. Picture is spot on now. Beautifull!!!
My wife was saying too, "where else can you get a 92" plasma for under $3000?"

You can get a nice Pioneer 50" Plasma for $2500.

You do NOT need a dedicated HT for the Plasma.

so for some of us... the Plasma is the way to go.

Very good man, why don't you go to plasma forum then and let us deal with our FLOP. :D

I would agree with that.
I used to have a 70 inch Sony LCD. Great picture especially during the day. No lighting problems whatsoever.
We decided it was time to upgrade to 1080p and the Pioneer and Panasonic plasmas were at the top of our list of potentials. However we didnt want to go anything less than 60" since we were coming from a 70". So $2500 wouldnt have cut it for what we were looking for. We also didnt want a DLP or anything else big and bulky like what we had. We wanted to be able to mount it on the wall to free up space on the ground. It would have cost us $5000+ to get a size that would work for us. Granted, the plasma would provide a brighter and in some cases better picture and I admit some adjustments(window tretment, ect) was required in order to enjoy the PJ, but with that said the question remains:
Where can you get any 92" 1080p very good looking picture for under $3000?
For some a 50" plasma at $2500 might be a perfect solution, and we almost went the plasma route, but for the money to size/quality ratio, the PJ was a better selection for us.