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Panasonic PT-AE4000 MSRP $1999

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#2,980 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Picture /forum/post/17855707


I watched some SD DVD's on the 4000 on a 134" wide 2.35 Scope screen today, the DVD player is an Oppo 83 outputing 10824/p. ... There is too much deatil lost on the 134" wide screen for my tastes. The Oppo 83 is one of the finest upscaling DVD players available.... Bummer.

There is no detail lost, as it wasn't ever there in the first place. With a screen that big you are trying to make pixels blend and look good that should be the size of a golf ball without the processing.
 
#2,981 ·
" Also, the lens cap is permanently attached to the projector, so I have it kind of sitting on top."


That yanks right out of the projector so you can put it in a drawer and lose it.
 
#2,982 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cpt. Jack /forum/post/17856565


My AE4000U arrived Saturday, and a friend of mine asked my opinion specifically vs. the HC3000 since that's what we both had before. He suggested I post my write-up so here it is. Hopefully it will be helpful to some.


Whoever said there's no fine mode on the focus is wrong - if you tap the button, the lens steps a very minute amount. If you press and hold it, it shoots out of focus. Smooth Screen makes it a little hard to focus - the pixels don't line up the way I'm used to. They almost look rectangular and staggered - and they're very tiny, even standing right on top of the screen.

Agree, I also noted this in my post at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...9#post17720999 . When I ordered the 4000 I'd assumed focussing would be a problem as reviewers testing the 4000 had complained about the 'tricky' coarse focus control. However, as you note, it is very fine if used correctly.


I focussed mine by standing next to the screen and whilst looking at text around the centre of the screen, used the fine focus jog to get the clearest text. I found this also gave the clearest grid test pattern and I have been very happy with the sharp picture the 4000 produces on a top quality Blu-ray (as you know, not all Blu-rays [or DVDs] are the same. Some have soft focus when filmed and transferred to digital. Crank High Voltage was filmed completely in 1080P digital and shows what the projector is really capable of when given top quality material.)
 
#2,983 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Terminator840 /forum/post/17776717


I've been reading this thread for a long time now. My purchase time for the 4000 is getting close, about a month away. This will be my first projector and I am so excited.


I am planning on going with a 120+" CIH 2.35 AR "scope" screen. My throw distance will be about 15 ft. I am worried my about seating distance. Currently in my HT I have a 61" DLP and my seating distance is about 6-7 ft. After my move to the 4000 I will gain 2-3 ft. by removing the DLP and stand and projecting on the wall. That will put me in the 8-9 ft. range from screen to my first row of seats. Would that be too close? I can move the seating back a little but not much.


First time set up?


My plan is to mount the projector from the ceiling and throw the biggest/widest image I can get then mask off the area for the screen and use paint. For first time set up do I set up the 16:9 (1.78) AR first then zoom out to get the 2.35 AR? Or do you set up the 2.35 AR first?


Here is my current set up.



Wow, I posted this right before Christmas. No responses.....Anybody with some thoughts?
 
#2,984 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Picture /forum/post/17855707


I watched some SD DVD's on the 4000 on a 134" wide 2.35 Scope screen today, the DVD player is an Oppo 83 outputing 10824/p. I was used to watching these DVD's on a 16:9 105" wide screen and was always pleased with the results. There is too much deatil lost on the 134" wide screen for my tastes. The Oppo 83 is one of the finest upscaling DVD players available.


There is just so much pixel density available on SD DVD's, Blu-rays of course look great on the 134" screen.


This leaves me rethinking what size screen to get for the 4000 as most of our HT viewing is Netflix SD DVD's. Bummer.

I was hoping that someone would post some pics/screenshots of SD DVDs on a 2.35 scope screen. I would like to get a feel for what they look like.
 
#2,987 ·
I have been planning on purchasing from B&H and their price was 1999.00 like the thread title. Was and is again 1999.00, but yesterday when I checked they upped it 100.00 to 2099.00. It didn't last long at that price. Makes you wonder since it is selling good, yet they dropped the price back to where they had it.
 
#2,988 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hughmc /forum/post/17857971


I have been planning on purchasing from B&H and their price was 1999.00 like the thread title. Was and is again 1999.00, but yesterday when I checked they upped it 100.00 to 2099.00. It didn't last long at that price. Makes you wonder since it is selling good, yet they dropped the price back to where they had it.

I purchased from B&H on Sunday for 1999.00. So are you saying that it went up $100 now its back down $100, im confused with your post.
 
#2,990 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Terminator840 /forum/post/17857723


Wow, I posted this right before Christmas. No responses.....Anybody with some thoughts?

I think you will be fine. We are about 8' from a 120" scope with a samsung sp-a800b dlp projector and Acoustically Transparent screen.


I would highly recommend the Seymour Center Stage screen by Chris seymour


ed
 
#2,992 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by edfowler /forum/post/17858202


I would highly recommend the Seymour Center Stage screen by Chris seymour

Same here. SeymourAV 120"-wide 2.35 scope AT drop-down screen, panny 4000u, ~18ft throw, non-ideal multi-use room (latte walls, white ceiling), ~95% light controlled, sitting ~13.5 ft from screen... picture looks great in cinema1/normal-lamp, nice and bright at normal/normal-lamp. The picture is still acceptable in econo lamp mode, but I prefer my picture bright.


The auto-zoom is a great feature even with the annoying "processing" notice. IMHO, if you have the width for a scope screen, it is the only way to go... the immersive effect is addictive. The AT screen helps tremendously with the immersion, as all three front speakers are behind the screen.


fteixeira
 
#2,993 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Picture /forum/post/17855707


I watched some SD DVD's on the 4000 on a 134" wide 2.35 Scope screen today, the DVD player is an Oppo 83 outputing 10824/p. I was used to watching these DVD's on a 16:9 105" wide screen and was always pleased with the results. There is too much deatil lost on the 134" wide screen for my tastes. The Oppo 83 is one of the finest upscaling DVD players available.


There is just so much pixel density available on SD DVD's, Blu-rays of course look great on the 134" screen.


This leaves me rethinking what size screen to get for the 4000 as most of our HT viewing is Netflix SD DVD's. Bummer.

this brings up a question for me. i am considering going w/ a projector but know very little about them so i'm on a steep learning curve. given Big Picture's situation, could he zoom down to 100" while watching sd dvd's? i'm sure that's not a great solution but just want to know if it's doable w/ this projector.
 
#2,995 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Terminator840 /forum/post/17857766


I was hoping that someone would post some pics/screenshots of SD DVDs on a 2.35 scope screen. I would like to get a feel for what they look like.

You will be disappointed if you go with too big a screen when viewing SD DVD's. I noticed a considerable loss of detail at 134" wide Scope, 105" wide 16:9 looks good to me though. Zooming in SD DVD material is a good option. Zooming out to 2.35 loses 20% of available projector pixels and loses considerable brightness too.
 
#2,996 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hughmc /forum/post/17858169


Yes, Sunday evening the price on their site was 1999.00. Then all day yesterday it was listed at 2099.00.

Hey what do yo know I got lucky, finally. Actually, I called B&H Sunday morning and they told me they didnt have any in stock at the store and that I either had to order it on the phone with him or go in the store and order it there so I can pick it up. I went to the store and I was amazed how many projectors they had there and they had the 4000 on display with an image being projected on the screen, which was sadly to say bad. So I told him I came to order it for pick up and he said I have 2 in stock, one is on hold for another customer but you can have the other one that made me
. I thought he was joking. He said he had a feeling that someone was going to come in and ask for it, since they been selling a lot of them. So that is how I got mine, yes lucky. I also put him on to AVS Forum since, surprisingly, he had no knowledge of this site. So I am sure he is beating his head on this site now for hours upon hours.
 
#2,998 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by JHouse /forum/post/17857243


Careful. Don't start tweaking on a perfect picture just because somebody is willing to post suggestions. You can screw it up and then get used to it, and ruin your brain and your judgment.

I was just asking what standard the Waveform monitor auto adjust will calibrate itself to? using the auto adjust, the picture is different watching sports than if you were watching a movie or playing xbox.


Is this as good as it can get (looks killer already) or is there more that can be done?
 
#2,999 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Probe /forum/post/17846233


Kongfan, I assume you didn’t pursue the issue with Panasonic? I thought it was convergence as well until I came across this old post in the “Attention LCD Owners: Fix Your Color Uniformity Problems by Cleaning!” thread.


by Gazzagazza


“Just for any of you who have a colour tinge top and bottom... blue along bottom edge and yelowish on top edge... I had this and had Panasonic here have a look at it. They had to "re-seat the PBS array". This completely fixed the problem. The PBS array is the "polarising beam splitter" and I understand it is the large lens thing that sits closest to the lamp. The light passes through this first. The tech said he had seen a few with this problem and the PBS seems to move out of alignment for some reason - maybe heat -. Any way it was fixed without needing parts.”

Thanks Probe. I think that's a different problem. I'm told that when the blue polarizer goes bad, it creates a progressively growing yellow tint, and it might make sense that a merely mis-aligned polarizer could do what Gazzagazza describes. The problem I'm referring to, a blue/green tint opposite a magenta tint, in any direction, is a really common problem for LCDs, and particularly (according to what I've experienced/read over the last couple of years) a problem among Panasonic projectors. Cine4home calls it "shading" (albeit via Babelfish), and among the many posts on the subject I've followed, NOT A SINGLE ONE has reported it being successfully repaired. Cine4home and Art Feierman even took the uncommon step of assessing this particular aspect of performance in the AX200, and both happened to get pretty "clean" units. Sure enough, my AX200 was a stinker, with just about exactly the same degree of shift (though in a different direction) as my AE700. Though practically imperceptable in color images, it was glaring in black and white, particularly 16x9 images that incorporated the full panels and revealed the full panorama of the shift. Again, I'm unhappy to hear that it's still a potential bugaboo for the 4000 (3 mentions of it so far, that I've seen). I'm a skunk for suggesting it, but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of 4000 owners put up a black & white (or all white) image to specifically assess the white continuity across their screens, only to find at least some degree of shift. I found it on all three Panasonics I've had in my possession and put through their paces. On the other hand, it would be nice (and faith-renewing) to hear observations to the contrary.
 
#3,001 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Picture /forum/post/17855707


I watched some SD DVD's on the 4000 on a 134" wide 2.35 Scope screen today, the DVD player is an Oppo 83 outputing 10824/p. I was used to watching these DVD's on a 16:9 105" wide screen and was always pleased with the results. There is too much deatil lost on the 134" wide screen for my tastes. The Oppo 83 is one of the finest upscaling DVD players available.


There is just so much pixel density available on SD DVD's, Blu-rays of course look great on the 134" screen.


This leaves me rethinking what size screen to get for the 4000 as most of our HT viewing is Netflix SD DVD's. Bummer.

I went 130" diag 16x9, and am pretty happy with SD DVDs, it may depend on distance from screen as I'm about 18 ft with another row at 13 ft...why would most of your Netflix not be blu-ray?
 
#3,002 ·
Kongfan - Thanks for the explanation. I also had another Panasonic projector with uniformity problems (AE900). My experience with the AE900 started out with a very obvious colour tint on the left and right side of the screen. I was so frustrated with it that I removed it from its original install position, which was on a shelf behind me. Months later I positioned it on a coffee table closer to the screen and the tint was much less obvious. The lens shift was also different since the projectors shift was up as opposed to down when on the shelf behind me. The AE4000, when first fired up, looked great until I spent a few nights playing with grey scale and colour window patterns (approx. 5 hrs per night). Towards the end of the third night, I could clearly see, when displaying an ALL BLACK screen that the left side of the screen had a red tint and the right side a green tint. I knew I was in trouble and thought it best to turn off the projector for the night. The following night the all black screen appeared to be fine, however, the all white screen had the tint. Also the tint seemed to rotate about lens centre since it first appeared. I am on the fence about sending it in for service. On the one hand, I have great convergence, with great image sharpness and when all things are considered the image is very nice (except for black and white). There is also the possibility of sending the projector in and ending up with some other issue. On the other hand, I hate paying $3000 (here in Canada) for a product that I am not 100% satisfied with. Anyway, the bottom line for me is that I will not buy LCD again. LCD is far too sensitive, to the point where normal viewing habits can result in dust blobs, uniformity problems, not to mention the convergence issues. That’s just my opinion.
 
#3,003 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by capnkirk52 /forum/post/17858959


I was just asking what standard the Waveform monitor auto adjust will calibrate itself to? using the auto adjust, the picture is different watching sports than if you were watching a movie or playing xbox.


Is this as good as it can get (looks killer already) or is there more that can be done?

You'll probably get some different opinions from some inveterate tweakers, but most of us use "color 1" for everything as it is properly calibrated from the factory to D6500 across the entire gray scale. I never have to change my setting regardless of program material, though the manual claims all their presets have a particular application to particular sources. Some folks have to fight ambient light so they sometimes watch the "normal" setting, as it is brighter, but the colors are off some, but not enough to offset the brightness advantage when needed. That one button on the remote will cycle through the choices so you can see what you like on a dark video game.


I know it's hard to have a complex gizmo like the waveform monitor that looks all-powerful without trying to do something with it, but my advice is to leave it alone. I have made that mistake before.
 
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