Official Panasonic PT-AE3000U OWNERS Thread. - Page 7

No problem

DVE BD doesn't have full field gray scale patterns for checking gamma shading uniformity. Atleast I haven't found them yet.

Avia, Avia Pro and GetGray have the full range of Grayscale calibration test patterns.

DrA... Try changing your zoom setting to min & max and see how that affects your chromatic aberration.

Can other AE3000 owners confirm similar focus issues toward the outer screen edges?

I am currently testing the Sony HW10 and will have the AE3000 on Tuesday. I will be closely checking many performance attributes of the two projectors.

I have already posted a number of thoughts on the HW10 in other threads and will not repeat them here except to note, the HW10 has RGB convergence adjustments and the lense offers excellent chromatic aberration performance with extremely minimal artifacts at the far left/right sides of the screen.

I will post my HW10 vs AE3000 observations in one of the existing comparison threads later in the week.

jamis, could you share as to what calibration are you making? is it from the reciever side?
also I thought there is 'game mode', have you tried that?
sounds like fast video processing is a must in anycase for gaming...

Just set the audio delay on your reciever to 30-50 msecs (depending on your setup) and the issue is solved.

frame 2 looks so cool it would be shame to miss out on it without making the small adjustment needed.

wow dr a...those edges are terrible...i take it your going to return that one for another one perhaps?

and while im posting rather than take up 2 posts does anyone know of any retail stores that sell the panny 3000? i HATE purchasing items with no actual store to take them back to...and from what ive seen there arent any actual dealers per say for this product...at least i couldnt find any in my area.

Is that a typo? That would be 300 to 500msec. The video doesn't look that delayed to me on my AE3000 at FC mode 2. Besides, my receiver only goes up to 200msec audio delay.

Is anyone thinking about getting their projector professionally calibrated? Also, does anyone plan on using their projector for all of their viewing needs such as regular TV watching, watching movies on DVD/Hi Def and Videogames, etc? And does anyone have an idea how much the lamp replacement costs for this thing?

Is there any other projector in the same price range that equals the 3000 or is this Panasonic the best bang for the buck right now?

thanks!

I believe the jury is still out on this question, although the AE3000 has the most aggressive pricing in the US versus it's closest compeition.

Every projector has it's pros & cons, and the final purchase choice usually comes down to a compromise in one area or another. As long as the buyer understands the range of compromises from one projector to another, he/she can make a purchase decision without fear of an unhappy surprise.

Regarding calibration, the AE3000 is supposed to be very good out of the box. However, some of the negative reports we are seeing are beyond calibration, such as convergence errors, gamma shading non-uniformity and chromatic aberration or focus errors. These types of problems will require a replacement projector. In this regard, it might be a good idea to buy the AE3000 from someone who will conduct an extensive QC check before they ship the projector. I have requested a QC check on my AE3000 which probably cost a day or two in delivery speed.

Whatever projector I ending up keeping, I will eventually do a complete white balance and color tracking calibration, as well as tweak any service menu settings which enhance performance.

Happy shopping

Need some help with an issue that someone else may have also mentioned.

I have a new laptop that has an HDMI output. For some reason the PT-AE3000U will not handshake properly with the laptop and all I get is a blue screen.

The laptop has HDMI 1.2, is there any reason for this not to work? Can anyone suggest a possible fix?

The PS3, Xbox 360, and my Yamaha reciever all have zero problems with the Panny over HDMI.

Is this a projector problem or a computer problem?

There's been so much excitement about the Panasonic 3000 and all the features at a such a good price. But what about the Epson 1080UB?

Both of these projectors are very very similar in many ways and actually there seems to more discounts applied to the Epson 1080UB at this point and is less expensive at least at this time.

I know there's alot of hype over the aspect ratio of the 3000 but Epson apparently is countering by offering a rebate and free lamp replacement.

Not counting the 3000's ability to have more flexibility with aspect ratio, what would make a potential customer choose the 3000 over the Epson 1080UB? I'm looking at the specs and reviews and am I missing something or overlooking other advantages that the Panasonic has over the Epson?

What resolution are you outputting?

I hear you. I believe that it just the excitement and good marketing. However, Panasonic does offer the 120hz and frame interpolation. Other than that TW2000 (1080UB) should be the same although much less the price?

Bytehoven I owe you a drink I disconnected the PJ again, moved it to the minimum distance which is 12 feet from my 120" screen and suddenly all chromatic aberrations and focus problems are gone. I did not try the maximum position because it will dim the picture more and 24 feet away will be less practical. Where I got the perfect picture is 2 feet above my seat and will kind of block the view from the second raw seats. So I need to use some lens shift from 1/4 screen hight. Question to all owners of Panasonic AE1000, 2000, 3000: Did you have any focus problems because of the lens shift at minimum distances?
I am upgrading my evaluation of AE3000 from good to very good because there are no focus problems at minimum distances.


No need to return the PJ because I have perfect uniformity decent convergence and solved the focus problem. You never know if the new one will have similar problems from the same distance because of the lens they are using. I just have to move the location of my ceiling pole and mount. I am calling my electrician to rewire the power and HDMI from 20' to 12' and put two extra braces to the pole (garage door opener type braces forming 2 triangles from ceiling joists) I am not taking chances. PJ will be right above my head

fkuti:

Both projectors have 1600 lumens and the Epson 1080UB was measured at 1600 maximum whereas the Panasonic was measured somewhere in the 1200's. also, both got 5 stars for Performance and value on ProjectorCentral. And I assume the color of the Epson is in good hands since Joe Kane had a part in this projector I believe. The review stated that with some calibration it comes very close to the JVC RS1.

My use would be 16x9 since I would want to use the projector for all purposes: hi-def programming, blu ray, videogames and it's measured higher brightness makes it a little more flexible as far as location.

It's an interesting read to compare the two projectors. ProjectorCentral reviewed the Epson back in January before the Panasonic came out, but I believe the Panasonic review compares it to the Epson.

The Epson is also supposed to have good color management as well. Don't get me wrong, I've waited this long for the Panasonic 3000, but I had thought about the 2:35 aspect ratio and then realized that for me it wasn't feasible for all purpose use.

one of the advertisers of the forum is discounting the Epson by $300 which makes it the same price of the panasonic. Also, they are inlcuding a free lamp with the Epson which is a $350 value and free shipping, so Epson seems to be directly competing with the Panasonic's popularity.

I just thought it would be interesting to compare the two projectors especially if someone is going to use it for 16x9 only.

I plugged mine in tonight and I think I got a good one as far as convergence. With the center focused the corners are less in focus, with the upper left seaming like the most, but I don't think it is too bad in this regard (especially considering the price point).

I have the projector just overhead and behind at about 16' from a 10' wide High Power screen.

One minor quibble is that the remote doesn't work when I try to bounce it off the screen. Seems like I need to aim it at the projector to get it to work and even just shooting it behind me without taking care to make sure it was pointed close enough to the projector didn't always work. I tried the remote from my AE1000 and that works much better for me, so I've been using it.

I was wondering how well the dynamic iris would work with the Dynamic mode where it has been reported to give a dynamic CR that was about 10x the native CR. I tried the projector like this with some different material and didn't notice bad side effects from such a big multiplier, but also wondered if it was really giving that much. What I discovered with some measurements with basically factory defaults other than that I put it in Dynamic mode (bulb was on high or what they call Normal, Contrast and Brightness were at zero) was that there is an on/off CR range it will do if you only include right about when a full black image goes up and what it will do if you give it some time. At a little distance from the projector I measured white at about 11,000 lux. When I then put up a full black image and tried to measure what it was giving in the first second or so I got 1.67 lux. Then I counted in my head and estimated it took 10-15 seconds for the iris to slowly close down to settle at .24 lux. So, about 6600:1 on/off CR right away and about 46k:1 after some time.

I'm not reviewing projectors anymore, but if I was I think I might do something like report the on/off CR a projector with a DI can do within maybe 2 seconds and what they can do if given a lot of time with a blackout screen.

I should mention that since the projector was showing steps above reference white (video 235) out of the box, I'm sure I could have raised the Contrast settings and gotten somewhat higher numbers than above by crushing some of the stuff above video 235. I didn't measure any colors or adjust them in the menus though.

As far as ANSI CR, in Dynamic mode I measured 330:1 and for a modified ANSI CR of just measuring the center 4 rectangles (I think this is what Greg Rogers does) I measured about 250:1.

I've done some experimenting with the frame creation. I was checking out the fairly new Blu-ray of Hell Ride and there is a pan right at the beginning that shows the differences really well. I'll need to try it some more to see how many side effects there are, but I think I could get used to not seeing jumpy images on pans.

Overall it seems like a really nice projector for the price to me, but the on/off CR stuff I measured pushes me much more toward the RS20 for my theater room, since I don't consider on/off CR that takes 10-15 seconds to get there to really be much of a feature (especially when there isn't enough CR before that to blackout to my eyes most of the time) and expect the close to 40k:1 native on/off CR I think I'll get with the RS20 to give some nice visible improvement. I may keep the AE3000 as my second projector to use in my bedroom and move to another setup though.

--Darin

Thanks very much for those first impressions Darin.
It will be interesting to see what figures you get in a calibrated mode.
I'm trying to get my head around why the modified ANSI CR was lower than the normal ANSI CR. This isn't what normally happens is it?

The only thing (and it is the only thing) keeping this projector alive for me is the zoom/2.35 feature. Maybe I just need to let it go and get a anamorphic lens down the line. I don't think the manual zooming method is for me.

From the game. The game itself has some calibration options/setup.

Convergence/focus update:

Based on Dr. A's experiment, leaving the PJ mounted as is, I lowered zoom to min and tried to refocus. It seemed a bit better, though still off. I know this is not the same as actually moving the PJ, but candidly, I am not inclined to move my mount and rewire everything to accomodate a PJ when I am already operating well within its design limits. Plus, moving the PJ several feet in front of the back seats would bug me.

My old ax100 was much, much sharper, which shouldn't be the case, and compared to the 1080UB its not even close - the 1080 UB is razor sharp.

Zooming it back out to screen width size (approx 106") just shows how bad it is - red and green are just way off, and they are off all over the screen, not just in the corners or top, etc.

Guess I'll call PP Monday am.

Anybody else have one in the DC area yet? Would love to see what a good one looks like.

I can only speak for myself, but for me it came down to features. From reviews and specs, the two seem very comparable in picture quality and contrast. The features that sold it for me:

1. Powered zoom and focus. This was a MUST... especially if the projector didn't have the aspect ratio memory save feature.
2. The aspect ratio feature. I had no intentions of going for a lens setup (yet). This was the icing on the cake.
3. (minor) I wanted a black projector. I know there is a pro version though I haven't priced that one out. PP doesn't seem to stock it.
4. I had a budget of under $3500 (preferably under $3000). This ruled out most of the JVC and Sony projectors. Most in this price range have manual zoom and focus.
5. I did not want DLP due to the typical lack of zoom (most are 1.6x or less).

Mine will focus razor sharp, but I'm a little worried that it doesn't seem to be holding this focus after leaving the projector off for a while, the next time I turn it back on it seems like the focus is about two "clicks" of the remote off from where I had it set. I hope I'm wrong though. I haven't tested this too many times as I don't want to keep turning the projector off and on.

Mine has only 2 hours on it - was afraid to do anymore because of the PP limit and not sure how they would treat it so wanted to stay on the safe side.

Even my wife, who could care less about this, thinks my old ax100 was way better than the Panny or even the 1080 UB. It's true that I had a great ax100 unit - was perfect from day one with minimal tweaking.

Can anyone here tell me if the computer/VGA plug on the AE3000 has male or female pins?

Thank you.

EDIT: Thanks aquafire

Hmm interesting PJ. I'm hating my H78DC3 right now so I'm shopping around.

My question: For folks like me that have a external anamorphic lens, does this PJ do internal scaling for CH 2.35:1 set ups?