Panasonic PT-AE4000 MSRP $1999 - Page 159

The warranty on the 8500U is two years and does not cover lamps which only come with a 90 day warranty from Epson. If you have found a private, local dealer that assures you they will offer you free replacement lamps, under a 4 year extended warranty ($?) [assuming they stay in business for that long], then that's a private matter between you and them and has nothing to do with Epson. If they refuse to do so similarly on Panasonic, they can make up any song or dance they want as to "why" they wont offer the same but I suspect it has more to do with the fact that they really don't want to sell you a Panasonic in the first place and would rather bad mouth them as much as possible, since selling it at the competitive street price it can be found for almost anywhere over the internet is not profitable to them.

If you respond to this, please indicate the name of the retailer that is making this claim, which is perfectly within forum guidelines. We only aren't allowed to discuss retailer's prices. Thanks.

Lens memory help.

I have a 2.35:1 screen.

Hopefully I just missed something obvious. I'm trying to setup my two lens memory presets for 16:9 content and 2.35:1 content. I followed the steps outlined earlier in this thread (somewhere around page 50) but still have an issue.

So I got the 16:9 image all perfected (zoom, focus, lens shift) so that it is centered left to right and fills the screen vertically. Then when I zoom out for the 2.35:1 image, the top of the projected image actually moves down about 2" or so. So I'm not sure how to fix this. I tried using the vertical area shift, but that only works on the projected area...so it won't shift any higher. If I mess with the vertical lens shift, it screws up my 16:9 image.

What piece am I missing here?

I had the same issue when I had lens above the top of the screen. Lowering the projector solved it.

My lens might be a few inches above the top of my screen

That sucks if this is the only way to fix it...I just got my shelf all nice and mounted.

How far below top of screen does the PJ need to be?

Thanks for the quick reply, and if anyone else knows anyway to solve without lowering the projector, PLEASE let me know!

The Lens Memory function remembers the vertical and horizontal positioning as well as the zoom and focus settings.

Just get it al set up for a certain content, say, 2.40:1 (or 16:9), then save that settings under Lens Memory 2.40:1 (or 16:9). You can call them a name if that's easier.

Then in the Auto Switching menu, point the 16:9 at your 16:9 setting and the same with cinemascope.

Because some cinemascope content is 2.35:1, some is 2.37:1, some is 2.40:1 etc, the Auto Switching won't always work perfectly. In that case just use the Lens Memory to set it back to where you saved the settings for whatever aspect ratio you're watching.

I've seen people get away with a working CIH setup with projector several inches higher than the screen. But that's the highest you can go. ziptiecowboy's experiment verified this.

Here are other options I've heard people using without lowering the projector:

1. Tilt the projector downward, then tilt up the screen a litte, IF you have a fixed frame screen. This avoids keystoning.

2. Tilt the projector downward just a little, then use keystone adjustment. Most would say this is a big no no due to PQ degradation from keystoning. But see it for yourself. If the keystoning is subtle enough, you may be fine.

If you are willing to settle for a less than optimal quality image for your 16:9 content you can do what I do. Switch to aspect "S16:9" which shows a much smaller image but still proportionally correct. Adjust zoom and focus to get it to fill the screen. Switching back and forth would then require a change to a different memorized lens setting and a different aspect setting. But you won't have to touch the projector.

The disadvantage is that the 16:9 image won't be as bright and may not be as sharp (especially for 1080 content).

I eventually want to change my mount to get the projector lower, but in the meantime this works reasonably well.

Here's how one person did it

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post17979713

I just set mine up last week, not exactly the same way but the same general idea.

BIG QUESTION:..

Some of us must have owned this projector long enough to run the lamp up to 2,000 hrs.

Please post your comments and observations on durability, brightness drop off, color change, lamp life beyond 2k, etc, etc.
Thanks to all.

For referencepost #4171 thru #4178.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...9#post18209879

Azgard. I have had mine for three months and still haven't fired it up yet.

The 4K model came out October/November 2009, so I will be really impressed to see anyone burning over 2000 hours six months into ownership. You may get more responses by posting this question on the 3K thread, http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...79806&page=147.

Thanks very much.

Yeah.. 2K hours in 1/2 a year. Possible I suppose, just not likely.

Just got my PT-AE4000 today! It was the simplest setup ever!

I have pretty much zero complaints projecting on my wall (had to measure for screen-size ordering). My ONLY complaint is that on a completely white image, there's an EVER-so-slight color shift to green toward the left of the image, and to red (by comparison) to the right. I guess it's just the fairly typical uneven beam. It's only very slight, but I noticed it. On anything other than a completely white background (I mean literally white - nothing else on screen), it's not visible at all.

I'm guessing this is normal?

This projector kicks so much ass, by the way.

Yes, assuming 6 months usage divided by 2000 hours...that's equal to about 333 hours per month or 11 hours per day. Good suggestion on posting in the AE3000 thread.

Thanks to all who have helped in giving their input on their fan noise. I have some good news thanks to Panasonic i am getting a replacement projector. Seems the customer service at Panasonic is as good as their projectors performance (this is the fourth model i have owned).

I have always enjoyed Panasonic projectors and this is the first and hopefully only time i will need their customer service. Top notch, it is so satisfying when a company stands behind their products.

I dropped the projector in today, there is no stock until the 20th but fortunately i still have an AX200 i can use in the meantime.

Again, thanks all for their appreciated input.

Kiwiguy I can report that my 4000 definitely doesn't have a pulsing fan. So I'm glad you're getting a new projector!

Congrats. Wait till you get your screen.!!

I was and am still shocked we can get this picture quality on a projector.

Hi jjmbxkb,

210 hours in 3 weeks, but that is going to slow down dramatically in a few weeks. I have been watching a movie or so a day, but also a lot of hockey. Mine stays on for about 6-10 hours a day, but again hockey will slow down, my business will pick up and I will probably cut the use in half, that is until Sept/Oct.

WOW! 210 hours in 3 weeks! I average about 12-14 hours a week.

hey guys,

finally got around to getting a couple *decent* screenshots of the projector.

hope this helps some future buyers out

.

Hi, John: Great pictures, and good choice of movies. What's your screen, size?

that is on a 110 carada BW.
oh ya, i have the projector on eco mode, color 1

the kill bill was streamed off my media pc. the dark knight is off a blu ray via ps3

Thank you! Placed my order for my Seymour AV XD 97.5" retractable diagonal screen yesterday, so I'm pretty stoked!

I can't believe how well the Panasonic deals with 24p, - it's noticeably better than my Samsung LN46B750 1080p TV.

John, amazing setup.

I'm guessing Kill Bill from the media PC is not 1080p? Can you comment on the PQ difference between that and the Blu Ray on a big screen like that, if any? How about difference in SQ, if any?

Thanks.

amazingly, the audio quality is pretty much the same. im sure the fact that i am ripping in DTS-MA and DTS core helps with that.

picture quality is a mixed bag (much like picture quality from disk to disk).

I so far have seen it almost equal, to being far inferior.

for instance, the newest star trek blu ray vs the rips i have look very close. there might be differences but it would take a/b comparisons to find them.

the Dark knight, on the other hand does not require a/b to see the dfference. in the 16x9 scenes (imax cameras) that i have screenshots posted from, the blu ray is much sharper and cleaner looking.
and the kill bill rip is 1080p

I don't know if this is a fair assessment, but I kind of thought it would be brighter and sharper. The reason I say not fair is because a friend of mine has the Pioneer Kuro Pro-FPJ1 projector and when he demo'd his picture with the Dark Night I almost cried. That was comparing it to my Panny1000. I would have thought that the 4000 would be close to the older LCOS Pioneer. Is the Pro-FPJ1 that much better than the Panny 4000?

Don't know about the AE1000, but I went from the AE2000 to the AE4000 and it was quite a big step up. Same screen and everything. Black levels were the biggest thing I noticed, huge difference.

Ted

i dunno if your serious or not....

it looks like that particular projector is at least twice the price, if not more. msrp was 7000 dollars...

also, i dont know how you can expect to compare any projector with a screenshot. these are close to accurate compared to what i see color and brightness wise, but there is no way you can expect to be able to compare sharpness on an image that has been reduced to fit in these forums.