Panasonic PT-AE4000 MSRP $1999 - Page 211

What about installing a decorative piece of backing board (like a 1x8 piece of oak stained) that spans the 1x2 cross beams inside the soffit? The backing board could be secured to the cross beams and then you attach the PJ mount to the backing board. This also give you more flexibility in the future if you ever have to change the PJ mount.

You could even do two 1x8" pieces of oak and trim out the edges with cove moulding or other trim. It would look nice IMO and give you the strength you need to hold the PJ.

Yes, that's how it works.

With the OFF setting, you got that cinema look and feel but not the 48fps flicker. It's really projected at 96fps.

There is no 3:2 pulldown process with 24fps material on BD.

Anyone have a problem with their AE4000 going out of focus? I've had mine for almost exactly a year, and every few months it will go slightly out of focus. I'll be watching a blu-ray and notice the picture is slightly fuzzy and go into the Zoom/Focus menu, and sure enough I have to adjust the focus a couple of notches. It's ceiling mounted and the screen is a fixed screen mounted on the wall, so nothing is moving. It's just a minor annoyance, but just seems strange. I also have a AX200 I've had for several years mounted alongside the 4k and just use it for TV now to save bulb life on the 4k, and I've never had to adjust the focus on it.

They showed up a few weeks ago, and I've been dreading getting rid of them, but I'm here to report their removal was surprisingly quick and easy.

One was a green fuzzy area in the lower right of the image, visible only when the image is dark. Also a couple of very faint violet blurs near the center of the image. I probably wouldn't have noticed the violet blobs if I hadn't been looking for them because of the green one.

I long ago bookmarked HMenke's excellent guide for the AE3000, which is completely applicable to the AE4000:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...1#post16241911

After removing the projector from the ceiling mount, I carefully removed the top cover, bulb assembly, and inner cover. No need to remove the circuit board. Very easy, all you need is a Phillips screwdriver.

Once I had the circuit board exposed, I turned the projector vertically on its end and used a Giotti Rocket to clean the LCD panels, blowing through the openings in the circuit boad at every possible angle for about two minutes. Probably overkill, but I didn't want to have to go back in a second time.
http://www.amazon.com/Giottos-AA1900.../dp/B00017LSPI

Of course I forgot that I can't get our theater dark enough during the day to see the results. But when the evening came, we smiled. All blobs gone.

As for avoiding the problem, I'm not sure there's much you can do. I thought I was doing everything I could. Our theater is largely dust-free, and I only touch the projector once a month to vacuum the filter. I'm always careful to vacuum the filter in another room and replace it as quickly as possible. Then I blow any dust off the top of the projector and from the lens (I leave the lens cover off at all times).

Two things you should definitely avoid: do not dust around the projector with the filter removed, and never vacuum the filter while in place: this pulls air in the opposite direction from normal, sucking unfiltered air into the machine.

So don't be afraid of The Blob, it's easily vanquished.

I have an issue:
My fan speed has increased over the last month or so. I have it ceiling mounted, and the fan was very difficult to hear. Now it's obvious. It's on low power, high altitude is off.

Anyone else experience this?

This may be unrelated, but also when there is no signal going to the projector, the fan speeds up. Strange, but I wonder if that's normal.

Thanks in advance.

Have you cleaned the filter? Sounds like dust in the filter may be impeding air flow.

Thanks for the reply.

That was my first thought, and, no I had not cleaned it. But I ran it for a few minutes without the filter and it never throttled down. I'll clean it tonight and see if it works.

Just a thought, did this coincide with the beginning of heating season? Is there a register near the projector, or does warm air tend to gather near the ceiling?

If the screen is dark when you have no signal, it's not surprising the fan speeds up: the LCD panels must absorb all that light, which becomes heat inside the machine.

You might try directing a table fan at the projector and see if that allows the projector fan to slow down.

Oh, and DO NOT run the projector without the filter! You're just asking for dust blobs.

It was noticeably cool in the room. More so than during the summer. I'm hoping it is just the filter needing cleaning.

The screen is blue with no inputs. I'm just hoping that the fan speed controller is not messed up for some reason. Mainly I was wondering if anyone else has experienced the fan speed-up with no input.

I'm glad you had such success with the "blob removal". I've never been able to vanquish it myself, despite following the attached link and multiple tries. Now I'm just living with the green blob, since no amount of blowing seems to work. I think mine's in a different spot than normal, since I can never quite bring it into focus. In my experience, LCD panel dust can eventually be sharply focused at one extreme or the other; this one never quite resolves itself... and thus I don't know where to attack it.

Turns out it was the filter. Quiet as a mouse now.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Glad it was just the filter. A suggestion: change the background color from blue to black (MENU > OPTION > BACK COLOR). Much easier on the eyes.

Does the AE4000 have memorized lense shift? With a press of a button it can shift the image up a couple of feet???

No

A little elaboration on Murray's succinct answer. The AE4000 can remember up to six lens memory settings. Each setting stores these parameters:

motorized zoom setting
motorized focus setting
electronic horizontal area position
electronic vertical area position
electronic masking area

What this lets you do is create settings for common aspect ratios and switch between them easily. This is only useful/necessary if you have a wide screen.

For example, I have a 2.35:1 aspect screen. When watching 16:9 content, lens memory 1 is loaded, which fills the screen vertically with all 1080 pixels.

When I watch a 2.35 aspect movie, I switch to lens memory 4, which zooms the lens to fill the screen horizontally and adjusts the focus. It also shifts the image up electronically to position the 800 vertical pixels of a 2.35 image so it fits vertically within the screen. Lens memories 2 and 3 are assigned to 1.85 and 2.2 aspects.

The amount of useful electronic shift is limited to about 280 pixels, the combined height of the black bars above and below the image on a Blu-ray disc. Horizontal electronic shifting is possible, but is not very useful, since any electronic horizontal shifting will lose pixels, as both 16:9 and 2.35 images fill the full 1920 horizontal pixels. It's only in the vertical direction where it can shift while still preserving the full 800 vertical pixels of a 2.35 image.

A masking area can also be set, it makes the black areas outside the image darker than the black bars in the HDMI signal. this feature is flawed in that it often can't fully mask the image. In my ceiling mounted setup, for example, I can mask fully above the image, but the masking range can't cover the full area below the image. This seems to be a programming limitation and hopefully will be corrected in the successor to the AE4000 (along with removing that stupid flashing PROCESSING message ).

So yes, the AE4000 can shift the image up a couple of feet, but only if you have a really big screen. On my 11 foot screen, it shifts about a foot. But this is electronic shifting of a 1920x800 image within the 1920x1080 LCD panel, not any mechanical shifting of the lens itself. Only zoom/focus are motorized.

The manual recommends you clean the filters (by vacuuming) every 100 hours. I vacuum mine once a month even though that's much less than 100 hours, as it's easier to remember. I have an air purifier with a charcoal based pre-filter that needs vacuuming then as well, two mid sized dogs = a fair amount of dust & hair.

Much more succinct. But I find the lens memory settings very useful for my 100" 16:9 screen as well. 16:9 content of course fills the screen. But for 2.35 blu-rays, I prefer the bottom of the picture down to the bottom of the screen, more at eye level, and then just one large black bar at the top. Those are the two I have set for auto memory load - when the projector detects the aspect ratio of the content, it automatically loads those settings.

Then other settings I have saved are:

"subs" - 2.35 foreign language films with English subtitles in the lower black bar, so the bottom of picture is raised so that I can read the subs.

"nosubs" - I have a some 2.35 French blu-ray Steelbooks with forced French subtitles when the original English audio is selected. So in this setting I lower the picture to the bottom of the screen and then masked off the lower black bar so that the subs aren't displayed on the wall below the screen. The only forced subs I then see are the tops of the letters when there are two lines of dialog.

"non-anamorphic" - I have a few non-anamorphic DVDs, so in this setting I zoomed up so the picture fills the entire screen.

Yes, that's a very good application for lens memory, masks three sides of the image instead of two.

I prefer a constant image height setup, but if your room limits screen width more than height, a 16:9 screen makes more sense.

I also have the out-of-image subtitle problem on a small number of 2.35 titles, loading the 2.2 aspect usually solves it. But you've reminded me I should create a "2.35:1 subtitle" lens memory that shifts the image to the very top of the screen, making it as wide as possible while leaving enough room for subtitles at the bottom.

Some players like the Oppo let you reposition subtitles, but I don't think Santa's going to bring me one this year.

The question is "does the PT-AE4000 have memorised lens shift, With a press of a button it can shift the image up a couple of feet"?

Lens shift is for moving the actual lens up/down/left/right, and the PT-AE 4000 does have this function but it is manual only from the projector not from the remote.

Mine had 1250 hrs on it. First time cleaning. I just forgot about it. I've always had DLP, so no filter on those. The foam filter is the same as on our vacuum cleaner. That bogs down after a few times of use.

That is an important note to make. I've seen many people confuse the automated horizontal/vertical area shifts with lens shifts.

The Lens Memory is my favorite feature about this projector, so let me join the fun of discussing my setup:

I have a taller 16:9 screen, and a wider 2.35:1 screen, mimicing a CIA (constant image area) setup. I set up memories for 1.78:1, 1.85:1, which are projected on the 16:9 screen, and then 2.35:1 and 2.40:1, which are projected on the 2:35:1 screen.

I got two more to play with. Having memories for subtitle is a great idea.

In my setup, the black bar is pushed to the bottom for 1.85:1 and 2.40:1. I may try moving it to the top, after seeing your posts.

Thanks very much.

HI all,

I have decided to upgrade my home theatre for NVIDIA 3D. I will be selling off my trusted PT-AE 1000 and purchasing a 120 Hz replacement. I am certainly leaning toward the PT-AE 4000 because of my experience of the 1000 which I have owned for years. However it is not on the recommended vender list published by NVIDIA for 3D Vision and I had no reply from NVIDIA tech support telling that the projector is suitable. I therefore need some guidance!

1. Should I look at alternatives to the PT-AE 4000 and why?

2. Does anyone have an NVIDIA 3D setup using the PT-AE 4000 and how is it? Any issues?

Thanks for the comments and help in advance?

That's because the 4000 is not a 120 Hz projector. The best it can do is 60 Hz.


If you want to do 3D, yes.

Although it can't do 3D, it is a 120Hz design

Mine does the same thing with no signal, displaying a blue or black background with no input makes no difference. I believe they run the fans faster as a means of protection when not locked to a signal.

According to NVIDIA's own system requirements page, the AE4000 will not work:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-visi...uirements.html

Some further explanation of 3D formats and home projection:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/what...ready_mean.htm

LCD projectors also need special screens for 3D as well, not ready for prime time yet IMHO.

The AE4000 is more focused on image quality and aspect ratio switching than as a gamers projector.

I need to purchase a replacement lamp for my Projector. I am considering B&H Photo because I bought the Projector there.

My concern is they don't specifically state that this is an official Panasonic replacement lamp. The wording is a bit ambiguous and I don't want a knockoff lamp. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...PT_AE4000.html

I doubt very much that's a knockoff, B&H shows the Panasonic logo and model number ET-LAE4000. You could of course ask them to make sure. B&H is a very good company, never had a problem with them.

If you want to save a few bucks, some places have it a bit cheaper. I've also had only good experiences with Provantage.
http://www.google.com/products/catal...d=0CFEQgggwAA#

Okay then, it can't accept 120 Hz input at 1080p, which is really what is relevant for this discussion.

Although the manual does claim it will accept VGA138, if that helps.