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Panasonic PT-AE4000 MSRP $1999 - Page 271

post #8101 of 8336
5/2/12 at 11:08am
+1 on having a UPS.

I bought an APC 750ES a couple years back that self checks its backup battery condition and notifies me when it needs replacing. Smart idea since rechargeable batteries always fail after a few years.

A couple of months ago my entire city had a blackout and sure enough I was watching my pj at the time. My cable signal went dead and my UPS alarm started beeping. I wasn't even sure what was happening since all the lights in the room were of course turned off and seeing your lights fail is usually how you know there's a blackout.

This saved me potentially hundreds of dollars worth of repairs, perhaps even having to buy a new pj, just for having a device I bought for like $50, IIRC. I'll never go without one and advise anyone with a pj to get one.
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post #8102 of 8336
5/2/12 at 4:55pm
Digital_Chris, there are ways to optimize the black level, from easy to more involved.

1) Use the Auto-iris function
2) In an average setup, the Brightness setting shouldn't be above 0
3) Positionning the projector as far as you can from the screen will help the black level (at the expense of the overall picture brightness)

As for the lens memory toggling, use the Lens button on the remote, it wil bring up the right menu with one touch.
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post #8103 of 8336
5/3/12 at 12:51am
Thanks for the reply. I turned on the auto iris and didn't notice too much of a difference, but it was worth a shot. I have my brightness turned up +2 after playing the downloadable test patterns and my projector is a good 16' from a 105" screen.

I think I'm really worried about the black levels because I like to watch a lot of horror/thriller films and those are the types of films that are very dark throughout. And because my room is so dark, the blacks have a nice blueish tint to them so they stick out like a sore thumb. My next option is professional calibration, but if that wont help enough, maybe this was the wrong projector for me? :/

It's too bad because everything else is great!!

And thanks for letting me know how to bring up the lens memory section with one button, well technically, two, but it's better than 12
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post #8104 of 8336
5/3/12 at 3:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Digital_Chris View Post

Thanks for the reply. I turned on the auto iris and didn't notice too much of a difference, but it was worth a shot. I have my brightness turned up +2 after playing the downloadable test patterns and my projector is a good 16' from a 105" screen.

I think I'm really worried about the black levels because I like to watch a lot of horror/thriller films and those are the types of films that are very dark throughout. And because my room is so dark, the blacks have a nice blueish tint to them so they stick out like a sore thumb. My next option is professional calibration, but if that wont help enough, maybe this was the wrong projector for me? :/

It's too bad because everything else is great!!

And thanks for letting me know how to bring up the lens memory section with one button, well technically, two, but it's better than 12

How dark is room when watching movie? Any light at all washes out the blacks.....

What picture mode are you using?

What brand screen?
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post #8105 of 8336
5/3/12 at 5:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by NicksHitachi View Post

How dark is room when watching movie? Any light at all washes out the blacks.....

What picture mode are you using?

What brand screen?

The room is pitch black when watching movies, black ceiling, dark gray/black carpet, maroon seats and dark maroon walls.

I have been using Cinema 1 with contrast turned up to +5 and brightness up to +2, I heard that Cinema 1 had the best color out of the box so I applied that setting and then downloaded some test patterns that others here recommended and adjusted the contrast and brightness from there.

I am using Seymour Center Stage SD screen material.

Thanks for keeping on this
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post #8106 of 8336
5/3/12 at 7:00am
Heh, we have very similar setups, Seymour screen, projector located far away, use of Cinema 1, etc...

I have not used tests patterns, but the black bars on 2.35:1 movies generally can be considered the blackest you will find on a BD. If you use the waveform monitor, it's easy to adjust the black component of the picture (the black bar) to the 0 base-level.

However, if your projector have a blueish tint in its black, something else may be missadjusted or it may be defective. Considere doing an "factory reset" and starting over.

Last, some BD may have been mastered badly, be sure to check several high profile titles of known quality to make an evaluation of the picture quality. Here in Canada, most everything released by Chrystal films and TVA films needs to be played with brightness reduced to -10...
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post #8107 of 8336
5/3/12 at 7:14am
Thanks for the input guys. Good points. The plain video input worked with my camera hooked to it. Haven't checked the component input yet, but I could live with that if I had to. Cross our fingers it works.

I understand the "further down the chain" philosophy.

More bad news, the Integra processor seems to be the same deal. I'll send that in to a repair center. It's under warranty....who knows what they'll say...

Sure is hard having the theater down.
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post #8108 of 8336
5/3/12 at 8:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tony123 View Post

Thanks for the input guys. Good points. The plain video input worked with my camera hooked to it. Haven't checked the component input yet, but I could live with that if I had to. Cross our fingers it works.

I understand the "further down the chain" philosophy.

More bad news, the Integra processor seems to be the same deal. I'll send that in to a repair center. It's under warranty....who knows what they'll say...

Sure is hard having the theater down.

When it's in a state like this you begin to question why you even bother with it at all....then when it's back up and running properly you are reminded why.

Bill
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post #8109 of 8336
5/3/12 at 9:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Digital_Chris View Post

The room is pitch black when watching movies, black ceiling, dark gray/black carpet, maroon seats and dark maroon walls.

I have been using Cinema 1 with contrast turned up to +5 and brightness up to +2, I heard that Cinema 1 had the best color out of the box so I applied that setting and then downloaded some test patterns that others here recommended and adjusted the contrast and brightness from there.

I am using Seymour Center Stage SD screen material.

Thanks for keeping on this

Hi Chris
Did you choose in "HDMI SIGNAL LEVEL" the "EXPAND" mode (instead of normal)? (See the OPTION Menu). I've set it to expand because I use the PJ with my HTPC (set to "expand" level too).
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post #8110 of 8336
5/3/12 at 12:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Digital_Chris View Post

The room is pitch black when watching movies, black ceiling, dark gray/black carpet, maroon seats and dark maroon walls.

I have been using Cinema 1 with contrast turned up to +5 and brightness up to +2, I heard that Cinema 1 had the best color out of the box so I applied that setting and then downloaded some test patterns that others here recommended and adjusted the contrast and brightness from there.

Best way to adjust black level on these projectors is by using the built-in waveform monitor. Just make sure you are putting any "blacker than black" signal below the lower line.

If you are seeing a blue tint in your dark scenes then you need to color calibrate your setup. An appropriate test pattern and a blue filter are all you need to get a good first cut at it. Hopefully that will be enough to eliminate the blue tint. On my 3000 I found that CINEMA 3 was slightly better than CINEMA 1, but both were very close.

I have no problem seeing dark scenes in my theater, so I know the 4000 is capable of delivering what you want. Hopefully this is just a matter of calibration and not something wrong with your unit.
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post #8111 of 8336
5/3/12 at 1:20pm
My blacks are VERY dark.
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post #8112 of 8336
5/3/12 at 2:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cybrsage View Post

my blacks are very dark.

+1
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post #8113 of 8336
5/3/12 at 7:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cybrsage View Post

My blacks are VERY dark.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ferbal View Post

+1

Have either of you had your PJ professionally calibrated? If not, what have your tweaks been? Also, does the fact that you're both running a HTPC to the PJ have anything to do with it?

Thanks
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post #8114 of 8336
5/3/12 at 7:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Digital_Chris View Post

Have either of you had your PJ professionally calibrated? If not, what have your tweaks been? Also, does the fact that you're both running a HTPC to the PJ have anything to do with it?

Thanks

I bought a demo unit from ProjectorPeople, so I am not sure if it came precalibrated or not (had 8 hours of use on it when I got it). I did not do anything but turn it on and plug it in, though I can check the settings easily enough and post them here.

I am using expanded 0-255 color settings on my video card, not sure if that makes a difference or not.

EDIT: Cinema 1, all else is set to 0. Auto Iris is on. In Advanced, all are set to zero except detail clarity which is +2. Frame creation is off and color management is normal.
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post #8115 of 8336
5/3/12 at 7:59pm
Thanks for checking on that for me cybr. When you say your blacks are very black, do you mean ALL blacks including a black screen in a movie? That's where its an issue for me. Although, everyones perception of dark backs can be completely different, ya know?
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post #8116 of 8336
5/4/12 at 5:09am
It is as black as my plasma TV...or at least close enough that I do not notice a difference between when I watch the plasma and when I test the projector. The space scenes in Transformers: Dark of the Moon are VERY stunning. The little white stars blazing on the inky black of space is chubby worthy.

Here is a picture I took of my screen, playing a demo disc I downloaded from this forum. It has a lot of black on it. I know it is just a picture, but remember that pictures tend to wash out the blacks, not improve them. The pic is taken at a slight angle by accident.



If you look halfway between the words and the top, you can see a light line. That is where the white painted screen wall portion ends and the black painted portion of the screen wall starts. The black is Steelers Black, so it is very black.
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post #8117 of 8336
5/4/12 at 5:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Digital_Chris View Post


Have either of you had your PJ professionally calibrated? If not, what have your tweaks been? Also, does the fact that you're both running a HTPC to the PJ have anything to do with it?

Thanks

What source are you evaluating your blacks with?

My Directv HD Receiver had terrible black levels when on my PJ compared to blue ray on PS3. What I saw was blue-gray blacks which were full of noise or grain.

I corrected with Video settings in receiver for that input.

My point is different sources have different black level performance, something to consider. The black level problem in this case was the DTV receiver.
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post #8118 of 8336
5/4/12 at 10:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Digital_Chris View Post

Have either of you had your PJ professionally calibrated? If not, what have your tweaks been? Also, does the fact that you're both running a HTPC to the PJ have anything to do with it?

Thanks

I calibrated my PJ using the WFG and a gray and color bars.
Cinema 1 - Bright = 0 - Contrast = +2 - AutoIris = ON - Frame Creation =+1 - Detail Clarity = +2
I think your problem is in the source (receiver, sat, bluray...)
I use a PC with pc levels (0-255) and that's why I set the HDMI level to EXPAND. If you use video, you must set it the PJ HDMI levels to NORMAL (if not the blacks will be gray)
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post #8119 of 8336
5/4/12 at 11:09am
Color 1 was suppose to be the best for color when this originaly came out
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post #8120 of 8336
5/4/12 at 2:07pm
Wow cybr, if your blacks look that good in person, I'm a very jealous fella! Thats looks terrific! I can't see ANY line between your painted walls!

Nicks, I was playing the Blu-Ray version of those movies through my Panasonic DMP-BDT210P. As far as I know, I have no video processing going on through the player or my AVR, Marantz SR5005.
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post #8121 of 8336
5/4/12 at 2:09pm
They do, I cannot explain it other than possibly the HTPC.
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post #8122 of 8336
5/4/12 at 3:41pm
So I decided to add the PS3 to the mix and throw on The Matrix to see if it was the player, but this is not the case. I even zoomed out to see how the black bars compared to the screen border and they were darker than the blacks in the actual movie but quite lighter than the black screen border... I'm not sure what else to try..

EDIT: Just a side note if it matters, when projecting a "black" screen via PS3 or Blu-Ray player, and I stick my hand in the light path, quite a bit of light shows up on my hand and the difference between my hand shadow and the black picture on the screen is quite dramatic, I think anyway.
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post #8123 of 8336
5/5/12 at 7:31am
So I took advice from another thread and ran a temporary HDMI cable from the receiver to the projector and unfortunately there was no difference, I also tried running the HDMI cable straight from the Blu-ray player to the projector, and again, no difference.

I did make a little bit of progress though, I had Transformers dark of the moon playing to see the star scene in the beginning, I paused it and went through a few settings. When It's set to cinema 1 like normal, I can see a difference between the black sky and the black bars, but then when I switch it to cinema 2, the black bars and the black screen blend much better. The projector is still throwing out quite a bit of light for the black bars though, but at least I got the movie blacks to match the black bars better
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post #8124 of 8336
5/5/12 at 10:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Digital_Chris View Post

Wow cybr, if your blacks look that good in person, I'm a very jealous fella! Thats looks terrific! I can't see ANY line between your painted walls!


Screenshots posted in internet forums (or seen at professional pj review sites, for that matter) can not be used to properly evaluate the actual user experience of pj black level (or color rendition) due to the variability of camera settings and one's monitor (one attempts to view them on), among other things, regardless of the measurement equipment's price/quality/technician's expertise.
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post #8125 of 8336
5/5/12 at 10:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by wnl View Post

Best way to adjust black level on these projectors is by using the built-in waveform monitor.

Correct, and one should use a grayscale ramp pattern when doing so, being generated from the source they want to calibrate to.

[Unfortunately, if one properly calibrates to their, say, bluray deck they may not have exactly the correct results if they then switch to their computer's output, even if they stay on the exact same input on the pj and do that switching from an external switch box, such as an A/V receiver, but it should be pretty close]
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post #8126 of 8336
5/5/12 at 2:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Digital_Chris View Post

So I took advice from another thread and ran a temporary HDMI cable from the receiver to the projector and unfortunately there was no difference, I also tried running the HDMI cable straight from the Blu-ray player to the projector, and again, no difference.

I did make a little bit of progress though, I had Transformers dark of the moon playing to see the star scene in the beginning, I paused it and went through a few settings. When It's set to cinema 1 like normal, I can see a difference between the black sky and the black bars, but then when I switch it to cinema 2, the black bars and the black screen blend much better. The projector is still throwing out quite a bit of light for the black bars though, but at least I got the movie blacks to match the black bars better

Out of curiosity, do you have an HDMI out on your PC? If so, try hooking your PC up to the projector and playing something.
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post #8127 of 8336
5/6/12 at 1:53pm
I do not have HDMI out nor do I have a blu-ray player built in to either my desktop (which I rarely use) or my macbook pro. I can try my macbook pro (DVI to HDMI) to see how the blacks look with a HD trailer or something, maybe?
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post #8128 of 8336
5/16/12 at 4:02pm
I have a question about setting up the 12 volt trigger. I want to have the projector turn on when my Onkyo TXSR876 turns on. The receiver does have a 12 volt trigger but it is only for zone 2. So I have read about another trick prople have used. This involves a 12v wall wart, cat5 and a 3.5mm mono connector. I want to make sure I am doing this correctly. This is what I have done so far:
1. Bought a 3.5mm mono connector.
2. Soldered the cat5 to the 3.5mm mono connector. I used 1 pair (or 2 wires) per leg. The blue/bluewhite and the orange/orangewhite.
3. I found an old wall wart. It is a wall wart from a "netgear" device. The specs are output= 12v, 1.2a. Will this work?
4. The wall wart will plug into the switched outlet on the Onkyo receiver.
5. The Panny will be configured to accept a 12v in trigger.

If the above setup will work, which leg does the positive attach to. Does the positive attach to the center? Do I need to add anything else to the setup to make this work?

Thanks for the help
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post #8129 of 8336
5/17/12 at 8:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by TVAddikt View Post

I have a question about setting up the 12 volt trigger. I want to have the projector turn on when my Onkyo TXSR876 turns on. The receiver does have a 12 volt trigger but it is only for zone 2. So I have read about another trick prople have used. This involves a 12v wall wart, cat5 and a 3.5mm mono connector. I want to make sure I am doing this correctly. This is what I have done so far:
1. Bought a 3.5mm mono connector.
2. Soldered the cat5 to the 3.5mm mono connector. I used 1 pair (or 2 wires) per leg. The blue/bluewhite and the orange/orangewhite.
3. I found an old wall wart. It is a wall wart from a "netgear" device. The specs are output= 12v, 1.2a. Will this work?
4. The wall wart will plug into the switched outlet on the Onkyo receiver.
5. The Panny will be configured to accept a 12v in trigger.

If the above setup will work, which leg does the positive attach to. Does the positive attach to the center? Do I need to add anything else to the setup to make this work?

Thanks for the help

Just a thought, if you use a programmable remote like a Harmony. You can have it automaticlly turn on Zone 2 with a normal power on and that will activate the trigger. I use this method to to trigger my amps using the Zone 2 trigger, works very well and once programmed you never thing about it again.
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post #8130 of 8336
5/17/12 at 9:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mopar_Mudder View Post

Just a thought, if you use a programmable remote like a Harmony. You can have it automaticlly turn on Zone 2 with a normal power on and that will activate the trigger. I use this method to to trigger my amps using the Zone 2 trigger, works very well and once programmed you never thing about it again.

Thanks for the info. I am in the process of making my new HT work. Have you ever setup a wall wart like I described in order to act as a 12 volt trigger? The two questions I had in that setup are:
1. Yes it is a 12 v wall wart but it puts out 1.2 A. Is 1.2a to much?
2. Do I need to add anything else in between the wall wart and the projector?

My HT has quite a few components that need to be activated in order for a move to happen. So I am trying to keep my options open.
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