Panasonic PT-AR100 MSRP$ 1,999 - 4000U replacement... kind of - Page 14

Can anyone recommend a mount they like with their ar100? I would prefer white if possible of course.

http://www.visualapex.com/accessorie...W&MFR=Peerless
...works well for me. Bought for AX200U originally, works fine with AR100U (same pattern).

Im trying to get a customer to pull the trigger on this one in his game room. I quoted it with a Black Diamond Screen.... AR100+SI Black Diamond=Ultimate ambient light projector solution? Can't wait to find out!

I've had this projector for two days and I cannot figure out why I don't see any difference at all going from eco to normal. My fan increases and decreases in speed when changing modes but the picture stays exactly the same. I thought I remember reading about someone else having the same issue but I'm not sure it was in this thread. I have the light harmonizer feature turned off and everything else is basically as it came shipped to me. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Buy you a $15 or $35 Light Meter, lx1330 or lx1010b.

http://www.amazon.com/Mastech-Light-...8246547&sr=8-1

Take a measurment and see if it really is changing or not, if not call Panasonic.

It is very subtle.

Check out this article on Projector central:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/proj...s&entry_id=487

Hey Jimbo, Thanks for the article. After using it for the last month, I'm not suprised it's
that fast.

Jimbo, How are you liking your AR100 so far?

So far it's amazing. I have a 133" monoprice grey screen which I'm very happy with minus a little bit of a banding issue on solid light colored materials like skies etc. This is my first projector and I'm definitely impressed, especially at 133"! I mainly use it at night but my room is light colored all over. Because I like a bright picture, I usually use vivid cinema with all the lights out. With the .8 gain screen this seems to be about perfect. I did have a question. Do you like to use the frame response on normal or fast? I didn't seem to see a big difference but I'm just curious whether or not you have a preference one way or another.

As I mentioned above, I really don't see any difference going from normal to eco. The fan does slow down quite a bit in eco but the picture appears to be exactly the same. This seems strange to me but everything else is working flawlessly!

Oh and if anyone needs a 45' HDMI, buy a 24 or 22 AWG cable from Monoprice! It was only $36.00 and 1080p looks stunning! No signal boost required at all.

Jimbo, Glad to hear you're happy with your setup.
Your "banding" issue is probably a light reflection issue....I get the same thing at certain times of the day or from certain lights on during the evening. To me it's alot like reflections on television screens. It's fairly easy to eliminate what you can't tolerate and live with what you can. I keep my frame response on "normal" except when watching some live HDTV sporting events. It seems to help with some of the blur that occurs during camera focus change. I wouldn't worry about not being able to notice the difference in brightness between eco and normal on a screen as big as yours. If it looks good in eco mode, run eco mode and save your bulb...it's all good.

Jon,

I am interested in your comment about the camera focus change with live sporting events. Last night is the first night I used the AR100 for live sports. (Super Bowl of course) I had an AX200 for years and used it many times without issue. I noticed when camera angle changed and panned, or they changed cameras, the focus would go out for a split second and then it would focus. There were no problems during the commercials. Your comment about frame response interests me. Is what I describe the situation you are talking about? And, what is your suggestion as to how to fix it? Thanks

I think I have some insight into this, but I'm sure Jon can chime in as well. The change in "focus" you see from changing camera angles has nothing to do with your projector. It's the tv signal and I had the same phenomenon on my 60" RPTV. For some reason I've only seen it with football in the past.

I noted that a few times too but chalked it up to the network cameras getting focused rather than a problem with the projector. Anyway it was a not a big deal one way or the another. I just got my projector mounted and set up on Saturday and ran it in eco mode with normal setting to test an upscaled DVD and it looked great but probably too bright. My wife and I watched the Super Bowl last night with the same settings with the room lights at half power and it rivaled the 50" Panasonic plasma sitting right next to my 120" screen. After the game I changed the setting to 'Vivid Cinema' to bring down the lumens, turned down the lights a bit and watched another upscaled DVD and it looked pretty darn good. Since I ordered the AR100 from Projector People I got the free Disney WOW blu-ray and played some HD scenes - totally impressed. I'm likely going to document my experience with this projector at some point but too busy having fun to calibrate it right now. Planning to measure the lumen output in the different modes with my light meter and measure the fan noise in the room. For a new projector this one hasn't gotten much love in the projector threads, I'm guessing there are more people with bat-caves than family room set-ups which is where this light cannon really shines - no pun intended. Really this is a serious bargain.

Anyway, Projector People recently posted a video to YouTube featuring a shoot-out among different projectors including the AR100U. Have a look.

You don't want some local tech that has never worked on this type or projector starting out on yours. Sending it is will be much safer. I've had good luch with Pnasonic commercial line service in the past. No experience with consumer.

I'm sorry to hear you've got a problem with this unit, but I've never heard of any projector company having a tech come out to service a consumer grade product especially when you consider how intricate they are. If this was a regular LED, LCD or plasma HDTV set then yes but they are a different animal.

I'm on the fence between the AR-100 and Epson 8350. My throw is 15.5 ft, some ambient light and 100" elite ez-frame cine grey.

subscribed.

AR100U ordered, replacing 3.5 year old ax200U with over 4000 hours - 150" screen on window wall 2.5 stories high with ~19 foot throw. AX200 did well only washed out at sunset in winter (no tree coverage). Hoping to do even better with AR100 and learning from the forum. thanks

You want brighter overall or better contrast? Either one is gong to do a fine job with minor trade-off.

Jimbo, sorry you're having issues with the PJ. Hopefully you've sent it in by now and you'll soon be back up and running.

Iolmaster, The "Superbowl" issues were just as you said. It wasn't just 'US". You/we can't fix a bad
signal. Everyone I've talked to with a PJ or big screen had pixelation and/or severe contrast noise when several of the camera's refocused. NBC "video control" did a poor job. With all the ad' bucks they made, you'd of thought they would have been more ready with camera's, filters and signal processing to get the job done.....back to the discussion of "frame response"

I've noticed that on some, not all, HDTV car/motorcycle races I watch that changing the response to fast seems to help when the subject car/bike in focus is speeding past different contrasting backgrounds. All I can tell you is to experiment with it. I plan to call Panasonic and ask them about the intended purpose of the frame response adjustment and examples of benefits from either setting.

Patch2361, That's a nice screen choice for the AR200u. If you have a light colored room and or view in daytime light I think you'll be very happy.

Fasturb, SO, I see you're replacing you're ax200u like many of us. You're picture won't be washed-out anylonger. Lespurgeon is right, especially when he uses the word "minor" in his above post. Get a high contrast screen with the AR-100u I believe you'll get a better picture than many of the lower lumen PJs can throw in a batcave on a high gain white screen. (My experienced opinion after viewing everything I could in a 50 mile radious multiple times) SO, only one question remains: why would anyone begin a sentence with "so."
...Jon

I've never owned a projector, but am building a home theater and really want to do constant image height, switching between 16:9 and 2:35. Can someone explain the process of switching between the two when using the AR100U? Is it tedious or fairly simple? How does it differ from the AE4000?

I guess what I'm asking is whether the AR100U is a good fit for someone trying to do constant image height?

It is not hard, but, the manual does not do a very good job of describing how it is accomplished. I had to call Panasonic and it took the tech time to educate himself and get back to me. Even he was not sure. You will never figure it out by just reading the manual. It does work however. I would suggest calling 800 211-7262 and speak with Zach. He was very helpful. You have to use image position memory in the menu. Of course this is if you have already purchased the AR100. If not, I will tell you, that you can do what you have suggested.

By the way, the feature in the AR100 is called "Image detection auto switching".

Transformers Dark of the Moon on 133" Monoprice grey screen .8 gain. On cinema 1 eco mode (basically as dim as the PJ gets) 17' throw Taken on an Iphone 4

http://www.flickr.com/photos/76383446@N04/6854569803/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7638344...n/photostream/

Projector People has this for $1199 with the 3 year warranty now

My AR100U currently has about 25 hours on it and it has what I call vertical waves in the image. The best way that I can describe the waves is a rainbow of red, blue, green about a half inch wide and about an inch apart from the top to the bottom of the screen. (Throw of 18 feet and a screen size of 119" diagonal or a little under 9 foot across) The waves will go away if you take the image just slightly out of focus. Another way to get rid of the waves is to enlarge the image to about 12 foot across. With the image at about 12 foot across I then see the "screen door" effect. The problem also shows itself in the "Test Pattern Menu" which proves it is not any kind of signal or input issue. The best I can figure from everything I have tried is that it has something to do with the focus ?

This sounds similar to what Jimbo85281 was describing with his projector. I am quickly approaching 25 hours on mine and will be watching closely for this problem. What was the manufacturing date on your AR100U?

Manufacturing Date of November 2011

Mine has a October 2011 date and purchased from PP. I'm at 30 hours, still looks great. Did you contact Panasonic and if you did what did they say?

Panasonic has an interesting concept of customer service. For those of you thinking of this Panasonic projector or another model pay attention. I am almost 40 years old, I have a dedicated home theater, I am not using a hallway. The distance from the projector to the screen is 18 feet and I set at about 14 feet (this info is for later) I bought this projector for price, to get me by for now. I had it overnighted from projector people ($95). I went over the time limit on the lamp for their return policy before I realized I had a lemon.

The Online Chat Service - First I start with the online chat several weeks ago about seeing this wave pattern in the image. As Jimbo8528 said you mostly see it in "sky" scenes. The online chat said to send Panasonic
photographs, so I did. It can clearly be seen in the photographs. As I would periodically go to the online chat they first told me they didn't receive the photos. I sent them again while I was online chatting and verified they had them. Then they said they emailed me more questions (that I had already answered) to an email address that wasn't mine. Then they said they are getting an email error when they try to email me to the email address I verified with them. FISHY ?

The Phone Call - He politely starts talking about the failed email attempts. I didn't care. At this point the wave issue which Jimbo85281 and I are describing has turned into just the "Screen Door Effect" at no matter what size I have it at. I crossed the 31 hour mark this weekend. I told him this in an over 20 minute phone conversation. "How far away are you setting ?" "And you can see it at 14 feet away ?" Does this freaking matter ? I still have an old ae900u which doesn't have the "Screen Door Effect". He said that he thought it could be a lens alignment issue since I could blur it and make it go away.

The Solution - As Jimbo85281 said, they asked me to send it in. You pay to send it to them. No problem I knew that before I bought it. He says (pay attention here) "IF THEY DON'T FIND ANYTHING WRONG WITH IT THEY WILL CHARGE YOU $130" Now at my age do I believe that they will fix it send it back and say nothing was wrong with it and ask for $130 ? I did not set it up to be fixed yet. I am going to watch it to see if it gets better or worse. Then maybe get it fixed and if I have problems get the Better Business Bureau involved. Epson anyone ?

It is unfortunate that you have had this problem I have always had good luck with Panasonic tech support. Yes, Epson does send you a replacement, but if you think Epsons are any better as far as problems you better read the Epson threads. There are many in there that are saying anything but Epson. Many problems with bad lamps. I do think that projectors seem to have more problems than many other consumer electronics do. Hope you can work it out. I am very happy with my AR100. No problems so far. ( as he finds the nearest wood to knock on)

I can clearly see the waves in the picture you posted so I don't see how the rep can claim it's screen door or even lens alignment. I would hazard a guess and suspect something in the circuitry to produce that kind of pattern. I watched The Tree of Life last night on this projector and it looked spectacular and I haven't even calibrated it yet. I also upgraded from the Panasonic PT-AE900U (purchased in February 2006) which still is working great and is on its third bulb and one of the reasons (like you) that I stayed with the Panasonic brand.