OWNERS Thread for the Panasonic PT-AE7000U 3D Projector - Page 133

In anticipation of the new model, I was going over the details of the older model and one thing confused me - does the 5000/7000 not have any controls for adjusting the convergence????????

I didn't hear Ms. Yotsu say anything about the 8000 correcting crosstalk.

Edit: Just saw this: link.

It states:
Interesting.
Edited by JamesN - 8/30/12 at 4:48am

That's as close as it gets to Panasonic admitting they effed up with the temperature regulation on the 5000/7000. This could easily be fixed in a firmware upgrade, but that'd probably kill the sales of the 6000/8000.

To be completely fair, the quote is not directly attributed to anyone from Panasonic. An editor on the AVForums site made the statement.

To be completely fair, the British AVS Forums is running Panasonic's live feed from the show. Obviously they have a close relationship.
Remember that when reading their upcoming, glowing 8000 review.
Remember too, they rated the worse of this years 3D ghosters quite highly.

I'm quite happy with my 7000. Some of the new 8000 features sound nice, but to me not worth an upgrade unless they include significant reduction in crosstalk. I plan on waiting for feedback from real-world owners who have seen both in action. Only then would I consider an upgrade.

They also gave JVC top marks for 3D performance...............

In the video with the Panny rep, she states that the better temperature control is needed for the higher wattage lamp.

Well, it ticks me off that all these improvements are coming out just a year later when it took 4 years(?) the last go around.
Looks like they didn't have time to replace that bloody joystick though. That makes me feel a little better.

Funny, I've never noticed this parallax problem on 3D motion, but introducing artifacts scares me anyway. I hate artifacts.
It will be interesting to see if 20% more brightness means not having to watch 3D in Dynamic mode (for those who must). I also didn't hear anything about the DI being improved so that's not a good sign.

Haha, my thoughts exactly. A fix for something so subtle that I've never seen it mentioned once on any 3-D forum I've ever visited. Now tell me you've got the crosstalk and lamp flicker problems licked and you might have a willing buyer here.

Haha, your probably going to want to buy my subs too...

Or, I could do your wallet a favor and just not play them at all...

=)

Definitely need to hear some subs because I don't really have any idea yet what I'm going to be doing along those lines.

This is my second Pany projector and I sent it in for service since it was out of convergence and the 3D crosstalk was not what I paid for. They finally called me yesterday after having my projector for 10 days to tell me they could not find anything wrong with it and it was tested within normal param. Really. I sent them the pics of a convergence image and they had no answer. They want me to get it back and reinstall it and if it still has the problem, to take a photo of the setup and a pic of the lens with the lens shift cover off. WTF?? This is bs. I know when I see convergence off. I've had old crt projectors that had better convergence. And now it appears they've fixed issues with a new projector. I'm pissed.

Here is another review that implies that improvement in crosstalk in the 8000/6000 is accomplished via temperature control.

It states:

Panasonic are going to give themselves (and their customers) a real headache with their current 3D strategy. They're the only company actively using all three types of glasses. I've found sourcing the IR glasses much more difficult lately, so I hope they're keep a reasonable supply of these around for their projector customers (and that they don't raise the price for their captive market..).

On the contrary, I think they would have alienated many 7000/5000 owners upgrading to the 8000/6000 had they switched to RF. Those owners, who had already invested hundreds of dollars in IR glasswear, would find themselves in the position of having to outfit themselves all over again.

Just read from p1 - 131

Really !? The only thing to fix it is to send it in for service !?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?

Let me barge in and add a few more words to this flickerin' subject that oh so much ticks me off. My lamp started flickering at 137 hrs. I waited for 50 long hrs till it stopped in ECO mode. No more flickering for the next 400 some hrs... till I decided to watch 3D on Normal mode. The flickering resumed and this time my patience wore off. I got a new bulb. It's next to 12 hrs now and everythig seems perfect. Of course 12 hrs is next to nothing, so I'll have to wait till the 100-200-300 hr barriers are crossed -- but who can say it will not be back over 500 hrs? Or 600? 700?
I also read quite a few posts that the PJ had to be sent for service, and I still wonder if that would REALLY solve the problem. If the problem was a bummed ballast, as some said it was, why the heck my new lamp is now working fine? It should be flickering like crazy too. My hunch is that bad bulb batches are the problem -- which i really, REALLY hope Panny fixed on the 8000, with a brighter lamp (I'm scared sh*tless just to think of it -- with greater power comes greater... flickering!). Nobody deserves a flickering lamp. Not even politicians. Or lawyers.
God luck, ime.

Great news about the new model. My AE2000 is still running strong, however its third lamp is approaching 3000 hours and I'm hoping that it will last until the 8000 hits the street.

That might have been your problem. For "normal" flickering in PJ lamps, the cure is to run it in high mode for several hours. If you just kept it in ECO, it likely took much longer for the arc to stabilize.

Yes... but then again the flicker came back after 400 hrs, both in Normal and Eco. And much worse. Well, so far so good with the new lamp.
Sidebar: I had such a hard time trying to calibrate grey scale with the former lamp from the very beginning, and I never got it quite right. With the new lamp it was a cinch! Now the grey scale is just about perfect!!

If it went away for 400 hours and then came back, it is highly likely that you are just dealing with the "normal" unstable arc issue that exists to some degree in all PJ lamps. I've had two different panny PJs, with a combined four lamps, and this is always encountered from time to time. I usually run mine on eco, but if it starts to flicker I shift it to normal for a week or so. This has always taken care of it for me.

I went to adjust the lens shift today and without thinking hastily started moving it without unlocking the lens shift lock. I had moved it fairly far before realizing my error. Could I have damaged anything by doing this?

This is my 3rd Panny and I never had flicker problems before. I hope the new lamp holds its ground, as I'm running it in full Normal mode now. No more Eco mode for me .
This lamp is somehow different from the one I got the PJ with, though. As I said, the colors are much more precise and the grey scale is now perfect -- something I could never get with the former bulb.

You may have had a bad lamp. I know that some folks who bought early production had some severe flicker problems that went far beyond what I was describing. I guess the good news is that a new lamp may solve your problem. Good luck.

Which Bulb is that ?? I m thinking getting it too. Can you show me the model number ? thanks

I suspect they want to see the lens shift in your mounting position, as this does have an impact on screen convergence.

I still have a CRT projector hanging from my ceiling, and initially went to DLP as a digital solution before going to 3xLCD (due to concerns over the fixed panel alignment impact on convergence), so I'm also certainly very aware of convergence.

What would be an interesting test, is for you to center the lens shift and with the projector mounted square to the screen, observe any mis-convergence at the center of the projected image.

Depending on your mounting position / lens shift & zoom use, you can see convergence issues due to the different refractive index of the lens between the red and blue ends of the visible spectrum (optical aberration). I first observed this on my DLP projector. As a single chip DLP has a single point light source, you would assume perfect on-screen RGB convergence, however due to chromatic aberration, moving from one extreme of lens setup to the other extreme you can note the convergence color fringing (red is the most observable) moving fully from one side of the green in a convergence test grid, to the other side of the green. Depending on the quality of the lens design, you can see the same effect from one edge of the screen to the other, especially at extreme zoom.

One of the reasons why, that despite lens shift and other digital projection features, the mounting position for an optimum image is still perfectly square and centered with the screen in the recommended mounting position. i.e. centered lens shift and zoom. Although this isn't of course always practical in every room, it remains as it was with our "old school" CRT projector installations!

My suggestion is that if you perform the above test and can show that with no lens shift you still have the same convergence issues in the centre of the projected image, you probably do have a good argument that your projector has unacceptable panel mis-alignment.

The box says: ET-LAA310 for PT AE5000, PT AE7000. That's it.
I am really amazed at the PJ's image quality now -- Top notch WOW factor! Something I'd never seen before!! Maybe because my PJ came with a real bad original bulb?!?

Thanks. I'm really excited -- it's as if I got a new PJ with the image quality I've always deamed of!

Hummm....

I'm having a pretty serious BS flickering issue as well. Will Panasonic address this under warranty? I really don't want to to have to drop $400 on a new damn bulb.

I just don't see how your original bulb could have been that bad or how a new bulb could have made that much of a difference? I wish there were a few other people who have gotten the same bulb as you that could weigh in with their opinions...

I'd hate to swap out bulbs only to find out my original bulb wasn't so bad to begin with...