PANASONIC PT-AE8000U (US VERSION) PT-AT6000E (EUROPEAN VERSION) IFA BERLIN 2012 New LCD 1080p 3D... - Page 6

Thanks Manning - certainly an attractive price. Back to the reading boards...
Our room has no light issues and the black levels of the JVC seem very good.

@exlondoner If you get the AE7000 before 9/30 from an authorized dealer you'll get 2 free pairs of glasses as well. I just got my AE7000 on Friday...it is my first projector so I have no direct experience to compare it to (other than the business PJs at work), but I'm loving it. I havent hung it yet or built my screen, so it sits 12-13' away and throws a 130" image on an off white wall.
Incase it helps, my experience with it so far:
A) I intended to (and will) throw a smaller image to improve the brightness. It's watchable at 130" for 90% of content, but things like movies with darker scenes require me to blackout the room or else contrast suffers from ceiling lights (can lights 4 feet infront of the screen) and outdoor ambient light interference (one smaller window and one pair of glass doors directly across from the screen wall, both with a deck overtop of them). I haven't had time to find my sweet spot yet.
B) It's apparent that having a screen will make a noticeable improvement on the brightness and contrast (duh). I have samples of 4 or 5 different screen materials from "Carl's Place" of which the white ones show a noticeable improvement in color and brightness. If you request a sample they'll send all of them; they didn't mention that they have different materials on their website, when I last looked.

Happy hunting!

Just got off the phone with Audio General. They stated they are going to honor the $2599 price for those who got the order in with that price. Sent me a conformation email and invoice with that price also. Apparently Panasonic gave them the wrong cost initially so they had to update the price. Kudos the them for taking care of the customer. Here is the link for the glasses promo on their site also: http://www.audiogeneral.com/Panasonic/ptae8000u_free_3d_eyewear.pdf

They are still the lowest price online at $2899 currently though. That should force the others to match.

I'm receiving the same message from AGI (audiogeneral.com)...that the price is now $2899 and NOT $2599 they were originally quoted by Panasonic. Personally, makes me nervous to buy from them, so I'm going BACK to VA and re-pre-ordering...and may even look at projectorpeople.com since they were just added as a Panasonic reseller as well. Ugh...oh well...I was budgeting $3K for this projector anyways. Anyone know the policy differences between visualapex.com and projectorpeople.com or feel strongly about one over the other?

Good luck everyone! I'm excited for the new Panasonic PT-AE8000U either way, as it will be my FIRST projector ever...replacing my Sony KDS 60" rear projection LCD from 9 years ago.

VA has the best return policy between them and PP.

Guess my hesitation cost me $400...

I just got a confirmation email from AGI with the $2,599 price. If they follow through on that then I applaud them for keeping their word and wouldn't hesitate to order from them again. They need to get their poop in a group on pricing, but so far they seem like straight shooters.

Well.....$300 if you go with them. Others will likely match that I suspect.

when did you order? never mind i went back in the thread
Edited by MysticalJet - 9/17/12 at 3:31pm

Just heard Panasonic made Audio General raise their price to $2999. Looks like those who got in on the deal really scored this time.

Yes, they list $2999 on their site now, though if you call them I suspect they'll drop it to $2899 to gain your business. I even tried pulling up my cart (I put it in my cart for the $2599) but it was empty.

Any thoughts of going with a Carada screen now just went out the window...most likely I'll stick with VA and their projection screen package deal.

I knew I should have ordered earlier this morning, argh. Anyway after much reading I 'ver decided to stick with the new Panny, have PP price matching and ordering tomorrow.

I actually talked to monoprice about their Panasonic IR glasses to be sure they would work with the Panny projectors. They didn't really know much about their own product. I even asked what size they were and they couldn't answer that...I may take a stab at them but not sure.

You have PP price matching at what price? I assume you mean the $2899 price.

I called PP out of curiosity to see if they would match the $2899, since I got rapidly denied this morning with the $2599 match. They kindly replied....."No".

Yes at that price.

Best of luck. I don't see it happening at release date, at least from PP.

I'm guessing this is one of those situations where the manufacturer puts a minimum sales price on an item that their authorized dealers are not allowed to undercut. It used to happen with some HT manufacturers back in the 70's. Advent speakers were like that. I think Yamaha was like that for a time as well. Maybe somebody can refresh my memory further.

Bingo!

I know that Monoprice has a strong, loyal following; but I can't imagine why somebody would buy Monoprice branded IR glasses for $45 when the genuine Panasonic glasses can be found for $60.

Agreed, I passed on Monoprice also because for a few extra bucks you can get OEM's which are actually rather comfortable. I got 4 new pairs for $48/each from Ebay. Take a look there. Amazon also has them for $60 and will be at your house in 2d with Prime Shipping.

I thought minimum prices were illegal, but minimum advertised prices were ok.

Yes, this is probably technically more correct. If you look at the 7000 it is still "Advertised" at $2599, but adding it to the cart shows a lower price most everywhere. I think Panny wants to keep the 8000 at $2999 though right now since it is a newly released product.

Of course, maybe the pricing laws don't apply because this product isn't actually shipping, yet. Perhaps we'll start seeing discounts as soon as it ships. (Pure speculation/wishful thinking.)

So back once again to VA to place my preorder once again. I hear positives about them and projector peopele...but as stated ...VA has a less hassle return policy if the unit is defective. i do not expect it to be...but just in case.

VisualApex is awesome. They are also very personable folk if you call them up. Not unlike AVS

Actually, I thnk you meant to say it is less hassle if the unit is NOT defective. Their policy for defective units appears to require the consumer to deal direcly with manufacturer warranty repair activities, which greatly concerned me. As far as I can tell, they are the only major vendor that attempts to totlly wash their hands of a DOA unit in this manner. In fact, I doubt that they really hold people to this in some cases, as it is contrary to consumer protection laws.

Just placed my order...
I noticed that AGI switched their price again.

Projector People will match any legitimate dealer's price on the AE8000U.

AGI is a legitimate authorized dealer. Just saying, they would not match the $2899 price yesterday for me at least when I asked. That may change today.....YMMV.
Edited by RajeeK - 9/18/12 at 8:43am