Official Owners' Thread, Panasonic PT-AE8000U (US version) PT-AT6000E (European version) - Page 38

I ordered mine yesterday, should be here to replace my dead PLV-Z700 on Wednesday. Anyone happen to have a TC-P65V30 and this projector that they could give me some impressions about? I loved my PLV-Z700 until I got the P65V30, that just depressed me, but I learned to live with it. I'm hoping the 8k will be a huge step up in contrast, that was my biggest gripe with the 700. And by huge I don't mean out of this world crazy difference, just a noticeable difference.

In the main menu under picture settings go down to the advanced menu option. From there you will see frame creation and can change it from off to mode1 2 or 3. You can adjust fc for each picture mode as well (rec. 709,etc.)

Said it once and I'll say it again. It cheeses me off that Panasonic ships these projectors with Frame Creation set to ON.

The convergence issue did seem to do just what some of you guys said and moved out as it warmed up. The pics that i have are not the best for counting pixels but they showed enough to get me an RMA and a new projector sent ASAP.
i will set them up in the screening room side by side and take some tighter photos to post ...
thanks for all the input..... I do miss by big Barco when i see the Ghosts but the brightness in 3D with the 8000 is just awesome.. P1211472.JPG 2987k .JPG file P1211478.JPG 2861k .JPG file ..

Fellow AVS Forum member laugsbach and I live in the same metro area, so we have visited each other's home theaters a couple of times. We both bought PT-AE3000U projectors four years ago, and now we have both upgraded to the PT-AE8000U.

laugsbach invited me over to run a DIY grayscale calibration on his machine. I was excited about the chance to measure two different projector/screen/room combinations using the exact same color sensor, and to see how similar/different the calibrated settings would turn out.

Our rooms and throw distances are similar, although laugsbach has a somewhat larger room and screen. The more important difference is the screen material. My screen is an Elite Cinewhite matte white vinyl with 1.0 gain. laugsbach's screen is an acoustically transparent type for behind-the-screen speaker placement (which is very cool I might add). I'm sure he will chime in and give more details about this material.

Both projectors were calibrated in REC709 Picture Mode with Lamp in ECO and Dynamic Iris OFF. Please note: we could only spend about two hours with laugsbach's machine. If we had had more time to tweak, it could certainly be dialed in further. Luckily, it measured very good with minimal adjustment, and I must say that the adjustments we did make had quite a visible effect. I will leave it to laugsbach to comment further regarding the resulting calibrated picture quality.

I don't want to fill the forum with all of the available ColorHCFR graphs, but the RGB Levels and Color Temperature graphs are the most interesting and are worth posting for comparison. (Note, ignore color readings below 10 IRE; the Eye One Display sensor readings are essentially meaningless when measuring 0 IRE, that is, video black).

Default RGB laugsbach:


Default RGB HMenke:


Clearly, Green is running hot compared to Red and Blue on both machines. This definitely gives a greenish tint in the default REC709 mode.

Default Color Temperature laugsbach:


Default Color Temperature HMenke:


Actually the Color Temperature tracks pretty well, but as we've seen the color balance is off across the board. Next up: a comparison of the calibrated results.

Calibrated RGB laugsbach:


Calibrated RGB HMenke:


Calibrated Color Temperature laugsbach:


Calibrated Color Temperature HMenke:


Now comes the REALLY interesting part. How similar were the settings used to achieved these similar calibrated results? As it turns out....not at all similar!

Here is an Excel spreadsheet that shows the calibrated settings of each machine side-by-side. There is really no comparison. My projector/screen/room required a lot of adjustment to bring it into line, whereas laugsbach's projector/screen/room was already very close to ideal and required only minor adjustment to produce a calibrated image.

PT-AE8000U Calibration Settings v1.0 laugsbach & HMenke 01-26-2013.xlsx 14k .xlsx file

Hi All.....
Just a couple of quick questions concerning 3D glasses that are compatible with the 8000u
and the procedure for pairing them.
And what screen would work best with this projector... currently using a 92 inch manual high gain DA-LITE,
but since this projector is SO bright maybe I should use something else????
I'm sure this has been address in this thread but a quick search didn't come up with it.
Thanks for your help...
DreamCatcher

btw this projector ROCKS!

HMenke thanks for that comparison. Very interesting results! I wish you lived near me, - I'd commandeer your expertise for a calibration any day of the week.

DreamCatcher, you need these:

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-TY-EW3D3MU-Active-Shutter-Eyewear/dp/B0058SYDTI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1359268556&sr=8-3&keywords=panasonic+3d+glasses

In regards to your projector screen, it depends on what kind of material you're watching. For 3D, it won't ever be bright enough, but the idea is to get it sufficiently bright. I have a ~100" diagonal 1.0 gain screen, and even from projecting 12 feet away, it's still not what I would consider "comfortably" bright in 3D, even with the lamp set to Normal. For 2D, I certainly have plenty of brightness in Eco mode.

Brightness is so subjective, and we don't know your room lighting conditions, either. Or what screen size you want.

You got that right WilliamG...

Henry, thank you so much for stopping over yesterday...you are a great asset to this thread & the entire forum!

I thought the picture was great using REC709 out of the box but the time investment was worth it! The improvement is clearly seen across the entire 125" screen! The picture appears "brighter" with a nice improvement in detail and the colors are very, very natural. I will be purchasing an Eye One to tweak a bit more and will take on 3D as well.

I have a 3000 cubic foot, dedicated & completely light controlled theater room. I built a DIY 115" wide 2.35:1 scope AT screen with Center Stage XD (gain of 1.2). The 8000 is located about 17' from the screen on a shelf fixed to the rear wall.

Henry, again, thank you so much for your time and expertise! You are a class act!!

Does anyone have experience using the RS232 port on this projector? I cannot control or get any response from my projector's control port. I am using the software client Putty and have verified the baud rate and control cable wiring. I am using the control codes from the PT-AE8000 spec. sheet. I have an Oppo Digital BDP-83 Bluray player and, using the same setup, can control it just fine. When I change to the projector, I cannot power on nor do I receive any data over the proejctor's RS232 port when using the handheld remote. Can anyone offer any suggestions? Thanks, Andre'

My pleasure Larry! You have a great HT setup with awesome audio! Now I feel like I'm running HTIB!

WilliamG thanks for your response....
Screen size has to be 92" max....
Room lighting conditions vary but totally dark come movie time.
This is my first 3D projector.... owned several Panasonic 2D projectors, 4000U most recently.
Maybe I should keep my high gain Da-Lite for awhile to see how it works with 3D material,
with 2D material.... WOW does it pop!

What software do you use to get the calibration readings?

^^

Here you go:

http://www.homecinema-fr.com/colorimetre-hcfr/hcfr-colormeter/

I am fully wired up with rs-232. What is the exact control string you are using?

I have all my gear managed with globalcache and iRule.

This is my power on string - \x02PON\x03\x0D

Give that a shot and change the format of your commands accordingly if need be, or I can send them to you as well.

What Picture setting are people in here preferring....REC709 or Cinema1? I saw the Hmenke did the calibration test for rec709...is cinema1 just that good? I know it's the setting that I prefer but of course always looking for a way to calibrate this better for better picture quality. I'm going to try the REC709 settings just to see but if there are better settings that I can apply to Cinema1 that would be awesome?????

Also, between HMenke and Laugsbak which calibration between the two was considered the best?

^^
I think that Henry's settings are a wee bit better than mine and I hope to match his after my EYE 1 arrives later this week...

You could get the EYE 1 + HCFR software and calibrated the greyscale on Cinema 1 as well...

What do the different modes of 3d do. Just got my glasses and watch a 2d to 3d converted movie and wasn't impressed at all. I didn't expect it to come at me with the visuals but at least look like it was off the screen a bit. Am i expecting too much?

Ive tried different source material to convert such as movies, sports and even cartoons like Family Guy and I havent seen much depth to the 3D. I had read in a projector review that it was thought of more as a gimmick but that for personal photos it might work better, which I have yet to try. The most 3Dness I have experienced with it has been the banners and information on Sportscenter which do seem to pop off the screen

I believe the different modes just adjust the amount of parallax but in the viewing I did the projector had no way of really knowing what should be in the foreground or background and thus the lack of 3D even on the highest setting

If you're using the 2D to 3D conversion feature, I wouldn't expect much. You should check out the AE8000's 3D feature with an actual 3D Blu-ray disc. Not all 3D titles have out-of-the-screen effects since it's a preference and can be seen as gimmicky; a lot of 3D films use it sparingly. But if you are looking for movies with out-of-the-screen effects, there's an Amazon reviewer who rates movies based on their out of the screen effects (http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A11MGPEYU3VO1U/ref=cm_cr_pr_pdp). Also, I played Stardust on my PS3 and that has some great out of the screen effects.

Just ordered mine last night. Went back and forth for a long time on which projector to upgrade to but finally pulled the trigger.

Congrats! And you just made the cut to enjoy the Panasonic rebate promotion that ends this Thursday (01/31).

Looking forward to read on your initial impressions on this PJ.

Cheers!

I have net to read through all 38 pages of this thread, but I have a question, has anyone who had the 7000 notice that ghosting is substantially worse on the 8000?

Now it may just be my settings, I have yet to do a proper calibration on it, but out of the box I am seeing ghosting in just about every 3d movie I watch.

I am wondering if anyone else here has had the same issue?

I kind of been chalking it up to the fact that things are just so much brighter in 3d now. I re-watched a few scenes from Tangled and it was VERY noticeable where as I don;t recall seeing hardly any in it with the 7000.

Thoughts?

Cofn42, I posted this in another thread in regards to crosstalk:

Just FYI, when watching in 3D, I have my projector set to Eco with glasses set to "light". Superwhite is on. Dynamic iris is on as well. I either watch in Dynamic or Cinema 2 since those are the brightest settings. But Dynamic gives too much contrast and overblows colors in a few places, but it's the brightest and there appears to be less crosstalk in that setting. But all in all, I barely see crosstalk. I mostly see crosstalk with dark text over light background.

Also, crosstalk can depend on your player. For instance, my Panasonic DMP-BD220 had more crosstalk than my PS3. I also recently got an Oppo 103 which is definitely better for 3D since it shows a lot more detail and a shaper image than my PS3 Fat. Also, picture playback is "smoother" than the PS3 which also helps in 3D; which I feel, also helps with eyestrain.

^^^

Do you have a link to this Columbia image?

I used the repeated NEC image to focus mine, but it was hard to tell between a few focus button presses how the focus is. I'd like to see if I can get that much precision with that Columbia image if you could link it.

Thanks!

Awesome info, thanks for this!!!

I will do a little tweaking this weekend and see if things improve.

Purbeast, I don't have a link to the Columbia image . But you can find it on any Sony Animation blu-ray. Or use another 2D video that has a lot of detail.

And no prob Cofn42, I hope that helps!

I just received my Panasonic projector. The glasses are in the post still. I tried a pair of UeroTek universal 3d glasses with them, they seem to synch ok.... but the ghost/crosstalk is awful. I assume these glasses don't work with this projector very well? I have a 3D Tv and a Sony HMZ-T1 so know what great 3D should look like. But so far with these glasses the image on the panasonic is aweful. I really hope its because these glasses are not compatible. Can someone whos tried them confirm?

Thanks

Those of you still looking/lurking or on the fence the rebate deal has been pushed back...again. Now its Mar. 31