[dgetson]

Is there a sub $5000 projector without any of the problems people have experienced to date?


- motion artifacts

- vertical banding

- rainbows

- headaches / eye strain

- dead pixels

- good contrast

- decent black levels

- something with a long lamp life / inexpensive to replace in comparison to other projectors.

- can be projected onto at least a 106" diagonal screen


So far, I've seen the best of the newest are the AE300 and the HS10....both have their quirks....but these two seem to have the least amount of the common problems from what everyone has said.


Will there be a perfect projector?

 

[Derek Swanson]

The Panasonic AE200. The best projector I ever bought in my life.


No dead pixels.

No vertical Banding.

Really strong S-Video signal.

Really nice blacks.

My screen is 120" and Screendoor does not bother me.

I have better than 20/20 vision. To me screendoor is far better than

those thick vertical lines on expensive tube vvegas, which I own.

Since I bought it I laugh at how people are worried about blacks and

screendoor, and then I watch a movie and I'm like, "Nothing to worry about! It really perfect to me. And its the cheapest of the bunch! Really simple to set up and it better than my 2002 Toshiba HX81 RPTV 57" that I sent back because of severe Ghosting. I like the picture better than my XBR VVega, which I had ISF calibrated!


The room has to be totally black for best picture. I am projecting just on my white wall and am using an interlaced Sony DVD S7000. I hooked my computer through the VGA (super simple) and it was really nice too. You can play your games at much higher resolusions than just 840X480. I played some at 1600X768 and it was awesome! Think of a 15" LCD and then stretch it 100 more inches. Same quality.


Derek.

 

[dgetson]

It's guys like you, Derek, that make me want to get my debts paid off faster so I can rack up more debts by getting a projector Thank you.

 

[cfoster]

Hi Derek,


I, too, am hoping to create a 120" 16:9 screen and have better than 20/20 vision, so I'm quite concerned about screen door (concerned enough to actually be considering the added cost of an HS10 instead of the AE200 or Z1).


So you are saying the screen door on the AE200 is easily visible, but just doesn't bother you, right?


How far from the screen are you when you can see it (even if it doesn't bother you)? Is there a distance at which it becomes imperceptible to you?


Thanks,

-Colin.

 

[Derek Swanson]

I am 9 feet away from the screen. By turning the lens less than a millemetre the screendoor disapears forever. But I like the screen really really focused. But with just a slight turn the screendoor is gone. The picture softens 1/100th of its sharpness. So focused would be 100% sharp, defocused 99%. The colours and quality of the picture is the best I have ever seen. For instance, in Gladiator, chapter one, Maximus' coat is brown. But on the AE200 the coast is the most beautiful brown you have ever seen. It resembles real fabric and size. The greatest thing about the AE200 is that you can keep increasing the size of the screen and it always stays the same. Always bright, sharp, and unchanging. I am not saying the screendoor is easily visible. I find it less visible than the scanlines of a 32" VVega from 15 feet away or a 55" toshiba 12 feet away. They are so tiny, so thin I find they only add to the sharpness of the picture. I watched Star Wars Epidsode 2 at the theatre with five of my freinds. I bought it the other day on DVD. All of them, including me, found the picture on the AE200 to be far superior. Please note that you must calibrate it first with Video Essentials (or its equivalent) On the AE200 Blacks are black. Colours are the best I have seen. The picture is sharper than any crt I have ever seen. Xbox is beautiful on it. Computer games can be played at high resolutions and have better colours than all the 15" LCDs I have used. I got a Samsung 151s.


The reason I laugh about screendoor and contrast is because when you finally set up the thing after all that pondering and himming and hawing and searching and posting, you never had anything to worry about in the first place. You just sit back and say "This is good. Real good." And then laugh to yourself, "Boy, I had nothing to worry about."


Derek

 

[killyourtv]

I received my AE200 last week and it works great. Just put a movie on and sit down and enjoy! The picture is beautiful and far superior to what 99% of people have at home. The problem with this forum is that there are so many nit-pickers and techno-nerds ready to pick apart pixel by pixel every projector that you can never come to a sure conclusion about anything. I was a complete Quadrophonic Hi-Fi snob in the seventies and now realize that while I was obsessing about the merits of the various quad formats I never took the time to really enjoy the music. And this forum will keep one from enjoying movies if it makes you continiously critique the image rather than the content of what you are watching.


Bottom line. get the AE200 and if you were prepared to spend more save the difference or spend it on theatre tickets or lift tickets or a round of golf or something else rather than chasing that elusive perfect projector.

cuz in the end its all an illusion

 

[Xander]

killyourtv, you summed it up quite nicely. If things go according to plan, I will be going for my 4th projector in January, for this very nit-picking reason that you mention . Whenever I get guests over to show my threatre, one of them will say: "wow, look at that great picture, and that isn't good enough for him... he's going to change it again...!!". I then find myself trying to rationalize to them why I want to change it yet again. All, whilst I could actually just keep quiet and enjoy the movie. Even my kids are mocking for wanting to get rid of the latest projector again

 

[cfoster]

That's a great description Derek!


I hope to be feeling just as silly as you about my hesitation really really soon!


Thanks for the reassuring words,

-Colin.

 

[BurkeLaShell]

"Perfect is the enemy of good enough." -- Soviet Admiral Gorshkov


There will never be a perfect projector. There are many "good enough" projectors. The AE200 is good enough for me. I am enjoying DVDs more than ever, and nearly everyone who has watched a movie in my theater says that it's better than going out to the movies.


--Burke

 

[rlindo]

To say the Ae200 is the "perfect" projector is going a liiiitttle too far.


Go for the Sanyo PLV-Z1 instead. It's flat out better than the AE200. Higher contrast, higher resolution, better scaling. I guess that makes it "better than perfect"


BTW, there is no PERFECT projector out there. every projector has some issue or another.


One thing I find faschinating is a guy says he has better than 20/20 vision yet he can do a "less than millimietre" defocus of the ae200 and on a 120" screen, he can't see screendoor from 8 feet back. For the last 6 months I have been using an Ae100 (same resolution) and on my 106" diagonal screen, with my worse than 20/20 vision, I can see screendoor from 2x viewing distance. I do a defocus which IMO, makes the image look better and it does get rid of the visible screendoor. However, it is far more than less than a mm rotation.


I think it is great Derek loves his AE200 but please, don't put all your value into his opinion. I just got the Sanyo PLV-Z1 which is a superior projector to the Ae200 and while I think it is amazing, especially for the price, I wouldn't go as far to hype it as much as Derek has with the AE200.


Sop basically, while the AE200 is I'm sure quite good (the Ae100 was damn good so the AE20 must be better) there are slightly better projectors out there for slightly more money.

 

[dgetson]

The AE200 may not be the perfect projector, but just hearing how excited Derek is, makes me want a projector of my own. From the sounds of it, the AE200 or better will be incredible. Definitely better than the 36" tube I'll be going from!

 

[cfoster]

It was looking like in the Z1 vs. AE200 fight, I was siding with the Z1 because of the improved specs and minimal extra cost, but then I saw this review:

http://www.soundweb-asia.com/product..._z1/page_1.htm


Yes, it's in Japanese, but look at the pictures at the bottom of the page. To my eye (and I know they are teeny tiny pictures) but the AE200 looks much brighter. There's a red thing in the background of the submarine shot (by the captain's neck) that doesn't seem to register on the Z1 but is clearly visible on the AE200.


Does anyone think these pictures are misleading and if so, in what way and why?


Thanks,

Colin.

 

[sessamoid]

Quote:

Originally posted by cfoster Does anyone think these pictures are misleading and if so, in what way and why? Thanks, Colin.

Screenshots comparing projector images are as close to useless as you can get. Don't base your opinion on what you're going to spend thousands of dollars on what some guy posts. You have no idea what contrast and brightness settings the projector was setup with, to say nothing of the more advanced setup that you'll need (color balance, etc.). On top of all that, these online reviews almost always show pictures taken with a digital camera which have notoriously poor color fidelity unless they're using multi-thousand dollar professional digital cams.

 

[cfoster]

Obviously I can't tell because it's in Japanese, but if these guys set up a review site for projectors, I would think that they would want to calibrate them before testing them, wouldn't they?


And with the the camera, wouldn't it be the same camera and therefore be treating each projector with the same bias?


Does everyone agree that screenshot comparisons are totally useless?


-Colin.