BenQ 7700 or Panasonic AE900? (1 Viewer)

[Jack Gilvey]

Sounds like it would be perfect for your situation. Now buy it and don't read any more threads on it lest you paralyse yourself.

I'm leaning a bit toward the Panasonic for various reasons. I'm spoiled for color accuracy by my IF 4805, and my planned 2.35:1 screen size will have me at a viewing distance of ~1.4x width so the Smoothscreen voodoo sounds like it'd be helpful.
The lack of the Z4's shift means I'd have to extend my mount about 3' from the ceiling, though.

 

[John Menoni]

For me, the ability to be able to place the projector off center is more important than beig able to move it forward or backward. The closer the better for me. I just want to read about how this setup actually works. So far the reviews I have read haven't really tested this feature.

 

[Sam Posten]

Screen door drives me batty, so the Panasonic 900 was an easy choice for me. SD elimination was a much bigger consideration than ansi lumens, contrast, and color accuracy (I am both kinds of color blind, tho mildly so). I was disappointed to think that the Z4 is rated as sharper, but I think the 900 is plenty sharp as is.

Sam

 

[Jack Gilvey]

That perception may be due to more prominent SDE/pixel structure...

 

[Jack Gilvey]

Here's a new review of the Z4, it addresses lens shift also. Basically the same take, avoid the extremes and you're good.


http://www.projectorreviews.com/revi...reid=53&page=1

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

I'm in precisely the same boat. Having the projector discretely up and out of the way is big for me. I'm not willing to completely sacrifice image quality, but by most accounts the differences between these projectors is slim enought that I'm no longer concerned by it. The biggest differences are shown when side-by-side and I'll not have that "luxury".

So far as screen door is concerned this would be a deal breaker for me if I were sitting way close. But I'm at just shy of 1.6x for a 36 degree'ish angle which should take this out of the equation. Reviews are indicating 1.3-1.5x from the screen and SDE is a non-issue. Still, the allure of the Panny's smoother picture is still there.

Another artifact consideration is vertical banding. It is cropping up quite a bit with the 900s. There is a service menu tweak that addresses it somewhat but not completely. The Z4s seem to be a little cleaner (also in terms of video noise) but if one is troubled by banding Sanyo has seen fit to include an adjustment right in the user menus which is nice.

 

[John Menoni]

Jack, thanks for posting that link. That provided alot of great insight.

Jay, I'm so torn right now. I'm sitting about 12 feet away and my screen is a 96' diagnal. I'm right on the cusp of 1.5. I hope that isn't going to be a problem. I guess I can move a little further if necessary. After reading Jack's link, I think I might prefer the "film like" look of the Panasonic over the Sanyo. The Panasonic is also brighter. However, having the ability to put the sanyo above the left front viewers head will force me to pull the trigger on the Sanyo. The only other option would be to put the projector on the floor in the middle of the room. That wouldn't be nearly as good because I'm going to be tripping over the damn thing every day. I just hope that a drastic shift to the side won't cause that banding problem.

I'm also confused about the whole throw distance. When I use the projector calculator on projectorcentral.com it doesn't tell me what range I can put the projector. It just says that it should be 19.6 ft. Does anyone know the minimum distance for a 96' screen for the Sanyo and/or the Panasonic? The closer the better in my case.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

Probably a few blocks.

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

Something I've always wondered about with brightness measurements - after you achieve the recommended digital standard of 12 ft. lamberts does extra brightness really matter? If you can achieve that standard for a given screen size in a given environment then it would seem incremental brightness figures become irrelevant. Thoughts?

Re: throw distance. I've come to understand that throws aren't necessarily based on screen width, which is what I always thought. Some are instead based on diagonal measurement. For the Panny (and Sanyo) it's around 2.78 x width at the farthest point, or roughly 2.4 x diagonal. So for your 96" diagonal screen (I believe you're talking diagonal - always best to specify with front projection) that would be around 19'. Because it's a 2.0 zoom the nearest point is half the farthest point (or farthest is 2x nearest), so around 9 1/2' minimum.

You're best staying away from the absolute extremes, though, as image quality may suffer. Ideally you run with the mid-point of the range but that's not always possible. When you're at the minimum point you're getting the maximum brightness available but the projection angle is very steep - difficult for the optics to maintain constant focus and brightness given the dramatic difference in distance to the sides vs. center of the screen. Conversely at the farthest end of the zoom range the image is at its dimmest, but a narrower projection angle allows for better uniformity and focus from side to side as those distances aren't as different compared to center. The mid-point is essentially a compromise of both. At these price points the optics can only do so much.

As Jack indicates changing to "throw range" with the Projector Central calculator works really well, assuming their math is correct for a given projector.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

If you use a lower-gain or gray screen this can help your ANSI with a brighter machine, all else being equal. Of course, lumen output matters a LOT if you're trying to fight ambient light, but here you'll need a LOT more lumens too. But when it comes to pictures, I don't think that alone the brightness makes a huge difference. I think the more picky you get about the image, a dimmer image may be preferred because bright images bring out more "crap" in the source like mpeg noise and banding and things like that. I like images way down in foot lamberts around the 5 footlamberts area.

As to the brightness w/regards to zoom, yes you are correct, however I just want to clarify that this has nothing to do with inverse square law or anything like that, it has to do with optics and the difference is VERY small, that it isn't really something that you should even concern yourself with unless you're into measuring the brightness of the image with instrumentation. Certainly not anything you'd really be able to discern visually different perhaps even if you had them side by side.

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

Agreed. And assuming your projector has enough brightness to adjust for the difference without crushing whites it's not an issue. It will come out in the calibration.

 

[John Menoni]

Thanks for all the replies fellas! I already bought a brilliant white screen because my room has dark wall fabric and the lighting is controlled. I was able to get a good figure from the calculator. It looks like I'm going to have to go at least 9.5 feet. The best place for it right now is a little over 10 feet away to the side so the lens of the projector would be about half way between the middle of the screen and the end of the screen. I hope it is possible to achieve a good picture with this installation. I don't think this is the most extreme lens shift but the projector is very close to the minimum throw distance. The second best option would be to put the projector behind the head and above the left front viewer. I could probably have it pretty close to the half way point in the room. Maybe it will be best to just buy the Sanyo and play around with it to figure out the best placement option when I actually have it here.

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

Has anyone seen the Z4 show up at Canadian dealers yet? Today I was told end of November, but that demand is already outstripping supply.