Just got my Panasonic L300U, and it's sweet! (1 Viewer)

[Massimo N]

I'll try and get some pics (I have to borrow a digital camera from the guys at work), but I'll have to ask someone to post them for me.

It was actually very easy. I used 3"x1/2" MDF boards at HomeDepot. I cut each of the corners at 45degrees and stapled the cloth on the back of each of the boards. Put it together and presto ... all done. Very easy to construct. The time consumption was measuring to ensure the I maintained the correct aspect ratio and that the boarder was square. After I stretched and painted the blackout cloth, my frame was not true anymore.

Picture to follow ... it may not be until end of week, as I'm on the road for a few days.

Cheers!
Mass

 

[Estevan Lapena]

Now I have heard great things about projectors and such, but I was wondering specifically with the PT-L300U, how do NON-Reference quality DVD's look on a 80+" decent screen in proper conditions?

IE: Platoon SE, Brazil:CC, portions of Taxi Driver, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Kubrick movies or just simply movies with fair amounts of grain.
Does it make it look rather ugly because of the magnified size of the picture?

 

[Tom J. Davis]

Does it make it look rather ugly because of the magnified size of the picture?

Yep, especially something that isn't anamorphic. I can deal with it because I know what the projector is capable of on discs such as Blade, Gladiator, AOTC, etc.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Yes - welcome aboard guys! I've been fortunate enough to have had a NEC LT150 for over a year now and once you go FP you truly never go back.

Watching movies at home is always a better experience visually and sonically.

It's truly amazing when your audio and video are properly matched. With my RPTV the sound was always on a larger scale than the picture.

 

[Estevan Lapena]

Is there a way to possibly reduce the amount of grain or make it look better on the 300U? I really would want one of these projectors but would be greatly disappointed if a fair amount of the movies I own look like a mess of grain and color. Would I need to purchase another device to achieve this? Do better projectors reduce the amount of visual imperfections of DVD's?

Im just thinking about watching movies like Clockwork Orange or other movies that are not Attack Of The Clones super digital transfers. Has anyone watched theses grainy type DVD's on their 300U and found it unwatchable?

 

[Tom J. Davis]

A better projector will show more of the flaws. I actually see mpeg compression artifacts occasionally. I never saw those on my 53" Sony. It's the price you pay for quality. Good transfers look better than you realized and bad transfers look worse. That's not to say they are unwatchable , just not nearly as good. Only you can decide what's good enough and what isn't.

The real test for me will be when I get my laserdisc player hooked up.

 

[Bob Maged]

Is there a way to possibly reduce the amount of grain or make it look better on the 300U? I really would want one of these projectors but would be greatly disappointed if a fair amount of the movies I own look like a mess of grain and color. Would I need to purchase another device to achieve this? Do better projectors reduce the amount of visual imperfections of DVD's?

No projector or other display device will make a bad source look better. It is the old story of garbage in-garbage out. The larger the projected image, the more the flaws will be amplified. However, even fairly poor sources can look good or at least acceptable if you don't go too large. My Panasonic PT-L200U is projecting onto a 67"x38" 16:9 screen, and I sit 1.5x screenwidths away. Even analog cable is watchable, so long as I do not switch back and forth with HDTV too often. HDTV and DVD are breathtakingly gorgeous, and digital cable is actually watchable. Fear that your worst sources will look bad is no reason to deprive yourself of the joy that is owning a front projector, IMHO.

 

[Rik P]

My L300 was originally hooked up to a JVC progressive scan DVD player X65 (2years old). A soon as I uprgraded to a Kenwood DVD player that has DCDi Faroudja chip it cleaned up a lot of grain on most dvds but did nothing as expected for compression artifacts.

 

[BenSC]

Another highly satisfied 300 owner here. You guy's keep mentioning "Scott's settings." Maybe I've missed something, but can someone enlighten me on that? Also, I'm currently reading up on the filters, can I get confirmation on the 55mm size?

 

[Tom J. Davis]

Ben, check over on avs in the under $5000 projector forum for a thread titled : l300u calibration - more findings : by Scot Kight.

I ended up using Scot's settings and an nd+2 filter. I'm extremely happy with the picture. I tried the cc05 filter, but with Scot's color temp settings I didn't feel that it was needed. Oddly enough when I first tried the nd+2 filter I didn't care for it, but it did help the blacks and reduced the horizontal scan lines that I sometimes see, so I kept it on. Not sure what your using for a screen , but I'm just using plain blackout cloth right now.

 

[Tom J. Davis]

Forgot to add, I'm using a 52mm filter. Fits snug inside the lens, but doesn't screw on. No worries about it falling out though. It's tight enough that I have to pry it out.

 

[Tom J. Davis]

Just a quick update. I finally hooked up my Pioneer Elite cld-79 laserdisc player to the 300u.

I ran both composite and s-video. After switching back and forth many times I couldn't tell the difference.

The laserdisc player doesn't look so good at 8ft wide, but I have to have my original Star Wars trilogy fix every so often. Just for kicks I put in the S.E. of ESB to compare to the thx versions. Wow! Everyone always said that the picture quality of the se's was greatly improved over the old thx discs, but I had no idea. They are better in every conceivable way. Too bad I hate the se's, especially ESB.

Is the laserdisc watchable? Absolutely. Is it good? Not really. If George would release the original trilogy on dvd I would sell my ld player on ebay and never look back.

 

[Thomas Willard]

I'm new to this forum so bear with me.

I installed by 300U in May. I have it ceiling mounted and displaying a 68" wide image on a matte wall mounted screen. The picture is great on DVD and really impressive when I feed it a high definition 1080i signal from my PBS station.

After about 30 hours I noticed a small dot of green visible in dark scenes or when in the shutter mode. At work we use some model 720's and found similar different color dots on those projectors. On the 720 you can focus down to see that these dots are really small pieces of dust.

If you read the owners manual they make reference to having the 300U cleaned every year. In spite of the filter dust does make its way into the optics. I ordered a service manual to see if anything was mentioned about cleaning. Nothing, but the manual does show how to disassemble the unit. Of course doing so would void the one year warranty.

I wonder if anyone has experience in cleaning the inside of the 300U (or other LCD projectors). I would imagine if everyone sent in their units once a year for cleaning, the service departments would be overwhelmed.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Chris Brock]

I have been visitng the forum here for several months now and just registered a few days ago. I have been very interested in reading abotu the 300u. What would you guys who own the 300u recommend as the maximum screen size for this projector while still maintaining a satisfactory picture? According to THX specs, for my room size I would need a screen around 110" - 120". Thanks!!

 

[Thomas Willard]

When deciding the image size you need to keep in mind several factors, only one of which is the capability of the projector. Having said that I will tell you that the 300U can project a much larger image than I have room for in my home theater. My screen width is 68 inches and the 300U does a great job for that size image.

However you don't want to sit closer than 1.5 times the screen width or regardless of the picture quality you will not enjoy viewing because you are simply too close to the screen. While some LCD projectors may have the screen door effect at that distance the 300U does not. Brightness in my darkened room is also more than enough.

If you need to sit at the back of your viewing room in order to achieve the 1.5 distance, then you are not in the middle of your sound field and you will be too close to your rear surrounds.

They say that the new (three years away Blu Ray DVD) high definition DVD's will provide an image improvement, assuming your projector can support true 1080p, which none in my price range can do now. But after watching my Monsters, Inc. DVD, which is a direct digital transfer on my 300U, I really don't know how much better the image can get. The same goes for watching PBS 1080i videos (which the 300U scales nicely with its 540 lines.

To summarize, size matters, but don't get carried away.

 

[Chris Brock]

Thanks for the reply! I have actually just finished construction in my basment and the HT room will have 2 rows of seating. 1st row will be abotu 11' from the screen and the 2nd row will be about 15' from the screen. if i use the 1.5 distance then that would make it right at abotu a 100" screen which from reading the reviews the 300u should project wonderfully!!

 

[Ron-P]

However you don't want to sit closer than 1.5 times the screen width or regardless of the picture quality you will not enjoy viewing because you are simply too close to the screen.

Agreed. My front row is 9' from my 80" (diagonal) 16:9 screen, that's just under 1.5x's. It's perfect for me, but could be too close for most. My back row is 12'which is about 2x's and most prefer that.


Peace Out~

 

[Drew Bethel]

Tom, can you provide the name of your filter and where purchased along with your detailed settings? I'm inlove with my 300 pic but ya never know...