OFFICIAL HTF REVIEW: PANASONIC PT-AX100U 720p FRONT PROJECTOR (1 Viewer)

[Parker Clack]

Visual Apex is a great place to order from for sure. For $1899 with 3 year p/l warranty and a 2 year bulb warranty, free shipping and a $400 mail in rebate from Panasonic it is going to be hard to beat.

David did you tell them that you heard about them from HTF?

 

[ZroCold]

Chris, I'm not entirely sure if they are the absolute best price or not, because I didn't do much more searching after checking them out, after Matthew mentioned them. I know I hadn't found anyone very much cheaper, and I certainly didn't find anyone offering the added warranties. And as for service, in getting my order processed they were helpful beyond what I expected, when I had some difficulty because of my bank. So, I have no complaints from them at all.

Parker, I sure did; I told them I'd heard of them from here, and I've told several people about HTF. HTF has helped me on the road to Cinema Utopia! lol. I'm tellin' everybody. lol.

And as for the AX100U, I got it up and running two nights ago, and I absolutely love it! It looked great, right out of the box. And I don't even have the screen up yet! (The screen, by the way, IS already here. It got here super-fast; I just haven't had the chance to install it yet.) Right now I'm using a light gray wall, and it already looks fantastic!!! I have done some tweaking here and there to contrast and color and such, but the presets already had it looking great. And I have a feeling that had I been using the screen already, I wouldn't have had to change a thing. The whole family is nothin' but nothin' but thrilled with this thing!

I recommend this projector highly!

 

[Parker Clack]

David:

Thanks for letting VA know that you picked it up because of us.

I saw the AX100 at CEDIA last year and loved it. I swear if I had a wall to project the picture on to it would be in my house too.

 

[Yumbo]

Amazon has it on special at $1,475. VA won't accept my foreign credit card.

 

[Tim Glover]

A great price indeed!

 

[Karynak]

I have everything set up now, and I also bought a new DVD player with up conversion to 720p/1080i. Everything looks absolutely great. I have 1 small question. Which resolution is better? 720p or 1080i?

The DVD player is the Panasonic S97S by the way.

 

[Rob FM]

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[Yumbo]

I'm about to fire up and calibrate!
Will post results, compared to previous 500 model.
Shooting onto high gain da-lite 185" 1.78 screen.

Ok...bit perplexed about a few issues.

My top right corner is not perpendicular for some reason.
The keystone is only vertical, not horizontal.
I made the bottom edge balanced by raising one foot - this caused the top left to come down, which I zoomed out.

End result is jaggies or soft picture overall as well.
Sharpness on -4, all mods off, using NATURAL, with AVIA calibration.
FOCUS set using MENU text bitmap reference.

Am using the Toshiba A2 via HDMI and component.

The 500 model looked better via the xBox 360 component than what I am seeing.

Will test a normal DVD via Panasonic player to also compare.

Would appreciate any ideas and comments please.

 

[ChrisClearman]

How are people mounting this projector?

I need to do an upside down in the rear and don't see the bottom/screw layout in the user's guide. But I'd rather fashion my own then use their mounting platform.

In fact, I think I want to do some sort of strap so I can easily take it down for maintenance.

How much room should I allow for airflow if I put this in an "open box" (think a cube with the front removed)?

 

[Matt Tucker]

I installed a shelf on the rear wall. Your cube could work as the hot air is blown out the front, but you might want an opening for the air intake on the side.

If you go to the Panasonic web page and click drawings, you will find a mechanical drawing that might help you out with mounting. The "specification" PDF also has some dimensions.

http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs...1&displayTab=R

The user manual says " Do not cover the ventilation openings or place anything within 10 cm (4")".

If you are going to put it in a cube, why not mount it right side up?

Matt

 

[ChrisClearman]

To mount it right side up (sitting on a shelf) you have to be at a vertical level even w/ the center of the screen (or a little below actually). That won't work in my room (and probably in most, as you don't want someone to be able to walk in front of the image).

I think I have a good solution now though.

 

[Matt Tucker]

You don't need the projector mounted at the vertical middle of the screen for right side up mounting. Mine is mounted a few inches above the top of the screen and the optical adjust lets me lower the image into my screen.

If you are going to put it on a shelf or cube, it is nice having the adjustable feet (right side up) to help you level it out... instead of laying it on its lid.

Matt

 

[ChrisClearman]

Do you have the PT-AX100U?

Mine is being shipped, so I guess I'll test it out. If I can do it sitting up I'll just do that. MUCH easier than the little box I was constructing.

 

[Matt Tucker]

Yes, the PT-AX100U is what I have (shown in the picture of my last post). I have been loving it ever since I got it (about two weeks ago). I already have 60+ hours on it!

Enjoy,
Matt

 

[ChrisClearman]

Mine came yesterday. Looks fantastic! And the lens shift is great.

It does have a bit of keystone on the upper right vertical though. I'm hoping I can get it to disappear into the black sides of a screen.

 

[Yumbo]

I am not happy with this upgrade from the 500 model.
Sharpness is just not there.
Does it have to be totally keystone (currently -2) free to be impressive?

 

[Chris Gerhard]

If you mean the Panasonic PT-AE500U, I have that one and just got the Panasonic PT-AE900U. I haven't gotten the AE900U to be as sharp in my opinion, but overall with calibration of both, I prefer the AE900U and consider it a nice upgrade to the 500U. I have been following the threads at the AVSForum for this projector, both the master thread and a specific thread for problems. Here is a link to the problem thread, more praise and some issues are discussed in the master thread there.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&#post10819804

I am going to hang on to both of my Panasonic projectors until the excellent PT-AE1000U 1080p projector is proven and affordable. It sounds like a winner, but the AX100U is a question mark at this point in my opinion.

Chris

 

[ChrisClearman]

Projector looks awesome, even just against the beige wall. Waiting on a Carada screen.

I have it mounted on top of some cabinets and am experiencing some keystone though. What's strange is using the keystone settings seems to change the keystone of the source (like the outside edges of the DVD image) but the actual light cast from the projector remains the same.

So the outside edge doesn't change, but the DVD image will "square up" inside this box. Kind of strange.

I'm hoping that the screen with black borders will be able to smooth some of this out.

 

[Matt Tucker]

She will look really nice when your screen comes.
I originally thought I had some keystone problems. One side seemed slanted slightly, the other wasn't. I tried moving (rotating) the projector slightly left/right to get the lens perfectly parallel with the front wall and I played with the feet height.... dropping one side a turn at a time to see how it effected the picture. Eventually I was able to get very close to a perfect rectangle.

Have fun!

Matt

 

[jetzler]

I have learned a lot reading here.
I do have a couple of questions for you guys who would know.
About half of what I want to watch with his projector is full screen 4:3 and I am not sure what screen to get?
My latest idea was to get a large 4:3 (120") and mask off the the top and bottom when I watch widescreen. ??
I cant afford the dual format screens I have seen and I am not thrilled with the idea of having to mask off a screen half the time.
Have any of you with the projector put a 4:3 signal in it on a widescreen screen?
Does the projector have a feature to deal with this issue?
Or is it just a matter of zooming to avoid cutting off the top and bottom of the 4:3 picture?
I am pretty well sold on this projector other than the sticking iris issue has anybody heard if the current production is totally rid of the issue?
From reading other forums I see most of the posts regarding this issue were from 4 to 11 months ago.
Thanks for any help
John