Newbie Has 2?s re: Panny AE100

If you have a progressive DVD player, I would strongly advise that you find a "transcoder" to convert component to VGA ala RGBVH. Its not just a cable that converts the component cable to VGA, it does something electronically. Best way to use the AE100 is through the VGA port and setting it to WIDE. Go to the AVS forum and find mancubus. He can answer your questions and he's in TO too.

 

Dave, I think the only thing you'll need to consider is that the AE100 has only one set of component inputs. If you want to connect both a DVD and the X-Box through component, you'll need a switcher. If your receiver has component video switching you're all set.

LCD is basically immune to burn in, although I've heard talk of pixels 'weakening' over time. Don't know if this is fact or fiction though.

 

AE100 owner here- I just send the progressive signal in through component. No transcoder here.

It is STUNNING! To me the improvement from using a transcoder is not worth the added cost. To others it may be, but trust me- the image without it is equal to or superior to any RPTV DTV I have seen or owned.

Cheers

Andrew B.

 

Dave and Andrew,

Andrew have you seen the AE100 when it is set to WIDE went running an input via the VGA port? How do you like your projector in general?

Well, I've only seen Mancubus's interlaced DVD inputed via iscan through VGA and the ae100 set to WIDE and it was mind-boggling. I am still trying to determine how I can purchase an AE100 myself without selling my TV.

 

can someone go in depth about this vertical banding? ...... initially i was shopping for the plus piano projector .... but i have been running into this panny ae100 a lot .....

how much is this projector goin for? .......

comparison? ......

 

Thats cool about the different input. I have to say, I haven't seen the input you are talking about either, so I can't compare and argue which is better, I am only going with what I saw and what people say who have seen BOTH. Apparantly the transcoder has to be very good anyways, or you lose quality, but its supposed to be very good picture quality. The interlaced via iscan that I saw is burnt on my brain because I have an interlaced player myself, plus no intention of getting HDTV, since I have regular cable TV now and I'm less interested in TV. I have VHS and laserdisc right now too. An iscan is a good idea for me personally.
I agree, this little projector is incredible. When I first sat down in front of the screen and the owner asked me what I wanted to try out, I handed him Apocalypse Now and when we watched the seen of the mission briefing, with all the close ups of the characters, I was in awe of the detail I was seeing. I could barely see anything objectional, it just looked awesome. I was stitting 1.3x screen width away and sometimes I saw screen door, but I'd say I saw it less than 20% of the time and it was limited and localized, never largely uniform over the entire picture.
The thing that totally blew me away, was the closeups NEVER seemed to have screen door. When you saw Mila Jovovich's Face or Bruce Willis's face in Fifth Element, or Martin Sheens face in Apocalypse now, the detail on their faces was so incredible, that you couldn't be distracted by screen door that might be elsewhere in the picture, because the focal point of the movie always seemed to be totally full of fine detail and absent of screen door. I did see screen door sometimes, like on the scene where they took the hand and recreated the fifth element, Mila Jovovich's character, the the brutal guard guy, who was also in Blade Runner, his face had some screen door, but again, that was when viewed from 1.3x screen width. You are always drawn to the high detail portions of the screen and they almost always appeared free of screen door. in fact, during those close ups, I stood up and walked toward the screen and I couldn't see screen door on high detail closeups of faces even when I was less than 1.0x screen width away. Amazing. In my room, the potential AE100 setup, I will be 2.0x away and I doubt very much that I will see any screen door.
I did notice the vertical banding, but if I was left with that kind of picture degredation, I couldn't care less. It was easier to see on certain scenes, and it was sometimes wider spread, but you could ignore it so easily it was a non-issue for me. I find that my eyes and brain only focus on things that are uniform horizontally, and the vertical banding was pretty minimal. Also, I believe the guy who gave me the demo has reduced the vertical banding from the level that I saw, and if that is true, then it would have to be practically invisible, or at least, not an issue for 99% of people.
I need some advice here about buying an AE100. If I bought an AE100, I would be using the following sources: 1)interlaced DVD, 2) vhs, 3) laserdisc (until I sell it) and 4) regular cable tv all through an iscan. I'd be pushing my budget over the max and I'd be very tempted to sell my 32" JVC TV to recover some of the cost.
So would you guys ditch your only TV completely in favour of the AE100? It does mean I would ideally need to have the lights off even when watching cable TV. I can acheive absolute darkness in my room, but I'm not sure I'll like having to turn the lights off to watch TV. Is anyone using their AE100 in place of their TV?

 

Assuming the European variant of the Panny AE100 has the same basic specs as the North American, as a UK based potential buyer (for info. best price I can find is US $2K inc. del & tax) I have a question:

Am I right in assuming that the throw distance & maximum projection size are connected i.e. 1.2 metres between projector and screen gives 40 inch picture and 7.4 meters gives 200 inch picture (based on 16:9 image)

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Dave, Canadian list on the bulb is targetted at $549. At this point, it's not even something that I can order though. Mind you, I just did some math and at my house, this bulb would last for about 4 years. Not bad!

That killer price on the AE100 is on units imported from Japan. The problem is, if there are any warranty issues, the unit has to be shipped back to Japan. I can't explain why there's such a huge pricing discrepancy between Japan and North America, but I have made Panasonic Canada aware of it.

I wonder if the AE100's RGB input supports sync-on-green? If so, the RGB out from a Malata DVD player would work without the need for a transcoder.

 

Hey trev, there is a post on AVS about some guy reducing the vertical banding on some projector, he even posted proof and it was impressive. He went into the service menu of his Hitachi CP-X275W:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=135347
If you want to tweak your PJ further, this might be available to you if you haven't already done these adjustments. Maybe you can't do them on the AE100 but if you can, than cool. No idea so you can check it out
So all other things are going well with the AE100? Did you tweak or lessen screen door any more? Figure out the variability of screen door from left to right? Move your seating back any? Your setup was 99% perfect as it was and you probably have gone past the tweaking stage and are actually sitting down with the popcorn and watching movies straight through without testing
JohnnyG,
I agree that there is risk with ordering from Japan. I would rather buy from someone locally if I could afford it, but I may take a risk and order from over there some day if the price difference is still what it is now. Good point to complain to Panasonic that their price in Canada and NA is too high. Hope it doesn't make the price over there go up, but I can't blame you and would rather you did complain. If the price difference was less, I'd buy from here for sure, and you'd be a prospective place for me to buy from aswell. Its all pie in the sky as I can't afford it right this second anyways. It is very likely in my future though.

 

Chris,

thanks for the link. That definately explains why my banding was improved with newer cables. Hopefully someone will find a way to dig deeper into the service menus and I can get rid of the slight banding I'm seeing in the green panel currently.

I actually haven't tried tweaking the screen door any further. The last thing I was working on was contrast, black level and shadow detail. I think I've probably gone as far as I can go in that regards so I'm just about ready to tackle the screen door issue. I think the problem with the screen door uniformity is related to the very slight rake I have in my projector mount. I plan on taking it down and exending the screws a bit longer so the rake isn't necessary. I'll let you know how things turn out.

In the meantime, if you do run across the method of getting into the service menus on this projector let me know in case I miss it.

Thx.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by rake, unless "rake" means it the projector is angled down too much. It would be interesting though, if you found a way to make the screen door on the one side become as minimal as it is on the other side. As it is, its hardly noticable, but you know what I mean. If, for whatever reason the screen door really is less on the left, and yet the picture is still sharp and clear on the left, then there might be a way to match the right side to the performance of the left side. Who knows. Anyways, enjoy your projector