Upgrade to Panny AE900U from 4805? (1 Viewer)

[Brennan Hill]

I'm wondering if the Panny would be brighter in my living room. I do have ambient light, and end up using my projector mostly after dark and would like to get some more daytime use out of it. I don't yet have HDTV or HD-DVD, but imagine that I will before long.

Thanks

 

[Shane Harg]

Perhaps a more detailed description of how much ambient light - how many windows, how big, how much the curtains control the light, how dark you can make the room, etc. - would help in determining if the AE900 would be an appropriate upgrade. The AE900 is actually not terribly bright, at 1100 lumens (on full power), but it is certainly watchable with my heavy curtains drawn over the one side of my room, which is all sliding glass doors - even on low power. I usually opt to close the shutters over them for daytime viewing, however. Contrast ratio, color saturation and a film-like picture are the really strong points of this projector.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

I went from a 4805 to the AE900. If there's any brightness difference, it certainly isn't enough to make the 900 useable in a situation where the 4805 wasn't, at least to my eyes.
How about a different screen?

Shane...that's a really cool pic.

 

[todbnla]

So Jack, it sounds to me like your saying keep your 4805 and save the $?
I have a 4805 and been considering the 900...?

 

[Jack Gilvey]

Depends, really. The 4805 gives little ground, if any, to the 900 in the areas of color and contrast (out-of-box, in fact, the 4805 is better). The 900 allows a much bigger SDE-free picture than the 4805 did, which was my main reason for getting it. I have a 2.35:1 screen and sit ~1.4x width away...no SDE whatsoever. And it shows HD resolution, which is nice for HD.

If you sit farther than 2x, then the 4805 closes that gap really quickly, and I wouldn't bother. Picture quality overall is a draw, it's just artifact-free size/distance that separates them. I have my 4805 set up in my brother's not-very-well light-controlled basement and it's incredible on HD (the increased resolution of which is only part of what makes it "HD", and which gets less evident the farther away you get).

 

[Brennan Hill]

Thanks everyone. I guess I'll stick with the 4805.