October 30th, 2008 Art Feierman
Update: Click for the PT-AE3000 review which has been posted.
Greetings all,
I know many of you have been waiting for this one. Well, I’ve got lots of news, and some may surprise you.
Let me preface this by saying so far, I haven’t been working with and analyzing the frame interpolation yet, nor have I played with what I like to call the “pseudo” anamporphic lens features. Both of these are extremely interesting, and may well prove important to many potential buyers, but the word on those items will have to wait for the full review in a few days.
Here are the Headlines:
Panasonic’s PT-AE3000U is a substantial improvement over the PT-AE2000U. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in New Projector Reviews, Opinion, Products | 15 Comments »
October 27th, 2008 Art Feierman
At last, the PT-AE3000U is in house, and powered up. First serious viewing tonight will be Monday Night Football, followed by checking out some movie clips before the projector gets calibrated. Tomorrow is calibration day, and then the review really gets going. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in New Projector Reviews, Opinion, Products | 8 Comments »
October 20th, 2008 Art Feierman
Greetings everyone,
I know a number of you have been waiting for this. Finally BenQ sent another W5000 to me, to see if the image noise issue has been dealt with. This BenQ has the 2.01 firmware, which BenQ says is the latest.
No way for me to tell if any earlier versions were better than the early W5000 I reviewed, or as good as this one.
I am pleased to report, that this W5000, which arrived on Friday, is definitely Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in New Projector Reviews, Opinion, Products | 13 Comments »
October 19th, 2008 Art Feierman
Greetings all,
In studying our visitors’ habits while reading my projector reviews I have noticed several patterns. I believe they call for a review redesign, and I’ll appreciate getting feedback before implementing changes in about a week. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in About our website, New Projector Reviews, News, Opinion | 11 Comments »
October 16th, 2008 Art Feierman
Greetings,
Time to also mention the price drop on the PT-AX200U home theater projector. According to dealers the new MAP price – which pretty much establishes the high price online, is now $999, down from Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in News, Opinion, Products | 6 Comments »
October 16th, 2008 Art Feierman
Greetings,
As everyone in the market for a “top of the line” 3LCD home theater projector realizes, the major new projector entries, notably the Epson Home Cinema 6500UB, the Sanyo PLV-Z3000 and the Mitsubishi HC7000, all compete directly with the Panasonic PT-AE3000U, which just set a price point of $2499.
The Epson HOme Cinema 6500 UB claims the highest contrast ratio of any home projector
In my earlier blog, today, I wrote about the lower than expected PT-AE3000U home theater projector pricing. The big question is will Epson, with their Home Cinema 6500 UB, come down to match the price of the Panasonic, when Epson ships? What about the pricing on the Sanyo PLV-Z3000 and the Mitsubishi HC7000?
Just for fun, my guesses: I expect Sanyo, with their PLV-Z3000, will definitely go for pricing parity, it seems to be their nature. Over the years they have almost always come in at the same price or slightly less, when compared to the Panasonic home theater projector competition. Those two companies just love to slug it out. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Industry, Opinion, Products | 9 Comments »
October 16th, 2008 Art Feierman
Greetings everyone!
I learned yesterday, from one Panasonic PT-AE3000U, authorized dealer, and then confirmed it with another:
Panasonic has set the MAP price (minim
um advertised price) for the PT-AE3000U at $2499.
That pretty much determines selling price which now will be there, or in some cases, just slightly less.
Dealers are pre-selling the PT-AE3000U, and expecting first shipments in late next week.
With previous projectors, Panasonic has fiddled around with promotions with extended warranties, free blockbuster rental cards, etc.
Looks like this Q4, though, that Panasonic is keeping things simple, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Industry, News, Products | 1 Comment »
October 13th, 2008 Art Feierman
Greetings all,
I’ve been running the new Mitsubishi HC6500 projector since late last week. After a few hours of watching before calibration, it was calibrated, and I’ve spent much of the weekend enjoying this projector, both on movies, and HDTV sports.
This is Mitsubishi’s middle projector. It currently should have a street price around $2500 (MSRP is $3495). It fits between the entry level HC5500, and their fully tricked out HC7000 ($4995 MSRP). top of the line 3LCD home projector.
Prior to the HC6500 arrival, I had a real reservation. The claimed contrast ratio of 15,000:1 is only the slightest bit better than the HC5500′s 14,000:1. That should be an inconsequential difference, so I feared that the picture would not be noticeably better than the HC5500. I have set aside my fears.
Turns out, that the HC6500 is noticeably better at black level performance Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Opinion, Products | 4 Comments »
October 10th, 2008 Art Feierman
Greetings everyone,
It’s that time of year again. Most of the major home theater projector manufacturers rolled out their new projectors at CEDIA, with a few projectors shipping immediately, but most with first shipments scheduled for October, November, and December.
I’m getting buried in emails from folks asking when I’m going to get to this one, or that one. In some cases I know, in others I have ball park promises from the manufacturers. To keep my life simple, here’s what’s happening, and my best guess as to the answer to the question “when”.
By projector manufacturer:
Sanyo:
PLV-Z3000 – Early November or end of October arrival. A priority review (as are the top of the lines from the other major brands).
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Industry, New Projector Reviews, News, Products | 3 Comments »
