Overview
Image Quality
General Performance
Warranty
Summary, Pros, Cons
PT-AE2000U Update
Check out how the Panasonic PT-AE2000U fared in our comparison report.
There sure is a lot to cover here. Let's start with the menus. This section is still not complete and will be added to when a full production projector is received in December. At that time images of the menus will be added, along with other information. We did not have the pre-production PT-AE2000U for as long as we would have liked to fully explore everything.
Panasonic PT-AE2000U Menus
PT-AE2000U User Memory Settings
PT-AE2000U Remote Control
Lens Throw and Lens Shift, Pixel Structure...
SDE and Rainbow Effect
PT-AE2000U Projector Brightness
PT-AE2000U Light Leakage
PT-AE2000U Audible Noise Levels
PT-AE2000U Projector Screen Recommendations
PT-AE2000U Calibration
Image Noise
Coming soon. Meantime, you can take a look at the menu area of the PT-AE1000U review. One noteworthy change is the addition to the Picture menu of SPLIT ADJUST. This lets you freeze a scene select half of it, and put two copies on the screen side by side. You can then edit the one side keeping the other up there for reference and comparison. A great feature if you like to "eyeball" changes (do your color corrections by eye, instead of with meters).
Overall, I have always liked Panasonic's menu layout, although some might complain that the type size is just a bit small. It has never bothered me though.
Beyond the menu layout, are the capabilities found on the menus. I've already mentioned the split adjust feature, however, I should point out that the PT-AE2000U, has tremendous color management controls. Information on these will be added when the production PT-AE2000U arrives, and I have more time to work, and explain them.
The Panasonic has a total of 16 assorted user savable settings. That is a most reasonable number which should please everyone.
The PT-AE2000U remote control seems to be the exact same one provided with the earlier PT-AE1000U. It is a learning remote that can handle 3 additional devices, besides the PT-AE2000U itself. I have not tested the remote, or its setup with other devices. Since it is the same, here is what I wrote about it last year:
It has very good range. I was able to get a good bounce off my screen with the "round trip" from the remote to screen to the projector's front IR sensor at distances just beyond 35 feet. Better than most, and sufficient for virtually any room.
At the top of the remote are two power buttons, the large one for the projector, and the second one to control the "system". Also on the top row is the backlight control. Once the backlight is engaged it will automatically turn off after 30 seconds. There is also an LCD display, which relates primarily to the handling of other devices. You can see and select from all of the devices you have programmed. Most of the buttons below the LCD and above the arrow keys are for controlling other devices, and include buttons for channel and volume change, controls for VCR and DVD, etc.
The lower half of the remote is almost all about the PT-AE2000U projector. Curving around the diskpad (4 arrow keys and centered Enter button), are three buttons, the left one is Menu. The middle one is Device for toggling between devices that the remote controls. Here lies my only complaint. I often accidently hit the device button when feeling for the up arrow. Then, by changing the device, I had to go back and reslect the projector before continuing. The right most of the three buttons is the Return button, which has multiple functions depending where you are in the menus, but primarily moves you back up the menu levels until the last will turn off the menus.
Directly below the diskpad, are a default setting button and a freeze frame button.
Next come three rows of three buttons. The top left of these is the Input source button which allows you to toggle through the various inputs. A lens button is next bringing up the screen mentioned in the Menus section, and focusing and controlling the 2:1 zoom lens. The right button is for Sleep options. On the 2nd row, there are buttons (left to right) for setting Aspect ratio, Picture Mode (the presets) and the Memory Load button, to choose settings you have saved.
On the last row, you can engage the Waveform monitor, there is a second button that toggles through presets and other settings, and the Color Management button that allows users to create custom color profiles.
The 2:1 zoom lens allows placement of the projector (for a 100" diagonal 16:9 screen), as close as 10 foot 2 inches (per the manual), or as far back as 19 feet 8 inches, as measured from the screen to the front of the projector. This Panasonic projector has extensive vertical and horiztonal lens shift. The maximum range for vertical lens shift (that means not using horizontal shift at all), is a half screen height. That means that whatever your screen height is, (let's say 49 inches on a 100" diagonal screen), half would be 24.5 inches. Thus, this projector can be positioned as low as 24.5 inches below the bottom of the screen surface, or as much as 24.5 inches above the top of the screen, or anywhere in between.
Thanks to Panasonic's Smooth Screen technology, pixels are totally invisible, unless you are standing a foot or two from the screen. The bottom line, therefore, is no ScreenDoor Effect. Since the PT-AE2000U is an LCD projector, there is no color wheel, and therefore, no Rainbow effect, which bothers a small percentage of the population.
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First, I'll remind you that this was a pre-production sample. As a result, I fully expect the full production projector due in 2 weeks or so, of this writing, to be a bit brighter.
In the Panasonic's best movie mode - Cinema 1, the projector cranked out 388 lumens, after adjustment (slightly more, before), with the lamp in full power mode.
There were no significant differences in brightness between Cinema 1, 2, and 3, despite significant color temperature differences.
Moving to Normal mode, the prefered mode for TV/HDTV/Sports, this PT-AE2000U measured 640 lumens. Not bad for a really good mode for non-movie viewing.
And of course, there is Dynamic mode. Inherently a compromise, sacrificing color accuracy and balance for maximum "cutting through the ambient light" lumens, Dynamic measured 1019 lumens. That makes it the brightest of the new LCD projectors, so far.
The Dynamic mode does it's job. For football, I set the Panasonic PT-AE2000U, to fill just about every square inch of my 128" Firehawk screen, with low levels of lighting coming from overhead recessed lights, plus some daylight coming in around my shaded windows. The Panasonic took a small hit, but overall, the games looked great.
It will be interesting to see how that full production Panasonic will measure out.
Nothing of note. A non-issue
Reasonably quiet. The Mitsubishi is definitely quieter, but the Panasonic (which doesn't have a published noise level, even in full power), should please all but the most silence demanding theater owners. The Panasonic is definitely quieter than the Epson Cinema 1080 and the Optoma HD80, as well.
Since the PT-AE2000U is average in brightness, your screen surface choice will likely be determined by the size of the screen you plan on, and also, of course, some of your room conditions. With off white walls, the Panasonic had no problem in Cinema 1 at 110" diagonal. I tried filling my 128" Firehawk screen (high contrast gray surface), but found the Panasonic to be a little thin to do a really good job. Certainly as the lamp ages, and dims, screens over 110" are going to be too large, with a screen like the Firehawk.
Of course high contrast gray screens lower black levels, and I think that helped my opinion of the PT-AE2000U. Overall, I would go HC gray, with screens of 100" or less, At 100" to 110" you could go either way, depending on whether your walls are light or dark (lighter walls make the projector seem dimmer), and whether you favor brightness or blacker blacks.
For 110" or over, I would generally recommend a white surface, with gain in the 1.1 to 1.4 range. However, Light gray surface screens with gains over 1.0 such as the Da-lite Cinemavision, would be an excellent choice, if you have a little side ambient light. Still, I would stick to white surfaces at 120" or over.
The tough part, is that your final choice is subjective. One person will prefer the darker blacks, the next, the punchier brights!
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This section will be redone, and expanded when the production version arrives.
Because of the unevenness of color of the image, getting accurate readings and adjustments is most difficult. Moving my light meter over even 10% of the screen width, in some cases caused a color temperature shift of 500K.
Overall, however, the whole screen stayed within about 700K. Still lower areas and especially the left side were warmer - more red.
So, I ballparked (estimated) the readings, trying several points of the image, and picked an "average" number.
In Cinema 1 mode, default:
100IRE (white): 6882K
80IRE (light gray): 6585K
50IRE (medium gray): 6770K
30IRE (dark gray): 6840K
As you can see, those are already excellent numbers.
After adjustments consisting of setting color temp to -1, and green brightness to +1, red brightness to -1, and contrast to +2:
100IRE (white): 6380K
80IRE (light gray): 6375K
50IRE (medium gray): 6555K
30IRE (dark gray): 6530K
Now that is nice and tight, and about as close as one can get to 6500K, with a total range of only 175 degrees (K).
Of additional note, Dynamic mode is a bit strong on green (most "brightest modes" on projectors are very heavy on green, rather than just a little), but without adjustment the color temperature gets out of control, hitting 10,500K in the middle gray range. That's a couple thousand K too high. On the other hand 100IRE in Normal mode, was 7870K, which is very close to ideal for TV viewing.
The Panasonic performed well on the HQV 1080 test disk being fed 1080i and 1080p sources, and did fine at 480p resoution (using the older HQV disk). I did not test it with a 480i source. No jaggie issues at all, and general image noise was very low. Well done.
Other, odds and ends: Panasonic does not quote lamp life on the PT-AE2000U, copying Sanyo (who has never published lamp life). When a manufacturer doesn't provide that information, the best we can do is suggest that in full power, lamp life is likely around 2000 hours which is considered average. Note though, that a 2000 hour rating tends to mean that half will fail before 2000 hours, and half, after. In low power mode, it would not be unreasonable to expect a life of 2500 to 3000 hours.
Changing the lamp out can be done without unmounting a ceiling mounted projector. Unlike many projectors, where the lamp door is underneath, Panasonic has put theirs on the top, where it is easy to access.
Overview
Image Quality
General Performance
Warranty
Summary, Pros, Cons
PT-AE2000U Update
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