9/12/2006 Panasonic Unveils PT-AX100U Home Theater Projector to replace their best selling PT-AE900U.
Update: We have posted our review of the PT-AX100U
The PT-AX100U is an exceptional home theater projector, for less than $2000, and has won our Hot Product Award.
Update 9/22/2006 - The Panasonic PT-AX100U has arrived, and I got the first chance to work with it last night, viewing it on HDTV (in my Theater Room) with no changes (calibration) from it's default settings.
The PT-AX100U is bright! In its brightest mode - Dynamic, it is a couple of magnitudes brighter than my PE-8720 projector. I was able to watch the Georgia Tech football game with my blinds open - (I have a southern exposure, and lots of windows on that wall. I watched right after the sun dropped behind a nearby hill, and the sky was gray. Even with all the window shades open, the game looked pretty good. Closing the shades of the two closest windows, , the image was dazzling. I couldn't begin to enjoy the same game, when switching back to my BenQ projector, the room was just too bright.
I also watched Jay Leno, with a goodly amount of lighting turned on in the room. Again, in Dynamic, more than enough brightness, and even stepping it down to "Normal" it was significantly brighter than most home theater projectors, and still made for good watching!.
This looks to be a great projector for all of you who can't fully darken your rooms for daytime viewing, or just don't want a fully darkened room for watching sports, HDTV, etc. Tonight, I start calibrating and measuring the PT-AX100U.
-------
Original comments and Panasonic Press release for the PT-AX100U:
I'll start with a little commentary, and then provide the full Panasonic press release, below. I am hoping to have a full review of the PT-AX100U projector published before the end of this month.
Panasonic's new PT-AX100U, announced today, builds on Panasonic's very hot PT-AE900u, and looks to address a major issue affecting most home theater projectors - more brightness. Enough brightness to overcome some ambient light, and still produce a quality image.
The Panasonic PT-AX100U claims 2000 lumens compared to most home theater projectors which claim 600 - 1400 lumens. Of course, in it's "best mode" it will produce significantly less, but, according to Panasonic, the AX100U should still produce a very good quality image in brightest modes.
Many movie watchers will appreciate the extra brightness, but sports fans and gamers will be thoroughly delighted with the extra "horsepower".
Contrast is reported improved to 6000:1.
And the new projector is in a pearl white finish, instead of the old silver, and that should make most potential home theater buyers very happy.
Image processing, based on the preliminary release, is 10 bit, so the Panasonic will produce over 1 billion colors compared to the 16 million most lower cost projectors produce. You say "who needs all those extra colors?"
The answer is, more sublte shadings are possible, and the related improvement should be seen in flesh tones, and other areas, including shading in sky scenes, large smooth surfaces, etc.
The PT-AX100U offers a 2:1 zoom lens that allows the same, excellent placement flexibility of the PT-AE900U. Like the AE900U, the new PT-AX100U offers horizontal and vertical lens shift.
Panasonic has added what they call their Light Harmonizer - a feature which will automatically adjust projector settings to compensate for the level of ambient light in the room. I have worked with their Daylight View on their business projectors, which does some of the same things. It should be a very nice touch, and if it really works great, should be a major league "ease of use" improvement!
.MSRP is $2999 so street pricing should be similar to the PT-AE900U, or a bit higher, initially.
The Panasonic PT-AX100U is scheduled to ship "mid-September", so it sounds like "any day now".
I will update the site with more info regarding when the review unit will arrive and when the review will be posted. Also, we expect to have the full specs listed in our projector directory in the next day or two. -art
---------------------
Here's the full press release from Panasonic:
PANASONIC LAUNCHES ALL NEW LCD HOME THEATER PROJECTOR PROVIDING CONSUMERS WITH
Panasonic PT-AX100U Home Cinema Projector Displays Brightest Images In Its Class1, Improved Color Reproduction, Resolution and Contrast
SECAUCUS,
The PT-AX100U home theater projector will make its official debut during the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) EXPO in
The PT-AX100U model produces brighter, more eye-catching images and offers consumers more places to view their favorite home entertainment. The projector’s new 220-W UHM™ lamp and optical unit combine to generate 2,000-lumen brightness, unprecedented for an LCD projector with at least 720p native resolution1. It also incorporates Panasonic’s new Light Harmonizer image technology, which measures ambient light and adjusts the screen brightness so that images remain bright, crisp and vivid even in well-lit rooms.
"With the proliferation of HDTV and other forms of high-definition content, consumers are taking control of how and where they view their digital entertainment,” said Thomas Zitelli, president of Panasonic Projector Systems Company. “Not only are consumers telling us they want to enjoy hi-def sporting events on a bright sunny afternoon, they also want to immerse themselves within the cozy confines of their own home theaters. In addition to being a leading provider of high-definition projectors in the
The PT-AX100U projector reproduces
The home cinema projector’s Smooth Screen technology uses crystal double refraction to arrange pixels on a screen with no gaps in between them – producing vivid, smooth images found in commercial movie theaters. The technology also deepens images, enhancing their three dimensional effect for a completely immersive viewer experience. The LCD projector’s optical unit incorporates the Dynamic Iris, which adjusts itself, the UHM™ lamp and gamma curve2 60 times per second to produce beautiful images with a 6,000:1 contrast ratio. The Dynamic Iris also improves sharpness by revealing more detail in both dark and bright images.
Set-up and installation are a snap with the PT-AX100U projector’s 2x optical zoom lens and lens shift function, which enables viewers to conveniently place the projector on a coffee table, suspend it from the ceiling, or set it on a bookshelf. The projector can cast a 100-inch image at a range of three to six meters from the screen, and its new, pearl-white color and sleek cabinet design fit well in almost any room décor. The new model’s remote control has powerful settings for different types of video such as television sports, home movies or commercial films.
Building upon the PT-AX100U’s innovative feature set, Panasonic will also soon announce its next advanced, high-definition home theater projector designed for savvy, home theater enthusiasts and audio-video professionals.
The Panasonic PT-AX100U LCD home cinema projector will be available starting in mid-September at authorized presentation systems dealers. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) is $2,999. Please visit www.panasonic.com for more information on local distribution channels and retail outlets. For more information on Panasonic’s complete line of projectors, visit www.panasonic.com/projectors or phone 888-411-1996.
About Panasonic Projector Systems
Panasonic Projector Systems Company is a prominent supplier of projectors and presentation systems in the