Panasonic PT-AE3000U has arrived!

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.   First an overview.  The PT-AE3000U is the newest 1080p projector from Panasonic, replacing the PT-AE2000U.  The projector just started shipping.  It is a 3LCD design with the latest 3LCD C2Fine panels, is spec'd to be brighter than its predecessor, and has some key features, including frame interpolation, a "pseudo" anamorphic lens mode (no anamorphic lens needed), and so on.   Not much to report so far, other than that it's in the works.  So far, I've got it plugged in, and have the news on in HD.  It is impressively bright in Dynamic mode.  My best guess is that it can hold its own with the "older" Epson Home Cinema 1080 UB, in terms of brightest mode brightness.  Measurements will tell. I'm looking forward to turning the creative frame interpolation on and off, while watching the football game tonight to see if there is any obvious effect on normal viewing.  (In the side by side demo with the PT-AE2000U, at CEDIA, on material really ideal for showing motion blur, the improvement was definitely very visible, but, will I be able to tell on a deep pass to a wide receiver, or notice a difference in all the super fast moving graphics in Transformers.  Linear motion is easier to detect then a lot of things moving quickly in different directions, changing directions, etc.   I will post a First Look blog on the PT-AE3000U sometime on Wednesday, to give you a taste of the review to come.  As to the review itself, it will likely publish between Saturday and Monday, and if you are one of my regular readers, you know the later date is usually the more accurate one, when it comes to getting reviews out (some would say that my Saturday - Monday prediction probably means Tuesday. Hang in there! -art PS.  I will be doing side by sides, against the InFocus IN83, the Epson Home Cinema 1080 UB, and the Mitsubishi HC6500.  (Probably one or both of the Sanyo Z3000 and Mitsubishi HC7000 will arrive before this review is finished, and if so, I'll have them up against the Panasonic as well.  As most of you know, the Epson's aren't due to ship until, probably late November, or mid-December, so those review units aren't expected to arrive for at least 4 weeks.  -a