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Panasonic PT-AE2000U Home Theater Projector Review - General Performance

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Art Feierman
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.

PT-AE2000U Menus

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.

PT-AE2000U User Memory Settings

The Panasonic has a total of 16 assorted user savable settings. That is a most reasonable number which should please everyone.

PT-AE2000U Projector - Remote Control

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.

Click Image to Enlarge

PT-AE2000U Lens Throw and Lens Shift

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.

PT-AE2000U SDE and Rainbow Effect, Pixel Visibility

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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