reviews

HCC Review - Panasonic PT- AX100
October 2006

Panasonic PT-AX100 Projector
HCC Editors choice for Home Cinema if you don't have a light controlled room.

First Impressions

Big Bright, Plasma TV killer it's simply an AE900 on steroids.

Panasonic PT-AX100

The Panasonic 2000 ANSI lumens brightness PT AX-100 is the bees-knees for anyone wanting to use a projector in less than ideal conditions, in other words where a fair amount of light enters the room. The flexible lens shift and 2 X Zoom means you can probably use the coffee table or rear book shelf in place of the more expensive fixed roof mount.

Lumens ain 't lumens

While 2000 lumens is available in other projectors, this is the brightest 2000 lumens in the 16:9 - 720P LCD class. The AX-100 automatically adjusts brightness according to the room lighting so you're only running flat chat when you need to. In this review we've used a lounge room wall (light beige) as well as a fixed projection screen in our cinema room. The AX-100 can project a great image either way however you'll always get a better result with a screen and fixed projection screens are the best because there is no possibility of fabric warping.

You may like to upgrade the remote.. As for the technical stuff simply read all the pages written on the last model (AE900) then up the lumens to 2000 and you're 95% there. Lumens or brightness is the most important characteristic when you're not setting up a dedicated home cinema room. All the hype about contrast ratio means very little if you don't have the brightness. On the other hand for a dedicated cinema room forget the lumens and check out the contrast ratio.

The reason all lumens are not created equal is LCD projectors are always brighter than DLP models (single chip) of the same ANSI rating because the light is not cut up into sequential colours (by the colour wheel) 3-LCD models project all the colours at the same time thus giving more punch or effective brightness and no DLP "rainbows".

Our first impressions can be summed up as WOW!

The lights are on full in my lounge room.. The light output from the AX100 was so high it makes the plasma look worse in this image than it was in real life. You can see a reflection on the floor if you look closely.

We turned the lights up full in our cinema room (not the lounge room above) and the image was still totally viewable. With light shining directly onto the projection screen you knew it was better than a Plasma TV under the same conditions. The "Normal" setting was almost as bright as the "Dynamic" setting without sacrificing image quality.

Using our "Real World" contrast ratio test above the AX100 scored 500:1 in Video mode and 450:1 in Cinema2 mode.

Under most circumstances the PT-AX100 can display what a Plasma or LCD TV can, however neither a Plasma or LCD flat screen can give you a whopping big cinema image that will have you and your friends saying wow!

There is nothing that's perfect in a sun lit room, plasma screens tend to act as a mirros so LCD TV is the best option if you have no blinds. If you can cut out some of the direct light the AX100 is a really viewable alternative (Especially if you tone down the image size) with 2000 ANSI lumens.

Whiter than white

You'll note from the image below on scenes with a lot of white it's way brighter than a plasma TV.

Images should be viewed as relative as the camera tends to set up on the brightest section.

Brighter whites..

Images in the fast lane

Actual 3M Image taken with a digital camera
The AX-100 shines with 1080 source material

After overriding automatic brightness and pushing the pedal to the floor we rated the PT-AX100 at 1854/2000+ ANSI lumens (Iris off/On) which is by far the brightest actual rating we've yet tested in this class.

The ANSI test is done by measuring light output taking an average of 9 sections, some were over 2000 ANSI. This is bright, Very Bright. The fan noise sounded slightly louder than the db rating but it was still in the lower end of what's available.

Smooth one

Even up very close it's hard to see the pixel structure, the image above is a section of the one below, which is a section from the next two below.

"Better than a Plasma Screen in a bright room,
in fact better than a Plasma full stop."

The images below were taken using a 100 inch screen, one cropped to show just the image (lights off) the other with down lights in the cinema room on full.

Why buy a 40 inch plasma when you can have a 100 inch home cinema? "Pick Me"

The photos are as taken, not edited.. The image on the plasma screen is a second behind the AX100 because the signal to the projector is from cable fed to my PC to the projector which causes a delay, the plasma is fed direct from the cable box.

While everyone will take your money not many companies have stock. The PT AX100 model sets a new bench mark for 16:9 home cinema use when you're missing the home cinema room..

Unlike a plasma or LCD TV you can pick it up and go visiting friends with your new found interest in watching cinema sized movies at home, even theirs.

The only down side we found was for PC Gamers.

Testing two projectors on two different PCs with HDMI output we couldn't get sharp text. We're not talking about the "Smooth Screen" effect either it's more a problem with the re-sampling components. The problem was obvious if you changed to a Sanyo Z5 or Epson EMP-TW700 as both were as sharp as nails with the same settings on the PC. The best image was obtained using 1080i output.

Before you buy consider how many hours per week. We wonder if there is a tad too much power for the LCD engine, this may be the reason the warranty has strict rules on the number of hours you can run the projector..

For a dedicated home cinema room you really don't need 2000 lumens but then again who really needs a big V8? The Sanyo PLV-Z5 has a better warranty if you don't need 2000 lumens.

Price RRP A$3299 Inc GST

HCC - October 06

Special thanks to AIM Digital Imaging for supplying the test unit.

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