reviews

April 2010 update

Panasonic PT AE 4000U Home Cinema Projector
Review (price $ AUD)

The new Panasonic PT AE 4000 Projector

See hot.com.au for Home Cinema Projectors
Panasonic AE4000 Projector

Unlike 1-Chip DLP projectors there is no spinning colour wheel in the AE4000 3LCD projectors to cause "rainbows" this is a consideration for some people that are sensitive to them.

Mr. Punchy

That's the first thing you notice about the Panasonic PT AE4000, well at least it's what I noticed after having a Sanyo PLV3000 for a while.

The projected image is first rate and the Dynamic mode pictured below (not normally used for movies) was actually watchable if you have enough light in the room, it would cook your eyes in a dark room.

The "LCD" look was in all modes and that's a good thing if you're out to impress. It was less of a "film" look than the Sanyo Z3000 but with some adjustment anything is possible, it's a matter of personal preference. The punch for want of a better word could be due to the new "Rich Red Lamp" a little too rich if you ask me, that's why you have to tone things down a bit of you want more natural looking faces. (Red faces may be an exception..) but again this is nit picking as it's up to you.

UPDATE I've been living with the AE4000 for a while now, so far it has not missed a beat but I still think the picture on the Sanyo PLV Z3000 was more natural, it's hard to put your finger on it but I seem to be adjusting the AE4000 more often to get the best from it.

Dynamic mode AE4000 revie

It took some time to adjust the AE4000 till I had an image as natural looking as the Sanyo, I'm not sure I ever got there because they are two different images in spite of using the same basic LCD engine.

Remote focus & Zoom

Sounds good on paper but it tends to move the whole image too, so it's not a deal breaker either way as focus is not something you use every day.

Smooth Screen

It's cool that you can't see the pixels when you have your nose on the screen but from normal seating position it's not an issue with any true HD LCD projector now days.

Fiddler on the remote

One interesting button is the "Waveform monitor" button, when pressed you see an oscilloscope style image of the video data. If you press adjust it does some fiddling and presto a very sharp image for that data stream.

Hours of fun when nothing else is on trying to make out images inside the waveform. A bit like windows visualizations it's a shame you can't fill the whole screen with it!

After a while though you forget about that button.

If you like to fiddle the menu will have you occupied for hours.

Would I swap Z3000 for the AE4000 knowing what I know now? No. But I'd be happy with either. The only real downers for the Pana is it seemed a touch louder than the Sanyo Z3000 which was almost silent and the warranty is not as compressive. It's a fair bit larger too. Let's be honest most HD projectors are awesome.

UPDATE The user modes have come in handy, this means you can play with the settings then save the new adjustments as a user setting to recall later.

Key Features and Benefits of the Panasonic AE 4000

The incorporation of the new Red-Rich Lamp increases the luminance efficiency of the projector, to achieve 150% brighter Cinema Picture modes compared to its predecessor, the PT-AE3000.

Prior to the development of the Red-Rich Lamp, much brightness was lost to attain the desired color purity/balance for the rich color reproduction of Cinema Picture modes due to the lack of red luminance.

The newly engineered lamp successfully adds red luminance, and enables the projector to produce brighter images with excellent colors. With the ability to produce a stunning brightness of 1,600 lumens.

"..It wipes the floor with DLP projectors like the BenQ W6000 which is as noisy as an air conditioner and has last generation 10 bit processing.."

To assure maximum clarity and sharpness in full-HD images, the advanced optical system employs a full-HD-optimized lens unit comprising of 16 lens elements in 12 groups, including two large-diameter aspherical lenses and two high-performance ED (extralow dispersion) lenses.

Dynamic iris is used to achieve an astounding contrast ratio of 100,000:1. |more| The fifth generation intelligent iris system works by analyzing the brightness level of each image using a histogram, then adjusting the lamp power, iris and gamma curve* accordingly to create the ideal image. The adjustments are made virtually frame by frame. This helps the projector achieve a wide dynamic range with swift smoothness for added beauty in both dark and bright scenes.

The PT-AE4000’s full-HD LCD panels have a double-speed drive capability that improves the projection clarity of moving images. These high-precision panels use vertically aligned liquid crystal molecules with inorganic alignment layers.

The optical filter optimizes the light spectrum from the UHM projector lamp, helping to produce deeper blacks while improving purity levels in the three primary colors (red, green and blue). This advanced filter system improves color purity to cover a range that extends from the HDTV standard (Color 1 mode)*1 to the color gamut used in digital cinema*2. This gives images the deep, rich coloring that distinguishes movie images.

*1 A setting that supports the 6,500K color temperature recommended in the HDTV standard (ITU-R BT.709) *2 Specifications put forth by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) DC28 Digital Cinema committees.

Smooth Screen technology. This uses the double refraction property of crystals to arrange pixels on a screen with no gaps between them. Smooth Screen technology is designed to give you the kind of smooth, vivid, and three-dimensional like images you see in movie theaters.

A double-speed display (120 Hz or 100 Hz) greatly improves the clarity of motion images. Frame Creation interpolates one new frame for each existing frame by analyzing the characteristics of the adjacent frames to reproduce sharp and clear images for fast moving scenes in sports and action movies.

For 24p signal input, three frames are calculated and interpolated for each existing frame, to enable 4x speed (96-Hz) display. There are four modes (mode 1, mode 2, mode 3, and off) to choose from. The effect is more pronounced as you ascend through the modes, to provide crisp, clear images to your liking. .

The color correction system enables free color control in two different modes. The Point Color Correction mode lets you pick a point in the image and adjust that color without affecting the neighboring colors, so it is easy to get just the right color equalization in hue, luminance and saturation. The Six Color Correction mode enables independent adjustment of red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow.

You can freeze any scene you wish, and then make adjustments while easily comparing the original image and the adjusted image side-by-side.

The PT-AE4000 handles up to 16-bit (full 12-bit) digital image processing. It faithfully reproduces even subtle hues and brightness variations.

3D Noise Reduction
3D Noise Reduction circuit intelligently detects and removes unwanted noise without adversely affecting fine details. This achieves clear, low-noise images from all types of input sources and scene types.

MPEG Noise Reduction
This system detects the amount of change in the input signal from one scene to the next and calculates the amount of noise to remove accordingly, minimizing both block noise and mosquito noise.

Direct playback of 24 fps (frames per second) progressive video signals suppresses noise and optimizes the natural film quality of movies.

Up to six settings can be stored in the Lens Memory, including zoom and focus positions for projecting in the normal 16:9 or 4:3 image ratio, and wide cinema projection settings. These memories can be recalled manually or can be set for automatic switching. The projector is able to detect 2.35:1 and 16:9 source and retrieve the stored setting automatically.

A 2x optical power zoom/focus lens and a lens shift function together make it possible to project a 120-inch picture from as close as 3.6 m (11´10.) to the screen or as far as 7.2 m (23´7.) away. In addition, the image can be shifted ±100% vertically, and ±40% horizontally. This gives you outstanding setup flexibility. If you choose to ceiling-mount the projector, you can zoom and focus by remote control.

The PT-AE4000 supports VIERA Link. If your home theater system contains VIERA Link-ready equipment, projection can be started by using only the remote control unit of the PT-AE4000, regardless of whether the source is a Blu-ray Disc or a TV program stored on an HD recorder. This eliminates the need for hassling with several remote controls*.

* Cannot be used simultaneously with TV that supports VIERA Link. Some operations may not be available depending on the equipment. In this case, use its own remote control to operate the equipment.

Two 12V triggers are provided. Since the input and output can be set independently (menu selectable), they can link flexibly with powered screens, room light and powered curtains. When combined with the Intelligent Lens Memory, they let you create a truly classy home theater.

The PT-AE4000 has three HDMI input terminals for digital transmission without image degradation. The HDMI input terminals also support Deep Color and the x.v.Color™ color space of the HDMI 1.3 standard. Deep Color provides 10-bit (over 1.07 billion) and 12-bit (over 68.7 billion) color depths for smooth gradation between colors, while x.v.Color™ compliance reproduces natural, lifelike images*.

*Effective in Color 1 image mode.

For easy maintenance, you can replace the filter from the side and the lamp from the top of the projector. The dust filter and lamp are easily replaced even after the PT-AE4000 is installed on the ceiling.

Each Panasonic projector is produced by a vertically integrated production process, which extends from R&D to manufacturing, at the Panasonic factory in Japan, under strict quality control. This ensures stable, top quality performance in every product.

Other features

• Featuring a wide range of aspect modes, including ones for anamorphic lenses. (JUST/4:3/16:9/S16:9/14:9/ZOOM1/ZOOM2/H-FIT/V-FIT)
NOTE: The selectable modes vary depending on the input signal.
• Masking function to match the desired projection area to the screen.

100,000:1 Contrast Ratio

When we saw projectors claiming super high contrast ratios (CR) again we said "really?" the ANSI CR may be around 800:1, this, is all the CR you'll ever need. Take on/off CR with a grain of salt, they all sex it up. The thing you look for is darkest blacks! LCD projectors are getting closer to perfection, which in our opinion is: In a totally dark room where you can't see your hand in front of your face, you project pure black and nothing changes.

When you get into splitting hairs over CR think what was the last time you were in a room with NO light at all? It wasn't a real cinema that's for sure.

Colour Bits

12 bit processing (86 billion colours) C7 LCD engine, that's where you see differences in specifications compared to lower end models. 12 Bit LCD means there are no bottle necks.

Plasma, LCD TV still just TV!

What happened to home cinema? 42-50-60 inch that's still just TV. Big deal that they're flat.

Projectors like the Panasonic AE4000 home cinema model should make big home cinema a must have for anybody wanting to overtake the Jonses, (why just keep up with them?) or indeed have a new way to spend "quality time" with the family.

The word is "Home Cinema is the new swimming pool" ..about time and a lot easier on the water storage.

You'll never see a great demo at a Plasma/LCD TV merchant, it's not in their interest to convert you to real home cinema, you'll be happy with your flat TV if they have any say.

Screen shot of HD Projector with DNP Screen..

Pixels

Even up close you can hardly make out the pixel structure on the screen, from any sort of normal viewing distance it's impossible. The image is as smooth as silk. You may have heard of the Panasonic "Smooth screen technology" it's plenty smooth.

C2fine LCD is just fine

3LCD technology is also used under licence by Barco, Canon, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Infocus, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Sanyo, Sony, Toshiba, Viewsonic and many more..

With projectors like this screen shots are almost pointless as you can't tell one from the other the above image is just an example.

Out of the box

There is not much you need to do. You may like to have a fiddle with the lamp power and Iris on/off but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, we liked it is an understatement.

Colour Modes

The PT-AE4000 has seven preset picture modes, making it easy for you to enjoy optimal viewing quality from a variety of image sources. Choose whichever mode provides the picture characteristics best suited to the source material.

Screening review

You'll soon find out the limitation is often not the projector it's your eyes or your room but most lightly the source material. Very hard to fault any projected image when you're at this level.

Please remember our screen shots are taken with a digital camera and are not as impressive as reality. Actual AE4000 images soon however 400 pixels means that they will look the same as any HD images here. Apart from the no-image black screen it will be hard to tell the difference save for 120Hz motion interpolation that smoothes out high speed images to get rid of the "jerkiness".

Noise dB - Focus

High lamp mode causes the fan to speed up, on a hot night the level is very noticeable so there is the rub if you do need to use full lamp mode because you can't control the ambient light you will hear the difference.