Panasonic PT-AE700U Projector The PT-AE700U is the most impressive home cinema projector ever from Panasonic. Compact enough to sit on a bookshelf, it is packed with advanced features designed to bring you a whole new level of home theater enjoyment. Dynamic contrast is now 2000:1, by far the best in its class, so the picture is sharp and clear even in a well-lit room. New integrated cinema quality circuitry includes a Dynamic Iris optical system that constantly adjusts the brightness and gamma characteristics in real time, so the picture is always optimal and transitions betweens scenes are more natural. An innovative color correction system incorporates Cinema Color Management technology to ensure faithful color reproduction. This cinema-quality integrated circuitry brings you on-screen colors just as you would see them in a movie theater. And the PT-AE700U comes with advanced Smooth Screen technology that effectively eliminates the typical "screen door" effect, so the images you see on the screen are natural and lifelike.
Panasonic's PT-AE700U high-definition LCD projector is equipped with advanced digital picture-enhancing features to transform your living room, basement, or bonus room into a small (or not so small) scale theater for viewing everything from movies to sports to your favorite HD television programs. The tiny projector is capable of displaying an ultra-sharp, ultra-clear widescreen picture up to 18 feet in diagonal. How's that for big-screen?
The PT-AE700U's three 16:9 LCD panels (each with a native 1,280 x 720 pixel count) produce a phenomenal picture with 1,000-lumens brightness and beautifully saturated colors, even in well-lit rooms.
Incorporating the expertise and artistic creativity of the Hollywood colorist David Bernstein, the PT-AE700U's a wealth of image-optimizing features include a color-correction system with Cinema Color Management (CCM) technology to ensure super-faithful color reproduction and a Dynamic Iris optical system incorporating AI technology to produce a best-in-class 2,000:1 contrast ratio. The projector's Dynamic Iris constantly adjusts its light volume and gamma curve in real time, so the picture always looks its best and transitions between scenes are amazingly smooth and natural.
A newly developed 2x optical zoom lens allows image size adjustment to accommodate your room layout and screen size. For instance, the PT-AE700U can project a 100-inch diagonal picture from a distance of less than 10 feet or from a distance of more than 19 feet, depending on where it's most convenient for you to place the projector. A joystick-controlled optical system permits easy vertical and horizontal lens shifts so you can easily adjust the screen without having to move the projector and without distorting the onscreen image.
Other innovative PT-AE700U features include Smooth Screen technology that effectively eliminates the "screen door effect" (visible spacing between pixels), 10-bit digital processing and 10-bit gamma correction (which accurately reproduces subtle changes in brightness and hue and quadruples the number of displayable colors to more than 1 billion and over 1,024 gray levels), and improved Dynamic Sharpness Control (which adjusts video signal enhancement based on the difference in brightness of adjacent pixels). The PT-AE700U also performs 3:2 pulldown detection and reversal, a handy feature for watching progressive-scan movie programs in their native 24-frame format. Digital video mastering introduces a common distortion when adjusting 24 frames-per-second movies to 30 fps video; 3:2 pulldown digitally corrects this distortion, removing the redundant information to display a film-frame-accurate picture.
Weighing just under 8 pounds, the projector is light enough for you to move it between rooms as desired and light enough for you to have it permanently installed in the ceiling using an optional mount. A screen trigger terminal facilitates the opening and closing of an electronic screen when you turn the projector on and off.
The PT-AE700U's range of inputs includes an HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) that accepts all high-definition digital sources, a component-video input to connect to analog HD sources or progressive-scan DVD players and DTV set-top boxes, a PC input to connect multimedia computer sources, and standard composite- and S-video jacks as well.
Further, the PT-AE700U is quiet, with an operating noise level as low as 26 dB. Additional features include omnidirectional digital keystone correction that minimizes distortion when projecting at an angle of up to 30 degrees; contrast, brightness, and gamma level adjustments across 7 picture modes; memory storage of up to 3 sets of picture adjustment settings; a back-lit wireless remote control; 7-language onscreen menu selection; and manual zoom and focus.
What's in the Box
Projector, remote control, remote batteries, an AV cable (10 feet), an AC power cord, a user's manual, and warranty information.
1 Great projector for the price!
This was my first projector. I researched a lot of different models and finally decided on this one because on paper it looked to give the most bang for the buck (my price range was $2000-$3000). I also wanted native 16:9.
After owning it for over a month, I'm quite happy with it. It has none of the flaws usually associated with LCD projectors. There is no "screen door" effect at all, and the black levels are very impressive.
I have the unit mounted to the ceiling (purchased RPA mount for $190) and project onto a 120" gray screen.
One feature that helped clenched the deal for me is the 2x zoom lens - I have the projector situated less than 14 feet from a 10-foot diagonal screen.
I had a little trouble with the mount I purchased, but the projector itself is incredibly easy to setup and operate. The joystick next to the lens lets you to control the horizontal and vertical shift without tilting or moving the whole unit. Remote is back-lit. Menus allow plenty of tweaking. You can store user-defined settings or use factory presets (like cinema, natural, dynamic, etc.).
I have the projector in a dedicated home theater room with no windows and keep the lights turned off while it's running. If I had to deal with ambient light though, I probably would have chosen a brighter projector since this one is only 1000 lumens.
I mostly watch DVDs on this, but also use it to watch cable and play video games - playing Halo 2 on this is an awesome experience!
2 Best Value for your money!
Don't be fooled by the low price of this projector. Until DLP HD+ Projectors drop to this price range there is nothing that can come close to beating this projectors value for money. The new breed of LCD projectors have come a long way in displaying BLACK close to true black with high contrast ratios.
I shopped around a lot for projectors and seen projectors from Runoco, Sony, Sim, Marantz, etc which vary in price from 3k to well over 15K. I wouldn't say this Panasonic is the best but for the price I am paying, I am really not losing much of quality gain. I project the picture on 100" screen from Carada (another value/quality company) and it did nothing less than 'WOW' many of my friends who watched movies on it.
The picture looks very bright and sharp and colors are very vivid. The build quality of the projector is also excellent. You will not go wrong with this purchase. With little tweaking, the picture quality can be improved a lot. You can find intructions to do that at avsforums another well known Home Theater forums. But, please make sure you know what you are doing before you attempt the tweaking.
