 Why and Why Not, To Buy This Projector. |
| Review Date: April 27, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Real Home Theaters, Tennessee |
I am the lead installer for a company that installs RealHomeTheaters, so hopefully my experience can be of some help. This projector has some great features not found on all projectors in it's class.
1. Great throw ratio. ( the zoom lens on this projector allows you to throw a 120" image from as close as 11' and from as far from the screen as 22'.)
2. Brightness. ( at 2000 lumens it is one of the brightest 720p 16:9 home theater projectors in it's class. This allows you to overcome ambient light that would "washout" dimmer projectors.)
3. Lens Shift. ( give you the ability to mount the projector off camber to the screen and in most cases higher or lower than normally possible with other projectors.)
But, if you have a normal room with controlled lighting and are able to install the projector at a normal height (7 to 10' off the floor) and centered on the screen. You will not benefit from this projector. Consider the Mitsubishi HC1500 and be sure to read my review on it as well. It will give you just as strong of an end result and save you some money. Provided you do not need any of the three features above.
Hope this helps get your RealHomeTheaters off the ground!
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Great Value in Home Theater
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| Review Date: January 1, 2008 |
| Reviewer: B. Almonrode, Bettendorf, IA |
I purchased the PT-AX200U for my dedicated home theater room in Aug 2007 after much reading and reviewing all options. Projectorcentral dot com is one of the best sources of information such as placement as well as reviews (both professional and consumer).
About the projector: Sharp, clear and bright (2000 lumens is really bright). While this PJ is 'only' 720p several professional reviewers have dubbed this the 'poor-mans' 1080p. Panasonic has developed a technology called smooth screen that effectively minimizes screen door effect and it really works. I have my viewing area exactly 1.8x the diagonal (105" screen) and there is NO pixel distinction.
Setup: This was a snap. I used the much debated Avia setup DVD and the "Cinema 1" Mode was spot on out of the box. Looked great.
Gaming: While we are not a gaming family, we do have a Wii hooked up with great results. We also have the Fisher Price Smart Cycle and it looks awful - terrible resolution a la 1985. The PJ just exacerbates the lousy FP technology in the Smart Cycle - Don't misunderstand - the Smart Cycle is great - just needs real graphics.
Placement: This PJ has phenomenal flexibility with incredible lens shift and 2.0x zoom. To make a 106" picture unit can be from about 10 feet to about 20 feet away. Look carefully at zoom and lens shift before you buy.
Compatibility: This PJ accepts nearly all inputs (i.e. 1080p/24) and does not have to put the picture through 2:3 pull down. If you are considering a Blu-Ray or HD DVD be sure to check the signal compatibility of the PJ you are considering.
Noise: I sit under and just behind the PJ installed on the ceiling and it's barley audible with no other sound in the room. Very good dB rating.
Summary: Great value. Great picture. Easy installation. 2 HDMI ports. Highly recommended!
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Fantastic Home Theater Experience
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| Review Date: March 17, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Sean Fitzroy, Boston, MA USA |
This projector is simply fantastic. DVD's look great and HD sources look even better. While very similar to last years model, this one has an additional HDMI input and, more importantly, is about $700 cheaper. Some benefits:
- Amazingly versatile placement options with wide zoom range and lens shift. I have this projector mounted on a shelf above my couch. This is perferable to a coffee table, and much less invasive than a ceiling mount. It's also very quiet - especially in eco mode.
- Extremely film-like "Cinema" mode right out of the box. I felt no need to calibrate this thing beyond the factory preset, although you can use a calibration DVD with color bars and adjust it yourself.
- LCD. It spite of what you might hear about DLP being more film-like, the image from the PT-AX200U is awesome. DLP projectors in this price range use a spinning color wheel which is usually louder and prone to requiring repairs. Worst DLP projectors can leave a rainbow trail / after-image detectable in a percentage of the population. Even if you can't see the rainbows, do your guests a favor and go LCD.
- Larger image and more flexible than a TV. If you're considering a plasma or LCD TV and enjoy watching movies (but don't necessarily leave the TV all the time), consider this projector. It's smaller, much easier to move, less expensive, and casts an amazing 106" image. If you have a room where you can control the light level (it doesn't have to have dark walls) this is the way to go for watching movies.
-This projector works very well hooked up to a computer. I have a Mac Mini that I use thru a DVI to HDMI converter and it works great, but you can also use a standard VGA connector. In the summer you can take it in the backyard, connect it to a laptop and project movies outside your BBQ or pool party. |
Haven't been this satisfied with an electronics purchase in over a decade.
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| Review Date: November 10, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Jack M. Hoffman, |
I'd been shopping around for a new gaming display for Wii, PS3, Laptop through DVI, and movies, for a very long time, to replace my monster 36" 300lb CRT. First I went with a 46" LCD that just had too much lag, GHOSTING, grayish blacks, banding on the image, all these problems, and ended up returning it. Then a friend recommended I try the projector route. I was at first skeptical but eventually read a bunch of very helpful reviews on projectorreviews.com, and decided to go with this one, as it is marketed by Panasonic as a "gaming projector"
4 months of owning it and now I would never go back to anything else. Ever. Every one of my friends who sees this thing in action says the same thing - even one who has a massive 1080p 70" Sony rear projection set. This thing is just stellar, the image is sharp, very bright - even in a dimly lit room, and vibrant with great contrast and colors, no lag or ghosting, perfectly complements the high gain 100" gray glass beaded screen I bought for it (I recommend these over a plain white any day - see pictures)
There is no rainbow effect since it is a 3LCD projector, it is fairly quiet and does not have any sort of screen door effect, and ghosting is very very minimal - no more than a CRT or any other display. It also has a crazy amount of advanced image tweaking options that I've never seen on even the most expensive sony XBR LCD's.
The short throw lens is very flexible and can easily fill a 100" screen from less than 24 feet. I place mine in front of the viewers, on a table, angled slightly up with its adjustable feet, and found it gave a better picture than putting it behind and high above viewers. The viewing angle is very good - much better than the LCD it replaced, and is best achieved by placing it with the lens closer to the level of your head. The lens can be shifted all over the place with the little joystick and locked into place by twisting it, and the focal and zoom rings are very precise and have a nice feel.
Sure, it's not 1080p, and I wrestled with this issue a lot before buying it, but now I see that it really wouldn't matter unless i was trying to push this thing past maybe 150" or more. Also, most ps3 games only support 720p anyway, and the wii is only 480p - and taking into account the great value to performance ratio of this thing, I don't miss 1080p at all.
Even taking into account the bulb replacement costs (about $250 for each ~2000 hour bulb), I still feel it's worth it and cannot stress how much I love this thing. I beat Metal Gear Solid 4 on it and it was a transcendental experience to play through it on such a huge and beautiful display.
The only bad thing I can think of about this projector is that the lens cap is manual - you have to clip it on when you're done. I would have preferred a nice automatic one that shuts over the lens when you switch it off.
One final note - this projector is MADE IN JAPAN! How often do you see that any more? All the LCDs and Plasmas I looked at were all made in china, taiwan, mexico and all these other places that I feel have much much lower quality control standards than Japan. Made me feel very good about this product. |
BEST PROJECTOR FOR THE MONEY!
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| Review Date: March 20, 2009 |
| Reviewer: D. J., |
Hi, I have owned this projector for over a year now. Currently we have 1598 hours on our bulb, and we just ordered a new one to have as a spare when this bulb finally gives.
We use this projector to watch TV and movies. It is the only "TV" in the house and we watch movies/TV constantly (1598 hours in about a year, that says it all right there)
We have a 8 foot piece of polywall for a screen, and the room gets filtered light in the day, and we use an S-video feed for the direct tv (not hd yet!), an hdmi cable for the movies...and despite all this, the picture quality is amazing! We originally got the polywall piece from home depot as a temporary screen to use until we figured out placement and what size screen we wanted, but we have been so happy with the picture quality that we haven't gotten around to spending the money and replacing it yet. This week we are upgrading our direct tv to HD and I'm pretty stoked.
I spent months researching projectors before finally settling on this one. I am so glad I did, this projector has far exceeded my expectations in every way. Here are some of its best features:
--In terms of placement, its very flexible. I have it sitting on top of my book case in the rear of the room. I can easily zoom the picture in, make it smaller, and move it up/down/right/left. This is especially handy when switching from widescreen movies to the 4:3 TV format.
--This projector is really bright. I have the lamp on "natural" which is one the dimmest settings, and the output is good. I can see details in dark movies that I missed while in the movie theater! For example, DARK KNIGHT was AWESOME to watch with this projector because its a very very dark movie.
--I was VERY concerned about the lamp hours when I bought the projector. There was no "average" runtime given, so I was kind of expecting the bulb to go out around 700 hours. But here I am, at 1598 hours and the lamp is showing no signs of slowing down.
--The unit is very quiet. I live in a very warm climate and I was worried about having the projector mounted on my bookcase and overheating. The fan is located on the side of the projector and even after a 8 hour movie marathon, I have no problems with overheating.
Overall, I would recommend this projector to everyone. I am so glad I didn't waste money on a small plasma flat screen. My family was worried that we would be spending too much money on replacement bulbs. So far, even with our excessive use of the TV, we are only spending $350 a year on replacement bulbs. To be able to watch sports on an 8 FOOT SCREEN and have a theater style living room for movie nights, $350/year is SOOOOO worth it! |
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