I first became interested in getting a home theater projector about 5 years ago. At the outset, it seemed like a great alternative to those larger-than-life rear projection TV's - you know, the one's with the huge grey or black cabinet that take up the space of 2 refrigerators and cost generally over $3,000. The common arguments FOR projectors were:


* Much larger possible image diagonal
* Lower cost per inch of diagonal


Those sounded like really big pluses. But after doing some research I found the lamp life to be a big problem, fan noise a potential stumbling block, and light performance was weak. At the time I lived in an apartment and didn't have the means to eliminate all ambient light. So, I put to rest the projector idea and settled on a Trinitron for a few years. I forgot all about home theater projectors at that point.

Since that time, I have gotten married and bought a house with a basement. This afforded me the opportunity to make a "dedicated" home theater. I had become very interested last year in a LCD or DLP rear projection unit. I was interested in these primarily because of the smaller cabinet dimensions for the same image diagonal as classic CRT based RPTV's. The trouble was just to get around 50-55" diagonal out of either technology would run about $3000. Being both frugal, and discerning made purchasing such a TV a major challenge.

So I was doing a web search on bulb life for Sony's LCD Grand WEGA RPTV line (in an effort to help justify the cost, I wondered what replacing the bulb would run me), and typed something like "projection bulb life" into Yahoo - and immediately got the link to the long forgotten projectorpeople.com website. "Hmmmmm....", I thought, "I wonder if the technology had improved in the last 5 years or so since I last looked into this." To my eventual delight, it had. I then embarked on about six weeks of extensive research, reading of reviews, etc. It seemed clear to me that light output, long bulb life, and high contrast ratio were the most important features in a home theater projector. Low noise came in a close fourth. It is somewhat undesirable to hear the whirr of a fan behind you or above you when watching a movie.

Requirements defined:

Light output Combined with contrast ratio, this feature says a lot about the performance of a projector. Light output is defined in units called "lumens." This is the same "lumens" rating you often see on the side of a light bulb box for any household light fixture. Generally, if you intend to use the projector in a bright room, then higher lumen output is better. Most low cost projectors put out a rated 750-1200 lumens of light. This probably doesn't mean much tho - think of it as brightness capability. What really matters is that if you have a basement, than a projector in this output range will be fine. If you don't and can't block say 90% of the ambient light in a room, then you will want a much higher 2000 lumen output projector. This is not to say that you can't have some lights on and still use a 1000 lumen projector - but I will "illuminate" on that topic more below.

Contrast Ratio Contrast ratio is defined as the amount of contrast from the deepest black to the brightest white. What it means is that in effect, the higher the contrast ratio, the less "dull" an image will look, the deeper the blacks can be, and colors will be more vivid.

Bulb Life All home theater projectors (both LCD and DLP), and even LCD and DLP rear projection TV's use a very bright bulb to project an image to a screen. Just like light bulbs in your lamps, they burn out. Unlike good 'ol 60W light bulbs, projector bulbs cost a lot more to replace, typically $300-$500. On the otherhand, a projector lamp bulb will last a lot longer than light fixture bulb, and likely isn't on as often either. But what is enough lamp life? In a typical home theater used for watching DVD's only, you would use the projector between 200-300 hours a year (watch 100-150 2 hour long movies). If you extend that use to some TV (perhaps throw a party to watch some March Madness) and you can easily another 100-200 hours to that. Further, adding playing XBox or PS2 games on it, and you can probably add another 200-300 hours use per year. It is not practical to use a projector for everyday TV watching - primarily because it takes between 30 and 90 seconds for the lamp to warm up, and minutes to shut down. So fast forwarding the TiVo through the last episode of American Idol to see the results or turning on the news just to check the weather is not a good idea here.

Panasonic AE700U
After much deliberation, I settled on the Panasonic purchased as a package deal from ProjectorPeople.com. I paid about $2,460 complete, including a 92" diagonal 16:9 (80"x45") Da-Lite pull down high contrast matte white screen, and pair of 25' cables (s-video and component video).

tip: Cabling and screens can be pretty expensive purchased seperately, especially the cabling. Getting a package will save you a lot of money. It also will be nice to get everything at once and set up your projector right away :)

Key Specs
The 700U has a very impressive spec list:

* 1000 ANSI lumens light output
* 2000:1 Contrast ratio - full on/off
* 2.0x zoon lense for throw range of about 8 feet to 41 feet. This means that you can get a 100" diagonal image anywhere between 10 and 20 feet throw distance.
* 1280x720 native 16:9 LCD panel (full HDTV capable)
* 3000 hour rated bulb life
* 5 video inputs including VGA, composite RCA, component RCA, S-Video, and HDMI

Setup
Out of the box, the unit is fairly easy to setup. This is in part due to the front facing fan which allows you to simply place it on a shelf if desired at the back of the room. Simply run the cables (power and preferably a component or HDMI input cable) and you are pretty much read to go. I sat mine on a shelf I built out of pine, stained, and mounted to the ceiling. Ceiling mounting typically is done upside down but requires a special mounting bracket - i.e. more cost.

Once plugged in and connected to your video source - the unit is ready for image setup. Simply turn on the main power switch on the back, and then take it out of standby with the simple remote or button on the top of the unit. After about 30 seconds, you will see a blue screen. Hitting "menu" on the remote or unit will bring up your projector menu, which allows you to adjust all the typical stuff, colors, contrast, etc - but this is down the road.

First, you have to zoom, aim, and focus your image. This need not be done to a actual screen right away - and I would recommend not going through that first - it is better to see what kind of size image you will get by throwing to a blank wall at first - even if the wall is papered or has some non-white paint on it. Your not after precise color output here - you just want to understand where the image can easily be placed with the unit. This will help when mounting the screen so you don't end up with lots of holes in your drywall. When I first "tested" my projector, I simply sat it on a coffee table in front of the couch and projected it to my wall - which was a medium brown color paint - it worked great for me. I later moved the projector to my custom shelf hung from the ceiling. In my case, my shelf would place the projector lense approximately 22" below the ceiling.

tip: I would definitely get a screen. Flaws in paint and wall surfaces become extremely apparent when projecting to a blank wall, so as to become a distraction. Color reproduction can also suffer. I was able to tell which way the previous painter rolled on the paint - it was that poor.

First, I zoomed the image to get the diagonal size which would match my screen (again, not yet mounted to the wall). I did this by using a tape measure to get the width of the image within about 1/2 inch of the 80" width of the screen I would be installing. Zooming is accomplished by turning the zoom ring which is behind the focus ring. I found zooming to be very easy and I only had to go back and forth a couple times to get a image very close 80" wide.

The Panasonic can be "aimed" in two ways. First, placement - including use of the adjustable feet on the unit and second, "lense shift." Lense shift essentially allows an image to be shifted up, down, left or right - generally enough to keep the projector perpendicular to the screen/wall which ensures top image quality. You can think of lense shift as like scrolling around an image or website in Internet Explorer. The 700U is capable of perfectly shifting the image about 63% of image height, and about 25% of image width. For example, this means can mount the projector with the lense 12" below a ceiling, and get your image centered 27" below that distance with a 92" diagonal screen (16:9 - 80" wide by 45" tall) - for a total of 39 inches below the ceiling. This is important as the lower the pysical projector sits, the more likely you are to have a viewer block part of the screen with an arm or a head. So, you want it far enough above the seating area to minimize the possibility of someone blocking part of the projected image but low enough to stay within the range of possible lense shift.

Keystone correction To aid in aiming for more difficult circumstances, You can use what is called "keystone correction" which will allow you to aim the projector "pointing down." The problem is that this will produce an image which is not a perfect rectangle but rather a trapezoid which is wider at the bottom than the top. "Keystone correction" eliminates this - but at the expense of some resolution. As such, it is highly recommended to avoid this in a setup.

"Lense shift" is accomplished with a joystick of sorts immediately to the right of the lense. I used the lense shift in concert with placement and leveling to get what I wanted. Many reviewers have complained about the touchiness of the lense shift feature. Those complaints are justified. The stick exhibits a lot of what we engineer's call "stick slip" - you have to push it fairly hard to get it moving, and this results in generally moving the lense way to far. As such, I used it for gross movements. The joystick can be locked down (which is nice) to prevent the lense from ever shifting on you by itself due to vibration or the like. To lock it down, you simply turn the thumb wheel at the end of the joystick clockwise until tight.

After getting the gross vertical shifting done, I used the levelers to achieve fine adjustment for the vertical (it was already within one inch of the correct position for my screen, which is 45" high) and "slid" the whole unit left or right to center it horizontally. The result for me was no keystone correction needed.

Once I got that done, I used pencil to mark on the wall where to put in my drywall anchors based on where the image was. You don't have to be exact here, but getting within an inch is important. After mounting the anchors, mounting the screen was a breeze. To ensure it was level, I mounted one first, then mounted the screen on it and pivoted up holding a level on it. I then marked the second anchor position at indicated level.

tip: Don't use cheap plastic anchors. I used some 50lb rated EZ-Anchor's which are made by ITW-BuildEx but can be found at Home Depot. If you want to know what they look like - check out: http://www.itwbuildex.com/ezprod.htm My screen weighs less than 20lb, so I should have excellent margin with the two anchors holding it up. Coincidentally, my projector shelf is mounted to the ceiling with 6 of the same 50lb rated anchors.

Calibration
Wheew!!! That's it. It's more complicated than setting up a TV - that's for sure. I personally didn't consider setup difficult, but then I am an engineer. Your mileage may vary.

I chose to watch Star Wars Episode 1 first - primarily because it has a THX screen optimizer feature. I recommend choosing something that has the THX color optimizer - or even better the Home Theater Essentials DVD which will let you nit-pick the setup more. With the THX Optimizer - this is a simple process. The 700U gives you FAR more control over color, contrast and brightness than any TV I have ever seen. You can even adjust gamma levels across all RGB levels at three brightness ranges. I didn't even mess with that. I spent about 10 minutes running through the THX optimizer - I found in the end I had changed the defaults very little, mostly to improve black levels out of the box. I suspect however the degree to which adjustments would be made will depend heavily on the room your theater is setup in.

Performance
Color is amazing on this unit so long as the viewing area is dark. It can look every bit the equal of any TV I have seen in the color department. Watching a football game, the field looks very green and well defined - but not over saturated.

This thing REALLY shines when watching a film like Monsters Inc. on DVD. The performance feels very theatrical. A common complaint of LCD projectors in the past has been the so-called "screen door effect." As the name implies, the projected image sometimes looked like you were watching it through a screen door. I have found this to be non-existent on the 700U. I have walked up as close as 12" from the screen and not been able to see any screen door. From my typical viewing distance of 12-14 feet, it is absolutely stunning. There is no pixelization evident either - which gives the result a very film like quality when watching a properly encoded DVD.

note: I mentioned earlier I would get back to this "ambient" light issue when talking about lumen output. My basement is about 35' by 35'. It is only really broken up by the stairwell, which sits roughly in the middle. There are two sets of lights - one over an "L" shaped area which includes where the bathroom, furnace closet, and bar/workout area, and another pair of lights in a corner area. There are two windows, one in the back by my workout equipment and another adjacent to the front corner area - both with always closed, aliminum mini-blinds. I setup my theater area in this corner area. This area measures roughly 12' x 16'. I installed Leviton slide dimmer switches to each of the two lighting circuits. As you likely are aware, mini-blinds don't eliminate all outside light, even when drawn. I find the image is visible with ALL the lights on full blast, even with the projector in "econo mode" which is a low light output mode used primarily because fan noise is further minimized. However, the colors are rather washed out. Typically, I turn off the lights in the "theater corner" and I can see just fine 90% of the time (watching TV shows like episodes of Seinfeld is always acceptable in this lighting condition). It is only in dark scenes where the stray light from the other areas of the basement can become a problem. For those cases, I turn off all the lights. The point, if I want to have lots of people over and to watch my Alma Mater Illini attempt to win the NCAA title this year - I could easily have enough the lights on "outside" of the projector area full blast, and still watch the games from anywhere in the basement just fine.

Black level is another issue. Black cannot be projected since it is the absence of light. Worse still, you are trying to block light which is being projected to a white screen. As such, truly deep blacks are impossible. That said, commerical theaters have the same problem. I have found that when it matters (watching Apollo 13 or Aliens which have lots of space scenes and darkly lit shots), turning off all the lights is required. Even then, there is some noticeable "greyness" to what is black. The human eye does have a remarkable ability to see black when directed. But still, minimizing all stray light sources helps. For instance, I ultimately painted my walls in a flat, medium dark brown color. This seems to help a lot since often just light reflecting off the screen can bounce off your walls and furniture, and end up adding some ambient light to the room, hampering blacks.

Another issue is vertical banding. If you read other reviews, this is often considered a major negative. I would like to clarify this phenonema further. There are really two reasons here. The first I would consider a flaw in the design of the 700U, but there is a fairly easy workaround for it. If you leave the unit powered in standby when turning it off, it will exhibit very pronounced, and objectionable vertical strips in the projected image. These stripes can best be described as about 5% of image width, and they look like color variation stripes. So, if you see a blue sky, you will see vertical bands which alternate from somewhat darker blues to lighter blues. I would say I can see roughly 20 distinct bands. The workaround - after shutting down the unit, turn it off with the manual main power switch on the back. Since you also should replace the lense cap after use, this really isn't a problem I believe. This will eliminate the pronounced "stand-by" banding. IMPORTANT - DO NOT turn off main power until the fan has shutdown - it runs for approximately 90 seconds after putting it into standby. Turning if off sooner will shutdown the fan immediately and may result in degraded bulb life.

The second type of "VB" is there all the time - but very subtle and only visible in low contrast shots usually in greyish/light blue skies. Even then, it is hard to see. I notice it most in scenes like the launch scene in Apollo 13. But even then, I only see it because I went looking for it - not because I noticed it overtly. As such, I don't consider this to be a problem. My wife nor none of my friends have ever picked up on it. If you care at that level, you need to spend another 3 grand and move up in class to an HD capable DLP unit. Most owners of anything from classic cars to home theaters are their own worst critics - so bear that in mind here.

Summary
I now have over 180 hours of use on my projector. I have watched scenes of countless movies, and at least 30 movies entirely. I also watched about 4 of the Illini games this winter and the Superbowl. I have played a good 30-40 hours of PS2 on it. I also entertained 12 people on New Year's Eve - and it was perfect for that. We watched the Apple drop in New York while drinking and playing darts in the back of the basement "bar area."

I highly recommend this unit for the do-it-yourselfer who wants to blow away yourself and all your friends. For $2400, you can have an excellent visual theater setup. I added in medium tier Denon DTS amp (1805 model) to further enhance my experience with excellent surround sound - see my Paradigm speaker reviews for more info. The big feature of the Denon - and one I would recommend - is aside from terrific sound quality, it has the capability to switch and up-convert any video signal type (component, composite, s-video) to component. This minimizes the amount of clutter in cabling to the projector - and results in a solid picture regardless of source.

I also recommend you go through the hassle of hiding your cables behind drywall - especially if ceiling mounting your projector. This is fairly easy, albeit time consuming. I did cut holes in my drywall and buried all the speaker and video cabling behind the wall. I also added a new run of conduit so that I could plug the projector into a new ceiling receptacle right behind the unit. As for room paint, I recommend a flat, medium to dark color of paint (no whites or tans), and similar darker flooring and furniture for the ultimate experience. All this creates a more professional look. For less than $3500 total and a total of 5 weeks work (mostly drywall and painting work), I have one heck of a home theater!





Recommended: Yes

Purchase Price (if leased, monthly payment): 2199