A little background about me an projectors:

This is the 5th home theater projectors I've owned in the past 2 years($2000-$3000 models)... including 2 DLPs (Infocus & HP) and 2 LCDs (a Panasonic PT-LC75U and a Hitachi PJTX100). By far, the Panasonic PT-AE900U projector is the best of the bunch. FYI, I am not a dealer, just an ordinary guy who loves home theater.


Test Materials:

Denon 2910 DVD Player (480p component & 720p DVI modes)
Draper 55" 16:9 Matte White Screen
Yamaha RX-Z1 Surround Receiver
32 Ft HDMI Cable (From Rite A/V) & DVI-HDMI Adapter
Avia DVD calibration DVD
DVD Viewing Material: Star Wars III: Revenge of the
Sith, LOST, Star Trek TOS DVDs.


Image Quality:


480p Component Video vs 720p HDMI Output

I was impressed with the 480p component output via my Denon Dvd Player, and would have been satisfied with the image...until I hooked up the HDMI cable and set the DVD player to 720p. Wow! Now, there's a superb image. This looks very close to high definition and IS a marked step-up in quality from 480p component video.


Color:

Superb color, right out of the box. Even after extensive calibrations, using a set-up dvd, only minor adjustments were needed. Also, this unit has some useful color mode settings. Although the dynamic mode give the viewer provides a "Wow" demonstration, I prefered the "natural" setting best. Watching LOST on DVD was amazing in terms of color accuracy (check out the recap of the first episode at the beginning of "Walkabout" for a good color demonstration)


Contrast:

Contrast on this unit is excellent and and the reported 6000:1 rating is certainly justified. The dynamic iris kept the blacks dark, without making the entire image murky (a problem with the Hitachi PJTX-100, which has no dynamic iris). The black level on this projector comes VERY close to a DLP projector, and you would probably only be able to tell the difference in a side-to-side comparison of the two. (Note, my dvd player has an HDMI enhanced black mode feature which really helped get the blacks even better. If your player doesn't have a feature similar to this, it may be somewhat harder to get those deep blacks)


Screendoor Effect / Pixelation:

Sitting 7 feet away and watching a dvd on a 55" screen I saw NO screen door effect. In comparison, I did see a pronounced screen door effect on my 3 year old Panasonic LCD projector. Also, I saw no visible pixel structures on the PT-AE900U. The smooth-screen technology of this unit really works! I blew the image up yo 80" and from 7 ft away, it still looked crystal clear. Some people, and reviewers, have commented that the smooth-screen technology makes this porjectors image quality a little soft. This may be somewhat true with images that a soft to begin with. But, if you feed this projector a dvd with a sharp image to begin with, it is plenty clear.


Internal Scaler / (via Cable TV signals):

This is one area where I disagree with a lot of other reviewers. The internal scaler on this unit is so/so, at best. Watching Cable TV on it was OK, and sometimes, a little blurry. Interestingly enough, the same cable TV signal looks great on my 3 year old Panasonic PT-LC75U projector...the only thing that that projector does better than this one! All I can say is, cable TV is just "OK" with this unit, and you'll probablly do better with a digital cable or satalite signal source.


Lumens / Light Output

Pretty much standard here. You'll need a dark room to really make this projector shine. However, a little bit of room light still allows you a fairly decent image in normal lamp output mode.


Design:

Sound Level. First of all, this unit is quiet in normal lamp mode, and ULTRA quiet in low mode. By far, much quieter than my other projectors. You can barely hear it in low mode, even with the audio system turned off!

Light leakage is also excellent. Distracting light from the lamp exhaust vents isn't a problem with this model, as with my previous Panasonic unit. Again, great design here.

Inputs, well, they provided 2 component video inputs, 1 PC input, 1 S-video, 1 composite video, and 1 HDCP HDMI input. Could have used a DVI input, and a 2nd digital input, IMHO.

Lens Shift and Keystone Correction are both provided, and I actually needed to use both. Projecting the image up from a coffee-table required keystone correction since the image was distorted beyond what the lens shift could compensate for on its own. Together, both lens shift and keystone correction compensated for coffee-table placement. In other words, this unit doesn't have to be ceiling mounted.

Zoom feature: This unit has 2x Zoom feature, allow you to potentially place the projector much closer to the screen than typical units.

Remote Control: comes with a pretty nice remote capable of controling several other components. However, since this unit is on a coffee-table, I didn't need the remote.

Downside: I only had one issue with this projector. As soon as I turned this new unit on, I noticed that one pixel was burnt out. However, I am not going to do anything about it at the moment. It is on far upper left side of the image, and is only barely visable if that area is completely black. Still, this should have been picked up by quality control!



OVERVIEW

Overall, this unit is excellent. Image quality from 720p sources is amazing. Given also that the unit has a lot of useful features and is designed well, this projector is one that is sure hard to beat...both from the LCD and DLP camp. If you have a room that you can make dark, this thing is a much better way to go than a big screen tv. Selling for around $2100 from an authorized dealer, you'd never get a big screen tv with both size and image quality for anywhere near this price!









Recommended: Yes

Purchase Price (if leased, monthly payment): 2089