Without a doubt, the future of large screen home theater technology will revolve around front projection screens. Gone are the days in which front projectors cost more than a new car while providing a sub-standard viewing experience. There are projectors on the market today that will fit any budget.

*** If you are new to front projection technology I HIGHLY recommend that you check out my quick review of the technology as a whole here: ***

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PT-AE900

Overall

The PT-AE900 is Panasonic's latest mid-range LCD Projector. Over the years Panasonic has waged an annual battle with Sanyo for budget conscious LCD Projector Supremacy. This year the result is a difinitive victory for Panasonic. Panasonic's new Smoothscreen technology is phenomenal and combined with the AE900's high lumen 700p output and accurate color saturation the results are astonishing.

Key Stats

* 1100 Lumens
* Native 720p (High Definition)
* 16x9 Aspect Ratio (Widescreen)
* 5500 to 1 On/Off Contrast

Important Features

* Dynamic Iris for improved black levels
* Smoothscreen Technology eliminates Screendoor Effect
* 2.0 zoom lense and Vert./Horiz. Lense shift for a wide
range of installation applications.

Reasons to Purchase PT-AE900

If your intention is to purchase a front projector you can spend as little as $600-700 for a standard definition projector. If you want to really be impressed however, you will need to put down a little more money in order to get a High Definition projector. The PT-AE900 is one of the least expensive High Definition projectors on the market.

There are two other highly touted projectors within the same price range as the PT-AE900. They are the Sanyo Z4 and the BenQ PE7700. The Sanyo is an LCD projectore just as the PT-AE900 is, however the BenQ utilizes DLP technology instead.

The PT-AE900 matches up nicely against both of these projectors for differing reasons:

Sanyo Z4: (Full Sanyo Z4 review can be found here: Sanyo PLV-Z4 )

The PT-AE900 is a very similar projector to the Z4, but what sets it apart from the Z4 is the smoothscreen technology. The Sanyo Z4 **MUST** be viewed from at least 1.5 times the screen width. This can present a problem if you are dealing with a small room. For example, with a 106" screen you must sit at least 13.5 feet from the screen. If your room is only 12 feet wide you will be out of luck. The PT-AE900 on the other hand looks excellent from almost any distance.


BenQ PE7700: (Full BenQ review can be found here: BenQ PE7700 )

Traditionally DLP projectors have provided a better black level than LCD projectors. This continues to be the case, but with a much smaller difference between the two. Because LCD makers were not able to compete on black level they sought to improve their marketability through improved features. These features include zoom and lens shift. The BenQ does not include lens shift or zoom. What this means to you is that there will be exactly 1 point in space where your projector can be mounted to project a certain image. This makes installation of the BenQ a job best left to a professional. The PT-AE900 on the other hand can be mounted anywhere in a wide range of places and then manually adjusted to fit both the size of the screen and the height. Definitely worth looking for a projector with these features. In addition, the fact that LCD projectors now put up an image every bit as high quality as their DLP counterparts there is no reason to choose a DLP model with fewer features if it still costs as much as a similar LCD model.

Pricing

The PT-AE900 is currently selling right around the $2000 price range from authorized online dealers. It can also be found for a couple hundred less from un-authorized dealers who I would not recommend purchasing from. In addition Panasonic is currently offering a $200 rebate which makes it easier to recommend purchasing an extended warranty which will run roughly $200.

A Quick Word on Lamps

Front projectors such as the PT-AE900 utilize high lumen lamps which will generally provide over 2000 hours of life. Replacement lamps frequently run a few hundred dollars apiece. For that reason I recommend purchasing a lamp warranty in addition to the extended warranty on the projector. This will likely cost you around $100 up front, but will end up saving you hundreds down the road.

Recommended: Yes