New D5 LCD Panels

We got our first glimpse of the Panasonic PT-AE900U at this year's CEDIA Expo in Indianapolis . While the projector wasn't displaying picture at the booth, we were excited to see that it sported the new D-5 LCD panel and had a significantly improved contrast metric, a tweaked ANSI lumen output and dynamic iris optical system. What really, mattered, of course, was whether it outperformed the PT-AE700U. We quickly lined up a review unit. Being a fan of LCD projection technology already, I was curious to see how much better the Panasonic performed with its "Smooth Screen" pixel-smoothing technology and enhanced contrast ratio spec.

New D5 LCD Panels

As everyone is likely aware, LCD projection systems have been getting better and better with each new panel generation. The new D5 panel featured in the PT-AE900U sports a higher fill factor, meaning that the pixels are spaced closer together. This makes the proverbial "screen door effect" (SDE) almost a non-issue at any reasonable viewing distance. In the case of the 900U, I'd put that distance at 1.5 times the screen width. The new D5 panels also feature a 50% increase in contrast, faster response time, greater aperture ratio (higher brightness) and they are even cheaper to boot... He's a quick comparison of D5 to the previous generation D4 panels: