PT-AX100U Menu System

The Panasonic's menu system isn't much changed from the previous version found in the PT-AE900U. Changes include additional options for the added Noise Reduction options and new Light Harmonizer features. I won't rehash the menu system since I went through it at length in the PT-AE900U review, but I'll show the two menu systems here for comparison, along with any pertinent commentary on the changes:

PICTURE Menu
The Picture menu is nearly identical except that the PT-AX100U moves the noise reduction options to the Advanced Menu and splits out an option for MPEG noise reduction. "Memory" slots are now referred to as "Favorites" and the "Light Harmonizer" option is visible near the bottom of the screen (Auto/Manual/Off).

OPTION Menu
The Option menu combines the Desk/Ceiling and Front/Rear projection options into one setting that cycles through all four possible mounting options. An "HDMI Signal Level" apparently adjusts the HDMI color range from 16-235 to 0-255 (essentially washing out your image). The rest is about the same except for a few changes in nomenclature.

Color Management

In addition to getting your RGB colors correctly calibrated with gain. Cut and gamma settings, Panasonic also offers something they call Custom Color Management that actually allows you to perform color correction on-screen using the actual projected image. While not new (the PT-AE900U featured it) it's a nifty feature, though not one that I have yet found a particular use for (other than making some funny on-screen effects). The system does work, as noted by my photos below which show Discovery Channel's Jeff Corwin's red coat being turned pink with hardly any effect on the rest of the picture:

Light Harmonizer with Ambient Light Sensor

The Light Harmonizer system works via an ambient light sensor which sites on the top of the Panasonic projector (just in front of the navigation controls). This sensor evaluates the amount of luminance in the room, checks it against the source video, and then adjusts the gamma curve to compensate in a way that produces the brightest picture. The system does not appear to affect lamp power settings or even the dynamic iris, but it does produce a noticeable alteration should the ambient light suddenly change in the viewing environment. After trying different settings, I found that this was pretty much a setting that I wanted to leave "off" due to the fact that I don't like my gamma settings changing on a regular basis - something that is likely to happen if your room reflects enough light back from the screen. You may want to play with it in your environment, but I'd just as soon save a few Favorite settings for easy recall during Day or Night viewing.

Calibration - Getting Those Black Levels Right!

The PT-AX100U projector absolutely nails reds and blues, but greens tend to be a bit desaturated - not atypical for this type of display. I measured a "real world" contrast ratio of 1350:1 - awesome! This contrast ratio didn't change much after calibration since the white levels were spot on and the black levels were only adjusted by a couple of points on the settings bar.

We again utilized datacolor's ColorFacts Professional 6.0 software to calibrate and measure the grayscale response of the PT-AX100U. What we found was surprising and showed that Panasonic is paying attention and putting out a truly excellent product that requires virtually no initial calibration in order to look very very good. This is another difference from the PT-AE900U which needed a considerable amount of calibration in order to look its best.

Panasonic seems to be moving forward and we like the direction they are taking:

This is a marked improvement over the default state of the PT-AE900U and represents a concerted effort to bring consumers a well-calibrated projector that needs very little tweaking in order to produce a fantastic picture. Measured contrast was quite impressive and this is exactly the type of results we like to see "pre calibration".

Audioholics/HQV Bench Testing Summary of Test Results

Perfect Score is 130
Panasonic PT-AX100U Benchmark Score: 90 (yowsa, this is a great score and a marked improvement from the PT-AE900U which scored a 71)

Comments on HQV Testing

The HQV results of the Panasonic projector may be the most surprising thing we saw in the entire review. I was not expecting much of a change in this area, but the PT-AX100U surprised me with a stellar benchmark score of 90. This is no slouch and I really appreciated the ability of this projector to delivery excellent results with standard definition content which it deftly upconverted to 720p.