Panasonic PT-AE700U LCD Projector Review

First Impressions & Setup

I had just got back home from visiting my parents and checked my email. Gene had sent a message asking if I was interested in reviewing the Panasonic PT-AE700U projector. All I could think was "how unbelievable is this!" The reason I was at my folk's house was to install this very unit that I purchased for them. Having already spent a lot of time with this projector, I quickly agreed to do the review.

While I was in the market for my folk's projector I left every option open. I wasn't set on the technology, the resolution or any particular features. I did a lot of research and got as much input as possible. I finally decided on the Panasonic because it provided a great value in a high definition resolution. Now I am typically not a big fan of LCD projectors, but this one was an exception. Just as some people are sensitive to the rainbow effect from DLP projectors, my experience showed that I was more sensitive to the "screen door effect" from LCD technology. The PT-AE700U does not exhibit this phenomenon - and I haveI periodically seen the issue while watching nearly every other model in this price range.

First Impressions

If you've read any of my other reviews you'd know that I like to read the manual first. The manual is short, simple and straightforward. It explained the function of buttons, types of connections, and all of the menu options. It did not get into any detail on how to make adjustments or, in some instances, the specific use of certain features. As there was such an abundance of features, I think the manual needed more detail.

In most of our reviews we like to see hefty equipment but that doesn't necessarily hold true for a front projector. Sure, it is important to have solid construction and quality parts but a light weight projector can be attractive when you are hanging it from a ceiling. At only 8 pounds I found it very easy to attach to the ceiling mount at my parents house.

The rear panel was simple and uncluttered. The inputs consisted of HDMI, RGB (HD15), s-video, composite video and component video. There is also a 12VDC trigger which can be used to operate an electric screen. The component input used RCA connectors. No BNC connectors were available, however you could use the PC (HD15) input and a breakout cable to get RGBHV. The master power switch is located next to the AC input connector.

Set Up

Once I placed the projector in its general location and performed a rough alignment, I found that one feature I particularly liked was the lens shift adjustment knob. It was fashioned after a joystick which is directly coupled to the lens assembly. Making adjustments was simple: turn the knob to loosen the joystick and then move it around to shift the lens. Once it was adjusted I tightened the knob and "viola" it was set. This lens shift feature is rare, especially for a projector in this price range. It allows great flexibility in the projector placement which lets the custom installer place the projector above or below the screen and slightly left or right from the center, allowing them to avoid natural obstacles in a post-construction installation. Although the lens shift offers great flexibility, the manual did state that maximum picture quality is achieved with the lens in the centered position. In my testing I did not find any real image degradation when using a reasonable amount of lens shift that did not venture to the extremes.

I next did a general calibration using the AVIA DVD video section. There are several picture modes to choose from so I made the calibration adjustments in the "Cinema1" mode which appeared to have the best initial color temperature setting. With the AVIA disk and my particular screen (Da-Lite Pro Imager) very little adjustments had to be made to the color and I mostly dealth with black and white levels.

In my reference system I had the projector set up behind my first row seating at about eye level and about 15 feet from the 110 inch 16:9 diagonal screen. While thinking about the placement let me mention the fan. Although I certainly haven't experienced every projector on the market, this projector has to have one the quietest fans in its class. It was right next to my head and I could barely hear it, so it could be placed on a table top with no distraction. To connect it up I used a 25 foot Impact Acoustics SONICWAVE component video cable and a 25 feet DVIGear HDMI cable. I did not try the s-video or composite video connections. It may seem pointless to have these latter two connections these days but on my reference projector I need one because the Integra RDC-7 does not output the On Screen Display via the component video output so I ended up running an s-video cable along with the others. Here is the general table to give an idea distances and screen size.

Another thing to mention is that the projector comes with a lens cap which I don't believe is for everyday use but for transporting the projector. When it is taken on and off the lens focus ring can move slightly so if you were to do so you would be refocusing the projector all the time.

Beyond the basic video adjustments there is an Advanced video menu that some may choose to take advantage of for tweaking the RGB gain, cut and gamma levels. Once everything was set up there were 3 user memories to save the settings. This allows for configuration of Day and Night settings, as well as one for Black & White films (setting the color temperature to around 5000K).

Remote, Benchtesting & Viewing Evaluations

The remote control unit was very simple and easy to use. It had an easy to find light button which every projector remote should have. In comparing this remote to my BenQ's remote the PT-AE700U remote had a lot less buttons. I actually liked this better. For example, the BenQ remote has one button for each aspect ratio while the Panasonic remote only had one aspect ratio button which toggled through the different settings. Once I had my finger on that button I didn't have to search around anymore to choose the correct aspect ratio. Simplicity can be a good thing.

Audioholics/HQV Bench Testing Summary of Test Results

Perfect Score is 130
Panasonic PT-AE700U Benchmark Score: 66 (room for improvement, but decent from what we've tested to date)

*reversed on the PT-AE900U whereby it passed 6:4 and failed 8:7 cadences.

Comments on HQV Testing

I did not include HQV testing of HDMI because that would only be testing the deinterlacing capabilities of the DVD player.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised how well this projector did through the grueling tests of HQV. A score of 66 is competent but there is definitely room for improvement.

To ensure that the deinterlacing circuitry of the Panasonic projector was in use, the DVD player was set to interlaced mode. The AE700U passed the "Color Bar" test without a problem but only marginally passed the "Jaggies" tests. On the Jaggies #2 test it appeared to encounter difficulties at about 30 degrees. The projector did particularly well with the 2:3 pull down and the Film Detail test. The moiré pattern in the Film Detail test could only be seen for a split second. It is also worthy to note that it passed 4 out of 8 cadence tests which is almost unheard of in non-HQV chipsets. When Mixed 2:3 was run which mixes film pull-down material with text, the horizontal text scrolling did not have any tearing but background images exhibited some jaggies.

Viewing Evaluation

DVD: Finding Nemo
Now that I had everything set up it was time to do some viewing. I started with Finding Nemo to see how the colors looked. I did some A-B comparisons to the BenQ to compare the colors and detail of the projectors. There are several picture modes on this projector to choose from: Normal, Dynamic, Cinema1 (where I calibrated), Cinema2, Cinema3, Video, and Natural. Cinema1 is clearly the best mode to be using with regard to feature films and color-accurate program material - at least in a light-controlled room. Each picture mode is independent of the other so you can do video calibrations on each. Being sensitive to the screen door effect, in some scenes I felt that I could see some pixilation but it was very slight - and keep in mind that my screen is 110 inches diagonal. Panasonic's Smooth Screen technology eliminated the screen door effect quite well when compared to other LCD projectors, but I did perceive that the image was slightly less sharp than my BenQ DLP projector. Finding Nemo I think has become a standard for color movie viewing. Almost every time I see a projector set up, it is playing Finding Nemo. Anyway, the colors looked fantastic. All the scenes looked vivid and distinct.

DVD: Lord of the Rings - Return of the King
Although Finding Nemo is a great test of the vividness of color, animation isn't necessarily great for color accuracy. A movie with flesh tones is needed and any of the Lord of the Rings Extended DVDs are an excellent source for video quality. Although they are not deemed "Superbit" they were made with a high bit resolution compared to other films. Scene 4 from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King has a lot of close ups of actors, CG, and other special effects. I thought that this scene looked great, and the close-ups of Gandalf really showed the flesh tone accuracy. It also showed a lot of detail in his skin.

Next up was Sin City . Although it is no family movie it is the best source I have seen for shadow detail. The movie is almost completely black and white with splashes of color added to many scenes. The scene I thought had the most shadow detail was scene 5, "Lucille". The first thing to notice were the white bandages on Marv's face; they almost glowed because the rest of his face was so dark. As he moved his head around, various details would appear in the low lighting. Lucille herself as she walked around had all kinds of shadows cast on her body. I thought the Panasonic PT-AE700U did a fairly good job of showing these details and, compared to the BenQ, I could really see no difference. Both projectors have a contrast ratio of 2000:1. I also calibrated my CRT with AVIA to see if there was any difference with this same scene and once it was calibrated the shadow detail was very similar. This type of movie may temp you to adjust the brightness to see more detail but I encourage you not to wash out the picture in ding so.

HDTV: NFL Football
Well I can't sign off without viewing some High Definition TV. My set up is all OTA (Over the Air) which is the best way to get Hi-Def because there is no compression as found in Cable or Satellite sources. I set the set top tuner to 720p to match the resolution of the PT-AE700U. I mainly watched football and the detail was almost as good as the BenQ, though I found the BenQ to be a little bit sharper. One thing I first noticed on the green field was some vertical streaks on the entire image (not vertical banding - these looked more like LCD panel artifacts or a defect). I later noticed them on many other images. I am convinced that it was unique to this sample only because I never saw it on my parents' projector nor have I heard about it from anyone else. One thing that I did not notice was the fast action blurring that people talk about with LCD projectors due to their slower refresh rate.

Maintenance and Bulb Replacement

One thing you might not see in many projector reviews is ease of maintenance. I think it is beneficial to our readers to have such information. The PT-AE700U has an air filter located on the side of the unit. It is user-removable and the manual specified to just vacuum the dust off to clean it. Panasonic strategically placed this filter access away from where any ceiling mount would be and they recommend cleaning it after every 100 hours of use. The next thing I wanted to know was how easy it would be to replace the lamp. The manual does warn that lamp replacement should be performed by a qualified technician before it shows how to do it. My guess is that most people that are purchasing a projector in this price range are probably going to replace the lamp themselves. The lamp replacement turned out to be almost as easy as cleaning the filter except a Phillips screwdriver is needed. If the projector has a ceiling mount then that would probably have to be removed but this lamp is rated at 3000 hours which should equate to at least a couple of years depending on your viewing habits. There were two screws that held the lamp cover. Once the lamp was exposed there were two more screws that held in the lamp assembly, but these screws only needed to be loosened and not removed. Once loosened, the whole assembly easily pulled right out and put back in. Notice from the picture that the projector was placed on something soft, as you would want to be very gentle in handling it.

Conclusion & Ratings

At the time of this reading the Panasonic PT-AE700U will have been replaced by the PT-AE900U and, aside from some changes in the specifications, many of the features I have talked about still apply to that unit. Between this review and the one on the upgraded model the reader will have two perspective reviews for judging these projectors. Not being a fan of LCD projectors Panasonic has completely opened up my mind to this technology. The PT-AE700U offers great features, great color, good details, hi-def capabilities and ease of use - all for a fantastic price. When I compared this projector to some of the other high-end projectors I've seen, mostly DLP, the PT-AE700U doesn't quite fall into that category. But every time I think about the price, I realize that this is an incredible projector. If I didn't have the BenQ I would definitely and proudly consider this projector worthy of my reference theater. When you think about the hi-def television prices at $3000 and up for a digital display type limited to about 65 inches, you can get a lot more picture for a lot less money with the Panasonic. All in all, the amount of picture quality that is achieved from this projector makes it a great buy.

Panasonic PT-AE700U
MSRP: $3199

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Detail and Resolution
Deinterlacing & Scaling
Contrast and Black Levels
Color Reproduction
Noise Reduction
Calibration Options
Build Quality
Ergonomics & Usability
Ease of Setup
Features
Remote Control
Performance
Value