First impression of my first projector AE-900

[DUCKY]

New to the world of front projection I decided to jump in and get the Panasonic AE-900 with a Projecta Slimcinema 16x9 screen.
I hooked the projector up to my Rotel RDV-1060 using the s-video connection and away we were....

First viewing was Kill Bill 2. Great experience since there is a lot of black and white mixed with color images in there. I must say I am pretty impressed. I haven't tweeked anything (I just selected the cinema 1 setting) since I am a complete projection dummy and felt the chances of improving image quality were pretty slim..... I read some discussions on whether black is proper black. I couldn't say exactly but I thought the black and white scenes were brilliant!
Next I popped in 7 years in Tibet. Great colors of the mountain surroundings of the Himalayas, so another nice test.

The cinema experience is totally there. The zoom is brilliant and it meant I could get a good size image projecting in the width of the living room from about 10 feet and sitting at about 14 feet. Image is crisp though not so sharp as to cause fatigue. It is silent as well and you would be hard pressed to be bothered by the sound of the fan. At this point I can't really fault it.

I am still contemplating whether to use a ceiling mount. The Panasonic mount costs a fortune 8O Anyone know of a good alternative? Any negatives to ceiling mounting other than that you need long good quality cables?

Do you guys think I could expect any noticeable image improvement from using the component connectors to hook up the projector? The RDV 1060 doesn't have a HDMI out so that is not an option.

Thanks for any help and I am looking forward to spending more time with my new found friend.

Lennart

[DelRay]

Pretty cool. I was checking out the Pannys, nice. Couldn't come up with the cash for one of the 900's right now, so I opted for the Sanyo Z3. I've had my pro. for about 1 1/2 months. Still amazed with the pic quality. If you could spring for some nice componet video cables it would be the way to go. As for a ceiling mount, I picked one up on e-bay. I think it was netmounts. Under $100 shipped. And it's a nice one. Got a pic of it in my homepage. I still can't figure out how to downsize pictures enough to post them here. Anyways, enjoy your new toy. ;x(

[Azeke]

Lennart,

Congratulations on your new purchase, I am contemplating the same projector.

They are quite a few universal ceiling projector mounts, that you may want to consider, just do a search. Perhaps even send an e-mail to sponsor Brent Huskins at MediaDesign (link located at the top of the page). I also know that BB and CC carry a few selections.

Best regards,

Azeke

[Chris D]

Good for you, man. :banana: I have the AE-700, and really like it. I'm sure the 900 is even better.

YES, component cables will give you a very noticeable improvement over composite and S-video. Not night-and-day, but definitely noticeable. (especially if you use component to pass HD video)

If you can get digital with DVI/HDMI, you'll find it even better.

As for mounts, I bought the projector and mount together from the Projector People online. I can't remember the brand, but it's a universal ceiling mount, and wasn't as much as other mounts. Works great.

[George Bellefontaine]

Hey, Lennart, welcome to the front projection club. I've been a member since 1990 and can never recommend it enough.
As for connections, component is certianly much better than S-video and if you have a dvd player with an HDMI output I'm sure there would be an improvement there, but not necessarily in all cases. Thing is, if you want to use the hdmi input on your projector, you could simply bypass the Rotel 1060.

[Jack Gilvey]

Any negatives to ceiling mounting other than that you need long good quality cables?

Just that the lens shift on the 900 is limited, so you've really got to keep the projector height within the vertical limits of the screen for best quality. Even at maximum vertical shift, you can only have the lens a few inches above the level of the screen.

Do you guys think I could expect any noticeable image improvement from using the component connectors to hook up the projector?

That's very likely, although I know nothing about that player. At best, you'd get a decent 480p signal from it, but the Panasonic does not begin to show what it's capable of with less than a 720p feed, it's fairly soft even with a 480p component feed. For $200, the Oppo 971 upscaling DVI DVD player would optimize your DVD picture for a fraction of what the projector cost...seems a prudent investment.

[DUCKY]

Thanks for all the help guys!
Step 1 would have to be to get a component cable. I might upgrade to a HDMI player later. For now I like the RDV-1060 and the aesthetics of the all Rotel set keeps the wife happy

I will have to take a closer look at ceiling mounting. The Panasonic (700)mount retails at ~USD 400 here in the Netherlands so I am not too keen to splash out that kind of money just yet.

Some more DVD's have been tried out with the AE900
- Pulp Fiction
- Shine
- Diana Krall live in Paris
- Madagascar (animation)

I can only say.....they were a 'hoot' to watch!

I will try a component cable and let you know if I can tell any improvement in video quality.

Later guys....

Lennart

[Chris D]

Ah yes, I remembered that my mount is "Peerless", from the Projector People.

No, don't pay $400 for a mount. I think mine was $100 and change.

[Jack Gilvey]

Step 1 would have to be to get a component cable. I might upgrade to a HDMI player later. For now I like the RDV-1060 and the aesthetics of the all Rotel set keeps the wife happy

I'd at least do that much. If you want to see what the pj can do, try the Oppo for $200.

[BlazeMaster]

Just get a universal mount. I usually go for the Chief made ones, they are very good in quality, but should still be slighty less than $100.

[DUCKY]

I ordered an Oppo DVD player with HDMI yesterday, just so see what will happen when I hook it up to the AE900.....

Lennart

[nikos]

I ordered my AE-900 yesterday and shipped today.
This is my first projector and hope it's as good as I read it is.

I also almost bought the Oppo, but decided to just wait until CES on Jan 6 and see if something else comes out.

I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the Oppo - Ae900 combo.

Nick

PS: For those that have experience with LCD and projectors in general.
I'm in a fairly dusty environment... how worried should I be? Will I just have to clean my filters more often?? Should I be looking to get an air purifier?

Thanks

[DUCKY]

The Oppo arrived yesterday. I hooked it up using a DVI/HMDI converter and a HDMI-HDMI cable to my AE-900. Looking good so far.

Can anybody tell me which 'scaling' mode should provide the best picture, 720p or 1080i? I am not too knowledgeable in this area so any suggestions are very welcome!

If I look at the specs of the AE-900 it looks like the projector will translate a 1080i signal into a 720 grid. Is this right? To me it would seem that the 720p feed might be best then, since no translation will be needed. Any comments?

Lennart

[Simplton]

You are correct, Lennart. Since the native resolution of the 900U is 720P, I suspect you'll have the best results using this output from your Oppo. I just received my 900U as well. Just getting around to trying it out. I don't have a real sceen yet but plan on making it this weekend. From what I can tell though seems like a great unit.


later,
simp

[ekkoville]

For those with the 900, does it have a horizontal lens shift, and if so, how much. I am thinking of putting a projector verticaly centered but off to the side due to windows.

[Jack Gilvey]

Can anybody tell me which 'scaling' mode should provide the best picture, 720p or 1080i? I am not too knowledgeable in this area so any suggestions are very welcome!

720p will be "pixel-mapped" with no additional scaling required.

For those with the 900, does it have a horizontal lens shift, and if so, how much.

Yes, about 25% of the image width. Best not to take it to the extreme due to some edge distortion, better used for fine-tuning.

[Lex]

Well, first off, you cannot achieve 480P, (assuming your DVD player is capable of passing a 480p progressive signal) without using component video. S-video, as memory serves me only uses about 240 lines of resolution in an interlaced display. In other words, it's only capable of displaying half the lines of resolution at a time, and is swapping them in and out within eye flashes to achieve the full picture. That is the definition of interlaced. I do agree that even more gains are made at the upconvert HD signals of 720P or 1080i. But being realistic, not everyone goes for this in straight DVD. Some do, and are very satisfied with the upconverted images.

Goodluck, but most of all, enjoy your new setup. IF you decide you need good component cables, I'm the guy with CATCables.

Doug

[SteveL]

Wait until you watch some Superbit movies on the AE-900. I've got the AE-700, projecting to a 133" diag DIY screen through HDMI and a crummy Samsung 1080/HDMI DVD player... the Superbits are so much better than standard, it's not even funny.

And, take some time to calibrate your unit a bit with something like the Avia (sp?) DVD - I spent about an hour tweaking my projector, and the results were quite noticeable.

Enjoy the 900 - it's a great projector!