Panasonic PT-AX100U?

[Marzen]

Just curious if anyone's picked up this new Panny offering. I'd planned to get this around Black Friday and pair it up with the Playstation 3 blu-ray player; when they're available without waiting in line.
-Ward

[Chris D]

I have the AE700, which is two generations back of this unit. Great PJ, and it's worked well for me. Panny has established a good line with the 700, then 900, now AX100U. I think you'll be happy with it.

What's Black Friday, though?

Me, I'd love to get the AE1000 (1080p PJ) and the PS3 all together. Not gonna happen, though, for both, and maybe not either one.

[Azeke]

Ward,

I have the 900U and I considered selling it and upgrading, but wisdom prevailed. I've been reading about it, better brightness 2000 ANSI, still only one HDMI input though. It has a "Light Harmonizer" which gives the projector the ability to detect and auto calibrate to various light conditions. Black levels have improved, and the so called "softness" has improved to be sharp and clean. Build quality is better based on previous owner reports. It comes highly recommended.

I concur with Chris, I'm just going to wait for a couple of years for the 1080p FP, to debug and become more affordable, for now I am happy with my 900U.

Chris, Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving, the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, when some of the best deals can be found.

BTW, I saw a $200.00 rebate/$300.00 BB, provided by a company, it seems they are widely available and currently in stock.

Peace and blessings,

Azeke

[Brandon B]

Some of the reviews I have read of the new Panny say they may have made a mistake in continuing to use their "smoothscreen" technology on this unit with its native 1080p resolution. That in side-by-sides with the Sony and the new Mits, it ends up having a slightly reduced level of detail because of it.

BB

[Brandon B]

Oops, sorry, you're talking about their new killer bright machine, not the 1080 model.

BB

[Marzen]

I'm stepping up from the Infocus SP4805; so you can see why I don't want to wait a few years for the 1080P's to drop below $2K. I also want to try some of Rubin's SMX a/t screen material & 'maybe' do a constant height setup. I'll have to check out a local guy and see how that works with the panamorph lens and all.
-Can you disable the smoothscreen feature? The manual only mentions NR and MPEG NR being on/off.

BestBuy salesman said today that they have no SKU# for the AX100U and the PS3's will be blind shipped to the store with no advance warning - first come, first served. I guess I'll wait 'till after the holidays unless I just luck out.
-Ward

[Marzen]

Well I spent 6 hours today watching movie clips & playing a friends Xbox360 on the AX100. We opted not to use my 76" screen and went with a 165 inch picture on a flat white wall. Wow! Unbelievable light output & great colors right outta the box. NBA Live & Madden NFL are ridiculous at that size, considering we we were only 8ft away & no SDE. Nice deinterlacer as well. I 'may' have to call off work tomorrow... :T
-Ward

[Chris D]

Awesome, dude. My PS3 is looking really great with my 720p projector and 119" screen, and I can only imagine what it would look like if I were to buy a 1080p projector.

[Brandon B]

Oddly enough, it would look 360 better.

:rofl:

Get it? 1080-720 = 360 hahahahahahaha - er shutting up.

BB

[nick.h]

Hi,

I have the AE500 model, very happy with it. I went down to checkout the new Sony Bravia 1080p LCD panels and could not justify the change.

The AE500 is getting on now, but I have only used 1114 hours on the original globe.

It will do me for a new more years and then it will become a pc monitor and make way for a new one, when they figure out whats happening with these new bluray and hd dvd formats oh and HDMI.

[nikos]

I've considered upgrading my 900U also... selling it to one of my friends and going 1080p... I love and swear by my Panasonic projector...
Decided to wait a while...

[jim777]

Some of the reviews I have read of the new Panny say they may have made a mistake in continuing to use their "smoothscreen" technology on this unit with its native 1080p resolution. That in side-by-sides with the Sony and the new Mits, it ends up having a slightly reduced level of detail because of it.

BB

And I think that this comment came from a preproduction model that was improved before the first production models came out.