AE700 or Z3

[daddyorchips]

Hi,

Age old question this I'm sure. I'm new to the world of HDTV - was going to upgrade my CRT to a HD LCD up until recently, but then I discovered there were top quality projectors out there for the same price if not cheaper! The two in the title have caught my eye, as I'm looking at spending circa £900-£1k.

My main uses for the projector will be PC gaming, console gaming and DVDs. Both those projectors look pretty even, but I was hoping you guys could recount your experiences with them. The Panasonic sounds like the dogs, with higher contrast and anti-screendoor mechanism. However, it sounds like it may have a real problem with vertical banding?? Are these some sort of vertical thick bands of shade/colour that overlay the picture? If so, how bad is this effect? I've come across mention of a firmware upgrade - was this to eliminate VB?

The Z3 lacks an RGB Scart interface, which is a minus point IMO as that's currently how I hook up my GC and PS2. Xbox I've got all the component leads for, which suits either projector. The dust cleansing feature sounds really appealing for the Z3, but being new to projectors I'm not quite clued up on that. Do they tend to gather much dust, and does it accumulate under the lense? Is that something I'd be able to clean up easily myself manually?

Last thing, there's the case of warranty. The fact Sanyo provide 3 yrs as standard is a great perk. A quick shop around and it seems I'm can get the Z3 for around £990 with the warranty and del. inc. The AE700 will cost me an extra £200 on top of that for 3 yr's warranty, though that deal includes a free screen too.

Oops, I do have one very last question. How long do the bulbs in these things last, on average? And are there any good deals on replacement?

Thanks for reading!

[PJTX100]

Add the Hitachi PJTX100 to your list.

And yes it is an age old question, and if you peruse this forum (it sounds like you may have done already) you'll see that there is no right answer. They are all good.

It may be the best 1K you've ever spent!...PJ

PS I would not change my TX, but I'd go for the Z3 'cause of the warranty

[daddyorchips]

I've not heard about the Hitachi - are there reviews I can look at in the usual places?

One other thing, does anybodyhave experience of hooking up a PC to one of these projectors? How do you do this? Is the standard VGA DB-15 cable sufficient, or should I invest in a DVI-to-HDMI adapter?

Cheers!

[PJTX100]

Originally Posted by daddyorchips

I've not heard about the Hitachi - are there reviews I can look at in the usual places?

Get a translator going on this page...

http://www.cine4home.de/tests/projek...Vergleich2.htm

And a bit of googling should give you food for thought...PJ

[daddyorchips]

Do you know what the difference between the PTAE700E and the PTAE700 is??

[Mark_a]

I think the E is for Europe and denotes an added RGB scart socket, which is missing on the US model.

The other major feature you want to consider is noise. As it happens both of these are pretty low, though the Sanyo just shades the Pany with 23db.

Regards

Mark

[daddyorchips]

Originally Posted by Mark_a

I think the E is for Europe and denotes an added RGB scart socket, which is missing on the US model.

The other major feature you want to consider is noise. As it happens both of these are pretty low, though the Sanyo just shades the Pany with 23db.

Regards

Mark

Nah noise isn't really a concern for me. I run an xbox and doubt it's any louder than that beast

I'd snap up the Sanyo at that lower price, but the fact that it's missing scart as well as contrast means it's a second runner atm. The deal I'm looking at is this one:-

http://www.electricaldiscountuk.co.u...s.php?pid=2661

It's slightly more expensive than everywhere else, but comes with a free screen (not details included though) and the additional 2 years of warranty are cheap. I take it it would definitely be a good idea to extend my warranty beyond 1 yr? This being my first projector, I've no idea how easily they "break down".

[Mark_a]

I think there are three major factors. Blind luck, and how long and how often you have it on for. I don't think they're really intended for casual day to day TV watching, and using them thus will probably shorten their lives.

Regards

Mark

[Wasabi]

daddyorchips,

shootandshow comes in at a shade under £1k for Z3, and if you can pick it up, they throw in a 6" screen as well. This equals of a saving of £200, a lot of money for an extra scart input. On the other hand if you live far away from the shop, time is also money, not to forget the petrol cost.

Although the manufacturers claim of contrast ratio are far from what it achieves in real measurements (just achieving 40-60% of the claim is not unusual), Z3 has also 2000:1 as AE700.

Wasabi

[gingerone]

When using the theatre black mode the Z3 is supposed to have more contrast than the panny.

[Geesus]

I have no problems with contrast on my Z3, especially when using Rone's powerful default trick.

Watch it in the day without any problems...certainly the lesser of two evils when comparing with VB and the Panny's negatives.

[neil c]

I purchased a Z3 from Nexnix last week after weighing up between the AE700, TX100 and the Z3.

I would think very carefully about making a PJ a first choice display if you play alot of videogames - at least until the next gen of consoles arrives.

PJs are only good in dark rooms. If you spend alot of time playing videogames, you'll want a display that you can use during the day without blocking out the sun the whole time - it just gets a bit depressing! I'm also fairly certain that heavy gaming PJ usage in a dark room could have an affect on your eyesight.

Current gen consoles also look pretty poor on LCD and plasma technology (I havn't tried a DLP projector). But this is due to the lack of anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering and the low resolution of the consoles. Compared to an RGB input on a CRT TV, an Xbox via component (excluding the few 720p games) looks pretty bad on my Z3. So, if you are planning on getting much use out of the current generation of consoles, I'd hold off the new display purchase until the next generation of consoles.

However, I have connected my PC via VGA and played Far Cry at 720p, and this looks fantastic. It's like having your PC monitor blown up to 6ft in size, the picture is awesome. WMVHD also looks amazing, the picture the Z3 produces from a 720p encoded video is astounding, and I only had it connected via VGA. I've also got a Samsung HD850 connected via HDMI which upscales to 720p, and this also looks great.

If you're a really heavy gamer, go for a TV instead, but if you really want a PJ for games AND movies go for the Z3. Get component leads for your GC (Lik-Sang.com) and PS2 (Ebay), and for DVDs get the HD850 for around £99, and you're all set.

Would you rather spend £998 on a Z3 with a 3 year warranty and £40 on console component leads, or buy an AE700 for around £1000 with only a 1 year warranty just for scart?

[daddyorchips]

I'm not sure, neil c. I've not heard anything negative from AE700 users regarding running consoles on their setups, but I've seen several reviews from Z3 owners mentioning how bad they look. Also, isn't there some sort of smoothing technology on the AE700: does that help improve the image on SD sources, such as an Xbox running at 480P or a gamecube at 480i?

I could be wrong entirely - this Z3 does sound excellent. But so far I've not had any input from a Panasonic owner, so there's no flipside of the argument but for the couple of 'extras' that I researched myself. Any AE700 owners with consoles care to post their opinions?

Finally, though the Z3 appears to have the same CR, I'm sure I read in a couple of reviews that the image it generated was sharper and brighter than that of the Z3. Surely that would help in a bright-er room, so I wouldn't have to sit in the dark all the time?

Cheers for your help so far guys.

[gingerone]

My ps2 via component looks superb!
I've used it on my plasma and a normal crt and I prefer the picture on my Z3 by quite a margin.
GT4 and tekken 4 just look awesome.
There are a few people on the forum who replaced the panny with the Z3.
I was undecided but ken from ivojo convinced me to go for the z3 even though it was cheaper, and I'm glad I did.

[PC_112]

I was between Z3, AE700 and Sony HS50. The Sony seemed to be better overall, but for me it was not that much better to justify the price difference.

In the end I decided to go for the Z3 because it was the cheapest, and it has 2 component inputs.

However something that I believe the AE700 is better is with lower quality signal. I've seen the Z3 with composite and interlace and the image looked really crappy.