AE200 - where's the bottom of the screen in relation to the projector ?

[Tempest]

Bit of a mouthfull that title......

What I'd like to know is.........

Say I put a AE200 on a flat level surface (a shelf) and project the image across a room (about 9 feet away) how high (what position) will the bottom of the image be in relation to the projector lens ?

[Bassbin]

According the the manual the bottom of the image will be10cm lower than the projector (although I guess it will may in practise be +/- a couple of cm. The front of the pj has neat props that drop down to raise the unit slightly but if you use these for anything more than minor levelling then you'll skew the image. The PTAE200 does also have digital keystone correction but I would guess it may detract from the picture quality some what.

[calibos]

As bassbin says the image will begin about 10cm below the level of the lens. So say you place the PJ right side up on a shelf 1 metre off the ground. The bottom of the image projected will begin at 90cm off the ground and up to...(depends what screen size you want). Conversely, if you mounted the PJ upside down on a high shelf say for example 2.5m off the ground, then the top of the image would be 10cm above lens height and down to.....etc

For example, I have my Ae300 mounted upside down resting on a shelf with 4 little foam spacers lifting the PJ about 1cm off the shelf to help airflow and heat disapation(sp?). The top of my screen on the opposite wall is roughly 10cm closer to the ceiling than the PJ with the bottom of my image (projected onto a 80x45in screen) being 45in lower obviously.

[Jonathan100]

http://www.panasonic.com/PBDS/subcat...169/ae100.html

There is a calculator for the ae100 on the panasonic.com site, the 200 has the same lens so all the calculations will be the same. it lets you put in how far away your lens will be from the screen (or fill in any other measurement) and it calculates all the rest.

As mentioned the bottom will be about 10 cm below the lens. I have mine mounted under a top shelf in a simmilar way to calibos, but under the shelf. I have tilted the front of the projector by less than 1cm upwards to point my image a bit higher and I can't see any deteriation in image quality. Thanks for the idea Calibos, it looks brilliant.

If you can possibly avoid it, mount the projector somewhere where you do not need keystone at all, although it is a great feature for a temprary setup on a coffee table it completely destroys the quality of the image, even on smallest setting.

[Tempest]

Thank's for your answers... Have told me exactly what I needed to know.

Calibos. That's the sort of positioning I'd like to do.
Upside down on a shelf seems so obvious as you don't end up walking in front of the thing if it was down low the right way up.

2 questions regards this:

1: Does being upside down in any way cause any other problems, heat, bulb life access to controlls etc etc etc....

(I'm thinking of the way you have it set up, upside down on 4 little feet)

2: How much of a gap (minimum) must you leave between the rear of the projector and the rear wall it's against ?

I'd like it on a shelf, but ideally butted right up against the wall and I guess you have the leave an air gap at the back, or does all the heat come out elsewhere... Or do big chunky wires go into the back meaning you can't physically do it anyway...

Put it this way, in cm or Inches..... How close to the rear wall can it go ?

Cheers..

[Jonathan100]

I saw Calibos' setup and also though that was exactly what i was looking for, however I also discovered that his first projector suffered from heat damage. I decided to use the ceiling mounting holes to do exactly the same as Calibos except to suspend the pj under the shelf. The pj sits about 4cm below the shelf so there is free airflow all around it and it runs reasonably cool.

There is no need really to access the buttons because they are all available on the remote, they are also recessed so theres no problem with them being pressed. The figure being banded about for rear ventilation is 18" from the back of the unit, though I found no Panasonic reference to this. Personally I have around 15cm.

[calibos]

As Jonathan says the recommended clearance behind the Projector is 18 inches. This worked out perfect for me as the maximum throw distance for my screen put the front of the PJ a good bit out from the wall leaving 18inches clearance behind give or take an inch or three

Oh and Jonathan, my first PJ that died from heat damage was an AE100 mounted right side up on top of a waist height cabinet! I'd say the damage was due more to the fact that it was used about 10 hours a day (3500hrs in 11 months). DVD,TV,3 consoles etc,me and 3 siblings....theres always someone in the house that wants to use it. While I was waiting for Panasonic to sort me out (Got a refund and bought an AE300 from Komplett) we rearranged the room. Remounted the screen in front of the window (it used to be where the PJ is now) and built the shelves in preparation for the new PJ.

[Tempest]

Originally posted by Jonathan100
I saw Calibos' setup and also though that was exactly what i was looking for, however I also discovered that his first projector suffered from heat damage. I decided to use the ceiling mounting holes to do exactly the same as Calibos except to suspend the pj under the shelf. The pj sits about 4cm below the shelf so there is free airflow all around it and it runs reasonably cool.

There is no need really to access the buttons because they are all available on the remote, they are also recessed so theres no problem with them being pressed. The figure being banded about for rear ventilation is 18" from the back of the unit, though I found no Panasonic reference to this. Personally I have around 15cm.

Thank's for this...

Yeah, I guess I was thinking about ventilation also.
Funny, cos at work today I also was pondering the idea of making a shelf and hanging it UNDERNEATH the shelf upside down so (as you say) it has air all around it... I would probably also even cut a hole in the shelf where the middle of the projector is, so it was more like a shelf outline than a solid shelf.
I didn't know what sort of mounts it had though.... Could I just use some metal/plastic rods and screw one end into the projector and the other onto a shelf. I'm not getting a bargain projector than geting ripped off for £200 for a ceiling mount !!!!

Re the back clearance... 18" WOW, that's miles..... I was only hoping for somehting like say 5cm or something. I didn't know where the air came out of the unit. If it's almost floating in mid air (like I suggested above) perhaps you can push the rear clearance a little nearer the wall.

Must admit I'm VERY VERY near to getting a bargain priced AE200 now... Yes, I'd like the new ones, but for half the price it's hard to say no and the reports I'm hearing make the AE200 sound a very nice little unit.

I'd still like to know more about how it compaires against a Z1 though.....

The Z1 dust issues worry me though, and the AE200 appears to give a slightly larger image (shorter throw) than the Z1.

How do you feel screen door compaires re the AE200 vs the Z1 ?
anyone ?

[Tempest]

Arghhh I'm all confused again.......

Now I don't know if I should get a cheap AE200, or pay say a couple hundred more and get a Z1 (higher res) or pay more and get a Z2........

Will I be unhappy with a AE200, and wish I'd spent more for a Z2...

Oh dam, I'll never buy one at this rate... rant rant rant...

[calibos]

Is your seating 9ft away Tempest? If it is and thats the farthest away you can sit then if it was me I would definately be more leaning towards the AE300 with its smoothscreen or the new Z2 with its higher resolution cause screendoor from 9ft will be noticable especially on bright scenes on the AE200 or Z1. Unfortunately peoples tolerance level for screendoor can be different. For me what might be an untolerable level of screendoor might be perfectly acceptable to you given the cost savings involved. As usual its a case of the oft quoted 'get a demo'.

TBH I reckon with regard to colour reproduction, brightness etc and general picture quality there isn't much between any of the popular projectors atm. You would be happy with any of them. What I mean is that what you will be demoing would be for screendoor. So it doesn't matter if you find a shop to demo one of these projectors and they're only using lowly composite connections or the demo room isn't totally blacked out cause we know at home you'll have proper light control and decent cables and we aren't demoing PQ etc What you will be checking out is the severity of screendoor from 9ft away. You don't even have to demo a AE200. If you find a place demoing an AE100 or a Z1 a sony HS2, HS3, Philips garbo, astaire etc, any one of these will give an approximate indication of the level of screendoor from 9ft. They all use the same size panels (ie 856x480,Z1 is 940x560 but close enough). So if you find a demo of any off these and reckon you can live with this level of screendoor then go ahead and get the AE200. If you don't think you can live with the screendoor then consider the Z2, AE300, AE500 etc.

[Tempest]

Thank's Calibos....

Well to be Honest I guess I'd be sitting about 8 feet away from a 6 foot wide screen. (can't do much about it)

I have seen a demo of a Z1 and was sitting about 7 feet away from a 6 foot screen, and yes, whilst i could see screen door, it was not really as bad as I was expecting.

My Girlfriend didn't even know what I was talking about it when I said about the on screen grid, and I think she just accepted what it looked like and was very impressed. Thinking I was fussy for pointing out the tiny grid on screen.

I guess in a small room, I'm wondering if paying say £750 for a AE200 would do just fine. and whether it's worth paying say double that for a Z2............

Don't get me wrong.. I LOVE quality.....
I dunno what the price of a Z2 is yet.

If I was elsewhere (bigger room) I would be very tempted by a Sony HS20.... But I guess many of us are waiting for HS20 vs Z2 Vs AE500 reviews.

Just I guess wondering if something cheap and chearfull would keep me happy for a while.

Beng a small room I'd like the shortest throw I can get and I think (though please correct me if I'm wrong) that the Panasonics have the shortest throw of them all.

Cheers

[Jonathan100]

I cut a curved shelf very cimmilar to Calibo's though not sticking out at the front so much. The 200 has got 4 bolt holes in it which take standard 4mm bolts which are available in packs of 8 from B&Q. Inititally bought 3cm long ones which pulled the pj right up to touching the wood and the above the lamp got very hot after use. I then replaced it with 7.5cm bolts so the thing dangles down about 4cm and heat is now acceptable.

Air is drawn in at the side at the front and then exchausted from the rear. The two other mods to my shelf is a cut in it above the air vent to allow for filter changing without thaking the pj down and also a cut out at the back of the shelf to allow the hot air to rise. I will see if I can get a photo for you later.

As for which one to purchase, got a demo if you possibly can, read the specs and check the screen size calculator. Also set a budget and see what you can get for it, the Z2 etc are considerably more than the 200 which can be had for a bargain price atm. As far as screendoor, in my mind this is something which you can see when you look for it but if your watching a film then you never notice it, except in a very very bright scene such as the matrix reloaded in the zion control centre where the whole screen goes white.

[Tomfoolery]

I can see some screendoor on my AE200, as I sit about 1x the screen width away, rather than the 2x recommended.

However, this screendoor almost completely disappears for me by defocusing the projector very slightly. This is often mentioned as being a good cure for the dreaded screendoor problem, and could be something you might want to try out if you find a demo of the unit somewhere.

For me, the AE200 has been well worth the money as my first projector. I simply couldn't justify paying nearly twice as much for the AE300.

However, I'd say that my tolerance of these little imperfections would be very high, as I can't even find all this vertical banding etc. that people moan about over at AVS forums.

[calibos]

Sorry, I didn't realise you were using a 6ft screen. Screendoor will definately be less of a problem. Definately worth saving 700 quid! Go for it!

[Tempest]

Originally posted by calibos
Sorry, I didn't realise you were using a 6ft screen. Screendoor will definately be less of a problem. Definately worth saving 700 quid! Go for it!

Thank's for the advice....

Well, it's not so much that I will be USING a 6 foot screen, but as the room is only about 10 feet wide. The projector lens is going to be 9 foot (or less) away from the screen so a 6ft wide screen is (I think) the biggest I could get using those dimensions.

Sitting about 7 foot away from a 6 foot screen.

Not ideal I grant you, but unless I knock a wall down I'm stuck with it.

I'm just wondering how close to the rear wall I can put the back of the projector.....

If I mount it upside down, on like 2 metal shelf brackets with fixing bars coming down from them, it will be literally floating in mid air. So I'd hope air will be able to escape even if it is a bit too close to the rear wall.....