Who's upgraded from an AE100?

[Shockabuku]

Hi @. Had a little surprise windfall yesterday so I'm soon to be in the market for a new pj around the £1500 price point. As a decent demo seems hard to get these days, I'd be interested specifically in the experiences of people who've upgraded from an AE100 to something sub £2k, and how much improvement they've seen.

Obviously, the AE700 sounds mighty interesting, though I've never even demoed the 500/300 so don't really know how much improvement I should expect. Also interested in DLP, but I'm a rainbow-viewer so have to be careful there. Although I've got the HCPC, I'd actually quite like to ditch it & just use progressive component (or maybe HDMI/DVI at a later date), mainly due to the hassle factor of the HCPC. PJ will be used on a coffee table in the living room, packed away when not in use (so no CRT ).

Any thoughts from all you ex-AE100 boys & girls much appreciated!

[chic]

i upgraded from the 100 to the 300 and i am very happy with the improved picture i am getting, the image on the 300 was much sharpe, crisper and more colourful than my old 100

[SamirP]

Hi Mark
I upgraded from an AE100 to an AE500, the main improvements for me were the improved contrast, and the improved brightnees the picture just looks so better than my AE100 thanks to the 1280x720 panels.

I also found the Ae500 really came to life when I started to feed it a 720p signal via Dvi the pq seemed much clearer and cleaner than PS via component. if that makes sense

Mark I'd be happy to offer you a demo of my AE500 if you are ever in my neck of the woods. Only fair after you made me feel welcome at your shoot out of the AE100 & TW100

[pack man]

Originally Posted by SamirP

I upgraded from an AE100 to an AE500, :

Is the AE500 much quieter than the AE100?

[Shockabuku]

Originally Posted by SamirP

Hi Mark
I upgraded from an AE100 to an AE500, the main improvements for me were the improved contrast, and the improved brightnees the picture just looks so better than my AE100 thanks to the 1280x720 panels.

I also found the Ae500 really came to life when I started to feed it a 720p signal via Dvi the pq seemed much clearer and cleaner than PS via component. if that makes sense

Mark I'd be happy to offer you a demo of my AE500 if you are ever in my neck of the woods. Only fair after you made me feel welcome at your shoot out of the AE100 & TW100

Hi there mate! Thanks for the input...& I may well be tempted to take you up on your offer...it'd be great to see what an AE500 can really look like, rather than the sort of demo I'm likely to get in most high street shops (some of the AV Forums traders excluded of course) . It's great to suddenly be in a position to upgrade...I really thought I'd be using the AE100 for another 12 months or so. Good though it is, I have no doubt things have moved on considerably in the past couple of years. I'm also doubting whether I'll be able to resist the charms of sticking with a HCPC...seems that they're still hard to beat for PQ.

[SamirP]

Originally Posted by Shockabuku

Hi there mate! Thanks for the input...& I may well be tempted to take you up on your offer....

just drop me a pm

[SamirP]

Originally Posted by pack man

Is the AE500 much quieter than the AE100?

I found that the 500 sounded about the same in normal lamp mode as the 100 does in eco mode.

I run my 500 in eco mode, so yes it does indeed sound quieter than the 100. I tend not to notice the sound of the fan on the 500 as much as I did with 100.

[Adrenochrome]

I Also upgrade from the ae100 to the ae500. I looked at the ae300 but couldn't justify the outlay as the difference between them was minimal.

Now the ae500 fed via the pc watching hi def clips is stunning

Unfortunately contrary to SamirP i find the ae500 to be quite a bit noisier than the ae100

Adrenochrome.

[Mr.D]

Went from an ae100 to a sony HS20.
The resolution makes a big difference and the colour is more accurate. Blacks are definitely lower.

Things I'm not mad about are: HS20 is way louder . The 56Hz refresh stutter can be a little annoying.

Incidentally I sold my ae100 to a mate at work. His house got flooded and the ae100 ended up floating in a foot of water in its bag. He was gutted . I told him to dry it out for a couple of weeks as it wasn't plugged in when it got wet.

He fired it back up and its fine!

[Shockabuku]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Definitely good to know that I can expect a decent jump in quality when I upgrade. Now to draw up a shortlist...

[mrapbp]

I also upgraded from an AE100 to a AE300. There was quite a large difference in quality in both brightness and sharpness of image.

Sold the AE300 and bought a 50" plasma, missed the cinema experience so have just bought a NEC HT1000 from these forums.

Now that is one hell of a jump!!!! Really cant express how much better the NEC's DLP picture is than that of the AE300 in every way!!

I am now watching a film most every night which I have never done!

Originally Posted by mrapbp

Now that is one hell of a jump!!!! Really cant express how much better the NEC's DLP picture is than that of the AE300 in every way!!

I believe you on that (as a Z1 owner rather than an AE100/300, but the images are not that disimillar). But I steered clear of DLPs at the time because of the dreaded rainbow effect - even if I couldn't see it, I was worried other people watching would. Now if only they could get the LCD's contrast up or get rid totally of the DLP rainbow....

Cheers,
James

[mrapbp]

Originally Posted by JamesPA

I believe you on that (as a Z1 owner rather than an AE100/300, but the images are not that disimillar). But I steered clear of DLPs at the time because of the dreaded rainbow effect - even if I couldn't see it, I was worried other people watching would. Now if only they could get the LCD's contrast up or get rid totally of the DLP rainbow....

Cheers,
James

I have read a hell of a lot on these forums about the 'dreaded rainbows'!! I have now had 6 people watch at least a whole film with not even a sign of them at all!

I also find myself actively looking for them and still can see nothing.

Makes you wonder how much of it is psychosomatic and brought on by being told by experts that they are a real problem!?!? (just a thought so doesnt need 10,000 people saying how badly they are effected and how dare I make such a comment etc! )

I think you are right that rainbow effect is over-hyped somewhat (otherwise, why are there so many models for sale?) It is real, of course, as those affected know, but I wonder what percentage of the population are affected? (not including those that only look for it and don't watch the actual movie!) Enjoy your HT1000 and forget about the rainbows!

I'd consider a DLP next, as I am a little unimpressed by the blacks from my Z1 (the rest of the picture is very good though after AVIA calibration). A filter doesn't help as the picture loses it's vibrance IMHO. I know the newer LCDs are better contrast-wise but still not as good as DLP. CRT would be nice, but where'd it go in a little flat??

Cheers
James

[Mr.D]

Rainbowing on single chip dlps is real, quite a lot of people can see it even on the newest models. If you don't have a problem with it fine. Some of us do and it definitely isn't psychosomatic. Some people are also quite happy watching VHS.