Comparison of Panasonic PT-AE100 and Epson EMP-TW10H

Hi,

A friend of mine has a Panasonic PT-AE100 for sale, this model was a ground breaking projector (for £1500) when it came out but is now a couple of years out of date. The price of this projector now second-hand is comparable to buying a new Epson EMP-TW10H projector. The Epson is a entry level projector but is a current model and things have probably moved on somewhat since the AE100 came out.

The Epson has a couple of plus points in its favour, cheap lamps at £100 or so each, theatre black mode, RGB input, slightly higher lumens and contrast. The Panasonic works out slightly cheaper and was probably a better quality machine due to it's new price difference.

The question is, overall which is the better machine now, given the similarity of price,

Has anyone had any experience with these and could offer some advice on which would make a better first purchase?

I am a projector newbie and as such am not requiring or expecting high end performance, just something watchable for films (dvds). I intend to use this on a DIY screen (Ice storm 5/6 50/50 mix) and my existing LG3350 DVD player for the short term, and upgrading the DVD player to one with progressive scan at some point (such as Pioneer 470 or 575) in the near future.

any help or advice would be greatly appreciated,

thanks,

Louis

[Comer]

What price is the AE100 second-hand? IIRC the Epson is about £500. That would seem very expensive for a second-hand AE100. Only drawback of the Epson is 4:3 otherwise it's no contest IMO...go for the Epson

[KraGorn]

Agree completely, the Epson is the choice to make, even allowing for the 4:3 A/R, the picture quality will be massively better than the AE100.

Thanks for the speedy replies,

Suggested price for AE100 is around £400 but negotiable, EMP-TW10H is around £500 or so new.

Just one question, the TW10H appears to be 854x480 pixels native, so it's a 16:9 widescreen that can do 4:3 as well? Thats what the specs seem to say anyway,

This is correct isn't it? just want to make sure we are talking about the same thing,

thanks,

Louis

[KraGorn]

You're right, it is 16:9, I didn't bother checking since even it it were 4:3 it would still be a better buy.

And yes, it will have a 4:3 operating mode to cater for FS video.

[azzo]

The epson is a native widescreen projector.
Please remember that projectors are mechanical and are like buying second hand cars. They wear out, at least the bulbs do and you will eventually get wear and tear on the panels with heat problems etc.
Go for the new epson any time. I'm sure the AE100 fetches around 300 notes these days.
Azzo

[stripe]

I go for the Epson even if the Panasonic was as good as it, purely for the warranty. 3 years IIRC.

[MikeRJ]

Another recommendation for the Epson, very happy with mine.

[lee789]

I can't recomend the Epson highly enough.

I wanted to get into the projector scene and thought I'd need to spend over 1,000 to get a reasonable picture, the panasonic 500 or 700 I was looking at.

But I stumbled on a thread here, and everyone spoke highly of it, found it for 500 with a 5ft screen and I'm blown away. It was way above my expectations.

Yes, you can see the imperfections, chicken wire etc if you really look for it, but I certainly don't.

And a 5ft screen, equates to about a 72inch diagonal screen which you simply can't get in the plasma world. At this size the projector is well capable, and probably up to a 6ft but I wouldn't go much bigger.

A massive winner for me, plus it was (maybe still is) in the homecinema choice top five under 4k.

Hi all,

Thanks ever so much for all the advice, I ordered the Epson last night, hopefully all being well then I should receive it tomorrow

I can't wait, just in time for Christmas, just need to finish the screen now, a job for the weekend I think...

I'll probably post my findings here once I have it set up, to let you know my thoughts, hopefully I will be similarly 'blown away' by it!

thanks again, cheers,

Louis

Hi all,

I received the new TW10h last Friday and spent the weekend using it.

What can I say, I'm really pleased with the results. It was set up and running out of the box within 5 minutes with a picture that we were happy to watch all night long. Slight tweeking the next day revealed even better results.

Initially I ran it over a 15m S-Video cable and the results were pretty damn good.

Then I changed to RGB and the results were even better, especially the colours were more vibrant and the picture appeared sharper.

The results even from regular TV via the Sky box and RGB output is also very good.

I'm projecting onto a flat board, painted with Dulux ice storm 5 / 6 in a 50/50 mix and this works really well. I find that under almost all circumstances the picture is fine in the Theatre Black mode, maybe a brighter mode is needed on a sunny day or with all the lights on but I don’t watch many films in those circumstances anyway!

The only thing I am lacking is a progressive scan component input but I don't feel that upgrading to this is too urgent, given that the results are as good as they are anyway.

I have no complaints and would highly recommend this highly to anyone interested in an entry level projector!

cheers,

Louis

[beng]

Well, isn't it great when a thread that you're interested in appears exactly at the right time?

I've been looking to get into a projector for a while and now the time has actually come to part with some cash. Like you, I simply want something for DVD playback and maybe a bit of sport. This site is wonderful, full of information and helpful people just waiting to dish out advice but it's a double edged sword - I've been second guessing myself for ages! Anyway, the missus and I went to Costco in Watford two weeks ago to pick up some supplies for her business. Whilst there, they had the toshiba ET1 on display. Baring in mind the store conditions I was pretty impressed with what I saw. So whilst I'd love to dish out x amount on a new Hs50 right at the deep end, I think I might be able to get away with starting out slowly

In that respect, both the Toshiba and the Epson come in at around five hundred pounds. I suspect there might be a deal or two to be had in the new year online sales as well My room is 21ft long by 14ft wide so I've got some set up issues to consider, however most likely I would not want to permanently mount it. Just how good are these two projectors for the money?

Hi,

I posted this on another thread, but at the risk of repeating myself...

--

Having recently bought one (a TW10H), I find it hard to imagine that you would be even slightly dissapointed with the TW10H, especially for the price,

No rainbows obviously,
RGB input! for added flexibility (sky box, games console...) as well as all the other usual inputs (component, VGA, Composite, S-Video)
Native widescreen
Theatre black mode
Quiet
Easy to set up
Cheap lamps!

what else can I say, what are you waiting for?

cheers,

Louis

[beng]

Hi Louis,

How is the epson out of the box? (and if it's not too cheeky) Can I ask where you bought it and how much it cost?

Can you just whack in an rgb scart cable from a digibox or games console and off you go?

Out of the box it takes about 1 minute to get it hooked up to a sky box / dvd player and games console (if they all output RGB)...

It comes with an adaptor lead that on one end is a regular scart socket and on the other is 4 phono's. 3 for the RGB and one for sync (which you connect into the composite input on the projecor).

So, if you have RGB scart output and a scart to scart lead then you can hook it up in no time at all, it couldn't be simpler.

For higher quality I have broken out into the 4 wires at the source end rather than the projector end (using the supplied adaptor lead) and run the 4 leads 10 meters to the projector, but that was a personal choice - you dont have to do it that way... a long scart to scart will be fine.

cheers,

Louis