[sniffer66]

Ok, finally got my AE900 last night and went for the initial setup in my living room, thought you might be interested in how it went

Please bear with some of my descriptions/terminology. I'm still new to much of this but am trying to learn fast Any glaring errors or ommisions feel free to point out
Existing (and only previous) PJ is a BENQ 5120 DLP so I'm going to use this as a comparison as its all I know

My setup

HTPC - Sweetspot/Xcard/Dscaler Combo, Radeon 9600 outputting

via VGA Panasonic TH42PW5 Plasma (1:1 856x480)
via DVI-D to BENQ 5120 PJ (1:1 856x480)

Connection to PJ is 7.5 m Lindy DVI/DVI cable (addtional DVI-HDMI Lindy adapter for the 900)

Pj is currently shelf mounted 12' from 7' screen. Seating is directly in front PJ 11' from screen.

room is completely light controlled, no ambient whatsover

Out of the box the first thing that impressed me was the obvious build quality in comparison with the BENQ. Quality casing and buttons, immediately the impression is that you have a serious piece of kit in your hands. Also no cable whatsoever included apart from power) - buy this pj and you are going to source quality cable yourself anyway. Manuals were clear and easy to follow.

Connected everything up and powered up for the first time, took me about a minute to hit the screen a correctly sized picture - my shelf is obviously horizontal, slight raise using the manual lens shift, lock it in place and all was perfectly square. no keystone required. Man, I LOVE lens shift !!

First thing I did was to set up the Powerstrip timings for the 900 on the Radeon. 1280x720@50hz, had to guess on the timings but used the dot clock from the manual to approximate. Then back to the PJ and fired up the Nokia test patterns to check 1:1, slight horizontal adjustment and got "snap in".
Then ran DVE and calibrated to best of my ability, "natural" settings seemed to be closest to what I wanted, just dropped the colour slightly and left auto iris ON

Sources are going to be SKY (rarely), SD DVD and HD (eventually) so decided to work up from the worst.

SKY (via Sweetspot/ Dscaler)

Have to say I was initially disappointed, not much improvement over the BENQ with moving video. Colors/Blacks were superb but was seeing a lot of artifacts , especially on motion, almost as if a faint grid (much larger than SDE size) was overlaying the image as the camera panned, the "grid" would then "catch up" as the pan slowed/stopped, very obvious watching footie. As soon as the motion stopped, its was fine again This did improve/worsen based on the source channel though. No SDE or VB seen at all, in fact you can only see pixel structure from about a foot away. Huge improvement over the 5120 on solarisation on whites/greens and blue/white sky scenes, clear as a bell on the 900. Also text (sky menus etc) is exceptionally smooth, almost no jaggies on diagonal lines

DVD

Loaded up the Attack of the Clones with exactly the same settings
Now this was more like it !!

Beautiful saturated colours, bright as anything. looked absolutely stunning. I found myself watching almost the entire film mesmerised, I'd seen Goblet of Fire the night before at the cinema and the quality blew that away completely. Still saw the odd grid pattern on large sky scenes and fast moving scenes but almost negligible.
Then fired up Fellowship of the Ring as that has some dark scenes in it that the 5120 handled well, the 900 looked even better !! Scenes were there where lots of shadow were very detailed, very impressed !

HD Material

Downloaded some WMV 720p HD clips from the MS Site
WOW !!!! Is my only reaction, now I now what all the fuss is about. absolutely blew me away! I didnt know a PJ could look that good ! Roll on Sky HD It was 10 times better than my SD Plasma on DVD !!

Noise levels are exceptionally quiet, esp on Bulb "Low". In fact I can hear my HTPC from 10 feet away when I cant hear the pj from 3 !!

Anyway, we are going to sit down tonight and watch a DVD from start to finish. I'm very impressed so far though !

If anyone could give some advice on the "grid" issue (unless its just SKY poor quality source) and Powerstrip timings etc I'd be grateful (im getting the very occasional judder on pans so I dont think I have it spot on)
Any other calibration advice also gratefully received

I'll post some screenshots as soon as I get a chance

[DEANO-B]

Nice post mate I have a AE700 and think the PQ is superb, especially the colours and the details on the black levels! And yes the first reaction when I saw hidef was WOW, it does take your breath away the 1st (2nd,3rd.....) time you see it! When you have more time I think people would like to know more about the black levels and the DI response time!

BTW Attack Of The Clones looks waaaaaay better in hidef

[ROne]

Good stuff.

For DVI you shouldn't need power strip enabled on the 9600.

Is this resolution (1280x720) not just available to you? I know it is on my 9600.

[sniffer66]

Thanks

I have the plasma on the VGA port of the Radeon and I'm having to use Powerstrip to get 1:1 @50hz. I've got the pj on the dvi as an extended desktop. With the ATI drivers Im using I cant see 1280x720 @ 50hz. But im using some old stable ones. do the new drivers allow custom refreshes ?

[ROne]

I think I'm running cat5.8 and the 1280x720 *50 or 60hz has always been available.

I've not used PS for ages, and certainly not on this computer.

[sniffer66]

well, i should be able to just use PS for thje primary and the std Radeon for the secondary, I'll update my drivers tonight and hopefully lose the judder - thanks


Watched Return of the King with the wife last night BTW - Seemed to be losing some detail in the dark Mordor/Shelob scenes, wife wasnt keen on me calibrating on the fly tho LOL
Overall though the PQ was fantastic again


Any ideas on the "gridding" on Sky is it just poor source related, motion artefacts ?

[Bristol Pete]

Watched Return of the King with the wife last night BTW - Seemed to be losing some detail in the dark Mordor/Shelob scenes, wife wasnt keen on me calibrating on the fly tho LOL

And so the tweak-itus begins

[sniffer66]

and I have some VB

Can see it faintly on the Windows Standard background, very faintly on DVD on sky/pale scenes

[n0s]

i got some VB too, but its the kinda VB that if your watchin the movie or tv show, you dont notice it until you look for it... so sit back and enjoy the ride

[PJTX100]

Originally Posted by sniffer66

and I have some VB

Can see it faintly on the Windows Standard background, very faintly on DVD on sky/pale scenes

That doesn't sound like it's too bad. Like n0s says you'll probably find you don't notice it after a while, don't let it spoil the enjoyment.

It is weird that Panasonic's implementation of these panels seems to suffer from this issue yet other manufacturers don't (as much anyway, I'm sure there are examples). I wonder if the smoothscreen is exacerbating it?..PJ

[FlyingBig]

Sorry to hear about your VB, i read in a review that VB was not apparent on the AE900 of the machines (3) they had for review so seems strange you got one with VB. Is it really noticable?

[PJTX100]

Originally Posted by FlyingBig

I read in a review that VB was not apparent on the AE900 of the machines (3) they had for review so seems strange you got one with VB...

You'll find quite a few posts on here which comment on the 900 being prone to VB, the only one I saw certainly had it. I can understand people liking the 900 but it's certainly something to bear in mind...PJ

[sniffer66]

Its so low its at the point where I can ignore it at will - I guess im a tad disappointed after all the reviews

Its funny though, if I hadnt read about it on here I wouldnt have even noticed it. the wife was the same wiht RE on the 5120 - I could make them happen if I drank too many pints or moved my head too fast. She had no idea they even existed and never saw them LOL