[mallidiv]

I am on my way to a pj and try to find do the best in my opinion, see for myself.
yesterday I found in Tottenham Court Road the ae700 and 900. I was not really astonished. there was distortion (but the same went for the plasmas too) and I did not really seee much difference between em,

Today Up in sevenoaks I saw the infocus 4805, 5700 and 7210. slight differencies... and even the 4805 looked great.

Is there any chance the 4805 has a better picture or is it bad configuration I suspect?

coz the pannies where with ambient lighting, on painted wall and non digital connection (lord of the rings the two towers), while the screenplay was on tottaly dark room, a white screen using dvi

if for the same configuration would the ae's look better?
my room is tottaly dark and I am going for dvd, maybe some gaming...

The Infocus is a DLP model while the Panasonics are LCD, a search of these forums can tell you the positives of each and the negatives, the Infocus is also noisier regarding the fan and lower resolution but will have better black level and contrast range than the AE700 but the AE700 and AE900 are better equipped for future HD broadcasts and X Box 360 etc etc because they are 720p resolution and i also think its nice to have an RGB input.

I would suggest the ambient light would severely affect the abilities of the Panasonics, i have zero light in my room and get a great picture from the Panasonic AE700 but if i turn a lamp on in the background you get a lowering of contrast levels which does affect the image, so yes i think what you have seen was affected by the ambient light, the connection does make a difference too, using a component or RGB connection into the Panasonic you get a really great image as long as your dvd players decent or whatever source you are using is decent ( not tested HDMI so can't comment on that but even a cheap Toshiba dvd player with component output produces fabulous images - i have a Toshiba SD 220E and connect using component )

Heres a review of all 3 models:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/info...nplay_4805.htm
http://www.projectorcentral.com/panasonic_ae700.htm
http://www.projectorcentral.com/panasonic_ae900.htm

Note that the latest Panasonic model for the LCD market is the AE900 and frankly there shouldn't be any distortion on this or the AE700 it seems to me whatever shop you were in is not very good and thats an understatement as demoing on a painted wall with ambient light and possibly using the wrong connectors isn't exactly going to impress people ( how do they expect to make sales ? )

You probably won't see a huge difference between the picture quality of the Ae700 and the AE900 its probably more subtle and will depend on many factors including the source input and bulb life and settings used on each projector, the AE900 should edge it but i doubt most people will notice a huge difference ( the AE900 uses D5 panels which do have certain advantages such as better contrast range and response times and fill factors etc etc )

http://www.epson.co.jp/e/newsroom/news_2004_10_18.htm

[mallidiv]

I am getting this up again becoz I want you to make clear sth to me... If I have been satisfied with the 4805 properly installed, will that guarantee that the ae700 900 or z4 can satisfy me?

thanx

[Zag]

I have an Optoma H30 my friend has a 4805 both of us have light controlled rooms and after spending a few hours with the Z4 neither of us would change to it, if all we were watching were DVDs. The Z4 is superior in many aspects but we both preferred the better blacks of our DLP machines even at the sacrifice of more fan noise, screen door, lower res e.t.c. e.t.c.. That was only our opinion however, other people will prefer the extra brightness, resolution,sharpness, lack of rainbows offered by the new LCD machines.

[PJTX100]

As Zag sums up, it depends on how you define "better". All these PJs can throw a great picture, so you shouldn't be worried one will be significantly inferior to the others.

If you can pick up a standard def PJ like the 4805 for around the £600 mark that would seem a good buy, however if you are talking of £800 or more IMHO this is simply too much to pay for a standard def machine whose limitations will be thrown into stark relief as HD sources appear in the coming year or two...PJ

[mallidiv]

well I would go for a descent really low budget pg, which would probably be the NEC HT510 (which I have not seen anywhere) due to the Pal resolution of 1024x576 compared to the american 4805...
the problem is that I bumped into an HD signaled tv, and was astonished...
With the xbox 360 out, and hoping for other sources, I probably lean for the HD ready LCDs...
And since I spend, why not spend up to the limit!!

Or go humble, and descent, enjoy my dvds and upgrade again with the technology when the dvd's r out as well...

I have not made my mind yet, and should do at about the 20th of december...

The good thing is that the projector will stand alone in my room, so with proper configurations it will match my DVD needs, no matter the model...