[General Skanky]

Turned on my AE100 and it died this morning.
Have a temp loan form System Sound, the Sony Cineza. If anyone wants to know a comparison between the two, I'll answer questions and I'll post what I find here in a day or two.
Excellent service from System Sound by the way. Took my old one in and they are getting in a replacement for me. Be funny to see if I get one b4 others waiting for theirs long term!

Anyway, here's one or two things I found 'inside' the AE100.

As it went bag, and I knew the power cable and socket to be ok, (I have a multimeter) I went in. (But keep that one quiet.) I suppose thinking now I could have taken a couple of photos.

Anyway, there are two 5A internal power supply fuses, both blown. Couldn't test the resisitors without stripping it down and removing them from the psu. The copper plating on the Live bar had gone, burnt away. No blown capacitors or blackening of the board. The lamp was ok, about 130hrs on the clock. Easy to get that in and out by the way, takes about 2 mins.

General build is solid, with quite good soldering throughout. The main IC board is a double sided pcb with all surface mount components. Jam packed. It has 3 ribbon cables feeding everything I/O. The psu is pretty straight forward, a separate board feeding the rest of the unit.

The lense system looks very easy to access, the glass for example, by removing the top pcb, then removing the plastic 'corridor roof' to get at the lenses for a clean. The lamp fires into the the unit and the light travels across the centre of the unit and diverted through 90 degrees and output from the front. Lots of sensors, ie dust grill.

Overall a very straight forward and seemingly well built unit. For those that do look inside, the brain of the unit is definately the big pcb ontop. Eveything else is pretty standard stuff.

WARNING
I take no responsibility for anyone popping the cover and poking around inside. You do need to take precautions like anti-static etc b4 going in. My unit was dead anyway, so I lost nothing.

[Retronana]

Whoops

Sorry to hear the bad news....mines still got only the hour on it....and I still have no planning permision

[Timh]

No not another
156 hours and counting on mine. I wonder if I will make my second century.

Gawd not another. Begining to worry a little about reliability now

Gawd not another. Begining to worry a little about reliability now

While you are probably right, you should also consider the fact that the AE100 is the first projector to be owned by 30 people in the same forum.

[museumsteve]

187 hours on mine and the only problem I have is one dead pixel which it had from the beginning.

[codling]

must admit im a bit woried now.
do you guy's think that panasonic are aware of this common problem?

i hope so.

its nice to see the general so chilled out about it.(i cant say nowt,me wanting mine,like yesterday).

only 12 hour on my clock (from just playing with it )still well happy with the picture quality.,superb!
im just thinking that we all are just there guinnypigs and they will sort it out in the end ,which will be well worth it.
its a new product for price/pic quality,so other companies will follow suit,(this is what ive/all home cinema hobyists have been waiting for all these years!),(an 80" WIDE SCREEN pic for £1329 quid!!!!!!. i wouldnt of dreamed of this a year ago!)

so if mine dies shotly, i would like to think its worth it!
just think in a couple of years what the pic quality will be like for around the sub £2k mark.

its for the best(did i just say that)


just my opinion

carl

[General Skanky]

These things happen. I wouldn't say it's a big problem. Components do and will always fail in products.
From what I've read of other faults, this one is just a psu component failing and not connected to anything other than that.
I would still say to anyone considering one, go and buy it with confidence. It's a good pj.

If the worst came to the worst, there will be a mod in the power supply say, ie, change values of capacitors and add a resistor here or a link wire there, that sort of thing. No drama. Most people don't realise that it's exactly the same with every generation of any product. For example, Panasonic TV's used to pop their 3.15a psu fuses. The answer? Put in a 5a fuse.

But glad to see so many concerned people. Makes me wellup.


Now a quick first impression of the Sony.

Good points first.

It is very quiet, at least if not a bit quieter than the AE100.
S Video from R1 DVD is very good.
The menus are quite straight forward and easy to use. Comprehensive too.
The swivel base is quite handy. Helped in the set up.
As a unit, intuitive to use. Had my loan set up and running in about 5 -10 minutes, with a pic tweaks done too.
Inputs are ok, does all most people would need.
Very good as a HC pj or for gaming.
Would slot in well with a Sony set up.
The wife quite liked its looks.

Now things I wasn't sruck on.

It's much bigger and heavier than the AE100.
The pic size is 'much' smaller at the same distance. Throws about a 54" image compared to the 68" image from the AE100.
It is a 4:3 not a 16:9 pj. Really annoying. The 16:9 image it does give has a much smaller impact cinema wise than the AE100. Very noticeable.
As it's predominantly 4:3, it doesn't have any 16:9 modes like Zoom or Just.
The Sony gave a worse pic from Sky, S Video converted from RGB.
It generally looked poorer and the chicken wire was much more apparant and distracting. This would not be my first choice of pj if I wanted to use it like I do for watching TV with my AE100. No amount of tweaking could improve things to a better standard.
No RCA component inputs is awful IMHO. I couldn't test it with prog scan because you need a Sony 'only' lead which costs lots as I understand it. Shame as it would have really boosted its desirability in the 'buy me' stakes.
And finally it costs a lot more, RRP AE100 = £1500, RRP Sony = £2000.


Overall I'd give the Sony 7/10 and the AE100 9/10.

I'll get to use it more over the next few days. If I had a bigger room, ie, longer throw for a big pic and only used the Sony for DVD/Gaming, I wouldn't be unhappy. But the AE100 does more for less and better. So at the moment Panasonic win.

Would you have swapped for the Sony if it was better than the Panasonic??. There is nothing wrong with 4:3 projectors, according to retailers the Panny isnt great wit DVD input but ok with pc's. I trust the opion of the retailer i purchased from ( he spends most of his time testing PJ's (CRT,DLP,LCD). I went for the Sanyo over the Panny. and reading these posts ,i'm glad i did.

[Nic Rhodes]

Nice posts General S. Good interesting stuff with no axe to grind.

[General Skanky]

Cheers Nic.

Geoff, if the Sony was better then definately I'd go for it, but always aware of price of course.
However, 16:9 is a much better ratio for me to watch. 4:3 is now the wrong aspect considering all my discs are 16:9, sky is 16:9 and it is also the format that has outgrown 4:3. I can only go by how it appears in my home.

I wouldn't put complete and utter faith in your dealer, judge for yourself. Personally I think the AE100 is fantastic with DVD. The component inputs especially so. Haven't tried it via the pc inputs.
The Sony was also very good on DVD as I said, but the Panasonic pips it I think.

for people with a Sony, I don't want to seem as if I'm slating it, it's just that having had a chance to use both at home in identical set ups and the way I like, I believe I have made the better choice for me.

As you probably know, I've been comparing the various inputs etc.. on the AE-100. Using anything other than the VGA input, feeding a Wide 480 signal, will not give anywhere near the best picture from this PJ.

I'm not saying that the component inputs are bad (interlaced or progressive), far from it. The progressive component is very watchable, & should be considered in this vain. However!

If anyone using the Panasonic via component hasn't seen the results using VGA, I'd suggest they don't, because once you see the results you just won't be happy with what you've got.

It is a revelation

Kramer

[General Skanky]

Ok, Panasonic replacement now here. I've taken the loan Sony back.

I had the Sony at home for two weeks.

Comments after using one in a home environment-

The Sony picture quality generally, was not as good as the Panasonic. Chicken wire was definately more apparent with the Sony. But the processed look it had too was a negative. The Panasonic is far more natural looking.

Screen size is back to the big size again, obviously the benefit of a short throw lense in a room 12' x 11'.

I can now use all the inputs again, mainly meaning DVD via component. Huge difference. In the Sony's defence though, I only used the S Video whilst I had it. But I suspect that the Panasonic would be better.

The comment that I quote as being the most independent, was from the wife who is not AV but knows waht she likes and hears....'Thank God the Panasonic is back. The sony was ****!'.....
Take from that what you will.

Having tried the two at home, I stick by my original comments, but will amend the Sony's overall rating to about 6 out of 10, more because the processed look kicked in after a few days, and once it was noticed it made everything look a bit odd. However, it's a matter of taste. Maybe I'm just scum?

[Dominic]

GS

Just been readig through this and other posts. Im off to system sound to view both sony and pany this weekend, was thinking of sony PJ although after reading through maybe ill keep an open mind.
ill keep you informed of my findings, likes and dislikes

[Jonny1973]

500 hours on mine and still going strong.

[General Skanky]

Dominic, I'd be interested in your findings too. Retronana has a slightly different opininion of the Sony than me, and we saw it together in the shop. Funny how we all differ.

You'll be glad to know that SS has a 70" drop down screen in the shop now that hey use for demos of the pj's. Ok, ambient light is all over , but you get a good idea of what's going on.

Where abouts do you live then if you're going there?

[Timh]

500 hours on mine and still going strong.

500 hours allready, I thought I had done a fair bit at 180 hours.

[General Skanky]

But do you use your pj as a TV tim?
I do, and the average is about 100 hrs a month.

[Jonny1973]

I hardly ever use my TV, even in daytime.

That's why I've done 500 hours.

[codling]

just got my replacement back
just quickly mounted it,seems ok,cant see any dead pixles.ill have a better look when it gets dark.

carl

[Timh]

Yes, I do use it as a TV, I do about 60-70 hours a month now.
Once youv'e seen Jennifer Aniston on the big screen you just cannot go back to the Box

[Dominic]

GS
Everyone is different, thank god. Still, we all know what works best with the kit we have. Being new to pj's im sure both will impress. But i need to see both to know for sure.

Not sure what to go for now, i have a 3.8m X 4.6M room, so i assume i could get away with a decent screen size, what distance is yours mounted from the screen to give the 68" picture?

I live the other side of Chelmsford, Essex, so Sudbury isnt too far to go, unless you know of any better / closer stores. Seems SS get a few mentions here, so worth the drive.

cheers

[General Skanky]

Yes, go to SS from Chelmsford.
The pj is 9 feet from the screen and we sit at about the same (face is below pj when reclined.).
My room is 12' x 11'.

Not wanting to prejudice it, but I'd place money on you liking the panasonic.

[Retronana]

Originally posted by Timh


500 hours allready, I thought I had done a fair bit at 180 hours.

1 hour and still in its box

[General Skanky]

You're proud of that aren't you mate?
Planning permission yet?

[Retronana]

Yep

You wait.... when you see it on Antiques Roadshow in 10 years time...you'll be wishing you had kept yours in the box

Don't talk about the planning permission

[Timh]

Originally posted by Retronana
Yep

You wait.... when you see it on Antiques Roadshow in 10 years time...you'll be wishing you had kept yours in the box

Don't talk about the planning permission

2058, Mint, in its original box, it must be worth 3 million at least

[Retronana]

Originally posted by Timh


2058, Mint, in its original box, it must be worth 3 million at least

Yep... be an ideal nest egg for my 60th Birthday...only another 25 years to go