[Walter mitty]

Can we have a head count of deada pannys plz? I`m put off this machine now so many gone wrong can`t be a good pj can it?..If this is good whats bad to look for in a PJ?

The people who own this projector must be sweating that common problems people are having is not a bathtub fault. If so, then this pj could end up being more expensive than anticipated.

When you splash out on a TV, you can now reasonable expect 10 years life out of it. If this pj is flakey, then the chances of it breaking just outside the warranty period must be very high. £500 per year dont seem so good value, some how.

The problems seem to be bulb related. What if the minute difference between bulbs are enough to break the pj. Two years down the line you replace the bulb, and hey presto, your pj breaks.

I think potential buyers should wait until Panasonic give a satisfactory reason for the high number of failures on this unit.

El

[Splice]

well........ 3 dead pannies...... but still gagging for another, just want a good non flickering,no dead pixel example. to much to ask.....?

all the best....Splice

the non explosive version would be nice as well.

[JSW]

I wouldn't worry too much.

Surely all we are seeing is a few dodgy ones looking like a lot of dodgy ones due to them being condensed in this forum.

Look around other forums and you rarely see any probs there.

If it does turn out to be a design flaw then surely Panasonic would issue a fix and this would be carried out under warranty.

Maybe even a product recall if it does become very widespread but believe me for that to happen it would need to be very very widespread.

The other problem with a recall would be that manufactueres dont like admitting problems as they see it as them having failed.

Take the Sony NS900 dvd player, look how quietly that was sorted. Units where happily fixed under warranty but owners where not made aware by Sony about this.
The player was removed from all Sony web sites and only re appeared after the revised version was being shipped.

If you havn't allready done so anyone with dodgy units should email panny direct and CC it to avforums.
That way panny will see that your informing everyone about it and they will want to act to keep there reputation intact.

You could demo a Sanyo PLV30. Ok its 4:3 but it does have a wide screen mode. Non anamorphic dvd's look crap, but dont own many (the ones i do, i have when i wasnt really interested in home cinema. Dont buy non anamorphic ones now.


Best thing to do is demo some at your local dealer. Failing that, look at the hardware reviews on the HCC website.

Thats what i did, then got a demo of the one i wanted.

Lets not get into a slanging match with AE100 owners.

My own view when i was buying my first PJ was between the AE100 and the Sanyo. The AE100 does have a true wide screen panel, but due to the percentage of returns due to faulty parts, i went for the Sanyo. Lamp life wasnt that important (2000 Sanyo, 5000? Panny). If you have home cinema as a hobby, why moan about the cost of up keep? The Panny looks like a old fashion fan heater, the Sanyo looked like a PJ.

The Sanyo was more expensive (£2000)
The Panny was £1500 or maybe cheaper.



PLEASE remember this is my own view and this is not meant as a slanging match to AE100 owners.

[Bert Coules]

What's a bathtub failure?

Bert
http://www.bertcoules.co.uk

[jonny m]

Geoffc10
what signal do you use to display the image via your plv-30?

I have its eiki clone and im finding the svid is very similar to composite, when using either im getting slight vertical lines every 10 pixels or so, shows up in blue sky scenes, dark scenes etc, do you get this?

hopefully soon i will get to try component progressive and interlaced, have also tried via the pc and the image is fantastic although im not sure i want the hassle of the htpc

still trying to get the optimal image

j

[azzo]

Can we have another survey of actual DEAD panasonics please? The last survey was with problems - including dead pixels, colour discrepences etc. Now if people are happy with these minor problems (of course there is no reason why they should be) then we can get a more accurate judjement of failures. I have one of these and am VERY worried that it will break on me, especially now I am customizing my room especially. Does anyone now if surge breakers/power smoothers help?

[Timh]

I was the first and its still firing on all cylinders 233 hours and counting. My fingers are starting to ache, been crossed for about 8 weeks now.
It seems if you have a good one, your in luck.
Whats the maximum hours anyone has reached before thier PJ has died?

[azzo]

So we need a list of Hours Used before failure and Reason of Failure. We can then work out an average and see when ours will die!!!!! Just to worry you all a bit more. I had a panasonic camcorder which developed a bad pixel after 2 years use!! Now I know they use CCD and not LCDs, but they must be very similar technology. We could all have that to look forward too!

[Bert Coules]

Mine went at about 150 hours, most of which were clocked by the previous owner. I switched on, there was momentary life and then a muted bang - the rest was, as they say, silence.

I didn't notice any warning signs. It's been suggested that it was a mistake switching it on and off with the rear mains switch and that it would have been better to have left it in standby when not in use, but I don't know if that's true.

The lamp was at the low setting and the unit was on a stand with uninterrupted airflow.

Bert
http://www.bertcoules.co.uk

17 hours, the night before it broke I thought the picture was a little 'washed out' ie dull. I even commented about this to my friends on the phone. Next morning turned on the unit and all the lights were flashing on the front and the lamp flashing on and off.

Now if you turn it on it flickers every second for about 4-5 minutes and then the picture goes off and the lamp flashes. For those few minutes it is on the picture is produces is very dull.

Lamp was in low mode.
Unit was ceiling mounted with no obstructions to air flow.
Was only switched on and off with remote control.

Regards

Der Pobman

Jonny M

I was using S-Video until a couple of days ago when i changed to a component lead, cant say I've seen a drastic improvement over S-Video, but i wanted to connect my Humax digital box to the pj.
Only thing I've noticed when using both is that the pj wasn't auto detecting the source. strange....

Was the AE100 supposed to auto switch? (I understand Geoffc10 is talking about the PLV30)

For instance if I turned off my JVC VCR and switch on my DVD player should the PJ have automatically gone from S-Vdeo to the component inputs?

Of course this is all a little academic now ... but I would still like to know.

Regards

Der Pobman

[peterweg]

>Was the AE100 supposed to auto switch
Alas, No.
>Mine went at about 150 hours, most of which were clocked by the previous owner
Thats a possibly because -
>switching it on and off with the rear mains switch
Will, of course, seriously damage it. A very large amount of heat is extracted after shutdown and thermal shock is what breaks electronic parts i.e. switching it on and off.
>Bathtub curve
High rate of initial failure cause by manufacturing faults followed by a long stable life and then an increased failure rate as it gets old.
Pray for a faulty unit to break early, under warrenty

[Bert Coules]

Somehow I don't find it in the least consoling that my prayers, had I been superstitious enough to have made any, would have been answered...

Bert
http://www.bertcoules.co.uk

haha..hoho..hehe think i'm going slightly mad....

My first panny (nov01 unit) lasted 20mins. Problem= lamp flashing red..etc..etc..etc..blah blah


6 weeks later my replacemnet arrives.....

My second panny (march 02..I think?) Lasted 50hrs.
Problem= lamp flashing red lamp failure..etc..etc..etc..blah blah..blahhhhh. god this is soooo boring..i've completely lost interest in it's problems...absolutely nothing has been done(officially) to acknowledge it's discrepancies.

6 weeks later and still counting..Oh yes! still counting..it has been in the hands of the technicians..cos i thought it would be quicker to fix than to wait for a replacement..hmmmmm thanks to the advice i was given on this forum No offence.

So still waiting for a replacement lamp...etc..etc..etc..blah blah.....blahhhhhhhh....arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Pathetic.

[Bert Coules]

I'm not at all sure that the lamp was the problem with mine. After the fateful bang the projector was completely dead - surely the lamp blowing doesn't kill all power to the entire unit?

Incidentally, when I returned the ex-projector to the retailer the assistant who "served" me first peered into the lens and then carefully sniffed the whole projector. This might or might not be significant, though personally I incline to the latter.

Bert
http://www.bertcoules.co.uk

OK stevenr this is exactly how I had it.

Unit was mounted on the ceiling with about 6inch clearance on the rear air outlet. The unit was plugged into a 4way Belkin surge protector, the only other thing plugged in was a Dreamcast. Connected to the PJ was my Pioneer 737 DVD via component, my Dreamcast by VGA and a JVC 7722 VCR via S-Video. The unit was set to low power, background colour was black. As said before the unit was only turned on and off via the remote. I had the contrast setting quite high (don’t remember the figure) and brightness at -6 (this was for NTSC DVDs, did not get a chance to setup for PAL). Sharpness was at 2, don’t remember the other settings. The last 5 hours of the PJs life it was noted the picture seemed 'washed out', it was on for those entire 5 hours of being dull. It was turned off for the night. It never worked properly again.

Other than being washed out the unit did not flicker or anything like that.

I think that is all the details. Don’t know if you can see any pattern. I doubt it.

I think the best way to stop them blowing is to never turn them on

The Dreamcast is still working fine

Regards

Der Pobman

[gavan]

Originally posted by Walter mitty
Can we have a head count of deada pannys plz? I`m put off this machine now so many gone wrong can`t be a good pj can it?..If this is good whats bad to look for in a PJ?

In much the same way as I'd say "don't believe the hype cos lots of people are saying the Panasonic is the best PJ ever" I'd also say that just because there are a few reports here of failures, don't assume just yet that the problem is endemic.

Lots of owners (and the AE seems to be one of the most owned projectors on the group, by posting volume) means that a lot more people will report problems.

Give it another while and see how things pan (no pun intended) out, before making your purchase decision.


Gav

[Walter mitty]

Mmmmmm thanks, what a lot of replies......so I reckon about 9 outta 10 are faulty? So what makes this pj good then? compared to say the Toshiba MT3. I don`t fancy paying all that money for a faulty machine surely a good pj is one with reasonable picture and No hastle? I can`t understand why it is good.... I don`t consider problems as being good. I`d much rather have a reliable machine with decent piucture. I am almost ready to purchase but for the life of me I just can`t see whats good with this one after reading all the threads about breakdowns and colour convergance ect ect. Please tell me why it`s so good even though you only have them for a week or so convince me to buy please

I dont think we can say 9 out of ten are faulty. Its much lower than that. More like 10-15% at most which are failing 100%.

We will not know for sure how many 'faulty' units there are until they have aged a bit, give it 12-15 months and we will know.

The AE100 is good because the picture it produces is good. Simple as that. Yes its cheap, but thats does not make it a good PJ. It has good AV inputs, 16:9, good contrast ratio, cheapish lamps, desk or ceiling mount AND a good price too. True there is a possible reliability problem, we will have to wait and see what hapens with that.

There are currently more people on this board with fully working PJs than dead ones, lots more! Its just us guys with dead ones are making more noise than the others

I would however be very interested to know what is the actual problem with my unit, ie which part has gone wrong.

Regards

Der Pobman

[Walter mitty]

Great thanks for that ....so it`s worth a bit of hastle then it`s so good all round for the money, think I`ll keep an eye on this forum to see how it progresses before I purchase, I`m going to build a dedicated HTPC for my pj so that`ll keep me ocupied for a while I`m going to wait for the longer nights I think so hopefully AE100`s will be available everywhere by then thanks again m8

[Ricky27]

Hi Geoffc,im a bit surprised you didnt notice an improvemnt from s-video to component as when i compare these from my Toshiba 210e the component wins easily,although it depends what material you are watching.

Ive noticed that the better the original recording the better the effect component has,i.e,play something modern like Gladiator or Shrek and the component feed reveals all the quality of the movie,but feed it with say,bbc dvds of comedy shows and it just reveals too much grain and blur.

Therefore,i actually revert to s-video on this type of material because it smooths out the picture a bit and makes poorer recordings much more pleasant to watch.

[jonny m]

Ricky27
You don't happen to see slight vertical lines when using svid or composite on your plv-30 do you??? you can see them on sky scenes, dark scenes, other times they arn't there at all, I think one of the panels could be out slightly.

Im just about to send this back to be checked and I was wondering if this is just part of the lcd experience??

[Bert Coules]

Jonny m, how well-defined are these lines? I occasionally became aware of a sort of very slight vertical texturing - almost like extremely fine rain - when watching a composite feed. It was never there on a component signal so I just put it down as a composite effect.

It was never intrusive; just one of those things that are there if you choose to look for them.

Bert
http://www.bertcoules.co.uk

[jonny m]

Bert,
I am aware of them most of the time, they are exactly 10 pixels apart and depending on the picture they can be very visible with blue sky's and slightly visible on dark scenes.

dvd's through the pc are perfect so its not the panels themselves, its either the internal scaler or the configuration options for svid/composite as the projector's internal values for vga/component or svid/composite are quite different

word of warning for anyone as foolhardy as myself to try and fix this problem as I've been in the service menu and got caught, if you take option 1 RGB gamma on RGB channels and take it down to 1 the projector lock's it at 1, the service center said this is to stop people going down this route, nice huh

so it will have to be sent back anyway to get the gamma unlocked on svid, vga/component are still fine.

can't wait to try component through the pj!

[Bert Coules]

That doesn't sound like the effect I noticed, which was more like an overall "wash" than clearly defined individual lines. Tough luck with the service menu: if the designers don't want people fiddling with such things, why don't they incorporate password-access or something similar?

Bert
http://www.bertcoules.co.uk

[jonny m]

bert,
yep good point, there wasn't a warning in the manual or when you load up the service menu which is as easy as pressing menu and normal rogether for 5 secs. And the support guy said I could lose my service warrenty by going in there!! If they pull that I would need to see a specific warning somewhere first!

Im going to try component tonight to see if that makes a difference.

john

[Bert Coules]

I suppose the reason there's no warning in the manual is that it would also serve as an alert to all those curious users who hadn't actually realised that there *is* a service menu. "Aha, that sounds interesting. I must find out how to get into that...!"

In my brief experience with the AE-100 I found that component input from a DVD player was definitely superior to anything else. I was about to move on to experimenting with VGA input when the damned thing blew up on me.

Bert
http://www.bertcoules.co.uk