Hi there, total newbie to projectors and the forum.

The Panasonic PTAE100 seems to be like the pied piper of Hamelin attracting people to the world of projectors and after seeing it in operation at my local home cinema shop, I too have fallen under its spell.

I have pretty much convinced myself of buying one and thanks to everyone on the forum as this has provided me with a lot of information, but I have a few more questions.

1. Getting screen later and was thinking initially to buy an AO sheet of paper/card or use a painted wall. Is this ok for a while or should I invest in a screen initially. Also, what screen works well with the PTAE100.

2. What sort of lighting can you watch a movie comfortably in. At the demo I was impressed that it was not pitch black in the room but I may have just been blown away by the big picture. In a cream coloured room, how dark on the lights do you have to go.

3. What sort of image size can I expect that will give an acceptable picture quality.

4. Seems to be that progressive scan and component video are the way to go so I'm going to buy a new DVD player as well. Does progressive scan only work on some DVDs or are there players which will ouput it with R2 DVDs. Can anyone suggest a cheapish DVD player that will do this.

Cheers for any information anyone can provide.

[theritz]

Hi spicy_fajita,

Welcome to the forum

Not sure if I can answer all of your questions, but this'll be a start anyway:

1. Getting screen later and was thinking initially to buy an AO sheet of paper/card or use a painted wall. Is this ok for a while or should I invest in a screen initially. Also, what screen works well with the PTAE100.

Not sured of dimensions of AO sheet, but would prob advise against paper - too difficult to maintain aflat surface, and of ythere was a sheen of the paper, you'd get a pooor result - hot-spotting and bloom - an uneven brightness across the sheet. If you're waiting ona screen and you're reasonably handy, you could put toegther a homemade job for about £20 - search here for details and links. Alternative is to go for a wide matt white roller blind as a stop-gap. A painted wall should be ok, but go for matt white paint for a start off.

2. What sort of lighting can you watch a movie comfortably in. At the demo I was impressed that it was not pitch black in the room but I may have just been blown away by the big picture. In a cream coloured room, how dark on the lights do you have to go.

I don't have any ambient lighfor movie watching - it doesn't help picture quality at all. You'll get away with the likes of a table lamp with 40W bulb, but try to ensure that no light goes directly on the screen surface - its a complete killer. Think of it this way - black in your movie is the absence of light from the PJ (disregarding previous discussions of light spill from aperature in LCDs). If you have a cream coloured room, with a couple of table lamps on - comfortable TV viewing light levels, then your screen will be pretty well lit by the ambient light - making your picture quality fairly cack. Its the kind of thing that you'd notice about five minutes after you got over the "big picture" thrill. Also, with an all cream room, a good degree of light from the PJ will be reflected from the walls back on to the screen - not ideal, but then fitting front projectioninto a living room environment is a matter of compromises.

3. What sort of image size can I expect that will give an acceptable picture quality.

The AE100 maxes out at about 8' wide screen imho. At this stage screendoor is a problem, dependoing on seating distance - you'd nee to be a good 12 - 16' away from the screen. In a normal sized living room (12x12) I'd try for 6 - 6.5', sitting 10 feet away - matter of choice really.

4. Seems to be that progressive scan and component video are the way to go so I'm going to buy a new DVD player as well. Does progressive scan only work on some DVDs or are there players which will ouput it with R2 DVDs. Can anyone suggest a cheapish DVD player that will do this.

Sorry about this - I ain't the DVD player guy !! - Prog scan comes in 2 flavours - PAL Prog which is fairly rare and on which you can play R2 discs and NTSC Prog which will only give prog scan with NTSC (R1) discs. Check out the DVD Player part of the forum - some surfing/searching there will get you started.


All the best,


Sean G.


EDIT: Sorry about typing errors - in a hurry !! )

Cheers theritz,

Much appreciated. My friend's an architect and suggested the A0 thing. He showed me some of it and its matt white and quite rigid card type stuff. Either try that or a sheet of mdf painted.

Don't know about DVD player though, might wait as theres talk of prices dropping but the thought of composite input isn't that appealing. I know I'm only starting but want to get a good entry system.

Now all I have to do is get the money off my girlfriend

Cheers again

[theritz]

Hi again,

If you're after a good entry system ona budget, then go for the AE100, and team it with a DVD player with component video output - Tosh 220, or try one of the Philips DVd players - most (other than absolute entry level) have component out - you'll get a good result. Don't even think about a composite video feed from DVD to a PJ - the minimum is Svideo.

Let us know how you get on (esp. with getting your girlfriend to fund it !! )

Sean G.

Well convinced my girldfriend. She's actually only lending me the money and I pay her back monthly - betting than a loan at the bank (especially if we break up )

Ordered it from Sound and Vision, charged me 850 to deliver to n ireland. Unfortunately prob won't arrive to start of next week - want to play with it tomorow.

Going for diy screen to start with - sort that out when it arrives. Leaving the dvd player until the price of prog pal goes down. Bought the ProV as seems like a useful piece of kit and seems like a good stop gap with existing equipment (XBox, Playstation, budget DVD player, TV) until I get the DVD player.

Can't wait but now that I've ordered it the scare stories are running through my head - psu problems, bulb problems, - ah well for my budget it seems like the best option.

Let you know how the PJ and dvd + proV option work out.

[bertha]

I followed the piper on this one too (the blackeye my wife gave me is just dying down!) - I use a Toshiba %10e, as do a few others & to me it looks excellent..I also bought a tripod screen from Jessops £69 for 180 x 180cm (or something) basically 6 foot wide - you can adjust the height quite easily meaning that you can 'format' it for letterbox & widescreen, playstation ect..seems very good to me 9 although it is white which I think affects the blacks a little - but this is my first pj & Road to Perdition looked pretty damned good on it last night...Gladiator looked even better!

Anyway building your home cinema up bit by bit is half the fun!


ENJOY

Berth

Hi Bertha,

That screen sounds quite good as portable and big enough. Was going to DIY job but that sounds pretty cheap. How is the actual screen stored away and whats it like for ripples and folds i.e. how flat can you get it.

Did you have any problems with dead pixels of bulb flickering as I'm waiting for mine to arrive but all these scare stories.... did I make the right choice - of course I did!

Will keep you posted on how I make out...

spicy

[bertha]

I think the screen is good value..the screen is rolled up inside a container and is spring loaded so that it is tight and rolls up easily when you're finished..the legs fold away & I just slip it back into the cardboard box it came in & stick it in my broom cupboard but it takes about 5 mins tops to set up & same to put away..not too much hassle if you are only planning to use the pj very special 'nightly' occasions..there may be a picture of one on their site ( a quick check...)
yup..

here you go

http://www.jessops.com/search/viewpr...WORD_SEARCH=N&


cheers

Berth

Well got my projector yesterday,

VERY VERY PLEASED. Ran up 11 hours so far - left guys in house playing Fifa when went I to work.

Was expecting it to melt or blow up or something when it arrived and it may still do that, but at the moment very pleased.

The room is very bright with a large bay window and cream walls. Straight out of the box I had no screen, it was day and the connection was composite. I thought that for worst screen (a creamy coloured lumpy wallpaper), worst light (quite bright day) and worst connection it was quite good.

Last night I watched silence of the lambs, this time on a 63 inche diag piece of paper (50p) tacked to the wall. Absolutely class. I had an s video gonig into the pro V and then into the projector - didn't notice that big of a difference in using the pro V - noticed more earlier in day when using with composite from playstation with a driving game. The s video is a big improvement on composite though but prob won't be able to get any better of a connection for a while, unless I get a lend of a laptop.

All in all very happy - I went into the service menu and ran through the coloured screens but none of us could see any dead pixels (my sights pretty bad but the other guys couldn't see any either) and if they're there and we can't see them, what the hell.

Just have to arrange the sitting room better so less set up time when going to watch a movie and then we're sorted.

Spicy



PS It runs pretty hot is the only worry - is this normal. Was thinking of setting up a vertical mount in bedroom to watch movies on ceiling when lying in bed. Do you think this would have it running too hot as the hot air inside rises and can't escape fast enough with the fan - going to do a search through forum now... cheers for you help guys in the previous posts.