Official Panasonic PT-AE3000 thread/owners/reviews etc

[Crustyloafer]

Well, the AE3000 has now landed and I have to say first impressions are very good indeed. Black levels are really very good indeed as is image sharpness.

I just thought I'd get the ball rolling with this thread and hope to hear feedback from other owners over the coming months.

I will respond with more details as soon as I have spent some time over the weekend calibrating it.

[sdb123]

How are you finding it (in first impression terms) against your former AE2000?

[bytehoven]

Originally Posted by Alastair Collie

There has not been any chance to do any form of calibration or give any objective feedback at the moment but the picture does look cracking!

What other projectors do you have on display?

I'm in the US and can't visit your showroom, but I look forward to reading your feedback once you have had some time with the AE3000.

[Crustyloafer]

Very, very good indeed. This now sets the benchamark for £2k projectors. It does all the same things but just better. Just finished watching Ironman which was pretty impressive.

[Crustyloafer]

The warranty on the PT-AE3000 if purchased from a proper authorised dealer is three years. Buy mail order/cheap as chips at your own peril.

[Seahorse]

I need a UK source for one, AV Sales are dead, my long time favourites

So, can anyone recommend a decent UK supplier as Google = fail atm...

Oh, I hav a full spec mount from LMP with an AE100 attached. Are the mounting points identical or do I need a new mounting plate?

[kbfern]

A V Sales may not be trading anymore but their parent company is, "Kent Home Cinema" same guys same service and as far as I know same prices.

They have not gone away just no longer selling on the internet.

http://www.subsonicsounds.co.uk/

[anibap]

Art has posted his first impressions in his blog

The Art of Home Theater Projectors » Blog Archive » Panasonic PT-AE3000U Home Theater Projector - First Look

[Alastair Collie]

Originally Posted by Seahorse

I need a UK source for one, AV Sales are dead, my long time favourites

So, can anyone recommend a decent UK supplier as Google = fail atm...

Oh, I hav a full spec mount from LMP with an AE100 attached. Are the mounting points identical or do I need a new mounting plate?

Morning Seahorse

Just to clarify that av-sales is still trading although it is more geared to our commercial sales now. The AE3000 is actually available though this site as sometimes home cinema projectors are specified for board room applications. Alternatively you can give us a call at Kent Home Cinema Centre.

Regarding your question on the mount - we think the chasis is the same as the 100 so it is likely your mount will be OK for the 3000 but we will check and PM you back.

Regards

Alastair

[Alastair Collie]

Hi Seahorse

Haven't had a chance to read through the manual regarding fixing positions but there is a link on the Panasonic Global site which forum members may find useful as it has the European manual as a pdf

Manual | Projector | Panasonic Global

Regards

Alastair

[Seahorse]

Handy as my company is purchasing the new one for presentations...

[KelvinS1965]

I'll be posting my 'review' on Monday night, having bagged one of the first delivered....as my premature owners thread was closed I'll be posting it here.

As a former AE1000 and AE2000 owner, I should be in a good position to comment on any improvements and (hopefully not) any negatives. I went to the JVC HD350/750 launch at PJ Hifi, so I have a benchmark to compare to (though comparing from memory maybe isn't very accurate ).

Any AE1000/2000 owners with specific questions for things to try I'll be willing to check. I have a Sony BDP-S350 as a source, plus a Sony HXD870 Freeview DVD/HDD recorder and a PC running DVBViewer for BBC & ITV HD, all sources via HDMI so no component/S Video though. I've got BluRay and DVD versions of Digital Video Essentials, plus a few BluRays. I've never really managed successful screenshots, so I won't be able to do any comparisons to my AE2000 (especially as I'll have delivered it to the new owner before I get chance to really try my new toy).

I prefer the accurate colours on the AExxxx 'Colour 1' mode and of course the '3000 is significantly cheaper than the HD350. I'm hoping I don't loose too much of the black level & contrast that I saw on the JVCs (in a much superior room to mine, so maybe that would be wasted anyway?). I'm planing on getting the Cine4home filter when (if?) it becomes available via mail order. I've put a Christmas present request in for an 'Eye one' colourimeter to use with recalibrating the AE3000 in 'Dynamic' mode plus this filter to give a D65 colour response, but with >60,000:1 dynamic CR (source: Cine4home).

I see you're enjoying yours Crusty. Do you find the black levels much better than the '2000 or that the contrast is better due to slightly brighter picture?

I'll hopefully be able to place an order for my new 2.35:1 custom screen, once I've seen the brightness levels for myself....I hope to still use an ND2 filter until the lamp ages, just to give me a bit of headroom for the rare ambient light viewing with visitors & kids.

[jacko5]

Originally Posted by KelvinS1965

I'll be posting my 'review' on Monday night, having bagged one of the first delivered....as my premature owners thread was closed I'll be posting it here.

As a former AE1000 and AE2000 owner, I should be in a good position to comment on any improvements and (hopefully not) any negatives. I went to the JVC HD350/750 launch at PJ Hifi, so I have a benchmark to compare to (though comparing from memory maybe isn't very accurate ).

Any AE1000/2000 owners with specific questions for things to try I'll be willing to check. I have a Sony BDP-S350 as a source, plus a Sony HXD870 Freeview DVD/HDD recorder and a PC running DVBViewer for BBC & ITV HD, all sources via HDMI so no component/S Video though. I've got BluRay and DVD versions of Digital Video Essentials, plus a few BluRays. I've never really managed successful screenshots, so I won't be able to do any comparisons to my AE2000 (especially as I'll have delivered it to the new owner before I get chance to really try my new toy).

I prefer the accurate colours on the AExxxx 'Colour 1' mode and of course the '3000 is significantly cheaper than the HD350. I'm hoping I don't loose too much of the black level & contrast that I saw on the JVCs (in a much superior room to mine, so maybe that would be wasted anyway?). I'm planing on getting the Cine4home filter when (if?) it becomes available via mail order. I've put a Christmas present request in for an 'Eye one' colourimeter to use with recalibrating the AE3000 in 'Dynamic' mode plus this filter to give a D65 colour response, but with >60,000:1 dynamic CR (source: Cine4home).

I see you're enjoying yours Crusty. Do you find the black levels much better than the '2000 or that the contrast is better due to slightly brighter picture?

I'll hopefully be able to place an order for my new 2.35:1 custom screen, once I've seen the brightness levels for myself....I hope to still use an ND2 filter until the lamp ages, just to give me a bit of headroom for the rare ambient light viewing with visitors & kids.

I look forward to your owners review. As a sharpness junkie, I will be very interested to hear what you think about the sharpness relative to the AE2000.
It sounds as though they may have backed off the SmoothScreen a little to add a bit more sharpness and in conjunction with the higher contrast could be a big step forward.

[Phil Hinton]

Please keep all the information, owners reviews, official reviews etc in one thread.

[gandley]

So Art of projector reviews just said on his blog that the TW2000 is both brighter(in total output but equal in best mode) and still has a better black level than the AE3000. He says the AE3000 has 80% of the black level of a 1080UB (TW2000). but that the AE3000 is much better than the AE2000 which is good news

So that means the tW5000 will have a better black level i would guess, and according to Art the HD1 still easily surpass the AE3000 (get those cheap HD1 while you can)

for his first impressions see here.


Sounds like its going to be a great projector but priced so close to the TW5000 in the UK.hhmmm

(EDIT anibap beat me too it lol.)

key bits.

Sharpness may be just a touch better than the PT-AE2000U (which was a touch soft), but I haven’t looked closely, except to say, in one scene side by side with the Epson (which is average sharpness), the two looked about dead even.

Shadow detail, after calibration, was just a touch better than the Epson, and, I’d say, the RS1 (by even less), but not as good as the InFocus IN83, which, by the way, is no match for the PT-AE3000U in shadow details.

The BUT, however, is while it takes Panasonic to a new level, it isn’t breaking new ground. First of all, placing it side by side with an Epson Home Cinema 1080 UB with over 500 hours on it (vs 65 hours on this Panny, at the time I had them together. The Panny was slightly brighter, due to the Epson’s lamp hours. To get the two projectors virtually identical in brightness, I switched the PT-AE3000U projector into Eco-mode, which, by the way only drops brightness slightly - less than almost any other projector tested of late.

The Epson still beat out the Panasonic in terms of black levels. For sure it was very close. To just pick a number, the PT-AE3000U has closed at least 80% of the gap in black level performance that existed between the old Panasonic and the Epson.