Panasonic announced new high-def projectors a few days ago but because of the slow bus system here at CEDIA, we missed the press event. That's OK though as the President of Panasonic took time to show the new projectors to us personally. The projectors are kind of standard next-gen hardware with a 6,000 contrast ratio and 720p with the lower-end AX100U and 11,000 contrast ratio along with 1080p for the high-end AE1000U. Our talk with Panasonic's Prez made it very clear that the home theater projector market is very important to 'em and to expect a lot from these two products. Even though they are kind of standard specs from our vantage, they looked great in the demo. The lower-end AX100U adds an ambient light sensor that adjusts the output on-the-fly to help counter-act the light in the room. Panasonic has priced the AX100U at a very competitive $2,999 MSRP but we couldn't get a firm price for the 1080p model. Honestly, we don't think they know ether but the President said that it would be priced with the market in mind and should be under $5,999 when it launches mid-November. (Keep in mind the Sony 1080p Pearl is 1080p with a 15,000:1 and is priced at $4,999.)
UPDATE: As a few people have pointed out, yes, the AX100U beats the ANSI out of the Sony Pearl with a rating of 2000 ANSI rather then 900 ANSI.
Keep on click'n for more shots of both projectors.
posted Sep 15th 2006 10:09PM
You should probably point out that the Panasonic PT-AX100U has 2000 ANSI Lumens in comparison to other 720P projectors in that range which are typically 700-1100 ANSI lumens
Also the PT-AE1000U is 200 ANSI Lumens brighter than the Sony Pearl and a full 1/3 lighter (8 lbs) if portability is a feature that's desired the Panasonic projector is definitely the way to go. The thing I would like to know is which has better color support and image clarity between the two. I'd also like to know the Panasonic bulb prices and the operating noise level.
I like the Panasonic Projectors and have a PTAE900, However there's no way anyone would pay more for a 1080p LCD than they would for a 1080p LCOS.
The Sony Pearl has set a benchmark, $5,000 for high quality 1080p projection, Sony are known as one of the most expensive electronics companies and their LCOS projectors have been received VERY well.
Panasonic would be mad to bring this out at over $4,000 and the 720p should be more like $2,500 - Seeing as you can buy the PTAE900 for $1200 nowadays.
Actually Sony's brightness measurement is probably based on 'optical engine power' - which is the light output with a balanced video signal. Most data projectors (and likely these Pana models) boost the green channel for brightness measurements. Side-by-side with the same signal I doubt there would be a lot of difference.
How can a company president not know what the product with list for in retail unless he is nothing more than a puppet or a liar?
blippy, the fan noise is 25dB in economy mode, which is the same as AE900.
The bulb's MSRP in Japan is Y26,250 including 5% sales tax, which is about US$214 pre-tax.
http://panasonic.jp/projector/ax100/spec.html