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Panasonic PT-AX100E Home Theatre Projector
by: beemerstyle
Description: Please be advised of the following:This is a shop Demo Unit and has just had a Brand New (original) Lamp fitted. Unit is supplied with remote controland photocopied litraturehowever its NOTsupplied inthe Original packaging Panasonic PT-AX100 AX100 front-on Another year has rolled past and it is that time again when the good folk at Panasonic unveil another cheap as chips home theatre projector. Although Panasonic now seem old hands at the home theatre projector scene, it has only been about five years since their first widescreen projector was released, the somewhat ground-breaking PT-AE100. My how things have changedTechnically speaking, the new PT-AX100E is light-years ahead of their earliest model and is actually a good step ahead of even their most recent model, the highly regarded PT-AE900. With a pixel count of 1280x720, this has remained unchanged since the PT-AE500 of 2003, however what has changed is the light output (now at a staggering 2000 ansi lumens) and contrast ratio (a respectable 6000:1 with auto-iris).Often these facts and figures are little more than marketing hype. However the real life performance of the AX100E certainly feels close to what they have stated. Previously you could have either high lumen (light) output at the cost of contrast (business oriented office projectors) or a high contrast ratio at the cost of lumens, but not both. Well, now we have both.What this means in the real world is that the projector can be used in either a fully darkened room or in a room with a fairly high amount of ambient light. It uses two pieces of technology to achieve this, a dynamic iris (around since the PT-AE700) as well as a light harmonizer. The light harmonizer is a piece of absolute genius. It detects the amount of ambient light within a room and adjusts the light output accordingly. Watch a movie in complete darkness and it reduces light output and maximises contrast (although it is by no means dim), open the curtains and light output is boosted (consequently there is some trade off with contrast) so that the picture is still absolutely watchable in normal daylight conditions. There is an option to adjust the impact or downright turn this off if you dont like the results, however I left it in auto mode.The AX100 carries the normal connections you would expect to find on a modern projector (component, s-video, composite, VGA and HDMI). With Panasonics recent launch of their High Definition Blu-ray player, the AX100 will also accept all current high definition signals (including 1080/24p/50p/60p), making it directly compatible with the best HD outputs available now (although the projector accepts the signals, the image is scaled to be displayed on the 720P panel).Set up (as with all digital projectors I have reviewed in recent times) is a breeze, attach it to my ceiling mount, plug in the component leads and fire the projector up. Like the AE700 and AE900 before it, the AX100E comes equipped with both vertical and horizontal lens shift and a 1-2 times zoom lens, meaning a 100 inch image can be projected from between three and six metres away. Ceiling mounted and with my screen about 120 inches wide, I found that I had the lens shift at about 90% of its downward capability, so if you are planning on ceiling mounting the projector and have a high roof (or alternatively, want your screen close to the floor), it may pay to invest in an extension pole for the projector.The combination of the high contrast and the high lumen count really works a treat. I tested the projector with a few old gems from my collection (namely The Rock, Gladiator and Swordfish) as well as more than an hour or two of Hi Def gaming care of the Xbox 360.The picture quality of the AX100 is fantastic, bright punchy images (and with the light harmonizer, this applies to curtains open or closed), bold well saturated colours (no sign of fluorescents here) and a very acceptable black level that still carries through nice levels of shadow detail. It was also good to see that the smoothscreen technology had virtually no impact on sharpness and fine detail, where the image remained sharp at all times, this was particularly evident in text (movie credits were sharp as was the HUD from the Xbox360 games).Usually I would hold off advising upgrading individual generations of projectors (eg from AE700 to AE900 etc) however here we have a projector that addresses some of the weaknesses of its predecessors (notably its limited ability to operate in light rooms).The AX100 is very quiet in operation, has a picture quality that would have cost double or more than the ludicrously low price of $3499 to achieve only a few years ago, is versatile in its set up and produces a bright punchy image even in a well light room. What else could you want in a projector?Contact Warren on 083 308 6176 or 021 557 2850
by: beemerstyle
Description: Please be advised of the following:This is a shop Demo Unit and has just had a Brand New (original) Lamp fitted. Unit is supplied with remote controland photocopied litraturehowever its NOTsupplied inthe Original packaging Panasonic PT-AX100 AX100 front-on Another year has rolled past and it is that time again when the good folk at Panasonic unveil another cheap as chips home theatre projector. Although Panasonic now seem old hands at the home theatre projector scene, it has only been about five years since their first widescreen projector was released, the somewhat ground-breaking PT-AE100. My how things have changedTechnically speaking, the new PT-AX100E is light-years ahead of their earliest model and is actually a good step ahead of even their most recent model, the highly regarded PT-AE900. With a pixel count of 1280x720, this has remained unchanged since the PT-AE500 of 2003, however what has changed is the light output (now at a staggering 2000 ansi lumens) and contrast ratio (a respectable 6000:1 with auto-iris).Often these facts and figures are little more than marketing hype. However the real life performance of the AX100E certainly feels close to what they have stated. Previously you could have either high lumen (light) output at the cost of contrast (business oriented office projectors) or a high contrast ratio at the cost of lumens, but not both. Well, now we have both.What this means in the real world is that the projector can be used in either a fully darkened room or in a room with a fairly high amount of ambient light. It uses two pieces of technology to achieve this, a dynamic iris (around since the PT-AE700) as well as a light harmonizer. The light harmonizer is a piece of absolute genius. It detects the amount of ambient light within a room and adjusts the light output accordingly. Watch a movie in complete darkness and it reduces light output and maximises contrast (although it is by no means dim), open the curtains and light output is boosted (consequently there is some trade off with contrast) so that the picture is still absolutely watchable in normal daylight conditions. There is an option to adjust the impact or downright turn this off if you dont like the results, however I left it in auto mode.The AX100 carries the normal connections you would expect to find on a modern projector (component, s-video, composite, VGA and HDMI). With Panasonics recent launch of their High Definition Blu-ray player, the AX100 will also accept all current high definition signals (including 1080/24p/50p/60p), making it directly compatible with the best HD outputs available now (although the projector accepts the signals, the image is scaled to be displayed on the 720P panel).Set up (as with all digital projectors I have reviewed in recent times) is a breeze, attach it to my ceiling mount, plug in the component leads and fire the projector up. Like the AE700 and AE900 before it, the AX100E comes equipped with both vertical and horizontal lens shift and a 1-2 times zoom lens, meaning a 100 inch image can be projected from between three and six metres away. Ceiling mounted and with my screen about 120 inches wide, I found that I had the lens shift at about 90% of its downward capability, so if you are planning on ceiling mounting the projector and have a high roof (or alternatively, want your screen close to the floor), it may pay to invest in an extension pole for the projector.The combination of the high contrast and the high lumen count really works a treat. I tested the projector with a few old gems from my collection (namely The Rock, Gladiator and Swordfish) as well as more than an hour or two of Hi Def gaming care of the Xbox 360.The picture quality of the AX100 is fantastic, bright punchy images (and with the light harmonizer, this applies to curtains open or closed), bold well saturated colours (no sign of fluorescents here) and a very acceptable black level that still carries through nice levels of shadow detail. It was also good to see that the smoothscreen technology had virtually no impact on sharpness and fine detail, where the image remained sharp at all times, this was particularly evident in text (movie credits were sharp as was the HUD from the Xbox360 games).Usually I would hold off advising upgrading individual generations of projectors (eg from AE700 to AE900 etc) however here we have a projector that addresses some of the weaknesses of its predecessors (notably its limited ability to operate in light rooms).The AX100 is very quiet in operation, has a picture quality that would have cost double or more than the ludicrously low price of $3499 to achieve only a few years ago, is versatile in its set up and produces a bright punchy image even in a well light room. What else could you want in a projector?Contact Warren on 083 308 6176 or 021 557 2850