Customer Reviews

PT-AE3000U LCD 1080P Proj 60K:1 1600 Lumens HDmi/component/svid

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

UPDATE OCT 20, 2011
OK - going on 3 years now ans still WOW. Have remodeled the room twice and moved it twice and still awed by the easy set up.
I have purchased two EPSON 720p projectors for my shop and they are really nice for under $1000. But whe I go home and drop
the screen and turn tis on - like I said WOW. Still wich it had a screen trigger built in, though ...

UPDATE NOV 14, 2009.
I have been using this projector for over 1/2 a year. I would not hesitate to buy it again.
DO strain relieve your cables to protect the connector board assrmbly.
===============

First, the negatives:
It does not have a 12v screen trigger (important if you have a motor driven screen). Odd ommission.
It is 1600 lumen - the room DOES have to be darkened for good viewing.

Positives over the competition:
30 degree digital keystone correction
Individual horizontal and manual lens offset - can be 100% above or below the scree and also even with the left or right side and still center picture in the frame (that means you do not have to line the projector and screen on centerlines.) Keysone adjustment will allow tweaking. You do need to be level, though, or get a mount that allows horizontal tilt.
Menus are intuative and vast. There is a lot you can do in setting up. Or nothing if you wish.
Remote is simple and works well when you point it at the screen (>30 ft range)
Very consistent screen brightness.
Histogram setup capability (not for the meek...)
QUIET! Cannot overstate this. MY chair is seven feet directly below the projector and you have to strain to hear the fan.
No noticeable ozone production - cheaper, higher wattage can produce noticebale O3 with these strong UV lamps. This unit has a well shielded lamp assembly. Only 160 watts. Uses less enegery than a plasma TV.

Recommendations:
1) USE ONLY CAT 2 CERTIFIED HDMI cable. Do not be fooled by Class 2 - that is an electrical code certification that designates the toxicity of fumes in a fire (a good thing), but has nothin to do with performance. CAT 2 is certifed for 340 mhz and can carry a signal 50ft. Otherwise use a repeater.
2) Don't buy a spare a bulb. Wait until you really need to (ie when it stsrts ahowing degradation at 1800 - 2000 hours.) An OEM bulb from a dealer is warranted for 30-90 days after purchase, not service. These things do have an infant mortality of a couple of percent. You may be buying a $350 lamp that fails in 20 hours and you cannot get warranty, because it's been sitting on a shelf for two years.
3) mount to joists or a stringer board affixed to adjacent joist. This thing is heavy.
4) get the Peerless mount sold here on Amazon - amazingly good mount! If you need extension get a 1 1/2 to 1 1/4 pipe adapter a 1 1/4 floor flange and som e 1 1/14 pipe, paint it and hange it - a lot cheaper and heavier duty that the Peerless accessory. Black Precision Gear Projector Mount (PRG-UNV)

Thanks for reading my review.

This is a fantastic projector: 1080p, smooth, bright, quiet... but huge, like the size of a laptop bag. I got it to replace a Panasonic AE500-U that was 4 years old, the 3000 is about three times the size of that projector. If it's to be ceiling mounted, that won't be a big deal, but I had my 500 mounted in a hush box with plenty of space around it. The 3000 won't even fit in the box! (The lens on the 3000 is much bigger than the lens on the 500, making photos misleading--see my comparison pic in the customer-added photos.) The lens shift feature is great but a little clunky (it doesn't allow adjustment in fine increments). Likewise, the electric zoom and focus have a weird lag-then-leap way of moving that makes it difficult to adjust precisely.

However, once you get these annoyances out of the way, the 3000 provides an incredibly smooth, bright picture with very quiet fan noise and great picture adjustment functions.

this is a fantastic proj. right out of the box but with a few minor adjustments it is almost perfect.the cinema modes with a da-lite hipower screen with everything set on eco mode is plenty bright enough to satisfy anyone even with the lights on it is very watchable.i highly suggest the high power screen if you can manage to set it up with what it needs which is the light path as center of the screen and the proj lens as close to your head as possible.you will be completely satisfied.
best proj out there for the money without a doubt

I looked at almost every projector that is comparable to this Panasonic. I spent nearly 6 months researching every bit. I finally decided on the PT-AE3000 and I wouldn't go back in a second.

I am coming back for an edit after about 50 hours of screen time on this projector. I have been comparing many movies that I own to their Blu-ray counterparts and I will tell you that this projector still rocks! Reasonable 1080p that blows the doors off of most of the other projectors with price tags of 2 to 3 times this one. Don't buy anything else...

Well balanced bright film like images .I have a 1.1 gain 2.35:1 115 inch screen and I use it for watching movies primarily. Motorized zoom, lens shift and memory are great features. Good value for money compared to Epson. HD Sports images a little soft, but still very good.

So I am overseas military and I bought this projector to work on my PS3 and XBOX because there isn't really anything else to do in your off time out here. This is the greatest purchase i've made. It's every bit better then any tv/projector i've ever owned

The clarity is second to none, I watched the Fifth Element the other day and it was amazing.

I would recommend this projector at any price, but 2500 is cheaper then any other projectors that are not even as good. Just compare the specs and the contrast ratio and you'll be sold.

Got one of these, but I really didn't know much about them at first. I wanted to buy a huge HDTV cause I love watching sports and playing PS3. Well, I went into Best Buy to buy a Mitsubishi 82in DLP. The cost of that tv was about $4500 plus an extra $1000 for a stand. I had the money to spend though. Then, the guy there took me in the theater room and showed me a Mitsubishi HC6500 on a 92in Projector Screen. It looked amazing and the quality was better when we compared the two, the DLP TV had nothing on the projector. Then, I went home and did some research and found that the Panasonic AE3000 was a better projector and I got an amazing deal on it with a 106 in screen. The total price came out to $2500 compared to $5500 for the 82in DLP and stand. So I bought theater seats with the money I saved. The projector setting was almost perfect, no adjustments really needed to be made. Blu Rays looked great, and the 1080P PS3 games are amazing. NBA 2K10 looks so amazing on a 106in screen and the game is in 1080P. I watched the Dark Knight and the new Wolverine movie on the projector as soon as it came and I thought I was on the movie set it looked so live. Sunday football puts you in the stadium and NBA games makes it feel like you are courtside. With my new theater seats, I am sitting in the luxury box. Why buy a 60in for $2500 when you can get a movie theater in your home for the same price.

If you have the means, I highly suggest getting one...it is so choice!
Setup was easy and yet you have TONS of options. Cool feature is the waveform monitor that automatically adjusts your picture to the input type for color, brightness, etc. 3 HDMI inputs very convenient no switchers needed. I've got it shooting at a 133" screen in my basement and it looks fabulous. Until 3-D becomes mainstream, this is the way to go until then....

I've used various LCD projectors for work for years, occasionally testing them at home to see if they could handle movies and video games. I was never satisfied with the clarity, the image size, the brightness, the lack of control of the image, etc. I'm quite picky when it comes to video. So, when I decided to use my income tax return on a projector, I spent 5-6 months researching the technologies available and comparable units.

The specs I was looking to fill were hard to come by within a decent price range. But, both specs and price kept bringing me back to the Panasonic PT-AE3000U. Upon receiving it, I anxiously connected it and gave it a test drive. The picture quality far surpassed anything I'd even seen by a long shot. The clarity and controls are wonderful (I can't overstate the usefulness of vertical AND horizontal offsets).

Even though I knew (by the measurements provided about the unit) that it would be big... let's just say it is 2-3 times larger than most units I've used for work. It's big and heavy, but surprisingly quiet. It does an amazing job with my PS3 games and blu-ray movies. Although 1600 lumens was less than what I'd hoped for in a projector, if you have total lighting control, you will have no problems with this unit. You can even have minimal lighting and still have a very enjoyable image.

Incidentally, I'm not using a projector screen! I found that shooting against my heavily textured wall provides an amazing image (I can imagine I'd get even better results if I were to pay the $1500 or so for a decent screen, though). I just used a bright white (flat) paint on the area of wall to which I'm projecting and voila!

I have observed a noticeable rapid "blink" to the image when displaying a pure white background (as you might have when pulling up a full-screen Internet Explorer window from a computer). It typically only lasts a few seconds before stabilizing and I'm uncertain if this is specific to the bulb I'm using (I'm on my first one, with about 700 hours used). Also, although the contrast is immensely better than that of the competition, it would be nice to have richer, deeper dark tones and black. (These are minor concerns, though, and problems I've had to an even greater degree on all other projectors I've used.)

Finally, expect that this unit will (over the course of a movie) potentially heat up your room a bit, especially if you also have a receiver/amplifier driving audio, as I do. This can be more noticeable if you have more than a couple people in the room and may depend on the size of room you have. These would be problems you'd experience from any home theater setup, though.

Expect a high "wow factor" from anyone who might see this projector in action. Usually their first questions are "what do i need to get this working at my place?" and "how much do they cost?" followed by amazement at the relatively low price.

I couldn't recommend any other projector more -- except -- the newer Panasonic PT-AE4000U is available for LESS money (last time I checked). The specs and reviews are only slightly superior to its predecessor, but if I were buying a projector now, the 4000 would certainly be my top choice.

Having owned this projector now for 21 mos. I think I can safely say that it is AWESOME!!!!! Sports,Movies,Any HD programming will just blow you away!I paid $2500.00 for this machine and would do it again in a heartbeat!I have my screen size set at about 91" diagonal,(approx.7' wide by 5' tall)and you couldn't ask for a better picture!It took me about 2 days of playing around with it till I found what I consider the best possible picture I could obtain,loaded it into memory and never looked back!All of my friends and family agree that the picture is virtually perfect.The color saturation,brightness,contrast,will challenge the best LCD,LED TVs out there.Oh and did I mention the picture is BIG? It is capable of 135" diagonal screen :o :D .Am projecting onto a flat white wall in a semi-dark room but is very watchable with one of the lamps on. Speaking of lamps it just flashed a warning on the screen to replace the projector lamp,it has just over 2500 hrs.on it and will go to 3000hrs. in eco-mode. The bulbs are just over half the price of the bulbs for my old InFocus LS 110 DLP projector at right around $240.00.I don't consider this too bad when you take into account what it would cost you to go to the local cinema with a date/or the wife to watch a movie every week or two for a couple of years.I am really surprised that there aren't more projectors in use in todays homes.The bang per buck is there!!.............and the popcorn's cheaper......... ;)