September 28, 2007

Video of Panasonic PT-AX200U in Action

As soon as we got our hands on the new Panasonic PT-AX200U gaming projector we hooked it up and played some video games. Halo 3 was an obvious choice, and a few other popular Xbox games. We also hooked up the Wii, for some afternoon calisthenics (remember that movie Gung Ho?). We took a little bit of video on our Panasonic Lumix and Leica digital cameras and uploaded them to share.

Projector Setup: Setting up the Panasonic PT-AX200U with the Xbox and Wii

Here you can get an idea for the size of an image the AX200 can produce. It's not as big as it could be, but it is probably as big as it needs to be. We didn't measure the screen, but a rough estimate would be about 6 feet by 11 feet for a 12-14 foot diagonal (or 144-180 inches!). The characters within the games are sometimes actually larger than the person playing the game. That's a big image.

Panasonic PT-AX200U Connections

There are two HDMI, 2 s-video, a VGA (computer), and component video inputs.

Panasonic's Light Harmonizer Technology

It's a little hard to see on the video, but this technology was originally designed for business use, for lights on presentations. They have since adapted it for their home theater projector.

Game Play: Panasonic PT-AX200 on Xbox Halo 3 Edition

Battlefield 2

Halo 3 (4 players)

More Halo 3 (4 players)

Halo 3 (1 player)

Halo 3 intro

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September 26, 2007

Panasonic PT-AX200U Hits the Street

New Gaming Projector from Panasonic Now Available!

ProjectorPeople.com now has the new Panasonic PT-AX200U on the shelves and ready to ship! And it also includes a super low price point that has surprised many in the industry… just $1299.

[ image: Professional gamer T-squared endorses the new Panasonic PT-AX200U for gaming at 2007 CEDIA ]

Panasonic's predecessor to this projector, the PT-AX100U, had a suggested retail price of $1999 just a year ago! If you find an PT-AX100U in stock today, you would likely pay the same $1299 price, but only after turning in a $400 manufacturer rebate.

The Panasonic PT-AX200U is a long awaited video projector for many reasons, but mostly because it’s the first projector to specifically target that gaming market. Video games have matured into a more sophisticated and interactive experience and the giant screens created by projectors are an ideal complement to the truly immersive experience.

The benefits of a big image have never been in question, but the cost of a projector for gaming has been. With a very aggressive street price of $1,299 just announced, the Panasonic PT-AX200U is less expensive (by cost per viewing inch) than any other HD monitor. Front projectors have always been a better bargain per inch because the images can be as large as 200-inches diagonal, and no LCD or plasma can produce that large an image for the price of a projector.

[ image: Gamers sit and play the new Panasonic PT-AX200U for gaming at 2007 CEDIA on a 92-inch screen. ]

However, projectors have had difficulty producing detail in shadows and the darkest areas of an image. So with darker games like Halo or Splinter Cell, some of the game play was lost. There were also complaints about lag time in video processing. The Panasonic PT-AX200U fixes both issues.

Read more about the new Panasonic PT-AX200U

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September 18, 2007

Projector People’s CEDIA Round Up – 1080p Projectors

Projector People's own Kelly Lamison attended CEDIA last month and shares her insight into the event and its impact on home theater projectors.

DLP vs. LCD Projectors: The Battle of Projection Technology

The age old war between DLP and LCD projectors wages on. But this time, in the 1080p battle, the camps have exchanged strategies.

The Prices, They've Dropped.

It was a DLP projector, the Optoma HD80, that was the first 1080p projector to break the price barrier with a low $2,699 street price this summer. At 1300 lumens bright with a 10,000:1 contrast ratio, the 1080p HD80 projector is quite a deal. Epson’s Home Cinema 1080 also came in at $2,699, but after a $300 mail-in rebate.

New "D7" LCD Technology Improves Contrast and Brightness.

Now, the LCD camp has broken through the contrast ratio ceiling. The new "D7" 3LCD panels are boosting Epson's new Home Cinema 1080 UB projector to a record high 50,000:1 contrast ratio. Previous DarkChip3 DLP projectors have topped out at 12,000-15,000:1. Increased contrast ratio improves overall image definition, highlighting details in the clouds of a bright sky or revealing subtle textures hiding in shadows. The new D7 3LCD panels combine higher light output with better pixel alignment to improve image quality.

According to the 3LCD consortium, the new 1080p D7 3LCD chip delivers a 20 percent increase in aperture ratio. This reduces the space between each pixel, allowing more light to pass through it and diminishing what is called the "screen door effect." The D7 chip also features C2Fine which deepens black levels and provides 12-bit color processing to produce over 68 billion colors. The new 1080p projectors to feature D7 3LCD technology include: Epson Home Cinema 1080 UB, Panasonic PT-AE2000U and the Sanyo PLV-Z2000.

Home Theater Projector Contrast Ratios Rocket Through the Roof

An important note about contrast: Contrast ratios like the record highs touted this fall are only discernable in completely dark rooms. Any bleed of light to hit the screen reduces the contrast of the image. While the projected image does benefit from the improved definition, the brightness, clarity, and color capabilities of the projector are also important factors for typical viewing environments.

New Epson Projector with 50,000:1 Contrast

The forthcoming Epson Home Cinema 1080 UB (for Ultra Black) is native 1920 x 1080 resolution and 1600 lumens bright with a 50,000:1 contrast ratio. The impressive contrast ratio brings startling definition to the image, and its 12-bit color processing brings true, natural color to it. It also features two HDMI 1.3 inputs, lens shift, and a 2.1 optical zoom for flexible home theater setup. The live demonstration was breathtaking because of the realistic depth of field and image detail.

New Panasonic 1080p Projector with 16,000:1 Contrast

Panasonic also built its next generation PT-AE2000U 1080p projector around the new D7 LCD panels. Additionally, it refined its auto-iris technology to provide a consistent 16,000:1 contrast ratio at 1500 lumens of brightness. Panasonic's iris reads the light level of the video signal frame-by-frame and controls light output for maximum contrast accordingly.

Panasonic also went back to the drawing board for the glass lens design, honing the aspherical curves to best channel the light output. It also features three HDMI inputs this time, with the same 2x optical zoom and lens shift. And, as usual, Panasonic worked with Hollywood film colorists to refine the final color processing to ensure the PT-AE2000U projector produces a natural, film-like image that best matches the original content. Our live demonstration of the new projector featured 1080p Blu-Ray content of a music video. While the content itself was not so inspiring, the projector's reproduction of it was nothing short of awesome. The colors were rich while refined, and the flesh tones absolutely natural and smooth.

Sanyo Enters 1080p Projector Race

Last but not least (we are going in alphabetical order here), Sanyo enters the true 1080p projector space with their new PLV-Z2000. With the new D7 LCD panels it outputs 1200 ANSI lumens at 15,000:1 contrast, in video mode. This is impressive since many manufacturers quote these ratings from data mode which is inherently brighter. This was Sanyo’s first time on the CEDIA floor and so their booth was small and not without ambient light issues. It was not an ideal demonstration. But with the strength of Sanyo's engineering for quiet operation, precise color management, 14-bit gamma correction, and two HDM1 1.3 inputs that support the new Deep Color standard, this projector is sure to be a contender. Match that with what looks to be an aggressive price point and it could be the deciding factor in this battle of the DLP and LCD projector war.

Of course the war is not yet over. At Texas Instrument's DLP booth, a new DarkChip 4 DLP chip was previewed. As part of an HD rear-projection TV with LED (light emitting diode) backlight, it claimed a 100,000:1 contrast ratio. The Dark Chip 4 projector running in their theater listed a 15,000:1 contrast ratio. We can't wait to see it all next year.

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September 13, 2007

Projector People's CEDIA Round Up - The 720p Home Theater Projectors

This is our favorite time of year. The air is cooling, the holidays are coming, and the new projectors are officially rolled out for consumption. This year the focus seems to be on the 1080p resolution, but there are two very interesting developments in the 720p camp.

The New 720p Projectors
Get in the Game - Panasonic sure did. Their next generation Panasonic PT-AX200U projector sports a new "Game Mode" which improves signal processing for a virtually zero-delay response time from controller to image. Game Mode also pumps up the detail in the crucial dark scenes common in many video games. Without Game Mode, these scenes look muddy in the shadows, but in Game Mode the details in those dark areas are revealed.

Projector People's very own Joey Shipley was the first gamer in the U.S. to test the new Panasonic Game Mode with a copy of Splinter Cell running on the new Xbox Elite. He will be trading in his Panasonic PT-AE900U for the new PT-AX200U. Panasonic also has the endorsement of Major League Gaming. Tom Taylor, known in the professional gaming circuit as Tsquared, manned the Panasonic booth at CEDIA - challenging visitors to a round of Halo 2 and recounting how his experience with the new PT-AX200U projector is "unmatched."

[ photo: Typical projector in dark scenes. Some detail missing in the darkest areas of black. ]

The PT-AX200U features the same 2000 lumen brightness, 720p resolution, 6000:1 contrast ratio, and Hollywood color tuning as its predecessor. (Panasonic really does take its engineering samples of home theater projectors to Hollywood color studios for final color adjustments before their production runs.) The PT-AX200U also adds an additional HDMI input, improved Light Harmonizer technology, and a refined Advanced Dynamic Sharpness control for clearer more natural images.

[ photo: Example of Panasonic PT-AX200U projector in dark scenes. Greater detail in black areas of the image. This is cruicial in video gaming because much of the 'action' takes place in the shadows. ]

Expect the PT-AX200U to ship around October 1, 2007. At the moment, your guess is as good as ours on the street price.

Make the Rounds - Epson is the first manufacturer to bring an all-in-one DVD player and projector to market in 720p, HD resolution. Their new MovieMate 72 3LCD projector incorporates an up-converting DVD player that up-converts standard definition DVDs to HD 720p and sends an all-digital signal to its native 1280 x 720 resolution projector partner. Both devices sit in a newly designed chassis that can swivel so that the DVD can be loaded from any side.

A very nice package for the price (ESP $1200), the new MovieMate 72 projector also features built-in, 5-watt speakers with Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS sound. Other bonuses include lens shift (another first in this category), and an HDMI input for another high-definition device.

Kelly Lamison

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September 07, 2007

Movie Review - Z Channel: A Magnificent Obession

Review by Joshua Massre

Most movies are released into theaters and play for about a month and then disappear for a few months before appearing on home video. What happened to these movies before the advent of VHS and DVD? Prior to 1976 (the year the VCR was publicly available) many movies would just fade out into obscurity. The blockbusters and major hits would be shown on HBO and Showtime. All of the other movies that were either too obscure or not mainstream enough would appear on a Los Angeles television station called Z Channel. This program was known throughout the filmmaking world and had a major effect on many of today's top filmmakers, including Quentin Tarintino and Alexander Payne.

The documentary Z Channel: a Magnificent Obsession tells the story of Z Channel's rule of the foothills of Los Angeles. The film focuses on Jerry Harvey, the eccentric head of programming. Harvey, whose whole frame of reference is based in his love of film, helped the television station grow to the most popular pay television station in Los Angeles, with even more subscribers than HBO and Showtime combined. Z Channel was known for its wide range of programming, which was the main reason that it remained ahead of the other two premium channels. On any given night, one could see an obscure Robert Altman or Richard Brooks film and The Empire Strikes Back.

The film follows a simple linear narrative and moves from the channel’s inception in the late 1970s to it’s downfall in the early 1990s. It highlights some of Z Channel's more prominent feature films. While there are no real surprises along the way, it is an interesting ride, which includes clips from almost 100 of the films that aired on the Z Channel and interviews with the major players of Hollywood and the network itself.

It popularized the "Director's Cut" version of films. The first director's cut of a film that was featured on the channel was Heaven's Gate. When the film was originally released it ran 2 hours and 28 minutes. It had been taken from its director, Michael Cimino, and reedited. His original version was a lengthy 5 hours and 25 minutes. When the movie was released it was hailed by critics as a total and utter failure. In the documentary, F.X. Feeney says, "When people look back at the hell's furor that greeted Heaven’s Gate upon its release they'll think that it's a science fiction story." The New York Times called it an "unqualified disaster." That was on the good end of the reviews. Jerry Harvey, head of programming for Z Channel, was friends with the director and saw the movie in its original uncut version and convinced the film's producers and Cimino to reconstruct his original vision. This 3 hour 38 minute version premiered on Z Channel a few months later and received just as much praise as the original had been panned.

A few years later Z Channel featured the full version of Once Upon a Time in America, which had been taken from director Sergei Leone and cut from its original 3 hours and 49 minutes to a meager 2 hours and 22 minutes. It had been cut by "the assistant editor of Police Academy 2... people who should never had been allowed in an editing room" according to star James Woods. When the shortened version of the film was released it was considered to be a mess and was universally panned by critics. Jerry Harvey again aired the original director’s cut of the film. It was shown back-to-back with the theatrical version of the film. The longer, director's cut was so well received that a critic who named the movie the worst movie of 1984 named it the best movie of the decade.

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession gets its real power from the breadth of film clips that it features, from Heaven's Gate to Le Magnifique. This film is worth viewing just for these clips, as it is a primer on what to watch. But it is also a tragic film, chronicling the life of a station. On April 9, 1988, Jerry Harvey killed his wife and then committed suicide. F.X. Feeny says that Z Channel died with Jerry. He may be right. Less than a year after his death, the channel went under and disappeared from the airwaves. Alexander Payne put it best when he said "You just never know when you're living in a golden age." Z Channel is a documentary that is both amazing in it's breadth and moving in its examination of one man's obsession.

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