Entered CNET Catalog: 11/10/2004
SKU: PT-AE700U
Manufacturer: Panasonic
Manufacturer description
The PT-AE700U is the most impressive home cinema projector ever from Panasonic. Compact enough to sit on a bookshelf, it is packed with advanced features designed to bring you a whole new level of home theater enjoyment. Dynamic contrast is now 2000: 1, by far the best in its class, so the picture is sharp and clear even in a well-lit room. New integrated cinema quality circuitry includes a Dynamic Iris optical system that constantly adjusts the brightness and gamma characteristics in real time, so the picture is always optimal and transitions betweens scenes are more natural. An innovative color correction system - developed after consultation with top Hollywood colorist David Bernstein 1 - incorporates Cinema Color Management technology to ensure faithful color reproduction. This cinema-quality integrated circuitry brings you on-screen colors just as you would see them in a movie theater. And the PT-AE700U comes with advanced Smooth Screen technology that effectively eliminates the typical "screen door" effect, so the images you see on the screen are natural and lifelike.User opinions
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User Rating: 
9/10
Best at the time, 900U and 100U are even better.
Pros: Great picture, quiet
Cons: Touchy lens shift wand
User Rating: 
3/10
Awlful Bulb Life
Pros: Great Picture
Cons: Expensive Frequent Bulb Replacement
User Rating: 3/10
Short bulb life
Pros: Great Machine but....
Cons: Short bulb life
It cost me $427 dollars plus over 100 miles of
driving to get it fixed. Great repair crew in El Cajon Calif.
User Rating: 9/10
Superb LCD Projector. High Quality. Lots of Features
Pros: Lens shift joystick. Good zoom range. Very good Contrast. True 1280 x 720 HD Resolution. Quiet. Love the aspect feature. Ease of use. Very good picture right out of the box. Remote control.
Cons: Brightness could be better. In a dark or dim room the brightness is very good. a small amount of ambient light is not noticable, but if outside light comes in it will be quite noticable. LAMP LIFE
I love the aspect feature that allows you to fill the whole screen with either widescreen or 4:3 effectively elliminating the black bars. The screendoor effect characteristic of LCD projectors is not noticable from more than 3 feet away.
I have a 110" diagonal widescreen from Da-lite. The Lens shift is an invaluable tool that allows you to move the picture up/down left/right. This was helpful for me because I mounted the projector from the ceiling. I didn't have to place the projector exactly correct, because I could shift the picture. For my mount I used a 2 in steel pipe and a piece of plywood. Pipe through the middle of the plywood. Screws go through the plywood into the projector. Wires go through pipe into ceiling.
There are horror stories of short lamp life. I hope this doesn't happen to me. I recommend a ups battery backup system for the projector so the AC line is cleaned up and so your projector will not be assaulted by Power interuptions.
This LED projector is the way to go for the money. The only better projectors than this are the seven segment high speed DLP projectors.
User Rating: 9/10
Gorgeous image, great price, unusual adjustability, quiet
Pros: Image quality, quiet, adaptablity
Cons: short warrenty compared to other brands
User Rating: 9/10
Great Deal works in living room with just blinds closed
Pros: bright, no drastic changes needed to view in living room
Cons: Boxy looks could be more high tech looking
User Rating: 
8/10
Amazingly good projector
Pros: This projector is a great value for the money -- it looks better than projectors in the $5000+ range. The has a great new feature called "dynamic iris" which gets you a much better light/dark range and extends bulb life to close to 5000 hours (which is u
Cons: On the downside. There is some vertical banding (not major, and it is almost unnoticeable in most scenes. But it is there). It doesn't bother me at all though. I occasionally get a pixel-level screen tear in high motion scenes. Again, its rare, and i
User Rating: 9/10
Definately a great projector
Pros: Real good brightness and contrast Fabulous color and clarity Menus easy to use and navagate Free spare lamp included with purchase (Panasonic Canada promo)
Cons: None that I have found so far and I don't really expect to find any either!
User Rating: 8/10
Best value on the market!!!
Pros: I've looked at a lot of different projectors at much more expensive prices and I can assure you this projector will totally blow your mind once you see it. Released Oct 2004, this projector will be the benchmark for all other projectors in this price rang
Cons: Vertical banding can appear if the unit is left in standby over time. Easy solution is to turn the power off when done. For the price and performance, it's definitely not a big deal.
User Rating: 9/10
Sick Projector... Best value for the money!
Pros: crystal clear picture, hdtv looks georgeous at 92" even in a fairly well lit room. Perfect for an HTPC, with a native resolution of 1280x720 you can easily browse the web, play games and the picture is excellent quality. No noticeable screen-door effect
Cons: none
