Panasonic PT AX100E

Author's product rating:   

Picture quality	Excellent
Colour sensitivity	Excellent
Resolution	Good
Ease of Installation	Very Easy
Value for Money	Poor

Advantages:	Works in relatively bright conditions, quiet
Disadvantages:	unreliable, very big, short bulb life

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Updated review.

I have been using the Panasonic PT AX 100E as my main TV, in conjunction with a freeview box and a DVD player, for just over a year now. I paid £900 for it then, but the price has dropped and even the improved PT AX200 can now be bought for about £700. The reason for the low rating is because of it's unreliability and Panasonic's inability to fix it when it went wrong, as described below. In all other respects it is a very good projector.

The picture quality is extremely good in a dark room and quite watchable during the day even with the curtains open for all but the darkest movies. In bright conditions the colours can become a little washed-out although there are various viewing options on the remote control to compensate a little. For some very dark films however you should wait until the room can be blacked out completely. The lens is large and of very high quality with a wide ranging zoom. Many home cinema projectors have just a wide angle lens with a small amount of zoom for fine adjustment, to allow big pictures from a short distance, but are less flexible, especially in big rooms where you may want the projector a long way from the screen. I used a 72" screen at a distance of about 18', but I could have used a far bigger screen or projected from much closer.

The projector is "HD Ready" (i.e. 720p resolution), which is good, but not as high resolution as "Full HD" (1080p) although this would only become apparent with a full HD source such as blu-ray. With lower-resolution inputs such as DVD or Freeview the built-in upscaling does a very good job of creating very high-quality images (obviously not as good as a real HD source, because, contrary to what they would have you believe on CSI, you cannot accurately regenerate missing pixels from a low-resolution picture). The fan-noise is very low even when the bulb is not switched to low-power mode, although I suspect this is partly because the body is so big with huge vents to allow air-flow over the hot bulb.

The projector has many of the usual inputs: HDMI, S-Video, composite and component, but not SCART, unlike previous Panasonic models. Most projectors do not have a SCART input anyway, but it is a shame that this has now been dropped from the Panasonic range too. I am using a good-quality S-Video cable instead of the RGB SCART I used with my previous projector and there does not appear to be any reduction in quality. Usually an RGB or Component source, which both have three separate channels for the picture, would be preferable to an S-Video, which effectively has just two wires to carry the three components (and far better that composite, which effectively has just one wire carrying the three signals) The HDMI input, which is digital, would be the best input if you are using a blu-ray or other HD source or an upscaled DVD (although the projector does have an upscaler built in, so you don't need to buy an upscaling DVD if you haven't got one) The controls are very simple, similar to any TV or display, and it was easy to get the projector working within a few minutes of unpacking it, although there are a few options that can be set to optimise the picture, which is described in the detailed setup instructions provided.

Unfortunately after 2300 hours of use it has started switching to stand-by mode every few minutes, requiring a restart which makes it unusable. I replaced the bulb, which cost £250 but that hasn't fixed the problem. Panasonic have not replied to my requests for help. Bulb-life is just 2000 hours when used in normal mode. I'm going to give up and go back to a proper telly.

Projectors, like this one have advantages over other types of display, in that they can project a huge screen size, which gives a real cinema feel, even when just watching TV and yet disappear when turned off, unlike large flat-panel screens which can dominate a room. I use a 72" roll-up screen, but an even bigger screen could be achieved just by projecting onto a large white wall. Unfortunately attention should be paid to the bulb life, because the replacements are very expensive. During bright daylight, in some rooms, you may also find dark scenes in films difficult to watch, unless you have thick curtains. I cannot recommend this Panasonic projector, because they have been unable to fix mine, despite the fault being a a know design fault (see updates below)

Update:

I complained to Panasonic customer services, rather than trying to use customer support, and they immediately got back to me and said that they will look at the projector for me, despite it being out of warranty.

A kind gentleman who read this review also gave me the following information:

"It's a known fault > check the links to avforums below and email / call the dedicated line to have your projector fixed free of charge. Also ask them to flash it with the newest firmware. I sent mine away and it was back within a week."

Panasonic projectors dedicated helpline
08706 001 620

Email FAO Babette at
panasonicpreojectors@ipglobalnet.com <mailto:panasonicpreojectors@ipglobalnet.com>

I shall update again when I hear back from them.

Update 2:

Panasonic told me to take the projector to one of their authorised service providers and have it repaired or at least assessed and charge them for the repair. This was quoted as:

"£85+vat which will cover inspection/estimate and first hours labour, charge payable on booking in by cheque or cash only."

Given Panasonic's lack of communication and the assumption I would probably end up paying for a few hours labour and still end up with non-functioning projector and never receive a refund, I have decided to give up and never buy another Panasonic product.