Panasonic PT-AE3000

Now into its third installment, the Panasonic PT-AE3000 is an enticing home theatre projector, especially if its feature-packed predecessor is anything to go by. This time round, the company has even gone one step further by throwing in a motion-enhancement engine to match its new ultra-high contrast 3LCD engine. Let's dive in deeper to check out some of its key propositions in this preview.

Upside
With a new-gen D7 3LCD engine, the PT-AE3000 offers almost a four-fold dynamic contrast over the AE2000. At 60,000:1, this should deliver deeper blacks and livelier colors to go with its high 1,600 ANSI lumens brightness and Blu-ray-optimized 1080p native resolution. Its centrepiece, however, is the new Frame Creation technology inherited from the company's plasma TVs. This supposedly smoothens motion and eliminates judder through picture frame interpolation. Furthermore, there are two modes to choose from, plus an option to disable the processing altogether.

For the AU$6,499 sticker price, the Panasonic projector is kitted out with many of the latest features expected of a projector at this level. Users have full motorized control over the 2x zoom, focus and lens shifts. Zoom and focus are adjustable from both the remote and projector, while lens shift can only be tuned from the chassis. The powerful zoom is capable of outputting a luscious 100-inch image from a short 3m throw distance, and to facilitate placement flexibility, it can be placed up to 40 percent off-axis horizontally and 100 percent vertically from the centre of the screen.

Another plus for this Panasonic is its superb A/V receiver-like connectivity enabling you to hook up a barrage of players. Besides three HDMI 1.3 terminals, you'll have another two component-video inputs and an analog PC input at your disposal. That's a generous spread of six 1080p-ready inputs, with added 24 frames-per-second playback and Deep Color-compatibility for the HDMIs. This is good value for a midrange entry, especially when you compare it with the competition. For example, the slightly-cheaper AU$5999 Mitsubishi HC7000 offers only two HDMIs and one component-video.

Downside
Honestly speaking, this is an extremely likeable light cannon with very little to nitpick on. However, we felt Panasonic could have included more keys on its bundled remote for quick, fine adjustments. The provision for a single input button may be less than ideal, too. Just imagine cycling between seven video sources if you've used up all the available ports. On the bright side, we did narrow down a programmable Function button on the controller which can be assigned to directly switch to any of these sources.

Outlook
The Panasonic PT-AE3000 is your ticket to a big-screen home movie experience. For AU$6,499, you're getting a lot of "firepower" and a strong feature set that will put many competitors to shame. As a matter of fact, we've already received quite a bit of positive feedback from online forums claiming that blacks are comparable with the high native contrast of JVC offerings.