Panasonic PT-AE100E review

To make it in the movie world, you need looks and talent to succeed. Luckily for Panasonic’s PT-AE100E, the same isn’t true for projectors – it’s big, square and squats rather than sits.

There’s no doubting its talent though. Its 1920×1080 resolution means it’s only too happy to paint pretty pictures with just about any HD source you throw at it, and the claimed 11,000:1 contrast ratio sounds promising. There’s also two HDMI sockets for your hi-def sources.

LCD or DLP?

So, it’s a winner, right? Woah, there! Hold your horses. There’s more to a projector than high resolution, and one area where the PT-AE100E could fall down is in its choice of imaging technology.

See, Panasonic has plumped for LCD here rather than the supposedly fancier DLP technology that home cinema geeks get excited about.

But, frankly, it’s a revelation and is bound to have similarly priced DLPs suffering (richly detailed, vividly coloured) nightmares. The image quality is brilliant and easily holds its own against more expensive rivals.

Even with standard-def material the PT-AE100E ensures colours look vibrant and exciting and handles fast motion smoothly with barely any image noise at all. It also avoids the nasty ‘chicken wire’ effect – that fine, visible mesh over the picture – that has been known to afflict rival LCD projectors.

Hi-def hero

Break out your Blu-ray collection (what do you mean you don’t have one yet?) and you’ll be well and truly gobsmacked. The PT-AE100E produces one of the crispest hi-def pictures we’ve seen, with natural skin tones and excellent contrast.

In fact, we’re so taken with the awesome picture performance we’ve forgotten to mention its sturdy build, fine ergonomics and speedy, painless setup. Indeed, look past the face, and you’ll find the best projector around at this price point.