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New member Username: PmacafeePost Number: 9 Registered: Dec-04 | This is a simple question, but I am setting up a fixed screen before the projector. My maximum screen width is 7 feet. If I set the projector zoom for a 16:9 image on the full width of the screen, what happens if i change my reciever from DVD to cable and view a 4:3 aspect ratio image. Do the actual width shrink and I get black bars on the side, or does the image get taller? I really do not need to see TV on a 7 foot wide screen. Thanks |
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Anonymous | on the PT-AE700U once you setup the standard 720p 16:9 picture, ie. full screen high def, and then you switch to non-hi def either digital or non-digital, then generally the screen simply defaults to the 4:3 aspect ratio - basically black bars on the side of course, with a very slight increase in height (hardly noticeable)resulting in a small amount of overlap on the edges of the screen near the top and the bottom of the screen however its not worth sacrificing the full screen size to offset this slight overlap for regular TV. Its too minor and I didn't even notice it before i saw this question "auto" setting on aspect ratio works pretty well however on DVDs its better to use trial and error on each movie to size it correctly, In any case 2:35 to 1 movies will produce black bars on the bottom no matter what you do since the AE700U can produce a near perfect commercial theater quality picture, generally you migbht find yourself avoiding wherever possible any non-HD programming even including DVD's note you can always use 30 cent/each poster boards taped together to test various screen sizes in certain fixied locations |
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New member Username: PmacafeePost Number: 10 Registered: Dec-04 | Thanks, I am creating a sel-raising screen hidden in a long shelf-like table against the wall. I am using a 12v car seat-back recling motor to raise the screen and needed the right proportions for all the hardware. My screen is 8' and I will have the screen raised to 54" plus a little extra for a permanent 16:9 arrangement. I just got the Comcast HD box and see the setup for 480i 480p 720p and 1080i. I will run the component video output through a Yamaha 5790 for source switching. The 5790 will upgrade my other composite and s-video signals to component and then off to the Panasonic. Which cable box resolution setting will the Panssonic work best with? By the way the Panasonic has a setting for 1080p, dors it upgrade (progressive scan convert) the 1080i from the cable box? Thanks |
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Anonymous | 1080i is the default setting on the Motorola hi def cable box (e.g DCT 6400) and should work well overall, and work fine with the 720p native signal on the AE700u Any 1080p setting on the projector w/b just for (a very rare signal currently) compatibilty with 1080p sourced signals, it absolutely cannot convert a 720p/1080i signal into true 1080p, those projectors current run $20,000 to $30,000 or more. All my settings are basically default settings, and I am getting excellent pictures, which I know are true hi def, because I have owned another 2nd HD set for several years, which I still use |
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Bronze Member Username: PmacafeePost Number: 12 Registered: Dec-04 | Thanks Again Does the AE700u's native 720p signal mean that it does upgrage 480i or do i need to buy a progressive scan dvd? Thanks, just a little new to all of this. |
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Anonymous | any HDTV owner absolutely needs to own a basic progressive scan dvd player, as the move from non-progressive to dvd level progressive scan (480p) is quite dramatic. Nearly all dvd players today are progressive scan and decent ones are available for 50 dollars or less "Upscaling" dvd players sell for 150 dollars to 400 dollars and are basically trouble prone and often add very little in picture quality - and in any case will soon ALL be replaced by true HD units like the Toshiba HD-DVD player due out in Fall 2005 |
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Bronze Member Username: PmacafeePost Number: 13 Registered: Dec-04 | Thanks for the advice. I had read somewhere that one had to chose between the DVD player and the projector doing the progressive scan conversion. So I am still a bit confused and have 3 questions: 1) Clearly the vote is with the conversion or upscaling done at the DVD level, but do I now understand that the Panasonic does no upscaliing at all? 2)In surfing other rescources beyond this forum, one mentioned V's Bravo D2 with DVI output. Do you have any favorites in the "upscaling group"? 3)I also have seen some postings about Chinese HD-DVD players with english on-screen menus that are 120v 60cycle units available on-line from china around $150.00 My Panasonic DVD player is 2 years old and not progressive scan. I could make it a gift to a family member and make a jump. What would you do in my shoes? |
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Anonymous | The term "upscaling" itself is a bit phony as it implies that that somehow non-HD level signals (e.g dvd 480p) can be somehow magically transformed into higher resolution true 720p/1080i pictures, when in reality these "upscalers" at best are line doubling and engaging in some other so-called enhancements. The picture might end up nominally sharper and colors changed etc but you won't see any more detail - which is really what HD is about The bottom line is that a standard progressive scan dvd player, e.g a 50 dollar model should look very good on the AE700u via the component hookup. Then you save the HDMI input for a high quality true HD signal, which is where the AE700 shuts down all competion in its price range, and in fact most nearly everything costing 2 to 3 times more The manufacturers of course need to keep up the game to sell to the blank check crowd who will pay any price for improvements of questionable value The charade will soon end when the first true Hi Def DVD players hit the market in fall 2005. EBAY will then then be loaded with upscaling players, selling at 10 cents on the dollar compared to today The AE700u is not sold as an "upscaler" per se however there is no doubt various enhancements are being done to that DVD signal and other signals to attempt to improve it, however as implied above there are innate limitions and tradeoffs for all of this. Panasonic themselves have a new model "upscaling" DVD player that some claim works pretty well. The Denon I heard doesn't work that great with the AE700u, which isn't surprising since so many upscaling dvd players have troubles with all different kinds of HDTV's anyways there are some interesting comments from other owners of the AE700 with different setups on the following site: http://www.projectorcentral.com/Panasonic_Home-PT-AE700U-user-reviews.htm |
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Bronze Member Username: PmacafeePost Number: 14 Registered: Dec-04 | Well, I just bought: (descripton from ebay auction) "NeuNeo HVD208 HD DVD Player is the ONLY DVD Player that offers such wide range high definition video output option: 720P/1080i/1080P via component, 1280x1024/1024x768,800x600,640x480 via VGA, 720P/1080i/1280x1024/1024x768/800x600/640x480 via HDMI First DVD Player in the world that supports 1080P." It ships from Hong Kong Now I have to figure out how to cable and switch this and the Comcast box to the AE700u. |
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New member Username: N2hopsPost Number: 2 Registered: Dec-04 | Hey, Macafee here's the website for that HVD208 Player. I'm also considering this unit. But I'm still reading there FAQ's too see if this is a good choice |
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Bronze Member Username: PmacafeePost Number: 19 Registered: Dec-04 | I have been watching the 208 for about a week now on a 21" IBM monitor at the 19x12 vga setting, and of course the pic is great. I have the promotional HD version of Winged Migration (720)p from NeuNeo. I won't know what it will really look like with the Panasonic (and regular DVD's) until I buy the projector in about 10 days. My Motorola Comcast has HDMI and component video and so does the NeuNeo. My laserdisk is component video and my Yamaha reciever will up grade the composite video from my vcr's to component. I wonder it I can set component video as the Yamaha switchable standard between all these sources, or does the HDMI cable offer that much better signal and I need to get some sort of HDMI switch box? |
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New member Username: N2hopsPost Number: 3 Registered: Dec-04 | Yes, But let me ask you this. What's your review of the NeuNeo??? and the workmanship of the unit?? Would you refer it too someone?? Such as myself who's also eyeballing this unit |
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Bronze Member Username: PmacafeePost Number: 20 Registered: Dec-04 | The NeuNeo seems to be a first class machine, the workmanship and styling is very good. The remote and menus are sensible, there is a fingertip joystick on the right hand corner of the top of the machine that makes stop/start anc chapter select handy without a remote. All menus and documentation is in english. Arrived about 5-6 days after ordering ( a weekend got in the way. Now, about the cable selection? |
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New member Username: MonomuseSan Jose, CA USA Post Number: 1 Registered: Mar-05 | Philip, I've been considering the NeuNeo208 for a bit. A couple of questions: Have you tried playing discs from regions 1,2 and 3? Does the 208 have any trouble with any regions or converting from PAL to NTSC? Does your 720p copy of Winged Migration have English subtitles? |
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Anonymous | I have an AE700U. I did alot of experimenting with screens. I found that the best is like the projector one of the cheepest solutions for an awesome picture. The screen that works the best is paint on a finished flat wall with light sand colored semi gloss latex paint. We watched the super bowl from brodcast HD on my dish network 811 HD receiver on a 160" 16X9 wall (That's aprox 11.6 feet wide) My friends have already invited themselves back for next year. I am buying the NeoNeo next until the dust clears in the HD DVD market. |
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Anonymous | read this for a good review. http://www.projectorpackages.com/newsite/Projectors.htm |
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Anonymous | many people have avoided FRONT PROJECTION because the mistakenly bought into the hype being pushed by the advertisement-driven glossy audio/video magazines which make it look like dropping 2000 dollars on a screen s/b standard for most people The reality is 200 dollars can do the job and do it probably 95% as well, and in some cases 100% as well The flat wall idea is excellent, because you avoid the entire build-in issue which can get very expensive As I have told many people the AE700u looks good even on 5 dollars worth of poster board,(taped together) which I tried when testing screen sizes. I used about 10 poster bds at 50 cents each purchased in a super-market and it looked fantastic |
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Anonymous | The color is the key to the best picture. The tan sand color allows the whites to look white and the blacks to look really black. I found that by going to the Home depot and picking up various large paint chip samples and actually using them as the picture was running playing in 1080I HDNET looking for best picture in white as well as black all the other colors were perfectly real. I would not trade for the best 10,000 dollar unit Circuit city or Best Buys has available. My picture is better than anything they will show you. If my projector was set up the way I have in the stores they would not sell another 10,000 dollar set. Everybody who has seen my equipment agree. They have never seen a better picture and 11.5 feet in 16-9 wide screen. Panasonic PT-AE700U is what I waited for all these years. When my friends were getting these big screens that I knew were not what I wanted. I did order the NueNeo DVD yasterday on ebay. 215.00 winning bid which was also the min bid amount. 35.00 shipping from China. |
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Anonymous | I ordered the NueNeo DVD aprox 24 hours ago and already received email telling me it has shipped. They told me that they will email me a tracking number soon. Pretty fast service I think. So far I'm impressed. I see that Sony management sees the writing on the wall that the HD war will get ugly. I think that it still will. They will only negotiate thats it. When it comes down to cash they will divide again. With the hardware manufactures on the one side and the movie companys on the other the consumers will lose. Like the DVD/DIVX war it will take lots of time. The Chinese may win the hearts of the movie companys to make cash now and not wait two years. They have alot more people looking to be like us all the time. Our companys seems to always be ready to do bussiness with the Chinise for the nearly instant cash advantages. The government is behind them. They will back HVD if they can win over one or two movie companys. I would think that Turner would be the best place for them to go. They seem to do things outside the box and win alot. Let's see how it plays out. Panasonic PT-AE700U will amaze you. I highly recommend. |
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Anonymous | agree that BEST BUY of other big box stores, if they had AE700u's (or perhaps comparable Sony or Hitachi new generation LCD front projectors)optimally setup in a light controlled viewing room - few of their customers would ever buy the plasmas and other sets -which typically cost 2 to 3 times as much - and due to weight are not generally amenable to long distance shipping - as contrasted to Front Projectors that are tiny and weigh usually about 8 lbs or less. Their customers would end up buying over the internet at 20% discounts. The bottom line is the big box stores will be holding back on stocking these new generation hi def LCD front projectors -lest they kill their main HD business, or simply keep sub-HD models hidden (as they do now) in some out of way area of the store (with no live display) where few would notice them Its interesting you are getting that good a picture on a 160" diagonal as normally you would expect some loss of brightness or some other tradeoff. My guess is: is that picture probably looks quite good at between 12 to 14 feet viewing distance |
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Anonymous | OK you got me. The room is fairly dark. The projector is set up at 18 feet back about 8 feet high. I run the unit on low lamp setting most of the time. When I do have more ambiant light I run the lamp on high. The first row of seating is about 7 feet. The pixels are slightly visable if you know to look for them. The AE-700 does a very good job of overlaping the pixels. Most plasmas and DLP rear projection units screen door effect is much more pronounced and a much smaller screen size. Yes I give up a little bit of brightness for the large size. But all who have viewed it force me to put the big screen back up after seeing that the picture is a little better at 100 inches 16x9. I can't stress enough that you need to junk the reflective expensive screen and use a satin or semigloss latex paint. The color is key to the awesome picture. Must be a tan sand color. The refective white screen washes out the picture. The blacks have a hard time covering the white reflective screen. I tried the gray contrast in many different shades and the blacks looked awesome but the whites were not white. The color is the secret with a slight refective shine on the finish. Like I said if you have this unit try the paint chip test like I did. It doesn't cost anything to pick up some paint chips at the local paint store. You will see what I'm talking about and be amazed. Ok the sweet spots are two soft comfortable reclining swivel chairs sitting about 12 feet back. OK now you all know my secrets. Happy to share. Oh yah the ladies on Guys night In (HDNET) Misty and Megan. Those ladies look too real life size and perfect skin tone. They are at my house often thanks to Mark Cubin and the crew at HDNET 1080I. I love it. |
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Bronze Member Username: PmacafeePost Number: 22 Registered: Dec-04 | My Pannasonic arrived on Monday and I hooked it to the NeuNeo. I am building a sort of credenza/screen elevator thingamabob in the garage and so it is temporarily set up there. I do not have any cable installed there so I am just playing DVD's for now. The 720p Winged Migration from NeuNeo is fabulous. I also have a copy of the Superbit Das Boot and the regular Das Boot, I can see the difference in the Superbit disk and will order Lawrence of Arabia in Superbit today. (All my friends want to watch Lawrence for the theatre kick-off). I ordered a Da-lite high contrast 96x72 screen for my credenza project and the two presets that seem to be the favorites now are "Video" for night time and "Dynamic" for daytime with more ambient light in the rrom. Can anyone comment on using the presets with particular screens/environments? I have yet to mess with the individual video setting. |
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Anonymous | Did you read the above comments I left. Throw that screen away or send it back. Put up some wallboard and tape it up nice and smooth then paint it as I stated. I recieved my Nue Neo today and was not happy. I sent an email to Peter at Nue Digits with my complaints. I will post all over the place if the experiance is not resolved. Stay tuned. |
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Bronze Member Username: PmacafeePost Number: 23 Registered: Dec-04 | Anonymous; Sorry, the only place for my projector to display in my living room with a 16' ceiling is on a wall with a window about 8' tall. If I board the window over, my significant other will make me move in with you. So I am stuck with a roll-up solution and I believe that it must pull up and not pull down because the window is so tall and I would have to hang the screen about 10' from the floor or have it mounted across the middle of the window. Do you believe that I should exchange the high contrast for another screen? Sorry to hear about your disappointment with the Neu Neo. I am waiting to hear the details. On a side note, I was happily flipping through different aspect ratios with the Panny remote, and then later in the day during another experimentation session, the aspect button would do nothing. Does anyone have an answer for this? |
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Anonymous | Paint the screen the correct color. You will find that the color makes the difference. It doesn't need to be reflective like the old projectors with low light levels to contrast will be to dark. The whites will not look white. Try the paint chip test. You will see what I'm talking about. You will not be happy with the screen. I already spent money too and was disapointed. I understand why you need the screen. The NueNeo saga is not good. I would like to speak nicely of them but, I will reserve comment until it is resolved. |
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Bronze Member Username: PmacafeePost Number: 24 Registered: Dec-04 | Can you reccommend a rubberish paint that will flex with the roll up screen and not crack off? Oh, by the way, why won't darkening the projector settings or lowering the contrast do the same as firing into tan paint? |
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Anonymous | Painting the screen was kind of radicle idea really joking. I did do that to a small as in 60" 16:9 white reflective screen that I use in my trailer when we go camping. Yes I use my pany to go camping in the wild with my Dishnetwork HD receiver. How spoiled is that? It works fine but I don't know for how long. I don't know if there is a material that will stay pliable. Check with a paint store or arts and craft store and see if it is possible to do. I do know that latex paint streches and is pliable for along time but eventually with time does harden and would be a problem. You will see that the dark contrast screen will not allow the whites to look good. When you get your screen check out the scene in The of Lord of the rings first movie scene 26 (The pass of Caradhras) mountain snow scene. You will see what I'm talking about. The contrast issue is screen color related to the light that is reflected off the screen color. The Pany can deal with this in a small screen less than 100 inches with the projector pretty close to the screen. But you see a huge improvement if the screen color is sand tan color. I set the contrast manually just above normal and the brigtness just below normal in the normal mode and just leave it alone after that. The Pany does need to be set for each mode as it remembers the settings. pretty cool if the DVD, video, computer runs lighter or darker. Good luck with the project. |
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Anonymous | consider a tripod mounted Elite (made in Taiwan) of about 96" with matte white which works great with AE700U, however note Elites sometimes have minor marks, but they sell via mail order for about 179 dollars this screen gives you lots of flexibility, |
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Bronze Member Username: PmacafeePost Number: 25 Registered: Dec-04 | Well, I brought the Panny into the living room and hooked it up to the Comcast box. I get a number of on-screen menus and functions in the Comcast 480i mode and they seem to disappear in the high-res modes. What gives? One more thing, and I know this sounds wacky; I was flipping back and forth between the low-def and high-def versions of my local channel and noting how well the Panny delt with both. Definitely better on high def with an aspect ratio change, but the regular low-def channel was looking not too bad on its own. Then later in the evening (I know, I know I had changed a lot of settings) the regular channels seems a lot worse. I tried every combination of setting on the Motorola box. Maybe I had gotten used to the good high-def picture on the AE700u, but does the scaling or de-interlacing on the AE700u get confused sometimes or does Comcast vary content quality during different times of the day(it was after midnight)? |
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Anonymous | The Pan can only receive the signal that it is given and will automaticlly change modes. I run Dish Network and the signals are all low res unless they are HD channels. I also setup the box to receive local HD over the air which broadcast over UHF. Those channels also very with actual HD broadcast at best 720P. You get an excellent looking comercial in HD then a poor looking one in low res. You will usually see the screen change to the 4:3 square with the black bars on the sides in that case. |
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Anonymous | Anonymous, could you share the color code for that light sand semi gloss paint you selected? Is there any reason not to paint the entire wall with this color (so it won't look like its used as a screen when unused). |
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Rod K Unregistered guest | A black border gives better perceived contrast |
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Anonymous | That is exactly what I have. I have no border at all. You will find that the formats change so much that the border in just 16-9 is kind of distracting in 4-3 mode. I painted the side walls a darker color. I'm going to have one wall painted as if it were looking into an old classic theater with people sitting in the seats. You don't need perceived contrast using the pany. Set the unit up right and have the right color on the wall and thats all you need for a fantastic picture. The paint I purchased actually came from Wallmart on sale. It was in a 5 gal bucket ColorPlace brand Latex Satin Wall and Trim Base#18612 Color Balsam Beige #622 96221 |
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Anonymous | Fellow Forum Members, Reading through all of these postings I have learned that the AE700U combined with the NeuNeo HVD208 HD DVD Player is the way to go. I have already bought my AE700U and a 100" diagonal Draper Screen. Can anyone out there recommend the best sound system to finish off my home theater system? I would like to setup a surround sound system that would take advantage of Lucas THX. What is the best receiver, speakers and cables I could buy to use together with my AE700U and NeuNeo HVD208 HD DVD Player? Thanks in advance for any advise. |
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Bronze Member Username: XgrizzlyxPost Number: 92 Registered: Jul-04 | Lucas THX is a certifcation not a actual suround sound decoding, that's dolby and DTS. Not all receivers apply for the certification. I've read many postive comments about Outlaw preamp and amps. check them out |
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Anonymous | OK here is the scoop on the NeuNeo issue that I had. I purchased the unit and NeoDiget shipped it on a Friday. I received the unit on Tuesday. UPS smashed it on the trip from China. NeoDigets would not send me a replacement until they got a check from UPS for the damaged unit which UPS agreed that they damaged. NeoDigits did not come out and tell me that. I read that UPS would refund the cost of the unit to the original shipper in a weeks time. After about a month and many emails back and fourth with NeoDigets they released a new model HVD-2081. They emailed and told me that they would send me the new model as a replacement. They also refunded me $20.00 because the new unit was at a promotional price of $195.00. That was pretty cool. The smashed unit did not work out of the box. The look of the unit seemed kind of cheap and not very robust. On the other hand the new unit is very slick and a much better design. The picture quality is excellent with well made DVDs or Superbit DVDs. The Lord of the rings return of the king produced a 3D effect from the unit that suprised me. There is a scene with a tree on the top of the castle when the camera flys towards the tree and swings around it towards the big doors, looks amazing. This effect is in the grapfics card on the unit. It looks like computer 3D graphics. I purchased four of the HVD movies but ended up with five of them due to more NeoDigets shipping issues. Don't get me wrong NeoDigets resolved all the issues that I had and I am satisfied with the results. The HVD movies are a different issue made by Amlogic in China. Approxamately 30 or so movies exist at this time. They are making 3 a week I think I read. I have not found a way of purchasing them as yet. They are all sold in Chinese shops in China. I found this out when I followed a web page that ended up being in Chinese that I converted to English to read. The webpage listed about 15 or so shops in China as where to purchase. No web addresses were linked. The movies seem to be from film transfers. All but one are poorly done. The winged migration shows that this unit is capible of an excellent HD image coming very close to my 1080I DishNetwork signal. The other HVD discs are poorly manufactured probably to quickly. The House of Flying Dagers was most disapointing. The english subtitles are from the film transfer not coming from the subtitils menu. This should have been the showcase movie. One thing you should know is that this machine would cost big dollers to repair just shipping it back to china. If you purchase it think of it as a disposible unit if it fails. So far the unit is fantastic except that I have not been able to make the opticle output work yet. The onboard 5.1 ouputs work well in Dolby and DTS. I'm outputing the visual signal via component 1080I to the Panny AE700U. The HDMI is reserved for the satelite. I do recommend this unit. The risks are also something to concider. But I had decided that when I purchased from China. I only would use Paypal to purchase. Don't let the card number out to anyone that can't be sued in this country. Hope this helps you guys. |
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Anonymous | That problem with the optical out may be solved by the new firmware. This review mentions it. http://www.bytesector.com/data/bs-article.asp?ID=447 |
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New member Username: Bryanp2509Post Number: 3 Registered: Nov-05 | i am small time compared to you guys but has anyone tried the neu neo machine on a rear projector with a component hook up. the tv is a samsung 42" rear projection. |