justifier Posted April 2, 2007 Posted April 2, 2007 I have purchased a Panasonic PT-AE1000. Overall I am happy with the picture but it does seem to have an issue with some misconvergence of the LCD panels. Please look at these pics: My Pics My Pics My Pics My Pics (NB. You made need to click on the images twice to get the full size depending on which browser and settings you are using.) Is this acceptable for an LCD Projector or unacceptable. I am very fussy about picture quality (no flaming re panasonic or my decision to buy a panasonic here please) and this problem is not very noticeable at normal viewing distance unless I am looking for it carefully. It is similar to Chromatic aberration in a photo. I am concerned that it may be affecting focus by not giving defined lines particularly with white objects receiving magenta highlights at the top and cyan at the bottom. Your opinion regarding whether you would consider this to be out of spec and unacceptable would be appreciated. Flaming of the panasonic brand would not. Thanks.
gllp Posted April 2, 2007 Posted April 2, 2007 Based on those pics it doesn't look good. My guess is it's out by atleast 2 pixels(1vertically & 1horizontally) which I think is unacceptable. Personally if I bought a 3 chip 1080 projector I would demand near perfect convergence otherwise I just don't see how the extra detail 1080 res is suppose to provide can be rendered in the image. The misconvergence would effectively cancel out the extra detail. Supposedly this is a fairly common problem and is the luck of the draw what you get.
justifier Posted April 3, 2007 Author Posted April 3, 2007 Thanks for your reply guys. Thats what I thought. I mean these are close ups of the test focus pattern in the menu of the projector but I would have thought that there would be very little misconvergence at least at the centre of the picture. It is about 1 pixel of magenta above and 2 pixels of cyan below and to the right. Fortunately the supplier has agreed to swap it but I am hoping that this is not a common problem with this projector in which case the second could be the same or worse!!! I have seen this issue on many LCD projectors including the Mitsubishi's and JVC's. Apparently it is extremely difficult to get all 3 panels perfectly aligned and it tends to be worse at the edges than at the centre of the lens. Has any one else with an LCD projector had a very close look at some test pictures eg white crosses (say from 12 inches from the screen) to see if they also have this issue?
quijibo Posted April 3, 2007 Posted April 3, 2007 From what I have read it has also been a major flaw with the ax100. Some people have apparently been told a mis-convergence of 1 or 2 pixels is still acceptable.
SKG Posted April 3, 2007 Posted April 3, 2007 From what I have read it has also been a major flaw with the ax100. Some people have apparently been told a mis-convergence of 1 or 2 pixels is still acceptable. I got to see the 1000 in action and the one I played with was fine on all the test discs (pixel for pixel) Could be a issue with the first batch ? I should have mine in a weeks time.
aaron Posted April 3, 2007 Posted April 3, 2007 It looks better than my AX100 did, but then that's not really saying much, is it? Based on my experiences with their customer support I think your best bet would be to ask your retailer to swap the unit. I'm not flaming Panasonic here, BTW, just giving my opinion. They don't really tend to do much about matters like this without some serious boot+butt action taking place.
gllp Posted April 3, 2007 Posted April 3, 2007 From what I have read it has also been a major flaw with the ax100. Some people have apparently been told a mis-convergence of 1 or 2 pixels is still acceptable. It sucks when manufactures say that. What's the point of having all those extra pixels if they are not going to be displayed accurately and precisely anyway. What's the point of having high end optics if the image is all ready distorted due to misconvergence. It just doesn't make sense and makes me question whether having more resolution actually does anything besides the obvious, less SDE.
CAVX Posted April 3, 2007 Posted April 3, 2007 It sucks when manufactures say that. What's the point of having all those extra pixels if they are not going to be displayed accurately and precisely anyway. What's the point of having high end optics if the image is all ready distorted due to misconvergence. It just doesn't make sense and makes me question whether having more resolution actually does anything besides the obvious, less SDE. It looks like you've got a sub standard model, but normally only one pixel out would be considered OK... Mark
The_Preacher1973 Posted April 3, 2007 Posted April 3, 2007 I would be more fussy than that In the US Sony state that MC up to 2 pixels is within spec. Like you, I'm more fussy than that. I hope you get lucky with your JVC, although at least you can fix the middle.
justifier Posted April 3, 2007 Author Posted April 3, 2007 I would say that the MC is one pixel above with magenta and 2 pixels to the right and at the bottom with cyan. I have done some more research and I have seen some worse than this with the same model. Here is a similar example from someone else: Another example from somone else Question is do I swap for another one which could be worse or do I put up with this one which may not be too bad. At my viewing distance of about 10 feet to a 6 foot screen it is not noticeable except on computer text or sometimes as what looks similar to chromatic aberration on white objects (magenta at the top). The cyan is undetectable. My other concern is that it may affect sharpness too. Or do I leave it for twelve months and make use of the mackam warranty at a later date to get a service centre to try to fix the issue. My dealings with so called service centres for products like Samsung or Panasonic have been far from stellar. In fact I have no confidence with them whatsoever. I think the whole LCD block would need replacing as I dont think it just be an adjustment process. Why wait?.. well the projector is from a 'grey' importer which means that the warranty for the first twelve months is in Japan and incurs shipping costs and a lot of time. I still think it was worth the saving though as HN quoted my $7500 (yeh right) where as I got this down to $5,000 including the extra 4 year Mackam warranty. Anyway I am still undecided as to whether to swap for another unit.......
The_Preacher1973 Posted April 3, 2007 Posted April 3, 2007 Anyway I am still undecided as to whether to swap for another unit....... Personally I'd chance my arm and try another unit (actually I'd ask for a refund and buy a differrent brand but as per your 1st post I'm not allowed to critisize Pansonic and their excellent quality control and customer service ). While there are others out there worse than your's, I'd hope your's was worse than average (if they were all like that I think the complaints would be far more prevalent). Overall I think chances are that another one will be better. Good luck.
justifier Posted April 3, 2007 Author Posted April 3, 2007 Here is an interesting read: 1080p misconvergence Seems that this misconvergence issue is now common among all 1080p projectors. It not only the Panasonic but the Sony, Mitsubishi, Epson, JVC and others which also suffer from this problem....
quijibo Posted April 4, 2007 Posted April 4, 2007 I just actually got to look at your images and thats a fairly bad misconvergence you have there. Its both horizontal and vertical and from what I see is actually between 1.5-2.5 pixels vertically and horizontally. I am sure this is quite normal and hardly noticable, only with text as you say, but I'd take it back and get another one. It would annoy me to pay that sort of money for something that is not quite right.
justifier Posted April 13, 2007 Author Posted April 13, 2007 Well.... Spoke to Panasonic Australia and they have said that they cant tell from the pictures I have sent them (same as this thread) if there is an issue or not. Yeh right.... They have suggested going to a service centre to get it checked out. I have no confidence whatsover with service centres. In the past the ones I have dealt with on behalf of other manufacturers have been clueless. Is there anyone in South Australia who can recommend a Panasonic authorised service centre whom they have dealt with, with a projector, with success?
Hydrology Posted April 13, 2007 Posted April 13, 2007 Well....Spoke to Panasonic Australia and they have said that they cant tell from the pictures I have sent them (same as this thread) if there is an issue or not. Yeh right.... Depends on who over there has seen them. Probably the tea lady. Seriously though, if there is anybody specific you have sent them to, let me know via PM and I can give you some names that may/may not help this situation.
justifier Posted April 13, 2007 Author Posted April 13, 2007 Depends on who over there has seen them. Probably the tea lady. Seriously though, if there is anybody specific you have sent them to, let me know via PM and I can give you some names that may/may not help this situation. That would be great Mark. I just sent a message using the default boxes on the Australian panasonic support website. About a week later I received a phone call from a guy called Gavin who said he was from Panasonic and gave me the run around. If you could provide some contact details of someone who knows what their talking about then that would be very much appreciated.
shockvalue Posted April 14, 2007 Posted April 14, 2007 I personally wouldn't bother to swap. My AX100 looks about the same close up but is not noticeable on normal viewing material. The chances of you getting another one thats perfect is slim but you may get a worse one and maybe with other problems. If that is the only concern keep it or you will enter onto a very sressful "merry go round".
Hydrology Posted April 14, 2007 Posted April 14, 2007 David does make some valid points, but my old POS AX100 and the new replacement did not exhibit anywhere near as much apparent misconvergence as those photos show. There is the possibility that the replacement you get could be worse, and Id be pretty sure that Panasonic would be even more reluctant to swap again (even if they should). If the picture looks extremely sharp from your seating position, I wouldnt worry bout it too much. However, based on the price the AX1000 sells for, Id be expecting a damn perfect machine. Hell you can probably buy a decent bike for that kind of outlay.
esseeayen Posted April 14, 2007 Posted April 14, 2007 Woah wait just a second before u start blaming the projector, outta curiosity is this the same problem from any input source? i mean it could be a timing problem if using rgb or component! whats the source?
The_Preacher1973 Posted April 14, 2007 Posted April 14, 2007 Woah wait just a second before u start blaming the projector, outta curiosity is this the same problem from any input source? i mean it could be a timing problem if using rgb or component! whats the source? Considering that the MC is visible when displaying text from the inbuilt menus I donlt see how it could be a timing issue.
justifier Posted April 30, 2007 Author Posted April 30, 2007 * bump * Has anyone else purchased this projector who can comment or provide some pics of their unit for comparison? Thanks.
justifier Posted February 6, 2008 Author Posted February 6, 2008 * bump * Its been a while.... Has anyone else purchased this projector who can comment or provide some pics of their unit for comparison? Thanks.
#Darren Posted February 6, 2008 Posted February 6, 2008 Does misconvergence actually translate to lower resolution? Or are the full hd quota of pixels still visible within their own individual areas (with no overlapping)?
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