I am buying the Panasonic PT-AX200U Home Theatre Projector. In all the reviews I have read, they say this projector is awsome for the performance and price. I have even seen reviews where they label this projector as the “poor man’s” 1080 and they say the gaming ability of this projector is great as well. My question is what do I need to do to get the absoulte best picture out of the Projector. Should I even buy a Blue Ray player? My room is large and will be a dedicated Home Theatre room. I plan on installing a 120″ screen. What color? What type? The projector is rated at 2000 ANSI and this is good because I will have some ambient light at different times. Any input from the Home Theatre gurus out there would be helpful!
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A bluray will help. An upconverting dvd player is ok but it’s just taking a 480 signal and converting it. A bluray will actually output 1080p which will then be down converted by the projector and give you a much better picture. The PT-AX200U is a great projector, ambient light will be a problem though. No matter how bright, outside light sources will dull the picture to some degree so try to get curtains or shades installed. I’d go with a 1.0 gain (or so, some are 0.8 to 1.5 but basically the same thing) white screen. That projector has enough contrast where a gray screen would be detrimental (gray screens play with the color a bit. Da-lite makes a decent screen and isn’t over-priced. Stewart makes a great screen but will be more $ and probably not benefit you much.
I should have said Matte white on the screen. Also, I have heard good things about Favi screens (inexpensive) but have never seen one for myself.
Unfortunately, here’s the bad news: the Panasonic PT-AX200U has a native color engine fixed at 720 and there is no way to upconvert or play a 1080 Blu-Ray to its full potential of 1080 on a 720 projector! Your projector has a ceiling of only 720 max. even using HDMI inputs.
Sorry about that.
Good luck!
If you get a DVD player see if it has component video inputs. If it does, that will work just fine.