I have always thought about putting in a home projector system, bigger is better has always been my TV motto and with 3 boys playing on the XBOX split screen – a projector definitely fits the bill. The problem has been the house, you must have the right place for it. In  England and in our last Canadian house, we never had the space. Now we have that place.

What is unbelievable is the price. I remember a few friends doing it 6 years ago and paying $6-8K for a high definition projector. Now, for $2K or less you are getting remarkable quality. Case in point, the new Panasonic PT-AE4000U. It has everything including 1080P output. A review:

The AE4000 announcement is dramatic. Though its spec sheet does not look revolutionary compared to last year’s AE3000, the AE4000 is in fact a superior projector in almost every way. Certainly it surpasses the AE3000 in image quality. And it is even more fully-featured than its predecessor. But what is most stunning is the price. Last October, a mere twelve months ago, the AE3000 was released with street prices close to $3,000. This month the AE4000 comes to market at $1,999. This aggressive move will force other manufacturers competing in the home theater projector market to reassess their pricing levels.

Since the AE4000’s picture quality not only surpasses the competitors in its price range, but rivals and in some cases exceeds that of "high-end" models selling for five times the price or more, it warrants a solid 5 stars for performance. Since it has more features than any other home theater projector ever built, 5 stars is not even enough to illustrate its distinction in this category. Similarly, its ease of use is unrivaled-perfect color calibration out of the box in Cinema 1 mode, smart menus that are easy to navigate, lens memory to accommodate 2.40 super widescreen without an anamophic lens-no other projector has all of these things, and most have none of them.

All of this adds up to a remarkable value proposition: at a street of $1,999, we’ve simply never seen this much performance at this price. Panasonic has been extremely tight-lipped about this product launch. Until now many thought the company was dropping out of the home theater projector market. Today’s announcement makes it clear that they are here to stay. The Panasonic PT-AE4000U will be one of the hottest selling home theater projectors of the fall season, and we enthusiastically give it our highest recommendation.

Not quite ready to get it done, as this requires more planning (screens, seating …), but this definitely makes the decision easier! In the meantime, I rented some equipment for last weekend as we held a birthday – 11 boys on 3 XBOXs. So cool. Much better than the pong I grew up with.