Big Picture Big Sound

As electronics giants such as Sony and Toshiba exit the plasma market entirely to focus on LCD flat panels instead, at least one stalwart manufacturer remains committed to advancing the state of the art in plasma television design: Panasonic.

With the help of an IDC analyst who lamented the current chaotic state of the electronics marketplace, Panasonic held a press conference at CEDIA Expo in Denver this week to reaffirm its commitment to delivering state of the art plasma televisions in medium and large screen sizes. Panasonic also reminded us that their enormous 103-inch plasma monster television is actually in daily use today at NBC Studios in New York.

The 1080p 103-inch model TH-103PZ600U is the largest plasma ever made, and (unlike Samsung's 102-inch model which was apparently created just to show they could), Panasonic intends to release their behemoth for consumer consumption just in time for Christmas at the reasonable price of just $69,999. But, hey, at least it comes with a 3-year in-house warranty.


For those who find themselves a little light in the wallet, Panasonic would like to remind you that you can also pick up a plasma in 37, 42, 50, 58 and 65-inch screen sizes for a far more affordable price. The newest 65-inch model, the TH-65PX600U ($9999, available this fall) is only the second plasma offered by Panasonic to feature a 1920 X 1080 pixel panel, for native 1080p support. The 103-inch model was the first to include a 1080p panel.

After the plasma love-fest, Panasonic went on to announce the impending availability of two new 3-chip LCD-based front projectors, one 1280X720 model intended for "casual use," the PT-AX100U ($2999, available in October), the other a 1080p model, the PT-AE1000U (Pricing: TBA, available by the end of 2006). Both projectors are designed to "bring Hollywood quality home" with care taken to produce highly accurate color rendition as well as smooth, natural, life-like images.


The AX100 features a high 2000 ANSI lumen output as well as a 6,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. It includes a "light harmonizer" which uses an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust brightness and contrast for existing room lighting conditions. It features Panasonic's PureColor filter, dynamic iris and gamma to minimize color shift as well as "SmoothScreen" processing to reduce LCD's "Screen Door Effect" caused by the gap between pixels on an LCD panel.

Its 2X zoom lens and adjustable vertical and horizontal lens shift should make placement a breeze. Its wide throw distance range allows you to project a 120-inch diagonal image from as little as 12 feet or as much as 24 feet away from the screen.


The AE1000 measures in at 1100 lumens, with 11000:1 dynamic contrast. It features a C2Fine 1920X1080 native panel (actually three of them, on three .74" LCD chips), as well as a 14-bit gamma processor to enable a wide color palette. The AE1000 even includes a built-in waveform monitor for the tweakiest of video tweakaholics.

And what good would all these upgrades be without a worthy lens? The AE1000 features a new high definition aspherical black lens, a "PureColor" color filter as well as an advanced dynamic iris and gamma similar to its little brother. Its 100 percent vertical and 40 percent horizontal lens shift adjustments should make installation a cinch, even with less than ideal placement.

Unfortunately neither projector was on active display at the press conference, but the AX100 was making beautiful moving images back in Panasonic's booth. We expect to be getting an AX100 in for a closer look, and when we do, we'll be sure to share the details with you, dear readers. As for the 103-inch plasma, as nice as it looks at the shows, for that we have no formal review planned. We'd have to get a bigger office.