Thefwam and ptRyno,
I love the Panasonic AX-200U projector. I had originally purchased an Epson Home Cinema 1080 from
http://www.projectorpeople.com (highly recommended BTW...projector people that is). It's kind of a funny story now, but my wife had given me the go ahead to buy the HT setup and I went crazy, 1080p projector, two subs, Velodyne SMS-1 sub equalizer. As the boxes started to arrive, my wife started to get very nervous (angry really, but we'll just say "nervous"). She suggested (ordered me) to scale it back.
The most important factor for me was the sound, so I didn't want to cut any corners there. But, after seeing how enormous the subs were, I decided I only needed one for the size of my room. I sent one back and, since I was only going to have one sub, I also sent the SMS-1 back. I also decided to trade the Epson for the Panasonic AX-200U.
Although the AX-200U is only 720p, I am not dissapointed in the least. The more I thought about it, it made sense to me to send the 1080 projector back and get the much cheaper 720 model. With only a 100" screen and the fact that we sit back far enough from the screen, from what I've read, I'm not missing a whole lot. Granted, I do have blu-ray, but the picture quality is still amazing. We have satellite HD and most of the HD content is broadcast in 720 anyway. Although there are new a few channels broadcasting in 1080i. The fact is, technology is always ahead of the market and i figured I'd get a 720 projector now for much less money and upgrade later once there is more 1080 content (or better?) available.
My wife was very skeptical about projection from the get go. She had those old theater vision projection TV's from the 80's in her head and was convinced the picture quality would suck. Well, the Panasonic projector has made a believer out of my wife. Out of the box, we were amazed with the picture quality, even before any calibration (which I haven't really done fully yet). The projector was extremely easy to install. Picture quality is excellent. Skin tones are amazing. The projector is one of the brightest 720 models available and would does well in both dim and brighter rooms. I have yet to find anything about this projector I don't like.
