Panasonic projector 3000

[Peter Stedman]

Our club has now got their Panasonic 3000 projector up & running. I was keen to see the projected results, so last evening various material was show from old VHS to commercial Blue Ray DVD and all very impressive. Naturally I was anxious to see what a DVD from my new Sony Z5 camera looked like as I had just completed a colourful programme (in SD). I was so disappointed in that the results looked very flat & drab whilst on my home TV all was bright & brilliant. The next persons footage direct from a camera also looked lack lustre.

Can anyone explain this? I know that there are masses of setting that can be adjusted on this advanced projector (not my dept this). Is it possible that such an advanced projector needs to be carefully calibrated each time to suit the material to be projected? This might prove difficult where club material can be such a wide variety from various sources. Would folks care to discuss please?
Pete

[tom hardwick]

You say VHS looked 'very impressive' but a DVD holding your Z5 footage didn't? I'd question the inputs to the projector - is the DVD feeding via HDMI? The projector's menu may well have different settings depending on what inputs are being accessed, and it sounds like your DVD is being shown in the 'energy saving green mode'.

tom.

[Peter Stedman]

Thanks Tom,
I will ask the 'technical expert' holding the new projector to see what he has to say.
Pete

[Dave Watterson]

While I don't know this particular projector ... a general rule for all "serious" video projectors is that they need to be carefully set up. I have NEVER found one that is correct straight from the box. In part this is a matter of the venue and how much ambient light is around. In part it depends on the screen material.

I am sure the projector will have a number of "presets" or "memories" which you can adjust to suit your particular conditions. You may find that the "preset" which looks best for VHS on an S-Video connection is not at all like the "preset" which works best for HD delivered through an HDMI lead.

There is no sensible short cut. You must spend an evening calibrating the projector in your clubroom. Buy or borrow a test DVD and work carefully through its various scenarios. This will involve the usual brightness, contrast and colour density settings but many more subtle ones. I usually use the AVIA Guide to Home Theater (currently about £25 on Amazon) although it is an NTSC disc. A few NTSC specific settings are irrelevant but mostly it is good, solid stuff. If you have a local video dealer who is used to setting up home theatre systems, he or she will be able to set it up properly in a couple of hours - for a fee.
-Dave

[billyfromConsett]

We have a PT-AE3000 at the club and I've a Z5 camera. I know that the standard setting on this projector lacks contrast. We uped the contrast in the menu by about 20% or whatever and the picture looked better - over the summer I'll spend a night playing with it to optimise how our movies look.

HDV material looks the best- far better than VHS, though we've only got some test VHS material.