Get this: the front speakers are inside the 100-inch motorized screen. The rear surrounds point out from the projector mount itself. And all of the wiring from front to back is nestled inside a conduit that mounts surreptitiously to your ceiling. In addition to your choice of projector, there's a subwoofer, which contains all of the audio amplification. There's a universal remote preprogrammed with macros to get everything into movie mode. Then there's the command center, an integrated HDMI A/V controller with integrated DVD player. It also has all of the cables and mounting brackets, so no need for the salesman to sweet talk you into buying a box of overpriced add-ons.

The sound system was designed by Atlantic Technology, a favorite "affordable" brand among audiophiles. It's a 60-watt center channel, and 35 watts each for the other four speakers, but it gets nice and loud. The projector is great; at its core is the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 1080 our own Charlie White raved about. The integrated DVD player upscales to the projector, but you still need to provide your own HD source, if you want it.

Bottom line is that this is a good value, but it's not the equivalent of an under-the-drywall pro installation—not that I recommend that. I guess what I'm really saying is that, if this thing is assembled and mounted with care, your friends will be impressed. But if you embark on the project with a beer in one hand and a power drill-driver in the other, your friends will totally know.

We had a chance to put both of the projectors on our test bench, studying their output with the same content and test patterns running through each unit's three LCDs. It was a fair matchup, with the two similarly equipped projectors playing back the same program material. In this battle royale, which projector emerges victorious?

Out of the box we noticed the Panasonic projector was slightly bigger and boxier than its Epson counterpart. No rounded corners here, but let's get beyond the superficialities. Looking around the back, we immediately noticed there are two HDMI ports, compared with the Epson's one. There's also a D-Sub (VGA) input, two sets of component inputs, S-Video and composite inputs, as well as a serial port.

At first it appears there are few controls on the projector itself, but behind the door on its left side are all the basic controls you'll need. There is an electronic zoom and focus control, which we didn't like as much as the manual controls on the Epson model, but the electronic zoom might come in handy if you mounted the projector on a very high ceiling where it's hard to reach. However, the electronic zoom didn't give us the kind of absolute fine control you can get with actually turning a focus ring on a lens as you can do with the Epson.

Turning on one projector and then the other, we noticed the Panasonic's fan was slightly quieter than the Epson's, but both were quiet enough not to be a bother at all when running at full speed. That done, we focused up both projectors on our test screen, and it was time to plug in some sources and see what the difference was between these two 1080p titans.

First we plugged in our TiVo Series3 HD personal video recorder into one of the two HDMI ports. Looking at the projected images of the Panasonic and the Epson, one after the other, it was hard to tell any difference between the two. Both were able to handle the 720p output of our HD TiVo with an alacrity we haven't seen in any of the 720p projectors we tested here. Yes, this 1080p projection brought out the best in the 720p program content, with vivid colors, super black blacks and no discernible "screen door effect" whatsoever. To our eyes, both these 1080p projectors have solved the inherent problems of LCD projection: muddy, gray blacks and that annoying and visible "screen door' latticework.

Next, we plugged in our Xbox 360 via its 1080p VGA input (using the optional 1080p/VGA cable). Here's where we were sorely disappointed with the Panasonic projector. Nothing happened. Diving into the documentation, we realized that the Panasonic is indeed able to handle computer signals of 1920 by 1080p. But for some reason, it's not working with this Xbox 360's 1920x1080p signal. Damn. So, here's a red flag: if you want to play back 1080p signals from a PC, the projector works fine, but if you want 1080p via an Xbox 360 VGA input, you're out of luck with the Panasonic, but you're good to go with the Epson. We didn't test the HDMI output of the latest Xbox 360 Elite on the Panasonic projector yet, but let's hope that works better than this VGA cable does. However, 1280x720 (720p) works fine with this VGA cable, and should serve well for most Xbox 360 games which are still in 720p.

Plugging in the component inputs, we then watched a 1080p HD DVD coming out of the Xbox 360, and it was again difficult to tell the difference between the two projectors. Both had extraordinary sharpness, perfectly saturated color, and deep, dark blacks. Yeah, we could get used to this.

Next, a we ran both projectors at the same time, both hooked up to the DisplayMate multimedia set of benchmarks. First testing the brightness of the Panasonic projector at the customary 60 inches diagonal screen size, we compared it directly to the numbers that we measured with the Epson 1080p projector using our light meter. The difference between the two is statistically insignificant, with the Epson projector's brightest point in the center of the screen slightly brighter than that of the Panasonic with 588 lumens compared to the Panasonic 542 lumens. The Panasonic's dimmest segment was the upper left part of the screen, at 483 lumens compared to the Epson's 519 lumens in that same segment. While both of the projectors were of similar brightness, the edge goes to Panasonic for a slightly more uniform brightness across the screen. However, please note that this difference wasn't noticeable to the eye, only to precision light metering equipment.

Next, looking at color bars and all the other tests in our DisplayMate multimedia obstacle course, in pure white screens side-by-side, we did notice a slight reddish tinge to the Epson's image, compared to a slight bluish tinge of the Panasonic, but those differences were slight, and probably were more due to a particular setup of each projector than its inherent qualities. Each has color temperature controls that let you adjust these different "looks" ad nauseum.

Summing up, this Panasonic PT-AE100U 1080p projector is an extraordinary value for $3000. However, if you want to plug in an Xbox 360 with its optional VGA adapter for 1080p playback, this is definitely not the projector for you. Because of that, we give the edge to the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 1080p projector, because its picture is comparable to that of the Panasonic, but its inputs are slightly more versatile. Big thumbs up to both, but the Epson edged out the Panasonic by a minuscule margin. – Charlie White

Product Page [Panasonic]

The first thing we wanted to try was an HD DVD using its HDMI 1.3 port. Loading our newly acquired HQV benchmark test HD DVD disk, it was hard to find anything wrong with the picture we were looking at. The blacks were some of the blackest we've seen with an LCD projector at any price, and blacks are a weakness of LCDs. There were hardly any visible jaggies in the diagonal lines test, and that "screen door effect" of visible gridwork that plagues LCD projectors was nowhere to be found here, unless you stuck your nose right up next to the screen.

But how does its projected image look when it's blown up to projectus giganticus size?

Moving the projector way back into the cheap seats at the Midwest Test Facility theater, we were almost able to get the picture up to its largest quoted 120-inch diagonal size, which was just downright enormous. Even then, the HD DVDs that we viewed, a total of five of them, all looked pristine in all of their 1080p glory, and still, there was no screen door effect. Hey, we could get used to this. The sharpness was tremendous, the colors were vivid as we've ever seen with any projector, and heck, the thing didn't even make a whole lot of noise on its highest brightness setting. Lowering the projector to its low brightness setting cut the fan noise in half, and it was barely even audible as it sat on its test bench in the back of the room.

Next it was time to test how evenly lit its projected image is, so we moved the projector closer to the screen, to our customary 84-inch diagonal test size at which we test brightness for all of our projectors here. Measuring on a nine-way grid with our precision light metering equipment, we noticed impressive uniformity of the light, with the hottest spot of 588 lumens dead center on the screen, and the lowest, 468 lumens on the lower left part of the screen. These are some good numbers compared with most projectors we've seen, and result in a screen that appears evenly lit watching normal program material.

Next we plugged in our Xbox 360, and tried out some good old 720p Gears of War fragging. The three LCDs kept up with our quickest movements with nary a lag, and with the 5.1 surround sound blasting away, Phoenix, Cole and friends never had such a dramatic time taking down the Locust. The spooky dark places looked dark enough to be dimmer than dark gray, and the colors were even more vivid than on our LED-lit Samsung HL-S5679W 1080p rear-screen projector, the former color champ.

How's a computer look on this projector? We plugged in a laptop with a graphics card that's capable of outputting a 1920x1080 image, and this was also a startlingly sharp and clear. We closely viewed our DisplayMate set of benchmarks, and this projector ran through that video obstacle course without even breathing hard. We were also impressed with the playback of images from a TiVo Series3 in 720p, again handily beating our 1080p rear-screen projector as well as a 720p LCD we had lying around, too.

The bottom line? If you're looking for a 1080p projector, $3000 is a pittance to spend for such tremendous quality. We're hoping to test another 1080p projector soon, namely the identically priced PT-AE1000U if Panasonic is up to the challenge, but for now, this is the best gigantic screen picture we've ever seen. It's downright excellent, and worth every penny of its $3000 price. Thumbs up, all the way. So how much 1080p-ness can you get for $3000? About 120 inches. – Charlie White

See, though the PT-AE1000U lists for $5,999, its street price is $3,999. Knock off $1,000 in the form of a rebate, and you get $2,999, which is totally by coincidence the same price as Epson's new PowerLite Home Cinema 1080. As in "First 1080p Resolution Front Projector To Break $3,000 Price Mark".

If you're stoked about the Panny, you'll be happy to know that the rebate also includes a 3-year extended warranty (a $1,200 value). If you are not ready to make up your mind, our very own Charlie White will be posting a review of the Epson PowerLite 1080 next week. Just remember to make up your mind before April 30, when Panasonic's offer falls off the table. – Wilson Rothman

Panasonic Projectors - Promotions [Panasonic]