[huh @ Sep 6th 2007 11:34PM]

My point was these projectors can be suboptimal for computers, because of Panasonic's over-tweaking, which can also cause problems with "movies." While their primary purpose may be for movies, many people currently and in the future will use them with home theatre PCs, for movies and emerging interactive media. Models are starting to emerge that acknowledge higher quality, non "data," computer uses, but presumably people on Engadget will be ahead of the curve.

Projectorcentral is the best projector review site - which doesn't mean much, especially considering how subjective and slanted projector reviews can be ("in a side by side comparison, X looked better while watching X.") I wrote them about their lack of concern for HTPC uses, and they were clearly willing to drag their heels and ignore the HTPC crowd for now.

I went to a store intending to buy the PT-AE900u, but ended up buying the Sanyo Z5 because for computer use it had a clearer display. The cause was their "Smooth Screen" effect, which as far as I know is an intentional physical altering of the display. "Smooth Screen" may be useful for pure movie watching, but you could just defocus the projector slightly. (And I'm not just talking about this one effect).

Try this (if you haven't noticed it already). Turn on a 3d effect (concert hall, etc) on an amp while listening to a song that already has a lot of echo in it. It sounds like crap. There is a similar effect when Panasonic's (or any other product) "enhancement" runs across a condition it wasn't designed for. Many of these "enhancements" are really rigged gimmicks for the showroom. Big surprise.