December 9, 2003

Hi folks,

Yesterday we posted a comparative shoot-out review of the Panasonic PT-L500U and the Sanyo PLV-Z2. As noted on this page last week I had originally planned to do two separate articles, the first a Panasonic L500 review and the second a comparative analysis. But as they were being written they seemed to converge into a shoot-out format. So I decided not to fight it and go with the flow.

In the first 24-hours of its posting, we have an update from Panasonic regarding ship dates of the L500 and AE500. Last week they said shipments would commence December 15. Today they reported to us a delay of several weeks. Dealers are now expected to begin receiving inventory in January. We will keep you posted with updates as they materialize.

We currently have the Mitsubishi HC3 in the lab also. We should have that review done within another week or so.

The Sony HS20 is still scarce. We have requested one from Sony and expect to see it soon. Once we get that unit we will let you know when to expect the review.

Also, we still plan to review the Optoma H76. Currently we do not have one, and we have no idea when we will. To our knowledge production units have not yet arrived in the United States. Once we get an H76 and are able to see it up close and personal, readers of this page will be the first to know about it. We will probably receive the economy-class Optoma H30 before the H76, and we will do the reviews in the order we receive the products.

We expect to see the updated Philips bCool XG1 soon. The situation is that during the review we discovered an obscure performance defect on this unit that nevertheless could create problems for users opting to use progressive scan 480p input for DVD. Philips has developed a fix for it, and we are waiting to check it out. Personally, I like the Philips XG1 very much. It is bright, very quiet, and has great video attributes, especially with progressive input. We believe owners of the XG1 will be very satisfied with their choice. The fix involved a software update, so not a big thing to worry about.

Thank you for using ProjectorCentral,

Evan Powell