Customer Reviews
P-sonic extended the warranty by 6mos. Also, AX200U solves iris issue 
2008-03-16
Highly recommended for color, clarity, flexibility, and ease of use.
Panasonic has extended the warranty on this model by 6 months (total of 1.5 years). Also, the PT-AX200U solves the iris problem if you want to buy that unit without the warranty hassle.
1,100 Hours so Far 2008-02-10
I've had the Panasonic for over a year now and I have 1,100 hours on the Lamp. It's only turned itself off once that I know of in the last year and I didn't think anything about it at the time. This week it started flickering occasionally like it was switching between normal power and eco-power which is really annoying. I have a high-end power conditioner so I do't think electricity is the issue.
Picture quality is terrific and blows away everyone who see's it on a 100" screen in my media room. I'll keep my fingers crossed that nothing else goes wrong, I bought one of the very first pt-ax100u's on the market.
BAD Iris BAD iris 
2008-01-18
Read the other reviews. The iris in this thing is bad and Panasonic is ignoring that this is a defective product. They should have all been recalled.
Panasonic must recall this projector 2007-12-20
My PT-AX100U's iris broke after 10 months of use. 8 months after the iris was replaced, the new iris broke again. Since so many people reported this problem, Panasonic must recall this projector.
AVOID - nearly all models defective 2007-10-15
Some of the reviewers below, after having rated this projector 5 stars, have re-written their reviews, but Amazon won't let them change the star rating. So read the reviews, not just the star ratings.
For the record, the image on this projector is great. But you are almost guaranteed to end up with two problems after a few hundred hours of use. These problems are well-documented on the internet, and you should browse online forums to see just how ubiquitous these issues are.
The biggest problem is the defective iris. Usually starting between 400-700 hrs of use, the projector will turn itself off after a few minutes of use. After waiting a few more minutes, you can restart the projector and it will work, but after the next 20 or so hours of use, the projector will keep powering itself down and will not stay on. You will have to send it in to Panasonic.
The second problem is the color uniformity issue. On most models, you will start to see blue or red streaks across the edges of the screen. This is most noticeable during the white test screen, but if you watch black & white movies, as I do, you will not be able to avoid seeing the discoloration. When you're forced to send the projector to Panasonic because of the iris issue, they will "fix" the color uniformity problem by changing the test screen from white to blue, so that you can no longer see the blue streaks--when viewing the test screen!
I would be willing to give Panasonic the benefit of the doubt if their customer service wasn't so bad. (I should mention that if you do buy this projector, get a good extended warranty, as the problem may occur after initial warranty runs out, though it happened to me within 4 months of purchasing it). Although this problem is bound to happen with nearly every AX100u that they put out, they will feign ignorance on the phone and try to get out of helping you. They will give you a "case number" and promise to call you back within 48 hours. They will not call you back within 48 hours. You will call them back and they will avoid you. After you threaten to write a negative review on Amazon, they will relucantly allow you to send in your projector, which will cost you 50-100 dollars to ship. You will get your projector back within 7-30 days. Worst of all, it's starting to become clear that after another 400-700 hours of use, the problem will reoccur.
Panasonix AX-100U sucks + no support 2008-07-15
I had purchased this projector12 months back and am facing a problem as briefed below and possible solutions tried but the problem is still not fixed.
1) The projector powers off after 30-60 seconds on starting and goes on stand by (yellow light). It then shows a red light of power off
2) The projector does not start after this with the remote
3) It has to be powered off from the mains and then restarted
4) Earlier, this used to happen once and now it behaves abnormally and sometimes it has to be restarted even upto 8 times or sometimes even just 2 times
5) After this, the projector does not shut down and movies can be watched for even as long as 8-10 hours
The projector was given to a service centre who did not find any problems in the hardware (power ballast, fans, bulb etc is ok). They have suggested that the PCB mainboard should be changed which costs as much as a new projector.
Bad Iris here 2008-07-02
I am in the same boat as the others - bad iris. This product stinks and unfortunately I was taken.
Now I will have to be shipping it around at my expense.
This will be the last Panasonic product I buy.
These are lemon projectors 2008-05-01
Don't Buy!!!! Sent in for repair more than once. Now that the warrantee has expired the projector is dead. Google for tons of other problems that other people have had.
Great picture until it goes black 2008-04-24
Same problem that everybody else is reporting. I had one for about 3 months and it started blanking, so I returned it for another. This one has worked for about 6 months and it is now doing the same thing.
Basically you turn it on, and within 5 minutes, the picture goes black. If you pull the plug and restart it, it'll come up again. The problem seems to be getting worse, as for a while it would only require 1 restart, and now it has been requiring 2 or 3.
I did notice the 2nd one's test pattern is now yellow and blue, instead of white and black, which is apparently because of color streaks which would be all too visible on the original test pattern.
This seems pretty dirty of Panasonic. On the plus side, the image is fantastic when it works.
Reliability issues 2008-03-29
Like other users, I am experiencing the same problem that the projector shuts itself down after moments of use.
My projector has been running for 1300 hrs. I just bought a new lamp thinking that it might be the lamp but nada. It does the same thing.
I will be sending this back to Panasonic. I think that I bought this less than a year ago. I will update on what happened to it.
