Panasonic PT-AX200E vs Samsung SP-A600B

Zoom: in general, LCD projectors have more powerful zooms than their DLP counterparts, and the Panasonic is no exception, winning the zoom duel hands down. Projecting a large picture from a short distance has obvious advantages, but projecting a smaller image can also be useful, as it allows you to place the projector at the back of a room while still maintaining a decent-sized projection.

Lens shift: almost no DLP projectors have this function. The PT-AX200E lens shift takes the form of a joystick on the front panel that you can move around a circular axis to reposition the projected image on the screen or wall. This function allows you greater freedom in where you place the projector as you won't have to place it directly in front of the screen at exactly the right height.

Power consumption: 0 watts for the Panasonic and 0.6 watts for the Samsung. Both excellent scores.

Rainbow effect: this is caused by the mono-chip DLP projection system. The rainbow effect is visible and unavoidable in black and white pictures, but it's less apparent in bright or colour pictures. Just how noticeable and how annoying the effect appears will vary from user to user. This is the major drawback of DLP technology.

Noise levels in operation: we recorded 25.5 dB for the Samsung and 27.5 dB for the Panasonic. Samsung wins but both are good scores.

Connections: apart from a few minor differences, both projectors have pretty much the same connections.

Design: although the quality of the picture projected is way more important than the projector's design, it's still worth mentioning that Samsung's projector breaks the mould with an original appearance that won't look out of place in a stylish living room.

Dynamic iris: to improve the depth of black, the Panasonic PT-AX200E can partially mask the light source using an integrated iris system. The animation in the insert section of the product test shows how it works. This is practical for scenes that are dark overall, but it doesn't give enough depth to dark areas surrounded by lighter colours.

Smooth Screen: to reduce visibility of the matrix, the PT-AX200E uses a crystal to multiply the surface area of the pixels by 1.5, thus masking the black lines of the grid. This does, however, slightly reduce the sharpness of the picture, making it less suitable for office use (e.g. displaying Excel tables).

TV: it all depends on the source. TV channels are currently broadcast in SD, but the arrival of HD channels is just around the corner. The quality of the broadcasts is, however, variable. This makes a good internal upscaling function essential, unless you can count on an upscaling function in your external amplifier or media centre to do the job instead.

We'd be tempted to advise you to use a 720p projector for lower-quality broadcasts and 1080p for HD channels, if and when you have access to them. The only thing is, a projector is an investment that you're likely to keep for several years. So hopefully, if HD channels really take off, you'll be able to watch more and more programmes in HD. With this in mind, you might be better off picking a Full HD model, as it'll be more useful in the future, even if you'll have to put up with poor-quality SD broadcasting for the time being.