Panasonic PT-AE4000 Projector - Warranty

The Panasonic PT-AE4000 has an interesting warranty, but not a particularly great one. Officially, it comes with a one year parts and labor warranty which is about the minimum. There's a "But", however. It seems that most of the time (if not all), you can get a second year free, by registering properly. Consider it like a mail-in rebate. That will give almost everyone a two year warranty. Even so, there's one caveat; Even with the extension, Panasonic only warranties the projector for a total of 2000 hours (or two years, whichever comes first). As a result most fairly heavy users - all of us who watch TV, sports, and movies (gaming too), will run out of warranty before two years is up. For a 40 hour a week user, their warranty will barely last a year. A 30 hour a week user will get about a year and a half. If you expect to run your projector a lot, you might want to consider a 3rd party extended warranty. As to how the PT-AE4000 warranty stacks up to the obvious competition: The BenQ W6000 has a one year warranty The two Epson Home Cinema projectors - the 8100 and 8500UB come with two years, and an overnight replacement program for both years; the Pro versions which cost a bit more come with 3 years and replacement all three The Samsung SP-A600 comes with two years The Mitsubishi HC3800 comes with two years The Sony VPL-HW15 comes with two years OK, you should have the idea. Bottom line, the Panasonic has a two year warranty but heavier users will run out sooner. All considered, slightly below average in terms of warranty.