Most of the current breed of 1080p projectors are capable of delivering a super-sized picture that's sharp enough to rival anything you might see in your local cineplex, and few would disagree that Panasonic's PT-AE1000E projector was one of the standout products in last season's LCD projection range.

So it was with some excitement that I unboxed the PT-AE1000E's (cheaper) successor, the cunningly-named Panasonic PT-AE2000E.

Not a looker

Not that the its outward appearance will curry favour. For it is really quite ugly; a surprisingly large, rectangular extrusion of heavy-duty black plastic with a few grilles down its sides.

Panasonic defends the AE2000E's design deficiencies by explaining that the model is aimed at serious home theatre buyers who wouldn't want to sully their viewing rooms with anything suffering design pretensions.

This sounds like nonsense to me - and anyway, first impressions count. Stick this monolithic beast opposite, say, Epson's sexy TW2000 in a beauty pageant, and it's obvious which one would attract the attention of the judges.

Getting connected

That said, there are a couple of practical things about the AE2000E's exterior that I do like, such as the two wheel arrangements on the projector's lid - or bottom, if you ceiling-mount it - that provide simple horizontal and vertical image shifting, and the generous video connectivity.

The projector's connections panel plays host to three HDMI v1.3 sockets, two component video inputs, as well as a PC input and RS-232C control jack.

It would have been helpful for Panasonic to have provided a 12V trigger output for driving an electronic screen (a simple nicety which a surprising number of projector manufacturers continue to ignore), but you can't have everything.

Extreme contrast ratio

The AE2000E's specifications are ambitious. It offers Full HD resolution and an eye-catching contrast ratio of 16,000:1 - one of the highest I can recall seeing attributed to an LCD projector.

As ever, though, there is a caveat, in that you can only get close to so much contrast if you use the dynamic iris. The iris dictates how much light is allowed through the lens when dark scenes are detected; it reduces light in a bid to make blacks look, well, blacker.

Our Tech Labs measure all projectors with the dynamic Iris trickery switched off, even though improved blacks are likely with it engaged. In this regard, the PT-AE1000E offers up a very respectable rating of 1,250:1 after calibration.

Improved lens

Totally updated from the projector's previous iteration is a new lens unit, comprising no fewer than 16 lens elements. The projector can throw a 120in picture from between 3.6m and 7m, thanks to a versatile 2x powered zoom.

The AE2000E's black level can be considered very good, particularly with the dynamic iris active; shadow detail retrieval is excellent. Yet over the course of the audition, I decided to dispense with the dynamic iris, as I became sensitive to overt brightness shifts.

While the iris reacts faster than that seen on the AE1000E, I still noticed the telltale brightness 'jumps' as it opened and closed. That said, the black level is truly remarkable for a £2K LCD projector.

Vibrant colours

Panasonic's PT-AE2000E offers more control over colour than virtually all its rivals.

A Cinema Colour Management tool, which allows colour correction to a much finer degree than was possible on the AE1000E, is joined by a waveform monitor that provides a handy graphical representation of any changes made to the unit's colour settings.

There's also the brand's proprietary Pure Colour Filter Pro technology, designed to allow improvements to colour reproduction and black level.