With the ability to project a variety of images, including an enhanced golf simulation configuration, Panasonic's PT-VMZ82 is like a Swiss Army knife that can perform multiple roles. It is versatile, flexible, and very efficient but might be missing a blade or two, like HDR decoding, 4K emulation, and a video out circuit.

Its laser lighting and three WUXGA LCD panels combine to create bright, sharp, and vivid pictures that allows the lights to stay on for most company or classroom work. Rated at 8,000 lumens and costing $5,200, the PT-VMZ82 just about matches Epson's PowerLite L890E lumen for lumen and dollar for dollar. On the other hand, the L890E uses pixel-shifting to project in super-sharp 4K.

Still, the PT-VMZ82 has the potential to be a powerhouse projector for everything from a lecture hall to a small auditorium to a large conference room to a digital golf course.

Insights into Our Reviewer's Process

Check out this video podcast interview with Brian Nadel discussing his review of the Panasonic PT-VMZ82 large-venue projector.

Features

Regardless of whether it is meant to augment services at a house of worship, lessons at school, or presentations in a business conference room, the Panasonic PT-VMZ82 is a versatile projector that can put a bright and vivid image in its place—on the screen. Still, it lacks some of the amenities—like 4K emulation and HDR decoding—that its peers offer.

Available in white or black, the PT-VMZ82 weighs 6 pounds and measures 15.7 x 4.5 x 13.7 (WHD) inches.

In addition to four adjustable feet, the PT-VMZ82 has four attachment points underneath and worked well with my generic mounting bracket. That said, Panasonic's ET-PKD100H hardware ($615) can help in tall rooms with an extendable arm that can go from 11.5 to 16 inches.

The PT-VMZ82 can project from any angle without worrying about overheating but requires 20 inches of clearance for the input vent on the left and 40 inches for the exhaust on the right. Unlike most other projectors, the PT-VMZ82 has internal gyroscopic sensors that show the device's roll (side to side) and pitch (front to back) angles to make quick work of leveling it.

Part of a new wave of inexpensive commercial projectors, Panasonic rates the PT-VMZ82 at 8,000 ANSI lumens and lists it for $10,999, but it can be had for closer to $5,200. If that's too much for your budget, there are versions capable of 7,300 ANSI lumens (PT-VMZ72) and 6,500 ANSI lumens (PT-VMZ62) for $4,700 and $3,000, respectively. They all have the same standard-throw 1.6X lens with a throw ratio between 1.09 and 1.77:1. Panasonic also sells two short-throw models, the PT-VMZ7ST and PT-VMZ6ST.

All PT-VMZ projectors use a high efficiency blue laser, part of whose output goes to a phosphor disc that converts the stream into yellow light. After being split into its red and green components with a dichroic mirror, the primary color beams go to the PT-VMZ82's three 0.64-inch LCD panels to create the projector's full color images.

The PT-VMZ82 peaks at a 25-foot image from 34 to 59 feet, depending on zoom level, without getting washed out. Projector Central's Throw Distance Calculator can help to see if it can fill the screen in your room.

Because it is built around LCD screens, the PT-VMZ82 needs a dust filter that under normal conditions should last the 20,000-hour lifespan of the laser lighting components or something like a decade of hard use. That said, those in harsh environments might want to wash it or change it. Replacement filters cost $150 and take a minute or two to swap out.

The PT-VMZ82's Daylight View mode helps make every lumen count, although it doesn't raise the projector's output. Rather, it enhances the image's colors based on an ambient light sensor to better stand up to a bright room's lighting. The PT-VMZ82's picture modes include Dynamic, DICOM SIM, White Board, Cinema, Natural, and Standard, but nothing like a sRGB or Rec. 709 configuration. In addition to a user-defined one, the projector has a unique Vivid Green setting for golf simulations.

The projector offers the expected 4:3, 16:9, and 16:10 aspect ratios for presenting conventional material. It also includes the Microsoft Teams 21:9 ultrawide screen format for fitting in as many faces as possible during a video conference.

All optical changes are manual including focusing and zooming. There are two dials on top for mechanically shifting the image by as much as 44% vertically and 20% horizontally; they cannot be locked to prevent a setting from drifting over time. The PT-VMZ82 can correct for keystone distortion up to 25 percent vertically and 35 percent horizontally and uses an efficient four-corner sequence to correct for a curved screen.

The PT-VMZ82 has one thing most of the competition lacks: a VGA video port. This can be a big help in schools, churches, and businesses that rely on analog video. There are also a pair of HDMI connections and an HDBase-T port for networked video. It does without a video out port for a secondary display, though.

Its USB Type A ports can show images from an external drive but not use a mouse for interacting with the menu. It works with Panasonic's $150 dual-band AJ-WM50G Wi-Fi 5 module and Panasonic's Wireless Projector apps for Androids, iPhones, and iPads to add extra collaboration into the classroom or office with screen sharing.

In addition to the ability to schedule the use of the projector, the PT-VMZ82 has an RS-232 port for performing remote operations. Plus, Panasonic's Smart Projector Control app can manage the PT-VMZ82 or a building full of projectors. It works with PJLink, Crestron Connected V2, and XiO Cloud as well as XTP control systems. So that every projector is on the same page, the PT-VMZ82 can send or save configuration files either using a phone or a network connection.

There's an RJ-45 networking port that brings up the PT-VMZ82's monitoring and adjustment screens, including the home screen for picking the input, checking on the input frequency, and viewing errors. That said, the status page stands out with the projector's current pitch and roll angles as well as its intake and exhaust temperatures along with red zones. The projector's six test patterns are also available.

Its large 47-key backlit remote control has dedicated keys for adjusting gamma, brightness, and contrast but requires digging into the projector's menu to change the picture mode. The remote uses a pair of AA batteries and had a 35-foot range but the projector lacks an infrared receiver in the back or a way to directly wire it to the projector for extending its reach.

The PT-VMZ82's 10-watt speaker gets surprisingly loud and is great for spoken word material, but music and movies sounded hollow. The PT-VMZ82's audio-out jack can connect an external sound system for a larger room. There's also an audio in jack but nothing specifically for using a microphone.

Panasonic includes a three-year warranty with the PT-VMZ82 with next-day shipping of replacement units. The company's support pages are extensive, including a deep FAQ section for general ideas and compatible devices. The projector's 220-page manual is downloadable and chock full of explanations and instructions for getting the most out of the PT-VMZ82. The site has contact information for help but no phone numbers.

Performance

With a startup time of 11.9 seconds, the Panasonic PT-VMZ82 is fast enough to work in stop-and-go environments like a shared conference room or classroom. The projector's Quick Startup setting can shave a few seconds off that time. The projector's shutdown process took only two seconds after being powered off.

Color Modes. The PT-VMZ82 has seven picture modes plus a user-defined one. It starts with the innovative Vivid Green selection that helps make grass look a realistic yellowish green for indoor digital golf simulations.

That said, the PT-VMZ82's Dynamic setting also has a lot of green in it, but it should be fine for high-brightness uses for presentations and tabular material. The projector's Natural and Standard modes push closer to a neutral color balance, but there's no sRGB or Rec. 709 setting.

For movie night, the PT-VMZ82 can warm up the image for a darkened room, while teachers will likely appreciate the projector's White Board setting. Its DICOM SIM high-contrast setup is for showing medical scans at a nursing program, hospital, or doctor's office. The PT-VMZ82 lacks a multi-projector setting, which is something Panasonic reserves for its higher-end projectors.

Presentation Viewing. In the high-output Dynamic mode, the PT-VMZ82 put 7,677 ANSI lumens on screen, which is only four percent below its 8,000 ANSI lumen spec. Still, that is a lot of light for a big conference room, lecture hall, or auditorium. Its greenish yellow tint makes photographs and videos look off but should be fine for spreadsheets and most class lessons.

The projector's Vivid Green mode takes advantage of its base color balance by offering better green and yellow shading and realistic rendering of trees and grass for golf simulations. It delivered 5,343 ANSI lumens but can look cold in other uses.

There are also two specialty modes, starting with the DiCom Sim setting that pushes contrast and yielded 4,953 ANSI lumens for showing medical scans. The school-oriented White Board setting put 5,798 lumens onscreen.

The Natural and Standard modes do well for naturalistic color balance and resemble the look of a sRBG setting. The two put out 5,083 and 5,629 ANSI lumens, respectively, but Natural was warmer while Standard was brighter.

Finally, the PT-VMZ82's The Daylight View mode uses an ambient light sensor to boost the color on graphics to make them stand out from the background in brightly lit rooms while not actually raising the brightness.

Video Viewing. The Cinema mode had an overall warmer feel with lots of extra pink tones thrown in. Aimed at use in a darkened room, it sent 5,096 ANSI lumens to the screen, which is one third less than the projector's peak output.

Footage from BBC's A Perfect Planet Blu-ray disc showed up well onscreen with an overall neutral look that excelled during the flamingo scenes. Here, the pink and orange bits contrasted well against the white sand blue sky. Unfortunately, there's no HDR mode for decoding specialized programming to boost color saturation, highlights, and dark areas.

At 346 watts, the PT-VMZ82 was the efficiency champ at a 22.2 lumen per watt power rating. Factor in its 13.6-watt idle power use, and you get an estimated annual electricity bill of $114, assuming it is used for eight hours a day, 200 days out of the year, and your organization pays the national average of 17.5 cents per kilowatt hour.

There are also three low-power modes to reduce operating expenses at the cost of brightness. The Eco setting reduced power use by 29 percent and brightness to 5,369 ANSI lumens—a 30 percent drop—while Quiet 1 and Quiet 2 modes lowered the projector's power use to 290 and 240 watts. The brightness levels in these modes dropped to 6,682 and 5,525 lumens.

Along the way, the Quiet 1 and Quiet 2 modes lowered noise from a peak of 44.9dBA to 41.9dBA and 40.1dBA. These real-world measurements were made in a room with a background noise level of 37.4dBA, while Panasonic used a sound-proof room to rate the projector at 39dB in normal operations, and 34dB and 29dB in Quiet 1 and Quiet 2 modes.

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Conclusion

With one of the most efficient designs available, the Panasonic PT-VMZ82 brings together high-output lasers with a three-LCD design that can light up a classroom, house of worship, or a company's conference room with WUXGA (1920 x 1200 pixels) resolution. Its reduced size and weight and integrated pitch-and-roll sensors ease its installation.

The PT-VMZ82 sells for about $5,200 and has an ace up its sleeve with its Vivid Green mode that makes grass look greener for popular golf course simulator applications.

Measurements

Brightness. The PT-VMZ82's Dynamic mode delivered 7,677 ANSI lumens, which is only four percent lower than its 8,000 ANSI lumens spec. It's more than enough for a conference room, small church or school lecture hall, although its greenish tint will limit it to projecting spreadsheets and classroom lessons.

This becomes a virtue with the projector's Vivid Green setting. Aimed at indoor golf simulations, it sent 5,343 ANSI lumens to the screen with realistic imaging for trees and grass.

The Cinema mode put up 5,096 ANSI lumens and should work well in a dark room, although the PT-VMZ82 lacks HDR decoding. Its Standard mode came close to a neutral color balance at 5,629 ANSI lumens although its balance was on the cold side. The Natural setting put a warmer 5,083 ANSI lumens on the screen.

There's also the school-oriented White Board mode (5,798 ANSI lumens) to allow a teacher to mix a projected image with markers for an interactive lesson. The medical DICOM SIM setting yielded 4,953 ANSI lumens.

Panasonic PT-VMZ82 ANSI Lumens

Picture Mode	Lumens
Dynamic	7,677
DICOM SIM	4,953
Vivid Green	5,343
White Board	5,798
Cinema	5,096
Natural	5,083
Standard	5,629

Power Use and Fan Noise. The PT-VMZ82 consumed 346 watts and is estimated to cost $114 in electricity bills over the year. The projector's three low-power modes lower brightness while reducing expenses and lowering fan noise:

Eco lowered its power consumption 29 percent and brightness by 30 percent with fan noise dropping from 44.9dBA to 44.4dBA.

Quiet 1 lowered power use by 16 percent and brightness by 13 percent while lowering fan noise further to 41.9dBA.

Quiet 2 reduced power and brightness by 31 percent and 28 percent while the noise level dropped to 40.1dBA.

The sound readings were made in a room with a background noise level of 37.4dBA.

Brightness Uniformity. The PT-VMZ82 has a tight brightness uniformity of 94.4 percent. As a comparison, Epson's PowerLite L890E's measured 88.7 percent.

Input Lag. Using a Bodnar Video Signal Input Lag Tester, the PT-VMZ82 yielded a 50.2 millisecond video delay using an HD/60Hz signal. That's better than most but could disappoint when speed is of the essence, such as for a school's video gaming team.

Connections

• HDMI 2.0 with HDCP support (x2)
• VGA (DB-15)
• HDBase-T (RJ-45)
• 100Mbps wired LAN (RJ-45)
• Audio-in and -out (3.5mm headphone jack)
• USB Type-A (for power and as an image viewer)
• RS-232 serial port

For more detailed specifications and connections, check out our Panasonic PT-VMZ82BU projector page.

To buy this projector, use Where to Buy online, or get a price quote by email direct from Projector Central authorized dealers using our E-Z Quote tool.

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