From event to event, the announcements of Panasonic continue which, in this “round”, has paid attention to the smart TVs, foreseeing the arrival (almost all for July, except the LED LX800 scheduled in September) of various OLED and LCD models for a total of 10 series.
Listen to this article
During an event dedicated to the press, the Japanese brand Panasonic, already back from the ISE 2022 announcements, presented its assortment of 2022 smart TVs (almost all coming for July), with the OLED LZ2000 series (from 55, 65 and 77 “), LZ1500 (42, 48, 55, and 65”), LZ1000 (55 and 65 “) and LZ980 (42, 48, 55 and 65”). Among the LCDs, in addition to the premium Core LED families that include the LX940 series (43, 49, 55, 65, 75 inches) and LX800 (43, 50, 55, 65 and 75 inches), they have not disfigured the UltraHD series LX650 / LX600, the FullHD LS490 and the HD LS480.
In the OLED series the panels are calibrated for color and brightness by the Hollywood colourist Stefan Sonnenfeld, with the Master OLED Pro Cinema Size typology that embraces the 77 “of the LZ2000 series which, except for the 42 and 48”, generally uses the Master typology. OLED Pro with high luminance peaks. For the LZ100 series the manufacturer speaks of Master OLED, whereas for the LZ980 the 4K OLEDs play a role. In any case, the manufacturer has performed its own calibrations to expand the color volume, with a focus on the shades of blue, and raise the maximum brightness that can be reached, in particular in the True Cinema, Professional, Cinema, and Filmmaker modes. For the LX940 LCDs, HDR Cinema Display Pro panels are used: again among the Core LEDs, in the LX800 series from 43 to 50 ”the Bright Panel Plus are used while, for the larger ones, the HDR Cinema Displays are valid.
To unite the OLEDs and the LCD Premium LX940 series are several elements. By activating Game Mode Extreme on the series in question, equipped with HDMI 2.1, which support UHD @ 120Hz signals, and the variable refresh rate (AMD FreeSync and HDMI Forum VRR), the latency is brought to just 60 Hz. By assigning it to the programmable key “My app” on the remote control, you can then launch the “Game Control Board” overlay menu, which overlays the game information on the images and quickly makes the settings available (eg being able to see the effect you have by changing the video mode).
Another common element among the series mentioned is the HCX Pro AI processor. The latter, in analyzing the contents of the sources in real time, not only recognizes more quickly what is displayed on the screen, but also interacts with the sensors, in implementing automatic adjustments, which now do not take into account only the light level. environment, but also of the tone of the same, ensuring for example that in the evening, when warm lights are turned on, the ambient lighting does not contrast too much with a too cold tone with which the white is rendered. Netflix Calibrated Mode itself, conceived to preserve the artistic vision of directors, becomes adaptive, that is, it takes into account the data provided by the sensors for ambient brightness.
In terms of audio, in the OLED LZ2000 series equipped for Dolby Atmos, the 360 ° Soundscape system, of the all-in-one type, together with the directional audio, ensures an enveloping output, always well aimed at the viewer, thanks to beamforming devices. applied to what is delivered by the Front Array Speaker System. In the OLED LZ1500 series the 55 “watershed fans: from this diagonal upwards there is support for Dolby Atmos, a woofer for the bass and Dynamic Cinema Surround Pro while, for smaller cuts, the DA is paired with the Cinema system Surround Pro. Scaling further, the LX940 series inherits a Cinema Surround system, which becomes only Surround Sound on the LX800 series.
On the software side, the OLED and LCD LX940 series, ready for Alexa and Assistant, are animated by the 7th generation My Home Screen interface, which brings with it a quick menu to access the main settings that can also be managed via voice commands: accessibility for the hearing impaired it is easy to configure subtitles, audio descriptions and optimize dialogue. The LCD LX800 series does not have Alexa, but only Assistant, being animated by Android TV which, however, also brings Chromecast mirroring and Play Store apps. The choice for the Google operating system is also common to other Panasonic series, including the LCD FULLHD LS490 and LCD HD LS480 (50/60 Hz refresh rate, 3 HDMI 1.4 with ARC, HDR10 and HLG, 2K RMR at 600 Hz for motion processing), but not the ULTRA HD LX600 LCDs (4K Color Engine, HDR10, Dolby Vision and HLG for images, Dolby Atmos for audio, HDMI triplet with ALLM and eARC, 4K RMR at 1,200 Hz for motion processing: basically the same specifications as the LCD ULTRA HD LX650 series which however uses Android TV) which uses the Linux-based Smart TV platform.