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By Paul Stevenson October 5, 2016 Read More →

Panasonic RP-HXS200 Review

I recently had the opportunity to try out the RP-HXS200 headphones by Panasonic. These are budget headphones (retailing for around £18 on Amazon), something immediately evident from the rather basic clamshell packaging which claims “Clear & powerful sound”. The set I tried were a funky black, blue and light grey combination and I must admit, I did like the look of them. Once you get them out of the packaging and in hand, they do feel very plasticky and I’m not sure how much daily abuse they’ll take, although I was pleasantly surprised to see the flat, tangle-free type cables do seem reassuringly robust. A rarity at this end of the market.

One of the main gripes I have with on-ear headphones has always been a question of where you put them when they aren’t in use. I am nowhere near hipster enough to dander around with them around my neck like a big plastic fashion accessory and they are usually too big or fragile to be just chucked in a bag. The Panasonic party piece is that they fold up Transformer style into a neat little form factor that can be easily tucked into a bag or jacket pocket. This is a great feature, but sadly these headphones are not the clunky, rugged Transformers of old, they are the flimsy plastic modern ones and I was more than a little wary of putting too much strain on the various joints, hinges, and rotating pieces.

Once they were transformed and ready to roll out, I plugged them into my iPhone to see what kind of sound they were capable of. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much, but I was actually rather impressed. For under £20, the sound quality was really rather good. Well, initially it was. The Panasonics seem to handle intros and simple pieces very well indeed, punching well above their weight. I was listening to S.O.B. by Nathaniel Rateliff and was getting some great separation and a nice tone during the opening of the song. The acapella vocals, humming and clapping were all coming through extremely well. Sadly this ended swiftly when the rest of the band kicked in and price point of the Panasonics showed through. Unable to handle all the layers and detailing, the sound appeared compressed as they struggled to funnel the high, mid and bass levels through the drivers. I tried several pieces across a number of musical genres and found this to be consistent.

They did very well with the stripped back sounds of Lorde, but sounded terrible with Metallica’s layered detail and depth. I initially spent about 25-30mins testing out these headphones before I had to take them off. The plastic covering of the earpieces had slowly roasted my ears almost to the point of combustion and I had to take a break. The Panasonics are very light and have a great range of adjustment and I suspect if you are the sort that can put up with the plastic against your skin for extended periods of time, you’ll probably have no trouble with them. But if you are the sort that finds headphones make your ears start to get warm after a while, I’d maybe pass on these. In truth, I personally have never found on ear headphones particularly comfortable and these are certainly no exception, but your mileage may vary.

Overall I’d say these headphones are aimed at the younger user and at the price point there is always going to be a compromise with the quality of sound and construction. If you like on ear headphones and simple pop music, then they are a pretty good buy and certainly worthy of consideration. For those looking for a quality sound however, I would suggest leaving these for the kid in the skinny jeans and slouch hat behind you.

The Panasonic RP-HXS200’s are available at www.reichelt.co.uk the online electronics retailer where many products up to 20% cheaper than elsewhere in the UK.

Posted in: Headphones, Reviews
Tags: Featured

By Gareth April 29, 2016 Read More →

Touching the Panasonic DX902

Recently I was invited along to experience the new Panasonic DX902, a television that Panasonic are extremely proud of. Instead of getting distracted with all the latest Smart TV features Panasonic is focusing entirely on the best picture quality they can get from a panel. With the DX902 they are proud to point out it is receiving some of the best reviews across the Internet of any LED TV.

Previously Panasonic have spent a lot of time concentrating on plasma however they are having to keep up with the times as people are wanting thinner televisions with better power usage ratings. Pushing the LED technology as far as they can Panasonic has put in a vibrant 4K panel that handles HDR better than most. Additionally the Firefox TV operating system is in play here and gives a fast, responsive and easy to use experience for any TV user. This new model can be hanging from the ceiling by using a ceiling tv mount to hold it.

Around the back of a panel are 4 HDMI ports with Audio Return Channel (ARC) and thankfully each of these is compliant with the high definition copy protocol (HDCP) 2.2 standard. Three USBs have been installed one of which is USB 3.0, and Panasonic have thankfully added set of optical audio outputs alongside the standard ethernet and tuner for Freeview and Freesat. As usual with the last few incarnations of Panasonic Viera TV’s we have two remote controls, a standard IR remote and a Bluetooth TouchPad that adds voice control.

The real star of the show year however is the new backlight technique Panasonic are employing, utilising local dimming. This screen is not lit from the edge, instead it uses a very specific structure with seven by seven clusters creating isolated areas of the screen to minimise any leakage. This allows the panel to have exceptionally deep blacks. We witnessed a test of Mad Max: Fury Road from a 4k disk and the results for stunning. IPTV Prueba España definitely has the best collection of shows.

What we’re seeing here is one of the first televisions with 10-bit HDR, a new standard supported by Ultra HD Blu-ray. The loss of detail and clipping is astonishing however Mad Max: Fury Road actually has dropped frames integrated into the original negative and some may mistaken this for performance problems. The DX902 has a new HCX+ (Hollywood Cinema eXperience plus) processing chipset, an improvement on the 4K Studio Master Processor, that helps produce pre-HDR Rec 709. This has earned 4K Certification from the renowned independent quality assurance group, THX.

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The Award-winning cinematographer Vanja Cernjul, known from TV series such as Marco Polo and Orange Is The New Black, noted: “I think when consumers see a 4K HDR image, they will get used to it very quickly, and then just start demanding it”. Panasonic utilised Vanja to create a cinematic short film to demonstrate Panasonic’s VIERA Ultra HD Premium TV’s ability to reproduce the director’s vision.

When all this is put together this TV really is one of the top TVs for the regular consumer, certainly experts may be able to see problems however for the average customer the combination of outstanding colour, ease of use, to the point feature set and elegant look really make for a winner. Whilst pricey you really are getting what you pay for here and if you’re entertaining a 4K screen this summer then the DX902 is one to look at.

The DX902 comes in two sizes, 58-inch for around £2700 and 65-inch costing around £3200.

More information is available on Panasonic’s website.

Posted in: News, TV & Home Cinema
Tags: Featured

By Gareth February 3, 2016 Read More →

Presenting the Panasonic Toughbook CF-20

The Panasonic Toughbook CF-20 delivers a new level of unrivalled versatility for mobile business computing as the first fully rugged detachable notebook. Offering the best of all worlds for mobile workers, the Toughbook can be used in 6 different modes to meet every business need. With its glove enabled touchscreen, up to 14 hour hot swappable battery life and purpose-built Vehicle Mount and Desktop Port Replicator, the Panasonic Toughbook CF-20 is an unrivalled rugged mobile business tool.

Kitted out with a powerful Intel® Core™ m5-6Y57 vPro™ and running Windows 10 Pro this Toughbook manages to include the Intel® HD Graphics 515 chip and a 10.1” high brightness WUXGA (1920×1200) display featuring a capacitive 10 finger, glove enabled multi-touchscreen. Panasonic’s test show the computer can survive a 120cm drop and comes with Water and dust resistance factor or IP65.

Posted in: Gadgets, Laptops, News, Tablets, Videos/Unboxings

By Gareth January 22, 2016 Read More →

Panasonic Viera TX 50CX802B review #VieraVIPclub

Last year we saw Panasonic putting out a pretty fantastic Viera television set the really blew away the competition with a feature set that included some of the nicest looking Smart TV software experiences available at the time. This year Panasonic have changed their focus away from pushing a software feature set in favour of display technology where their heart really lies.

A new super bright LED panel featuring wide colour phosphor technology which combines LED back lighting with a new colour filter system has increased brightness significantly without increasing the power requirements. This keeps the television as a low power option whilst maintaining a fantastic picture quality. This year’s 4K set has proved to be better than we could have imagined featuring crisp Blu-ray images on the panel’s generous 8.3 million pixels.

Some folks may pass this by as it is an LCD screen, nowadays most are all about LED. Panasonic is managed to produce a picture from an LCD screen that truly resembles in many ways the picture they managed to get from the plasma technologies that they so dearly clung onto for the last few years. It is a crazy notion that a company uses older technologies to achieve the best however Panasonic are certainly getting close.

Major work has been done to avoid the glow effect LCD TV’s sometimes suffer from when trying to show black, Panasonic has spent a lot of R&D time eliminating this glow effect and delivered a sense of depth and realism in the brighter content, the likes of which we haven’t seen before. Utilising clever light management Panasonic have been able to deliver deep blacks and can seemingly crush the bleed that can come from the side of the pixel affecting the next pixel. Each individual pixel seems to be able to offer its own degree of colour without affecting those surrounding it. An impressive technological feat that will probably be lost on the average viewer.

The Tom Cruise movie Oblivion is widely considered to be one of the best test cases for a screen and Panasonic have no qualms about showing off this movie on one of their screens. This is primarily because the television can handle it easily, and if I can handle that movie I can handle any.

The television itself is gorgeous with a minimal bezel surrounding the 50 inch screen. The stylish stand, admittedly that some may find impractical, possesses 3 HDMI sockets, 3 USB ports and an SD card slot alongside integrated Wi-Fi and wired network options. Changing from their in-house software the television now features Firefox OS as it’s main operating system. This has may concern some as recent news suggests that Firefox OS has become “a genuine open source project” and has been discontinued for smartphones. No word on the future of the television variant, and I hope that there is no plans to stop development as this it really works well. Minimal without being threadbare yet packing a lot of features that most TV manufacturers can’t manage to find a logical way to integrate without clustering of the user interface.

Functionality of this television is deeply impressive. We are given the option to simply be able to add frequently used features of the television to the main screen. I’m not talking about just a channel that is loved but a shortcut to your HDMI 3 instead of having to cycle through the TV/AV option on the remote control several times to get to HDMI 3. The helps greatly when wanting to use a Playstation or something a little more custom.

As a cord cutter I was skeptical of the television’s ability as a smart TV to function without an aerial or satellite feed. Firefox OS has an app collection that covers the main basis of television viewing whilst not stretching the boundaries. This was to be expected given the infancy of the operating system. Whilst most people will probably not actually use the TV’s inbuilt smart technology favouring Amazon’s Fire TV, Roku, Android TV options for their streaming needs there are some who will find the television’s operating system’s life span a concern as apps may not be supported for the long. For now, all is fine and like any emerging platform, only time will tell.

Panasonic are one of the first manufacturers to include a Freeview Play app. This app opens up the ability to view live television from all of the main UK terrestrial broadcasting platforms and integrate with their catch up platforms in a seamless experience to make up to the last month’s programming available at any time.

Adding to the Freeview Play option comes the Market. A diverse collection of content delivering apps that vary in quality however the main contenders are there. Wuaki, Youtube, Amazon, Vimeo and Netflix lead the way with around 100 others to flirt with. Catch up options are all pre-installed and might only need an update before use. Honestly, Firefox OS is beautifully convenient for a TV operating system, it’s hard to get right, Amazon and Roku’s hardware could learn a lot from this simple setup. In testing the 4K however I found there to be a bit of a scarcity of material. YouTube, Vimeo and Amazon are the only apps that deliver 4K out of the box. Netflix have some however I would have to change my subscription for gain access, as a legacy subscriber I get the HD for £5.99 instead of £6.99, to get 4K this would have to change to £8.99.

However judging a television cannot solely be based on the smart technologies inside. Many users never touch TVs in built operating system outside of setting the TV up. The Panasonic Viera is a display first and foremost and a phenomenal one at that. This is a television that people will stand in awe looking at and when you tell them how much you paid for it they will be considering going to the same retailer as you and picking one up.

Panasonic have lost the IPS technology they used in last year’s model and we’ve actually seen a bit of a u-turn on the viewing angle however this allows for a more impressive contrast performance.This helps Panasonic achieve the 4K Studio Master process they’re very proud of. Panasonic are hoping to deliver a similar experience to that directors see when editing their movies in Hollywood, on the master screens. Whilst most will probably not be able to tell the difference they’re taking it almost as a personal goal for the company to create the best-looking colour representation on screen this year.

If there is anything negative to say about the television is that the 3D included really feels like unnecessary addition that they don’t really expect you to use. Case and point, there are no glasses included in the box. Unfortunately I was unable to test the 3D without glasses and whilst content providers and exactly pushing 3D as much as they had been it’s likely someone who is actively going to purchase this television will have some 3D movies on amongst a media collection. Plan ahead, know where to get glasses.

Many will complain that they have too many remote controls in their living room, this Panasonic Viera will add two more. Oddly they both do pretty much the same thing. One controller is a standard long candy bar with the typical functions you would expect to find on a TV remote control save for a few shortcut buttons added in for convenience such as Netflix.

The second controller is the more interesting of the two. Much like last year Panasonic have be working on touch and voice controls. Lacking backlit buttons and a somewhat slippery exterior this little controller was more difficult to use than it’s bigger brother and be completely honest somewhat unnecessary as the touch controls felt a little unnatural. Certainly it is great to show off and voice control on your television is a wonderful addition especially when done right as with Apple TV, Fire TV and Roku however Panasonic haven’t quite nail this yet.

On the most cutting-edge television sound really isn’t taken seriously. The speakers here perform quite well however having the screen technology that is on display only makes sense that you plug-in a suitable system rather than relying on the inbuilt rear facing speakers. It seems a little crazy that it’s a given that people will purchase a surround sound system to go along with a television and the Panasonic Viera is no exception to this rule. If you want the most you will have to add something to it. The volume can go reasonably high and it renders voice is quite well. There was no noticeable disruption during noisy sequences however it just lacked that the immersive quality.

This TV is currently priced at £1,300 in Currys. Given that 4K TV’s can cost roughly doubt that this seems like an absolute bargain and if you purchase one you will be deeply pleased with your choice. Panasonic Viera maybe arguably slightly inferior to some of Samsung’s top offerings right now however Panasonic have a loyal customer base and those who are upgrading to this will be deeply impressed and thoroughly satisfied. Those who are not should really consider just why the loyal customers keep coming back to Panasonic.

For more information and demonstrations please check out:

http://bit.ly/Panasonic_Viera_TVs

Posted in: Reviews, TV & Home Cinema
Tags: Featured

By Gareth December 15, 2015 Read More →

Win a new Panasonic Sound Bar worth £160

To champion the latest Viera TV range, we’ve teamed up with Panasonic to offer one lucky reader a brand new Panasonic Sound Bar worth xx. You’ll be able to enjoy watching your TV with the highest quality of sound.

Panasonic Viera TVs, which I got to see in IFA, Berlin, as part of the Viera VIP Club, produce stunning images and are packed with ‘4K Pro’ technology, allowing you to view TV in remarkable quality.

Many Viera TVs from this year’s line up now feature 4K pro technology as standard. 4K allows content to be viewed in four times as many pixels as Full-HD content. They have a shiny new Mozilla-powered user interface which allows navigating around so much easier. Not only that, but the new range is the first to host Freeview Play. This service allows the viewer to stream Freeview programmes from the internet which you may have missed using the familiar TV guide rewind facility.

The Panasonic SC-HTB485EBK Sound Bar is a 2.1-channel high-quality sound system which produces a rich sound field and crisp, clear dialogue. It comes with a wireless subwoofer and its Music Sound Mode optimises music listening. Without taking up too much space, you can enjoy movies, TV and music videos with lifelike acoustic ambiance and the clearest of sounds.

To be in with a chance of winning a Panasonic Sound Bar, just answer the following question.

As usual we are going to make this very easy for you.

To enter, all you have to do is follow tracyandmatt on Twitter and retweet the following tweet: “RT I want to win a new Panasonic Sound Bar from @tracyandmatt and @PanasonicUK – You could too: http://wp.me/p3WUB6-fwL #vieravipclub” You can also click the retweet link below to save you copying and pasting the phrase. Your twitter name will be entered in to the draw.

RETWEET ME!

Your twitter name will be entered in to the draw. You’ll have to keep following us as we’ll notify winners via DM.

Entry is open until midnight on the 28th December 2015 and the winner will be picked on the 3rd January. Will that be a lucky day for you?

We’ll contact the winner via twitter so make sure that you are still following us!

Good luck.

Click here to find out more about the Panasonic Viera TV range.

Terms & Conditions for [insert blog/website name]/Panasonic Competition

1. The promoter is: Tracy And Matt Ltd

2. Tracyandmatt.co.uk contributors, Panasonic and their family members or anyone else connected in any way with the competition including helping to set up the competition shall not be permitted to enter the competition. The competition is only open to residents of the UK and Republic of Ireland (ROI), aged 18 years or over.

3. There is no entry fee and no purchase necessary to enter this competition.

4. Route to entry for the competition and details of how to enter are via http://wp.me/p3WUB6-fwL

5. Closing date for entry is 28/12/15. After this date the no further entries to the competition will be permitted. Only one entry may be submitted per participant. Multiple entries will not be considered. Incomplete incorrect or otherwise invalid entries will not be considered. The Promoter reserves the right to verify the eligibility of all participants. 6. No responsibility can be accepted for entries not received for whatever reason.

7. The prize for each winner are as follows: one Panasonic SC-HTB485EBK Sound Bar

8. The promoter reserves the right to cancel or amend the competition and these terms and conditions without notice and for any reason. Any changes to the competition will be notified to entrants as soon as possible by the promoter.

10. No cash alternative to the prizes will be offered. The prizes are not transferable. Prizes are subject to availability and the promotor reserves the right to substitute any prize with another of equivalent value without giving notice.

11. Winners will be drawn at random by Tracyandmatt from all valid entries received

12. The winner will be notified by email and/or letter within 28 days of the closing date. If the winner cannot be contacted or does not claim the prize within 14 days of notification, the promotor reserves the right to withdraw the prize from the winner and pick a replacement winner.

13. The winner consents to their name, postal address and mobile contact number to be passed on to Panasonic in order to fulfil the prize.

14. The winner agrees to the use of his/her name and image in any publicity material. Any personal data relating to the winner or any other entrants will be used solely in accordance with current UK data protection legislation and will not be disclosed to a third party without the entrant’s prior consent.15. The promoter’s decision in respect of all matters to do with the competition will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.

16. By entering this competition, an entrant is indicating his/her agreement to be bound by these terms and conditions.

17. The competition and these terms and conditions will be governed by English law and any disputes will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England.

Posted in: Competitions, TV & Home Cinema
Tags: Featured

By Gareth September 12, 2015 Read More →

Panasonic go Curved for OLED #VieraVIPClub

For the last number of years televisions have been getting smarter and more technology has been added in to make a more attractive option for the consumer. Seen as something of a giant smartphone we have seen 3D displays, cameras and Skype integration, planners, social media taking a central position of the specifications list. Panasonic have been trying to keep up with the competition but developing a user friendly front end with an app system for their Viera range. This year it’s all change.

In a commendable effort Panasonic are focusing their expertise on picture quality and leaving other bells and whistles to 3rd parties. Announcing two Viera televisions at IFA 2015 in Berlin this year Panasonic are pushing to be second to none when it comes to image quality. A position they are easily going to achieve.

Roving around the competitions at IFA it seems a lot of the other companies are interesting in two things, 98” behemoths or degrading the quality of the previous model to make their new line look all the more impressive, some companies more obviously than others. Panasonic opted to hang their latest panel beside a top end master screen used by Hollywood professionals for precise colour representation. A … move however an impressive one as the screen holds up to the superior picture of the master screen and help illustrate just how close you can get to an uber expensive professional master screen for the living room.

Leaving the smart end of the TV’s front end to Mozilla and their delicious Firefox OS Panasonic have put all of their efforts into the screen technology and getting the most out of the panel. The result is a mesmerizing curved OLED 4K Pro display dubbed CZ950. This is a real step forward for Panasonic having moved away from the Plasma and into the OLED field. Working with veteran Hollywood colourist Mike Sowa Panasonic are confident they have gotten their palette as close to the director original intention as a display can.

hiding inside the beautiful panel chassis is the magic processor that makes it all possible, the 4K Studio Master Pro processor. This is the mastermind behind the picture representation on the panel. Combined with the tuning from Hollywood experts the panel to creates the best picture quality and colour palette.

OLED creates an amazing black level due to the lack of a back light. Each Organic pixel LED light up on it’s own allowing the processor to control each and every pixel leading to unparalleled colour reproduction. This is the first 4K television to have the THX 4K certification, meaing the boffin’s at George Lucas’s THX labs have applied over 600 tests for colour accuracy and the panel has passed.

To compliment the panel’s success Panasonic have gone the extra mile and designed a television that is beautiful when turned off. The rear of the panel is draped in a luxurious suede-like material called Alcantara. Additionally the screen is a mere few millimeters thick.

Panasonic Viera TX-65CZ950V is a sight to behold, combining amazing picture quality, stylish looks and a massive picture in a small footprint this is the high end TV people have been looking for an certainly deserves a place at the top of the league. We will see this in store on October in the UK with RRP of £7,999.

Posted in: News, Science & Technology, TV & Home Cinema
Tags: Featured

By Gareth August 11, 2015 Read More →

Panasonic Viera range gets some big additions #VieraVIPClub

This year at the giant tech show IFA in Berlin Panasonic are going to be announcing something a little special. Having spent some time restructuring their approach to televisions and making it all about picture quality Panasonic are going to be upping the ante and pushing to achieve that which we all desire from a television, best picture quality.

Rather than fussing with developing new software for the panels, Panasonic are bringing in a couple of specialised solutions to enhance the television experience. The software side is going to become a great deal more interesting.

The first major addition is the inclusion of Freeview Play. This updated viewing platform is taking Freeview to the next level. Making TV content available after live play in the electronic programme guide. Providing a catchup service without having to access separate applications, Freeview Play collates content on the channels you want in the same place. There will be a big role out of Freeview Play in the near future and Panasonic will be ahead of the rest as the first manufacturer to incorporate the service into a television.

The second exciting development is the move to Mozilla for the interface of the television. Gone are the clunky app selections and possible incompatibilities. In comes the fresh, new Firefox OS, designed specifically to simplify experience and become personalised to your exact needs with minimal fuss of knowledge.

We will be covering the announcements live from Berlin so check back for news of Panasonic’s new screen they will be debuting along with a couple of other surprises. We will have hands on with Firefox OS on the TV alongside release dates and pricing.

Posted in: News, TV & Home Cinema
Tags: Featured

By Gareth March 3, 2015 Read More →

Exclusive look at Panasonic Firefox OS implementation #VieraVIPClub

Panasonic have taken some time out to film a couple of little videos for readers here at Tracyandmatt.co.uk. The first features Michael Price, an expert from Panasonic on the Viera range. Michael gives us a quick look at how simple the new Firefox OS is to use on the new Viera range, alongside the latest 4K picture quality advances with the CX800.

Secondly, Andreas Gal, CTO of Mozilla gives an exclusive interview and in-depth look at the Firefox OS at Panasonic Convention 2015 in Frankfurt, Germany, for the Viera VIP Club.

For more information check http://viera.panasonic.co.uk/

Posted in: News, TV & Home Cinema, Videos/Unboxings

By Gareth February 27, 2015 Read More →

Panasonic 4K Pro: Finally get to see what the director REALLY intended

Panasonic today announced the introduction of ‘4K Pro’: an enhanced 4K experience that combines the professional-level processing power of Panasonic’s new 4K Studio Master Processor with super-bright Wide Colour Phosphor panels that cover a maximum of 98% of the Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) colour range.

Because of the limitations of traditional TV technology, viewers have long had to accept that it is difficult to experience at home what film directors truly intended when they put together their masterpieces.

However, Panasonic’s guiding principle with regards to TV picture quality has always been to strive to faithfully reproduce the director’s vision. 4K Pro represents a considerable step towards casting aside past screen limitations and is made possible by a cross-fertilisation of Panasonic’s professional AV business technology with the ‘reference’ picture quality knowhow built up while developing its renowned plasma TVs.

What is 4K Pro?

For Panasonic, 4K resolution is just one part of an immersive and accurate picture experience. So while the new 4K Pro picture engine certainly maximises the impact of 4K’s 3840×2160 pixel count, it also deploys a whole raft of technologies – including both panel design and processing systems – to address all the other key aspects of TV picture quality too.

The 4K Studio Master Processor

Panasonic’s proprietary 4K Studio Master Processor has been designed from the ground up to produce pictures that are totally faithful to a director’s vision. It draws on the huge resource of picture knowledge accumulated by Panasonic’s internationally respected professional AV business, the Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory, and its plasma TV division to deliver unprecedentedly accurate colour, uniquely satisfying contrast, and phenomenal brightness and dynamism.

Accurate Colour Drive: Through its Accurate Colour Drive, Panasonic has introduced to consumer TVs advanced colour management technologies, such as 3D Lookup Tables, which have previously only found in professional monitors.

3D Lookup Tables provide a volumetric approach to colour space control whereby a change in any one input colour causes cross-colour changes in all of the table’s output colours. The result is a much more accurate rendition of colour tones at different brightness levels than you get with normal TVs, which conventionally employ either very crude or no lookup table technology.

Even screens that do offer 3D Lookup Table usually only offer red, green and blue control, whereas on the Panasonic CR850 and CX800 TVs the table also references the cyan, magenta and yellow colours across a total of 8000 registry points (versus a typical 100). This enables the Panasonic TVs to provide the sort of professional-grade colour accuracy used by directors when they’re editing their films.

Black Gradation Drive: Normally LCD TVs control their backlights and gain settings separately, using 8-bit processing to deliver 256 steps of gradation. With its 4K Studio Master Processor though, Panasonic has brought the backlight control and gain adjustment picture controls together under the same processing umbrella for the first time, so that they can work in tandem to deliver more accurate local light levels. What’s more, it uses 10-bit driving to produce 1024 steps of gradation. What this means in picture terms is that you see vastly more shadow detail and subtler, more accurate colour toning in dark parts of the picture, avoiding that hollow, flat, washed-out look commonly seen with dark scenes on normal LCD TVs.

Native HDR Content playback: the 4K Studio Master Processor is enabled to support the playback of native High Dynamic Range (HDR) content when the appropriate standards have been finalized. HDR uses a combination of specially created content and super-bright, colour-rich screens to deliver images containing a much wider luminance range than any traditional TV. This means you can enjoy pictures with more contrast, richer colours, and greatly enhanced shadow and colour detail.

Wide Colour Phosphor Panels

The second key 4K Pro element in the Panasonic CR850 and CX800 TVs is their use of LED panels which include new Wide Colour Phosphor technology and have been custom built to complement the work of the Panasonic 4K Studio Master Processor. Thanks to the Wide Colour Phosphor technology, these panels can reproduce a remarkable 98% of the Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) colour space.

Coupling these spectacular new panels with the 4K Studio Master Processor translates into you being able to see a range of colours on your TV much closer in tone and subtlety – especially in areas of red and green – to those you would see if you went to see a film at your local cinema. In other words, once again Panasonic TVs are uniquely well qualified to let you enjoy pictures at home that look almost exactly the way directors wanted them to look when they shot them.

Bright and Eco-conscious: As well as helping colours achieve a more cinematic range, Wide Colour Phosphor technology has considerable brightness and eco benefits. For instance, it uses approximately only half the energy of a conventional Quantum Dot panel to produce the same level of brightness, making it extremely cost effective to run. This makes Wide Colour Phosphor technology ideally suited to the playback of High Dynamic Range content.

Posted in: News, Press Releases, TV & Home Cinema

By Gareth February 26, 2015 Read More →

Panasonic unveils Home Screen 2.0 powered by Firefox OS

Panasonic has collaborated with Mozilla to introduce a new, intuitive user interface for its 2015 TV line-up, powered by Firefox OS. Panasonic’s 2015 4K UHD (Ultra HD) LED VIERA TV line-up is equipped with a range of new functions and features, including my Home Screen 2.0 and Info Frame, designed to ensure you can enjoy your favourite channels, apps and devices faster and more efficiently than ever.

New, intuitive, customisable user interface

To provide a graphically rich, intuitive interface that makes it quick and easy for you to track down your favourite content with ease, Panasonic has introduced Firefox OS in the 2015 4K UHD VIERA TV line-up.

The platform, incorporating the new my Home Screen 2.0, is specifically designed to allow you to access preferred content quickly and easily. The home screen can be completely personalised to suit your preferences and is divided into easy to navigate ‘decks’. Three decks come as default with the platform:

The Live TV Deck

You can watch live broadcasts and build up a personalised ‘home screen’ of your most-watched channels.

The Apps Deck

Use Firefox OS’s graphically rich interface to access all the TV apps available on VIERA. These apps will include everything from the most popular video on demand partners to games.

The Devices Deck

Any devices connected to your TV, either by cables or WiFi, will appear in this deck, providing rapid access to external sources such as: tablets, smartphones, computers, Blu-ray players, SD cards, and USB storage drives.

A new search tool is also available via my Home Screen 2.0 that allows you to find and access content from all available source options, including internet video services, websites and any external devices you may have connected to your TV.

When you’ve found the content you’re looking for, the new user interface also lets you bookmark your favourite channels, apps, web pages and connected devices by using the Pin function for quick access at a later date.

The new user interface also incorporates Info Frame, which combines everything from local weather reports to recommended TV shows, TV listings and your favourite website, all on a single screen.

Connectivity across all your devices

Firefox OS is built on open standards, allowing you to send photos, videos or other content to your Firefox OS-powered TV from any smartphone, tablet, or computer with a Firefox browser or other compatible application.

This means that you do not need to be constrained into one ecosystem or brand.Sending content to the Firefox OS TV requires no additional hardware – you simply need to make sure that your Panasonic Firefox OS-powered TV is on the same WiFi network.

Greater flexibility for app developers

Firefox OS provides superior flexibility to developers to create brand new applications and services through WebAPIs that unlock the power of the Web and enable connected experiences across platforms. In addition, for the first time, Firefox OS will allow TV on-screen notifications from applications, and, in the future, from compatible connected appliances.

Firefox OS and my Home Screen 2.0 are available on the CR850, CR730, CX800, CX750, CX700 and CX680 series in the 2015 line-up.