Archive for September 5th, 2014

Here comes Panasonic’s AX900 4K Ultra HD LED LCD TV

This autumn Panasonic will release its premium AX900 4K Ultra HD LED LCD TV featuring the company’s best picture performance. The AX900 has been designed and engineered with the knowhow Panasonic has developed through its rich heritage in delivering the highest picture quality, and coupled with advanced features and functions it delivers the smartest and most intuitive home entertainment experience available.The AX900 features Ultra HD LED TV with 3000Hz (BLS,) a superior highest-speed panel for amazing images, motion clarity and 3D and will be available in 65” and 55” screen sizes.  The AX900 is equipped with next generation picture quality technologies which as a package seek to achieve:

• Accurate, rich, and robust blacks that also retain fine detail;
• Colour reproduction which is true to the director’s intentions and calibrated to be correct at every brightness level;
• Picture quality performance which perfectly matches the environment in which it is being viewed.

Accurate, rich, and robust blacks

Reproducing deep, rich blacks, whilst also retaining rich colours in dark scenes has been a long standing weakness of LCD TVs. In order to deliver best-in-class black performance, the AX900 uses a Direct LED with full-array local dimming complemented with Panasonic-unique Local Dimming Ultra technologies. Other full array local dimming systems suffer from a ‘halo’ effect around moving bright objects because their local dimming fields lack sufficient brightness control or are either entirely on or off. The AX900 analyses the incoming video signal not in traditional 3 x 3 matrices, but across 5 x 5 matrices of local dimming fields and adjusts the brightness level of each individual field by extremely fine degrees (i.e. not just on/off), providing smooth motion of bright objects, a high contrast ratio, deep, rich blacks and extremely fine gradation which retains detail even in the darkest scenes.

Colour reproduction true to Hollywood director’s intentions – at any brightness level

Colour reproduction in dark scenes has been another weakness of LCD TVs. In order to allow viewers to enjoy films as the directors intended, the AX900 engineers have also worked together closely with the renowned Panasonic Hollywood Laboratories to ensure that the colours on the AX900 are exactly the same as the director intended. To achieve this Panasonic has adopted colour management technologies which have until now have only been used to the same degree by professional studio monitors, such as our professional-standard 3D Look Up Tables with 8000 registry points which allow us to calibrate colour reproduction at extremely fine brightness steps meaning that colour is reproduced accurately at any brightness level. Panasonic is the first company to use this professional technology at the same level in a consumer television.

Furthermore the use of a highly transparent LCD panelalso produces outstanding brightness and allows the AX900 to achieve an extremely high dynamic range, with richer more nuanced colours in both dark and bright scenes.

 

Picture quality performance which perfectly matches your living room

Furthermore to deliver the very best picture performance it is also necessary to analyse the lighting conditions in the room in which the TV is placed. Accordingly, in another industry first, the AX900 explicitly links its video signal processing to ambient light levels in order to deliver picture quality which is a perfect match for your living room.

The combination of the above Panasonic original picture quality technologies lead to significant picture quality performance improvements in a LED LCD TV.

 

Beyond Smart features

The AX900 is Panasonic’s first TV to employ our quad-core Pro5 super-high speed processor which further enhances Panasonic’s ‘Beyond Smart’ feature set. The ‘my Stream’ function, which learns users’ preferences and displays a list of content recommendations, has also further evolved. A flowing user interface display and video playback in thumbnail form make it even easier to find desired content.

The ‘TV Anywhere’ function allows users to transfer live broadcasts or recorded contents via the cloud to their smartphone or tablet device anywhere in the world.

The ‘Info Bar’ quickly and conveniently displays new and useful information without even requiring the user to turn on the TV due to a proximity sensor coupled with Face Recognition.

Connectivity

A host of network functions allow full enjoyment of this picture quality performance for a wide spectrum of 4K content. Four 4K60p-supporting HDMI terminals and one DisplayPort^TM enable simultaneous connection of a 4K-compatible home cinema, a set-top box, a PC, and more. Future use is assured by the AX900 Series’ ability to play content with HDCP2.2 copyright protection and its H.265 (HEVC) decoder can decode 4K content from a variety of providers. Furthermore Panasonic is working closely with Netflix to enable 4K streaming at launch timing. The AX900 will also be compatible with Amazon’s upcoming selection of movies and TV shows, along with its Amazon Studios original TV series, in Ultra HD quality.

Design

The AX900 Series was designed based on the concept of Premium Furniture Design. This cutting-edge design concept removes redundant elements to achieve a simple elegance, and glass and metal materials provide an authentically luxurious touch. The AX900 Series literally blends into the living space while adding a stylish touch to its surroundings.