Last year Panasonic made the best OLED televisions that can be bought in terms of image fidelity. We were amazed at the calibration accuracy of the models we tested, both the entry level GZ950 and the medium range GZ1500 offer a very accurate calibration without the need for any user intervention.
Difficult to improve again but the Japanese company has managed to introduce anyway interesting news in the 2020 TV range. After the first taste of the new models at CES in Las Vegas we now have more information on the televisions that will arrive in Italy during the year. OLED models should be available in May, while the LCD range will debut in June, for a lineup that, especially in OLED models, aims to renew the qualitative leadership of the TV market.
Designed for image purists
At the top of the OLED range we find the HZ2000, the only one to have a panel Master HDR, chosen directly at the factory and specially engineered by the Japanese company technicians, managed by an image processor HCX Intelligent Pro. This is the brightest OLED panel on the market, official data speak of a 20% higher brightness than competitors, arriving in the 65 and 55-inch cuts. Also this year nothing 77 inches, not even in the high end, but these are very expensive products and with low sales volumes compared to the lower cuts.
We find the support for all HDR standards, both Dolby Vision and HDR10 + are available, in addition to HLG, but there is no shortage of news, also available in the new lower-end OLEDs. In fact, Filmmaker Mode, with Intelligent Sensing, and Dolby Vision IQ are introduced. The Filmmaker Mode, desired by the directors of Hollywood, is a mode that deactivates all the video processing of electronics to show the video content with the highest possible fidelity.
Once activated, the white point is fixed at D65 and all algorithms that increase the fluidity of the image, improve its sharpness or reduce background noise are turned off. Hollywood has won the war against post-processing, at least in Panasonic televisions, but the Japanese house has added "Intelligent Sensing" to this display mode. Taking advantage of the brightness sensors on the front of the panel, the TV automatically adjusts brightness, saturation and gamma curve.
One might think that this goes in stark contrast to the purpose for which Filmmaker Mode was born, but in reality from the tests carried out Intelligent Sensing proved to be valuable for showing on the screen a more faithful rendering in contexts other than those used for grading content video, which takes place in completely dark rooms. In the home, the TV is seen in most cases in brightly lit rooms, that's why Intelligent Sensing adapts, without distorting, the rendering of a video.
This function is available for all viewing modes except for Dolby Vision. In this case Dolby Vision IQ comes into play, which applies the same principles seen with Intelligent Sensing to Dolby Vision content.
The technological innovations are not over because Panasonic has introduced a new technology in the 2020 range Black Frame Insertion, designed to improve the rendering of images in motion.
This is based on inserting a black frame between two frames displayed on the screen, thus increasing the sense of fluidity. The problem is that this motion management creates a perceptible flicker in the image and a reduction in brightness, which is why Panasonic has rethought its management by opting for a variable duration of the black frame, as shown in the image below, thus avoiding, at least in theory, any problems.
Particular that will interest only the super enthusiasts and professionals, for the first time 0.5 and 1.3% calibration steps are available, values so low that to be managed very expensive calibration equipment is needed, but that will make purists happy image.
Important changes also arrive in the audio section of the HZ2000, to the soundbar seen last year in fact they are added two speakers facing up, to make the most of the Dolby Atmos standard with which the TV is equipped. The sound front, in this way, widens a lot, even during the test we carried out during the event, the performance proved more convincing than the previous model.
We do not yet know the price of this HZ2000 but it will surely exceed the € 3000 list.
Going down in the range we find theHZ1500 and HZ1000, which lose the Master HDR panel, and therefore the highest peak brightness, but retain almost all the other functions. These two variants are identical, the only difference is in the soundbar with which the HZ1500 is equipped, less performing than that of the top of the range but still able to give an important boost to the sound performance.
Interesting the pedestal, which allows the horizontal rotation of the panel on the HZ1500 and HZ1000, a feature we haven't seen on a high-end TV for some time. Auto Low Latency Mode and eARC of HDMI 2.1 are confirmed on all models. The software is My Home Screen 5.0, which partially revises the interface by inserting contextual suggestions based on the application; there is no lack of compatibility with Alexa and Google Assistant.
The LCD range instead consists of the HX800, HX900 and HX940 models, all with support for HDR10 + and Dolby Vision. These are mid-range televisions, with Edge LED backlighting. The top of the HX940 range will arrive in the 43, 49, 55, 65 and 75 inch cuts with HCX Intelligent Pro image processor, the same as the OLED, and 100 Hz refresh rate. HX900 will instead be available with a 43, 49 panel, 55, 65 and 75 inches, while HX800 will hit the market with 40, 50, 58 and 65 inch models.
We do not know precisely the type of panel used because this varies not only according to the model but also to the screen size, in most cases however it is IPS screens. More details will be made available in the coming weeks.
