11/06/2009 XV100 Panasonic screens reduced in price.

Colin Labrie says...

Hi
I am interested in moving my 50″ NEC Plasma downstairs to another room and purchasing a new 60″ plasma to replace it. I would also want a new receiver, DVD recorder and HD Set top box with large hard disk.
Could you give me some feedback?
Cheers
Colin
PS I purchased my current JM Lab set of speakers, Sub woofer and Marantz SR4300 from you some years ago.

Posted on June 15, 2009 at 8:41 am

Len says...

Hi Colin,
Your choice of panel is going to depend on your timescale. Panasonic are due to release new 58″ and 65″ screens in September. I have seen a prototype of the commercial version, and it was stunning. If the domestic model is close it will be a winner. It was the first screen I had ever seen which rivaled the Pioneer 60″. We have already run out of the older models and have made the decision not to source an alternative, preferring to wait for the release of the Panasonic.
Our DVD recorder of choice is also Panasonic. They perform well, have proven to be reliable, and are fairly straight forward to operate. The other option you could consider is a Blu-ray recorder. Panasonic have a couple, but their BW850 is an excellent unit. It has a 500GB harddrive, an SD slot, records and plays back almost all formats, 1080p upscaling for DVD, and even direct access to You Tube.
We recently made the decision to drop almost all of our STB’s in favour of TiVo. (www.tivo.com.au) The drawback is that it does not have a large harddrive (160Gig), but they have recently released a 1TB expansion drive. TiVo is very progressive with what they have and continue to offer. Their ‘Home Networking Package’, Movies on Demand’ and ‘Free Radio Podcasts’ are examples of this. Much more importantly TiVo has proven to have almost bulletproof reliability, and has a great interface, making the product simple to use. Talk to anyone in this industry and they will confirm that STB’s have been a disaster. Unreliable and forever out of date – TiVo appears to have addressed most of this.
Finally with regards to your new receiver I assume that you have had a good run from your Marantz – they still make a very good range of A/V receivers. The advantage of Marantz is that they tend to address the A/V market from a sonic performance standard, rather than be features driven. The SR4300 has been replaced by the SR4003, but in reality you should go up to the SR5003. A little more power, but it also offers HD Audio Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS Master Audio, DTS Hi-Res, video conversion to HDMI, analogue upscaling to 1080p and Multi-Room/Multi-Source: none of which appear on the smaller unit. The SR5003 sells for $1,599.
Regards, Len

Posted on June 15, 2009 at 3:52 pm

Puneet says...

Hi

We have a Pioneer plasma & were planning to upgrade to the latest. Love the Pioneers!

With their recent decision of exiting from the plasma market & Panasonic ‘taking over’ their plasma technology, do you think we should wait until Panasonic release plasmas with ‘Kuro’ technology?

Posted on August 30, 2009 at 9:00 pm

Rob Bridger says...

How does one effectively discriminate a choice between a good production plasma such as Panasonic, and a more expensive plasma like Loewe? Any ideas?

Posted on August 31, 2009 at 9:36 am

Len says...

We have now received the 65″ version of the new XV100 series from Panasonic and it confirms our initial impressions when we initially viewed the prototype plus the opinions of a number of reviewers – the ‘XV’ series from Panasonic is as good as the Pioneer.
The only drawback is that this is a monitor screen – i.e. it does not feature a tuner or speakers. In a Home Theatre situation this is usually not an issue, but if you are looking for a stand alone TV it may present a problem. If this is not an issue you will not buy better.
At this stage we have no indication that Panasonic intend to incorporate this technology into their commercial offerings. It may happen – but if it does it will be some time down the track.
In the meantime if you are looking for a large screen TV (incorporating tuner and speakers) there are two options. We still have a final shipment of PDP509 Pioneer screens to arrive, but do not have confirmed numbers. It is possible that there may be stock available from this shipment. If you are interested please call me on 9427 6755 and leave your contact details.
Secondly, have a look at the 52″ Loewe Compose. I am a fan of Plasma over LCD, but this LCD screen is exceptional, Loewe has done an excellent job (and it’s a good looking design as well.) Currently Loewe have a factory bonus offer, bringing the price of this screen down from $11,999 to $8,999.

Posted on August 31, 2009 at 9:47 pm

Len says...

One of the most perplexing issues regarding the question of who makes the best screen is that so few people have been willing to go out and have a look for themselves. One of the prime offenders of this is the popular press who has a habit of regurgitating the spin released by the various manufacturers. This was particularly true when the whole LCD vs. Plasma debate was going on. We regularly fielded calls asking our opinion and our best advice was always to go out and have a look – the answer was pretty obvious once the time was taken to view the two formats side by side (oddly – a year or so later this debate has swung strongly back behind Plasma, at a time when some companies are doing exceptional things with LCD)

In answer to the question good quality production plasmas like Panasonic come pretty close to screens like the Loewe (I am excluding the Panasonic ‘XV’ series from this comparison – they are produced in relatively limited quantities and are not generally available through the more commercial outlets). I guess the first trick is to see and recognise the difference; the second is then justifying the difference in price.

Before I talk about things to look for there is one thing to avoid – if possible. That is being influenced by the ‘hot’ condition of many screens on display. It is no secret that many screens come out of the box ‘hot’. That is brightness, colour, contrast etc. are turned up, so when there is a number of screens lined up on a wall, particularly in a brightly lit showroom, you eye are automatically drawn to the brightest one. It’s an old but effective trick. Careful examination will show that this condition is not terribly accurate, but not many consumers take the time to study the screens that carefully.

There are a number of things to look for when choosing a screen. Obviously high on the list at the moment is contract, specifically the ability of the screen to reproduce blacks. At a time when most screens showed black as a shade of grey Pioneer set the standard with their Kuro range. With their new ‘XV’ series Panasonic are promoting their ability not only to reproduce blacks, but to show definition in their blacks.

Often overlooked is the ability to reproduce depth of field. Most high quality screens will allow you to peer into the picture, rather than reproducing it as a two dimensional image. Detail is paramount – have a look at the background of any image to see if it is well defined and clear. A great example of this is The Police: Certifiable – Live in Buenos Aires on Blu-ray when viewed on the Loewe Compose. Have a look at Copeland’s drum kit; you can see every minute detail. This is also a good disc to look judge one of the other failings of a number large screen TV’s – the ability to reproduce rapidly moving objects. While screens, in particular LCD, have made major advances in this area the screen refresh rate for many sets can still let them down. This is particularly obvious when a camera is panning across an image; with a high quality screen this will be a smooth pan, but with many sets this turns into a series of juddery images.

Finally check for accuracy in colour. This can be difficult, who can tell what colour the house in the film really is, or the colour of the lead actresses dress. But have a look at the grass – is it really that green? The best gauge is skin tones, are they washed out, are they overly bright, can you see the creases and wrinkles, and can you see the fine detail in the shadows.

Most importantly – trust your eyes.

Posted on August 31, 2009 at 11:06 pm

Ben Cooke says...

Hi Len,

I have a question regarding Panasonic’s TH-65XV100 commercial offering. I have looked a bit into the panel and I’ve noticed that it has exceptional potential when calibrated with an external colour management system. And though it is debateable whether this display can go as black in a well lit room as the Pioneer PDP-LX609, my current panel, it is commonly reported that black levels are indistinguishable between the two in a dark room and the Panasonic of better detail and shading in those dark areas. This has me very interested. But I have one question. As a commercial panel does it have much in the way of motion processing? I know that the KURO engine has exceptional motion ehancement options suitable for various HD and SD content. Since Pioneer have been very secretive about the technology, stating only that it implements an effective means of enhancing motion whilst minimizing motion anomalies/errors unlike standard 100/200Hz algorithms. I am interested to know if this technology has been adopted by Panasonic since they have acquired the ex-KURO team. And if not does the panel’s on-board processor adopt any judder reduction technology? Or does it leave it to external video processors, via the bypass? I feel that having some form of on-board motion processing in a panel this size is pretty important. Any light shed on this matter would be greatly appreciated. And will most likely lead to a purchase in the next 2 weeks and an ISF calibration soon after.

Cheers,

Ben.

Posted on September 8, 2009 at 2:27 am

Len says...

Hi Ben,

I have referred much of this back to the technical boffins at Panasonic; to be honest much of the research I have done has been conflicting to say the least. One of the interesting facts to emerge is that despite popular belief none of the advancements engineered by Pioneer have been implemented into these new screens. These models incorporate Panasonics own proprietary processing of the video signal. Like Pioneer they are being very tight lipped about the technology employed, but they have indicated that while they use motion processing they have not incorporated any user adjustable settings for various inputs.

Posted on September 11, 2009 at 12:14 pm

Aaron Rigg says...

In consumer video we have thre framerates to deal with 24Hz, 50Hz and 60Hz. Film content is at 24Hz, this is exactly what is stored on a Bluray disk. Australian PAL DVD and TV has a frame rate of 50Hz.

To correctly show the source frame rate without artifacts the display needs to run at the exact frame rate of the source or an integer multiple. For 50Hz material the Panasonic Premiere plasmas run at 100Hz, this is done to reduce flicker that would be noticable at 100Hz. Film based Bluray content displays at 72 or 96Hz I haven’t checked which but in either case it will display the source faithfully and will not flicker.

Many of the latest consumer grade displays have ‘smmoth’ modes that create additional frames by interpolating between the existing frames. This does create smoother motion but in the context of a cinematic experience it creates an image that in my opinion is unrealistic and certainly not what was intended by the director. Also when these frame interpolation methods fail they can make the image very unstable (jerky or slow motion).

In summary the Premiere plasma synchronises precisely to the source and does not add anything to the image to artifically ‘enhance’ the motion.

Look out for a review in this months Sound & Image Magazine.

Aaron Rigg
ISF Instructor
Avical Australia

Posted on October 16, 2009 at 6:20 pm

Adam says...

With all this talk about consumer screens, I’m surprised you don’t have any serious panels from the likes of Barco, Runco, Liesegang et al.

Posted on November 30, 2009 at 9:56 am

Len says...

Hi Adam,

We have never had a lot of success with these screens, even though I recognise the quality that they offer. The Pioneer Kuro’s of old and the current crop of Panasonic screens – particularly when correctly calibrated – give a performance level close to the Barco and the Runco, at a considerably lower price. While I am not familiar with the current pricing of the Barco, and know very little about the Liesegang (I believe their range of Cinemateq screens are available here, but I don’t know from where) the Runco 50” screens start at $10,000 and go through to $18K. The Panasonic sells for less than $7K. (However by all reports the Runco XP-Opal50 DHD is a stunning unit – which at $18,000 is to be expected.)

Posted on November 30, 2009 at 1:48 pm