Panasonic brought a number of HDTV surprises to Las Vegas with the debut of its new 2012 LCD and plasma lines. The electronics giant revealed performance improvements in both TV technologies. The LED LCD line-up features for the first time 47 and 55-Inch IPS panels to compete head on with Samsungs and LG top of the line products. Its new WT series models showed a performance improvement that leapfrogs every LED LCD makers panels performance to date.
For years Panasonic lagged behind Samsung and LG in LED styling and form factor, but not any longer. Panasonic also significantly raised the performance bar with its 2012 WT series. During the CES demo the new WT models outperformed every other LED LCD we saw at CES in viewing angle, maintaining color saturation and contrast from even extreme viewing positions (see photo below). This is the first time we have witnessed off-axis LED LCD viewing that rivals plasma performance. These 47 and 55-Inch LED LCDs pack new signal processing, Full HD 3D, scanning LED backlight with local dimming and more in a beautiful skinny aluminum finished edge bezel and sports a depth of just 1.1-Inches
The complete LED and LCD line includes eight series with a total of eighteen models. The screen sizes range from 32 to 55-Inches. Below we list the top features of the WT along with screen sizes of the other model series. Full specs of every Panasonic 2012 LED and LCD model can be found using our link here.
WT Series
This top-of-the-line WT series of “Full HD 3D” 1080 LED LCD holds its own against any competitors’ models in terms of performance and styling. Available in the 55-Inch screen size as the TC-L55WT50 and a 47-Inch TC-L47WT50. Top features include:
IPS LED LCD wide viewing panel- provides high contrast and vivid color even at extreme off-axis viewing positions
Four aspect ratios
Clear Panel Pro anti glare filter
1920 scanning backlight (240 Hz refresh x 8 scanning segments= 1920)
16 zones of local dimming
24Hz playback
ISF ccc calibration
Pro Settings
Vivid Color creation- analyzes color contrast and skin tones for optimization
Video content smoother-eliminates judder on YouTube and other web videos
Full HD 3D with active glasses
2D-3D conversion with face detection
Built-in eight speaker sound plus rear sub-woofer
18 watts total sound system power
4 HDMI side inputs
Audio return channel (Input 2)
SD card slot
3 USB 2.0 inputs
Analog audio input
1 composite video input with l/r audio
1- sub-D 15 pin PC input
1 component video input with stereo audio
1 Ether net input
1 Digital audio output
Viera Connect with Touch Pad Remote
Web Browser
Skype video
Multitasking
Facebook/Twittter
Blu-ray Movie Deals From $5.49
The other 3D LED series is the DT (55″, 47″). The ET5 (55″,47″,42″) use passive 3D glasses.
2D LED model series include:
E50 (55″, 47″, 42″); E5 (47″, 42″, 37″ 32″)
X5 (42″ 1080p; 32″ 1365 x 768 resolution; 24″ 1080p)
2D series LCD (CCFL) include:
TC-L42U5 42″ 1080p
TC-L32C5 32″ 1365 x 768 resolution.
Tomorrow we’ll publish our report and specification list on the Panasonic 2012 plasmas.
Have a question for the HD Guru?
HD GURU|Email
Copyright ©2012 HD Guru Inc. All rights reserved.
How does the E50 series compare to the WT Series in picture quality?
hi,
are you sure that the WT is FULL LED tv?
because 16 zone of local dimming is not enough for a FULL array led tv.
HDGuru,
Many thanks for your comments, and the information re the sample and hold technology being an inherent aspect of LCD function. As you have noted, this could be at least part of the source of the ‘videoy’ like artifact that is present in all LCDs I’ve seen. It will be very interesting to see if Panasonic has somehow overcome this problem.
Wes
Does the WT have frame interpolation for motion handling? If so, is it defeatable?
It’s my understanding/belief that the frame interpolation feature in its various implementations is the primary cause of the video like quality imposed by all LCDs I’ve seen to date on all program material displayed on them. It would be really nice if the WT avoided this in some way.
Thanks,
Wes
We hope to do a hands-on look the WT in the near future. Considering every other LCD with 120 Hz or higher has a defeat mode for frame interpolation (ME/MC) we are confident this Panasonic does too.
LCD is a sample and hold technology which requires higher refresh to achieve reduced motion blur. As we have explored in previous articles, these circuits introduce artifacts. We will have to wait and see how the Panasonic looks with a variety of sources.
HD Guru
Fascinating. I’ve never seen an LCD I thought was watchable. They all look ‘fake’ to me. Soap Opera Effect or Screen Door effect, or whatever you want to call it. They make film look like video. I’ll be very interested in seeing if these break that mold.
It seems you copy/pasted the 55″ model number to the 47″ but forgot to change the 55 to 47, sorry but I have an OCD with model numbers.
robertozombie
Is the WT line edge lit or does it utilize a full array of LED’s?
Panasonic states full array LED backlit with 16 zones of local dimming
HD Guru
Just to clarify, I was referring to Edge-Lit or Full-Array-Lit (with or without local-dimming as an option) when I stated “LED-LCD-HDTVs”…
Hi HDGURU,
Thank you for the preliminary in depth analysis of the Panasonic WT-series. Based on your assessment, is the off-angle viewing better than the ELITE, by Sharp? I am curious, as you made note that it rivals Plasma off-angle viewing performance. I guess the “signal processing” you mentioned has to do with it. Is there any additional information on how they got it to work? I mean…from what I understood (and seen), and please correct me if I am wrong, CCFL-LCD-HDTV off-angle viewing was better than LED-LCD-HDTV. Moreover, OLED-HDTVs were supposed to bridge that gap, and give HDTVs the best off-angle performance.
Thoughts…
Respectfully,
-Stringfellow
No comparison. As seen in our show photos this LED LCD viewing angle beats every other model in the market and we saw of all the newly announced 2012s at the show. It is the sleeper of the CES. I know this reads like we’re shills but it really is an LCD breakthrough. We waited to post until we had the details and specs to share with our readers.
HD Guru