This is a user, not professional, review.
Features: 3D, Aquomotion 480, Full-array LED Backlighting (not local dimming), Quattron Technology, Quad Pixel Plus 2, 3D Depth Enhancer, Built-in wi-fi, Full SmartCentral user interface with access to Netflix, CinemaNow, YouTube, Vudu HD Movies, Vudu Apps, Facebook, Twitter, Hulu Plus, Skype, DLNA, and AQUOS® Advantage LiveSM and Internet browsing (no Amazon)
MSRP: $5,999 Street Price: $5,499
Equipment: Panasonic BDT320, Marantz AVR 6005, Klipsch THX 5.1 speakers, D* HR24
Set-up: The box was huge. The top lifts off quite easily. Attached the stand to the TV. The TV slides into rails on the stand, and attached the screws. Set it on the stand and attached my Component cables and audio cables for use without surround sound, and attached the HDMI cable for surround. Turned on the TV and ran the initial set-up. Turned OPC off, set up the internet. Quite easy. In all took less than 10 minutes. The remote is sleek and comfortable. Common buttons like 3D, apps, NF, easy to find. What’s nice about this is there is a dedicated CC button. Come on Panasonic.
• I was going to wall mount it this summer, but I really like the height on the stand.
Picture Quality Out of the Box: Out of the box, picture quality was mediocre depending on the . There was a lot of artifacting. In standard mode, picture was way over saturated with a lot of artifacting (get there later). Movie Mode was extremely flat with the same artifacting, didn’t try PC or Game modes, user was a little better than standard (but not much), Dynamic was horrid, and fixed dynamic was quad horrid.
Picture after tweaking: PQ varies a lot depending on the quality of the source. Flaws can be exaggerated simply due to the shear size of the set. There are a ton of settings to play with. I tried out Suuzok’s settings from AVS and did not like them in the least bit. Way too red and whites had a tinge to it, too. I still noticed a lot of artifacting. I switched to movie mode. Off angle viewing produced a glow with blacks. I turned down the backlighting and that reduced both the glow and artifacting. At the same time it increased the detail in dark backgrounds. I can now see all of the individual dark hairs on peoples’ heads, especially when they are large and at the front of the picture. I pulled out the DVE disc and started with the brightness. I was able to successfully set the black level. Blacks were not crushed in this test in the least bit. I then adjusted the contrast and sharpness. No problem. For now, I just used the DVE disc to set the color and tint. Not quite perfect, but really good. Exit the DVE disc. Put on Harry Potter 7: Part 1 on HBO. This was the same movie I saw all of the artifacting in dark scenes prior to making initial adjustments. It looked spectacular with no artifacting and excellent detail and contrast. Color and tint were also extremely good. Since then I’ve watched a lot of programs that have the same dark type scenes, Supernatural, Grimm, Nikita, etc. All look terrific. I am very pleased with the basic settings as would the average home viewer.
2D Settings: I chose movie mode because it keeps the whites. These settings should get someone close to where they want to be without paying for a calibration.
OPC: off
Backlight: -6
Contrast: +28
Brightness: +2
Color: -5
Tint: +2
Sharpness: 0
CMS Hue, Saturation, Value: Default (for now)
Color Gamut Range: Expanded (especially for BD)
Color Temp: Mid-low
Motion Enhancement: 120 Hz Low
Quad Pixel Plus 2: Advanced (See no difference off or on)
Active Contrast: Off
Gamma: 0
Film Mode: Off (causes trails on)
DNR: Off
Monochrome: Off
Range of OPC: N/A when set to off
LED Backlighting: This set sports full-array backlighting. However, It does not have local dimming. I do not see it as being an issue with this set. At all backlight settings, the screen was extremely uniform on solid color, static test pictures. Blacks on this set have an extremely deep floor without crushing. Using “Standard” backlighting, blues tended to glow, as did dark colors such has heads of hair in the forefront, and quite a bit of digital artifacting is visible on darker backgrounds. Off angle magnified all of this. Here’s the trick. I adjusted te backlighting to -6 (range is -20 to +20). This eliminated artifacting, the glow, increased dark scene detail, and off-angle viewing.
Blu-ray: So far I’ve only watched “We Bought a Zoo” on 2D Blu-ray. The picture was absolutely phenomenal, with no blocking, artifacting, etc.
3D and Blu-ray 3D: 3D on this set is extremely good. Superb depth and pop-out when appropriate. I watched “The Darkest Hour” on Blu-ray 3D. I did see some ghosting on large letter (studio names, title). I did not see any ghosting on subtitles or during the credits. During the movie, there was very little ghosting. When it did appear, it was brief and didn’t distract from the picture. There are 3 picture modes. I preferred standard 3D mode over Movie 3D mode. Standard was too warm, but a simple adjustment of color and tint corrected it. 3D on D* also looks very good. It was able to auto-detect the signal type without issue.
2D to 3D Conversion: The conversion on this TV is very good compared to my Sony. The Sony is horrible at this. I watched a couple TV shows and it looked good with good depth. I also switched between the TV and 320 during “We Bought a Zoo”, and both looked really good.
3D Glasses: Although the TV doesn’t “officially” come with 3D glasses, they pretty much have a permanent promo for 2 pairs. I have two pair of the AN-3DG20-B rechargeable glasses. They are extremely light and comfortable. They fit easily over my prescription glasses. If someone does not want to watch 3D, the mode/power slide lets you choose 2D. It was a surprisingly good picture.
Overall Impressions: Overall, I am extremely impressed with this set. It took a while and a lot of playing to get it there. It was worth it though. Picture is clean and vibrant, and the extra 15” over the Panasonic I replaced was worth it. Definitely something to consider if you’re looking for something big and don’t want a projector.
S~
Pictures coming
Features: 3D, Aquomotion 480, Full-array LED Backlighting (not local dimming), Quattron Technology, Quad Pixel Plus 2, 3D Depth Enhancer, Built-in wi-fi, Full SmartCentral user interface with access to Netflix, CinemaNow, YouTube, Vudu HD Movies, Vudu Apps, Facebook, Twitter, Hulu Plus, Skype, DLNA, and AQUOS® Advantage LiveSM and Internet browsing (no Amazon)
MSRP: $5,999 Street Price: $5,499
Equipment: Panasonic BDT320, Marantz AVR 6005, Klipsch THX 5.1 speakers, D* HR24
Set-up: The box was huge. The top lifts off quite easily. Attached the stand to the TV. The TV slides into rails on the stand, and attached the screws. Set it on the stand and attached my Component cables and audio cables for use without surround sound, and attached the HDMI cable for surround. Turned on the TV and ran the initial set-up. Turned OPC off, set up the internet. Quite easy. In all took less than 10 minutes. The remote is sleek and comfortable. Common buttons like 3D, apps, NF, easy to find. What’s nice about this is there is a dedicated CC button. Come on Panasonic.
• I was going to wall mount it this summer, but I really like the height on the stand.
Picture Quality Out of the Box: Out of the box, picture quality was mediocre depending on the . There was a lot of artifacting. In standard mode, picture was way over saturated with a lot of artifacting (get there later). Movie Mode was extremely flat with the same artifacting, didn’t try PC or Game modes, user was a little better than standard (but not much), Dynamic was horrid, and fixed dynamic was quad horrid.
Picture after tweaking: PQ varies a lot depending on the quality of the source. Flaws can be exaggerated simply due to the shear size of the set. There are a ton of settings to play with. I tried out Suuzok’s settings from AVS and did not like them in the least bit. Way too red and whites had a tinge to it, too. I still noticed a lot of artifacting. I switched to movie mode. Off angle viewing produced a glow with blacks. I turned down the backlighting and that reduced both the glow and artifacting. At the same time it increased the detail in dark backgrounds. I can now see all of the individual dark hairs on peoples’ heads, especially when they are large and at the front of the picture. I pulled out the DVE disc and started with the brightness. I was able to successfully set the black level. Blacks were not crushed in this test in the least bit. I then adjusted the contrast and sharpness. No problem. For now, I just used the DVE disc to set the color and tint. Not quite perfect, but really good. Exit the DVE disc. Put on Harry Potter 7: Part 1 on HBO. This was the same movie I saw all of the artifacting in dark scenes prior to making initial adjustments. It looked spectacular with no artifacting and excellent detail and contrast. Color and tint were also extremely good. Since then I’ve watched a lot of programs that have the same dark type scenes, Supernatural, Grimm, Nikita, etc. All look terrific. I am very pleased with the basic settings as would the average home viewer.
2D Settings: I chose movie mode because it keeps the whites. These settings should get someone close to where they want to be without paying for a calibration.
OPC: off
Backlight: -6
Contrast: +28
Brightness: +2
Color: -5
Tint: +2
Sharpness: 0
CMS Hue, Saturation, Value: Default (for now)
Color Gamut Range: Expanded (especially for BD)
Color Temp: Mid-low
Motion Enhancement: 120 Hz Low
Quad Pixel Plus 2: Advanced (See no difference off or on)
Active Contrast: Off
Gamma: 0
Film Mode: Off (causes trails on)
DNR: Off
Monochrome: Off
Range of OPC: N/A when set to off
LED Backlighting: This set sports full-array backlighting. However, It does not have local dimming. I do not see it as being an issue with this set. At all backlight settings, the screen was extremely uniform on solid color, static test pictures. Blacks on this set have an extremely deep floor without crushing. Using “Standard” backlighting, blues tended to glow, as did dark colors such has heads of hair in the forefront, and quite a bit of digital artifacting is visible on darker backgrounds. Off angle magnified all of this. Here’s the trick. I adjusted te backlighting to -6 (range is -20 to +20). This eliminated artifacting, the glow, increased dark scene detail, and off-angle viewing.
Blu-ray: So far I’ve only watched “We Bought a Zoo” on 2D Blu-ray. The picture was absolutely phenomenal, with no blocking, artifacting, etc.
3D and Blu-ray 3D: 3D on this set is extremely good. Superb depth and pop-out when appropriate. I watched “The Darkest Hour” on Blu-ray 3D. I did see some ghosting on large letter (studio names, title). I did not see any ghosting on subtitles or during the credits. During the movie, there was very little ghosting. When it did appear, it was brief and didn’t distract from the picture. There are 3 picture modes. I preferred standard 3D mode over Movie 3D mode. Standard was too warm, but a simple adjustment of color and tint corrected it. 3D on D* also looks very good. It was able to auto-detect the signal type without issue.
2D to 3D Conversion: The conversion on this TV is very good compared to my Sony. The Sony is horrible at this. I watched a couple TV shows and it looked good with good depth. I also switched between the TV and 320 during “We Bought a Zoo”, and both looked really good.
3D Glasses: Although the TV doesn’t “officially” come with 3D glasses, they pretty much have a permanent promo for 2 pairs. I have two pair of the AN-3DG20-B rechargeable glasses. They are extremely light and comfortable. They fit easily over my prescription glasses. If someone does not want to watch 3D, the mode/power slide lets you choose 2D. It was a surprisingly good picture.
Overall Impressions: Overall, I am extremely impressed with this set. It took a while and a lot of playing to get it there. It was worth it though. Picture is clean and vibrant, and the extra 15” over the Panasonic I replaced was worth it. Definitely something to consider if you’re looking for something big and don’t want a projector.
S~
Pictures coming
