42in Plasma Picture Sound Features Usability Value Not perfect, but nevertheless one of the best 42in plasmas money can buy. Rating: 92%

Reviewed: 25 August 2009

  Black levels

  Colour accuracy

Panasonic's high end plasma's explained

Panasonic consider their 'NeoPDP' technology significant enough to group their high end plasma screens for 2009 within the 'NeoPDP' category. These screens include the range topping Z1 followed by the V10, G15 and G10 model range. So what are the differences between these high end models?

The G10 series gets a Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution with NeoPDP technology, 600 Hz Sub Field Drive, Vreal Pro 4 picture processing, a Freesat tuner and 3 HDMIs. The step up G15 adds 'Deep Colour', 'Viera Cast' and 'DNLA' (through a LAN port) and an extra HDMI taking the total to 4. Next up in the range, the V10, gets 'THX Mode', 'Picture in Picture', an upgraded 'Natural Vision Filter', '24p Smooth Film', 'Digital Cinema Colour' and 'Deep Colour'. The range topping ultra slim (1in) Z1 can transmit a full 1080p HD signal from its tuner box and also supports the Viera Cast feature wirelessly.

Features

Viera Cast arrives as Panasonic's solution to internet access directly through your TV. The Viera Cast button on the TX-P42V10's remote takes you straight to Panasonic's online content portal where you can choose from a limited but growing amount of content.

You can access the likes of YouTube videos, the Picasa photo sharing web site or stock quote information, weather reports etc. The content on offer is certainly not comprehensive enough to lure hardened internet users away from their PC's at the moment, but Viera Cast is an interesting feature which gives the P42V10 an added dimension.

DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) makes it easier to integrate your electrical entertainment appliances as part of a home network. Viewing your still JPEG holiday snaps stored on a PC through your TV is just one of the many benefits DLNA brings.

	Screen: 42in 16:9 Tuner: Digital Sound System: Nicam Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Contrast Ratio (dynamic): 2,000,000:1 Other Features: V-real 4 Picture Processing, 100Hz refresh rate, 600Hz sub-field drive, THX mode. Sockets: 4 HDMI, 2 SCART, Component Video, Composite Video, PC input, SD card reader.

 

THX mode ensures that TV's meet standard performance benchmarks in two areas, Picture Quality; ensuring black levels, contrast, color gamut, brightness, resolution and uniformity meet a certain standard and Signal processing ; ensuring minimum standards for sharpness, noise reduction, overscan, motion compensation and deinterlacing.

With its emphasis on improving flat panel luminance efficiency, NeoPDP technology has the potential to give plasma screens a new lease of life. NeoPDP actually focuses on and improves the efficiency of three different components of screen performance - materials and processes, gas discharge and cell design along with electronic circuit technologies.

While the overall picture performance of plasma compares favorably to LCD, relative power consumption of the competing technologies exposes plasma's Acilles heal in significantly greater running costs. NeoPDP technology not only reduces power consumption but paves the way for slimmer, lighter screens with improved picture performance.

With the TX-P42V10, Panasonic are actually giving users the option of achieving the same brightness levels as their 2008 plasma screens while using far less power, or else using the same power used on last year's screens to produce far brighter images.

Not only does NeoPDP bring with it the promise of far greater energy efficiency but also a vastly improved picture performance. A faster 0.001ms response time, improved colour reproduction, and greater contrast levels offer the potential for stunning picture performance.

Having just about digested the implications of NeoPDP, Panasonic hit us with another first - 600Hz Sub-Field Drive Intelligent Frame Creation Pro technology. Things are always not quite what they seem however, and the 600Hz as we shall see does not translate into 600 frames per second.

Remembering that a video signal is actually a series of still images (frames) appearing so quickly that they trick the eye into believing we are watching a moving image (100Hz = 100 frames per second) - Sub-Field technology adds an extra step to the process. Sub-field drive is the method used to display (or 'flash') the individual image elements (dots) on a plasma panel, 600 times per second (600Hz) in the case of the V10. Panasonic are actually employing some clever technology to 'interpolate' this extra data. The number of frames displayed per second in the case of Sub-Field technology has not actually increased to 600, which is a little confusing.

With Digital Cinema Colour the V10 can accurately represent more than 120% of the conventional HDTV colour standard. With the latest v1.3 HDMI spec, the V10 can also utilize the Deep Colour (x.v.YCC) format. Deep Colour produces almost twice the range of available colours, but you will need a source that produces this level of detail (A few HD camcorders offer the feature and Blu-ray discs played through a Deep Colour enabled player such as Panasonic's DMP-BD30).

With a built-in Freesat tuner the feature list just keeps on going up. Elsewhere there is an SD card which plays AVCHD movies or your digital still JPEG's. The TX-P42V10 comes equipped with a Full HD (1920 x 1080) screen and 4 HDMIs.

Panasonic's almost legendary V-real Picture Processing Engine now comes in the shape of V-real 4. Tweaks to the screens main picture processing circuitry have been designed to clean the incoming Standard Definition source as well as improving High Definition presentation.

Panasonic claim a 2,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio for the TX-42PV10, the Eco mode element of which dims the on screen image brightness automatically in response to the ambient light conditions surrounding the TV.

Viera Link uses the high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) connections to automatically control similarly enabled devices using a single remote. Panasonic have now added support for their LUMIX range of digital cameras to Viera link. Viera Image Viewer is a new function for easy viewing of digital still photos. Pop in an SD card and a slide show begins automatically with, amongst other things, the option to choose from three preset background music tracks.

V-audio surround actually determines the measurement of the room the TV is in, via a digital signal. The sound coming from the TV is then customized for its environment.

Performance

We now expect any Panasonic plasma to display a supreme Black Level response, and the TX-P42V10 doesn't disappoint. Deep rich on screen blacks are revealed with absolutely no trace of 'greyness'. What really impresses is the level of graduated detail you get across darker scenes which add a level of realism and dynamism to scenes with an element of shadow detail which is just lost on lesser screens. With the added benefit of NeoPDP technology these darker scenes are brighter than just about any other plasma we have come across.

With such an accomplished black level response providing a perfect backdrop for Colour we were a surprised to be left feeling a little flat by the V10s performance in this respect. With all of the on board colour enhancing wizardry, the TX-P42V10 doesn't quite deliver on its performance promise. Tricky areas such as facial tones are never anything less than wholly realistic, but we felt that the panel lacked the 'Dynamism' that Pioneer's Kuro range still display after all this time. Perhaps it was our expectation that is somewhat to blame, this screen is still well above the standard level of performance in terms of colour reproduction.

Motion handling on the TX-P42V10 is not perfect, but enough of an improvement to suggest that 600Hz sub-field drive technology is much more than a clever marketing exercise. The improvement is most noticeable on faster motion sequences where even the best flat screens begin to loose an element of definition, clarity and sharpness. The TX-P42V10 ultimately suffers from a very small amount of juddering with fast camera pans, but its abilities place it into an elite group of performers in this respect.

Testament to further tweaking of V-real processing into V-real 4 and given that the circuitry has to upscale the 576 or so lines of Freeview pictures onto a 1920 x 1080 screen, the TX-P42V10 delivers an above avarage Standard Definition (SD) performance. Inevitably, Freeview  pictures are blighted by an element of on screen noise and there was an element of colour 'banding' rather than the smooth blending of colour we have seen on a number flat panel TV's.

As we expected, the Full HD (1920 x 1080) panel produced some of the most accomplished High Definition (HD) pictures we have seen. Panasonic do high definition on Full HD panels as well as any other manufacturer, with the HD rendition of scenes from our 'Planet Earth' Blu-ray compelling you to reach out and touch - the impression of reality being so strong. Every imaginable nuance of detail is presented in a flood of vibrantly rendered colours, a truly involving and addictive experience.

As with most flat panel TV's, acoustic considerations have come second to aesthetics, principally the need for a stylish, slim profile. As a result the P42V10 suffers from an underwhelming bass and treble audio performance. To be fair to Panasonic, you will find exactly the same problem on virtually every flat panel TV around which does not benefit from a separate speaker unit and the acoustic performance is good enough not to make this shortcoming an issue.

Conclusion

Panasonic's TX-P42V10 is a hugely capable and well equipped flat screen TV. Although we are a little disappointed that we have still not (quite) found a screen to topple Pioneer's now legendary 'Kuro' range, this is one of the best 42in TV's money can buy. 

  Black levels

  Colour accuracy