Panasonic has unveiled its first OLED television at the IFA trade show in Berlin, Germany. With the release of its TX-65CZ950, the Japanese consumer giant becomes the second manufacturer selling OLET TV next to Korea's LG.
Panasonic's 65-inch 4K Ultra HD TV is movie-friendly and is compatible with high-dynamic range (HDR), offering a much better contrast. The company's Absolute Black Gradation Drive can produce colors near absolute black better than other brands. This gives 65CZ950 a competing edge against models like LG EG9600.
According to CNET, OLED TV does not require a backlight unlike LED TVs. The pixels in the screen of an OLED can be individually switched on or off and the result is perfect blackness where nothing is showing. This technology produces the "best picture quality."
Mike Sowa, a renowned Hollywood colorist, has tuned the colors of Panasonic's 65CZ950 in a bid to recreate the cinema experience on your TV. Sowa said, "Panasonic is proving their commitment to excellence by engineering their newest 4K Pro TV to satisfy my professional standard of zero compromise. My world of visual storytelling is based around colour accuracy and the need for a display that compliments the creative vision. Panasonic has engineered their newest 4K Pro OLED TV to a standard that I would only expect in professional displays."
The downside for some, particularly AV fans, however, is that the screen is curved. But Forbes said that because the quality of the picture "appears to be so brilliant that whether or not you like its curves becomes almost irrelevant."
THX, an independent quality assurance group, has certified the picture quality of TX-65CZ950. It is the first 4K OLED TV to achieve such certification. "OLED is a very promising display technology but getting an accurate picture from an OLED TV is quite challenging. THX put the CZ950 through over 400 laboratory tests working with Panasonic engineers to make certain each pixel's performance is accurate to the source content. The result is a television capable of creating bright objects with excellent white uniformity that delivers native 4K and up-converted HD images with the contrast and clarity previously reserved for professional monitors," said THX's Director of Imaging Technologies Eric Gemmer.
There is no set price yet for the new OLED TV, but it will most likely be more than its LG's equivalent models, Forbes said.
Panasonic has taken some off from the television market when it folded its plasma sales in 2013. Up until recently, LG was the only manufacturer selling television with OLED technology.
