Panasonic has made a number of display-related announcements at the company’s press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016 in Las Vegas, including the world’s first 65in 4K LED LCD TV to support UHD Alliance’s Ultra HD Premium specifications, as well as a production-ready Ultra HD Blu-ray player.
The Panasonic Viera DX900 series will be the Japanese manufacturer’s flagship LED television for 2016. Two screen sizes are available, namely the 58″ TX-58DX900 and the 65″ TX-65DX900, with the latter being the first LCD-based 65-incher to meet the stringent “Ultra HD Premium” performance metrics (at least 1000 nits peak brightness and 90% DCI-P3 colour space coverage) defined by the UHDA. The TX65DX900 will feature a VA-type LCD panel and direct-lit LED backlight boosted by full-array local dimming (FALD) technology, with the number of dimmable zones said to be more than 300. The Panasonic DX900 will be rolled out in Europe initially.
Updated 6 January 2016: We met up with Panasonic at CES, and were informed that the 65DX900 will have 512 independently dimmable zones. No concrete price yet, but it’ll be significantly less expensive than the CZ950 OLED.
Also receiving Ultra HD Premium certification is Panasonic’s forthcoming DMP-UB900 Ultra HD Blu-ray player. We first saw a prototype from the company exactly one year ago at CES 2015, but it’s only now that a retail version for countries outside Japan has been announced. The Panasonic DMPUB900 is slated to arrive in the UK and Europe in spring 2016, with the price likely to exceed £500.
Updated 6 January 2016: Panasonic told us that the UB900 will be priced below €1,000.
Last but not least, the Osaka-headquartered TV maker announced that it’s finally bringing its critically-acclaimed Panasonic TX-65CZ950 OLED TV (which was until now only available to buy in the United Kingdom and Europe following launch at IFA 2015) to the US market. Because its peak luminance topped out at 450 cd/m2 and gamut coverage was limited to 86% DCI-P3, the 65in CZ950 won’t carry UHD Alliance’s “Ultra HD Premium” logo. Nevertheless, it still delivered the best overall picture quality we’ve seen on any television to date (in case you’ve missed it, here’s our very recent review).
We’ll be interviewing Panasonic spokespersons on the CES showfloor to find out more details about these products, and will update this article accordingly.
