Over the past few days, we’ve written about the strong possibilities of Panasonic launching its first ultra high-definition television for the consumer market, as well as the next generation of HDMI standard being officially announced at the IFA 2013 consumer electronics trade show which takes place in Berlin this week. During the last 12 hours, there surfaced another piece of web evidence – which has now been hastily removed – indicating that both a Panasonic 4K TV and HDMI 2.0 are all but foregone conclusions.
Late last night, a member of British home cinema enthusiast forum AVForums.com (not to be confused with American counterpart AVSForum.com) spotted the appearance of a new TV model on Panasonic’s US web store, which happens to be the Japanese manufacturer’s first-ever consumer-grade Ultra HD TV due for launch at IFA later this afternoon. The webpage for the Panasonic 4KTV – model number TC-65WT600 – has since been pulled, but you can still see a copy in Google’s cache here.
The biggest feature advertised on the Panasonic WT600 is that it’s compliant with HDMI 2.0 which, of course, hasn’t been formally announced yet, though we expect it to be launched (and specifications outlines) at a press conference organised by the HDMI Licensing Group which will take place at IFA this Friday. As suspected, the now-removed product page for the WT600 cites support for 4K resolution at 60fps and – for us in PAL land – 50fps. The current HDMI 1.4 standard only supports 4096×2160 at 24Hz, or 3840×2160 at 30Hz, which is probably not ideal for watching fast-paced material such as live sports broadcast.
Other features on the Viera TC-65WT600 include a 65-inch screen, LED backlight technology instead of plasma (to be fair, it’s unlikely Panasonic will invest further R&D into mass-producing a 4K plasma at this stage of the display technology’s life cycle), Displayport 1.2 connectivity, not to mention THX 4K certification. Styling-wise, the WT600 looks eerily similar to the company’s 1080p flagship WT60/ WT65 series, sporting a silver trim, a transparent table-top stand shaped like a toboggan, and a pop-up camera along the top of the panel.
No pricing details yet, but we’ll be attending Panasonic’s press conference this afternoon to bring you updates as events unfold.
Source: AVForums.com
