Features and specs
Big high-def screens only look really good when you feed them HD sources and these are becoming available in the UK. We already have HD subscription transmissions via satellite (Sky) and cable (Telewest) and the option to playback movies in the Blu-ray Disc format (Panasonic says its own player is now on sale here) and HD DVD format (Toshiba's first player should be available about now, too). Coming soon is the HD DVD playing capability that's promised as an add-on for Microsoft's Xbox 360, followed by Blu-ray playback as standard with the forthcoming Sony PlayStation 3.
To ensure that the giant 103in screen can do justice to the high-quality that these sources can provide - not that they always do or will - Panasonics says it's incorporated a range of features in additional to the basic requirement of 1,920 x 1,080 native resolution with progressive display.
Whereas previous-generation Panasonic plasma screens used 14-bit colour reproduction, the new higher-resolution models need 15-bit. They're actually using 16-bit, though, not just to give a bit of headroom but also to make possible some of the other clever stuff Panasonic is doing.
A new colour-enhancing feature, Real Black Creation, is reckoned to produce high-contrast and rich, deep blacks. This contributes to the claimed high contrast ratio of 5,000:1, with 4,096 steps of gradation, as does a contrast-management system that's said to set the best possible contrast for each pixel.
The screen is also said to be able to display the entire colour range specified by the ITU-R, BT709 standard for HDTV and to have a "Super Cinema" mode that continuously adjusts white balance and colour such that the picture performance is claimed to be equivalent to that of a Grade I TV studio monitor!
In addition, there's a "high-precision" Motion Pattern Noise Reduction circuit that said to optimise picture quality by removing motion patterns that would otherwise cause picture noise.
One of the worries for anyone buying a hugely expensive screen, such as the 103in Panasonic, is how long it will last. The company says that the screen life is actually greater than for a CRT set and can be expected to be more than 60,000 hours - quite a lot more, it reckons, but won't say how much.
Fancy a 103in, or may be one of the smaller Panasonic 1080p screens? Tell us how much in this thread in the HEXUS.lifestyle.news forum, but don't forget to first check out the basic specs below (click for a larger image) and browse Panasonic's press releases on pages three and four.
Click for large image
