Panasonic TX-65GZ950: an excellent Oled Ultra HD television without frills

Presentation

The Panasonic TX-65GZ950 uses a 10-inch Oled and 100 Hz 65-inch (approximately 165 cm) panel with an Ultra HD resolution of 3 840 x 2 160 px. Like all Panasonic Oled models of 2019, it operates a new, more powerful and optimized HCX Intelligent Pro processor, notably in terms of the motion compensation engine called Oled Superb Motion Drive. This model has an audio part made up of two 10 W speakers and two 15 W subwoofers. The other new feature is the MyHomeScreen 4.0 operating system, which has been upgraded to facilitate access to content. .

The Panasonic TX-65GZ950 retails for around € 2,700. It is also available in a 55-inch version (Panasonic TX-55GZ950) for around € 1,700. In the range of Panasonic Oled TVs, we also find the GZ1000 with a different stand, the GZ1500 with front speakers and the impressive GZ2000 with an Oled Pro panel and speakers placed on top for a Dolby Atmos effect.

All the brightness and colorimetric measurements mentioned in this article were carried out with a SpectraCal C6-HDR probe and the CalMAN Ultimate software.

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Image quality

The TX-65GZ950 has an Oled panel different from that of other Panasonic models. It uses the same panel as the LG 65C9. The structure of the sub-pixels is slightly different. The white subpixel inherits a new shape while the red subpixel is slightly larger than its predecessor. LG Display - manufacturer of all Oled TV panels - continue to refine its technology by adjusting the size of the sub-pixels to improve performance and lifespan. The operation remains identical: each pixel is made up of four sub-pixels (one green, one red, one blue and one white). The white and red sub-pixels are larger in order to improve the maximum brightness of the screen, while maintaining a color temperature close to 6,500 K. As always with Oled technology, the viewing angles are excellent. We have measured a loss of brightness of only 23% at 45 ° and there is no variation on black - which is absolute.

True Cinema mode offers the best color rendering. We measured the average delta E at 2.4, a good value is less than 3, a threshold below which the eye can no longer distinguish colorimetric drifts. With the exception of grayscale, no hue exceeds this value of 3 and it is considered that this television delivers colors perfectly faithful to those sent by the source.

The average gamma measured at 2.37 is perfectly aligned with the reference value. In addition, apart from two slight bursts on very light and very dark gray, the curve displays good stability over the entire spectrum. As is often the case with Oled TVs, this is flawless on this point.

The temperature curve is perfectly stable over the entire spectrum, but the average measured at 6,790 K is a little above the 6,500 K reference. The final result is generally very good.

The contrast of Oled TVs is always considered to be infinite. Indeed, even with a white calibrated at 149 cd / m², black is measured at 0 cd / m². This contrast is still as impressive and allows you to enjoy all the nuances, even in complete darkness.

The Panasonic Remastering Engine has not changed much since last year. Panasonic has obviously not yet given in to the sirens of artificial intelligence which improves the clarity of images by interpreting different objects. The Panasonic engine already offers very good results with 1080p content displayed on an Ultra HD panel. The image is very soft and we did not detect any artifacts in True Cinema mode. The Oled Superb Motion Drive motion compensation system is particularly efficient. This year, Panasonic engineers have worked particularly on the eradication of artifacts. The moving image is always as sharp, with no artifacts, and the camcorder effect is limited. This motion compensation engine is still part of the top three alongside those of Philips and LG since last year (from the C8 model).

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HDR

Like the Panasonic GZ1000, GZ1500 and GZ200, the TX-65GZ950 is one of the few TVs on the market compatible with all HDR formats (HDR10, HLG, HDR10 + and Dolby Vision).

The Display Tone Mapping used by Panasonic perfectly follows the reference EOTF curve (in yellow). Unfortunately, this absence of smoothing of the curve results in a phenomenon of clipping beyond 70% of luminance. The parts of the image displaying a brightness greater than the capacities of the panel cannot necessarily be distinguished from one another. We would have liked an option to smooth this curve, as at LG which allows to smooth the curve as soon as the maximum capacities of the slab are reached.

We measured the brightness peak at 734 cd / m² in HDR10 on a 10% window in True Cinema mode, and therefore with a temperature close to 6,500 K. This brightness is classic for an Oled TV and the GZ950 does not use not the power supply and the cooling system of the Panasonic GZ2000 which allows it to tease the 1000 cd / m². This peak of brightness is correct, nothing more, and it is especially the very deep blacks which allow a beautiful dynamic of the image on Oled televisions. High-end LCD TVs with a brightness peak above 2,000 cd / m² (Sony 65ZF9 or Samsung 75Q900R) are often more impressive, but are affected by blooming (halo effect around bright objects on a black background) sometimes very annoying, especially with subtitles.

The color rendering is as good in HDR as in SDR. We measured an average Delta E of only 2.6, which translates into simply perfect colors.

No big change on the color coverage side. This Oled TV does like all the others and you have to make do with 70% coverage of the Rec. 2020 color space. This value is quite low, but it is one of the best on the market. In fact, only a few televisions manage to display 70% of Rec.2020, including the Oled models and some high-end LCD televisions.

Fortunately, things are getting better with the coverage of the DCI-P3 color space which reaches 95%, which is almost all the colors used by the cinema industry for Ultra HD films.

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Video games

Panasonic Oled TVs are great models for gaming and the GZ950 is no exception. Zero ghosting results in very few blurring effects behind moving objects, while the display delay of only 21.7 ms minimizes the lag between action on the controller and its effect on the screen. Panasonic has not improved the display delay on its 2019 Oleds, while LG holds the new record with a display delay of 13 ms on the LG 65C9. In addition, if the Panasonic 2019 televisions are compatible with the ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) which allows to reduce the delay in the display automatically when a console is detected, the televisions of the Japanese manufacturer are not compatible with the VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) while those of LG are.

Panasonic is one of the rare manufacturers to offer a "Game" mode on all preset modes (Menu> Image> Option settings> Game mode). It is therefore possible to benefit from an input lag reduced to 21 ms in True Cinema mode, and therefore to have perfect colors in games.

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Clouding

As with all Oled TVs on the market, each pixel is managed individually and there is therefore no clouding. Banding effects (horizontal or vertical bands) are also absent on our test model. We measured the average difference in white homogeneity over the entire 65-inch panel at only 5%. A very good result which is explained by the use of Oled technology resulting in little variation on the white.

From now on, in all Oled TV tests, we are talking about labeling. Extensive tests have shown that the marking of modern Oled tiles is limited during everyday use. On the other hand, the chains of continuous information displaying bands with saturated colors (red, blue or green) can clearly pose problem, in particular when the brightness is pushed to the maximum. This risk exists and cannot be totally overlooked. Remember that you must switch off the television using the remote control and that it is not recommended to disconnect it completely from the power. The television performs maintenance operations on the screen when it is in standby in order to preserve uniformity and precisely to avoid marking problems.

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Ergonomics

In line with other Panasonic models, this 65GZ950 is very sober. It takes up the design of the FZ800 including the fairly imposing central foot.

The anti-glare filter used by Panasonic is the same as that of all Oled Ultra HD TVs on the market. LG Display - which supplies Oled tiles to all manufacturers - has not yet improved its copy. The anti-reflective treatment manages to dilute most of the light reflections. The result is among the best on the market, but it does not equal that of high-end TVs from Samsung, such as the 65Q85R, a real benchmark on this point.

This 65 inch (165 cm) TV occupies a good part of our 160 x 40 cm TV stand. The base is 30 cm deep, so you need to provide a fairly deep piece of furniture. Without the stand, the TV is limited to a thickness of 6.2 cm on the bottom. It also has VESA 400 x 400 fixing holes to fix it to the wall.

Like the front, the back of the TV is very sober. We find the connection on the right and the power supply on the left.

With the exception of the SD card reader, the connection is identical to that of last year's FZ800 and FZ950. On the side, there are two HDMI 2.0b inputs (Ultra HD 60 fps, HDR, HDCP 2.2), a PCMCIA port (CI + common interface), a USB 3.0 port, the antenna, cable, satellite and TNT inputs, an Ethernet port and a headphone output. At the rear, with a perpendicular output that prohibits the use of the cache, there are two HDMI ports, two USB 2.0 ports, the optical digital audio output and a component input (YUV). The TV has a built-in dual DVB-T / T2 / T2-HD, DVB-S / S2 and DVB-C tuner. It also has 802.11a / b / g / n / ac Wi-Fi, as well as Bluetooth 4.0 for connection with a wireless audio device (headphones or speaker).

The multimedia system My Home Screen 4.0 is derived from Firefox OS, abandoned by the Mozilla foundation in 2018 and from which Panasonic took the source code. If the system is lagging behind Tizen, Android TV and WebOS, especially in terms of the number of applications available, it remains fluid and pleasant to use. This small update still brings some new features such as the ability to take a look at the content of applications like Netflix or YouTube without having to open them. There are a few known applications like Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video or Molotov.tv, but you have to give up on Spotify, myCanal, myTF1, Bein, RMC Sport and many others. The Panasonic GZ1000 however has fairly unique features like the In-House Server, which allows the TV to encode a TV stream received via the over-the-air antenna, satellite or even cable to send it over the home network to a another brand TV . The interest of the double tuner takes all its sense, since the second compatible television set can use it to change channels without being connected to a conventional antenna. The limitation of the interface is not really a handicap, especially for users who prefer a simpler TV in order to entrust the intelligent functions to a real multimedia box like the Shield TV or the Apple TV 4K or even a Chromecast Ultra - the latter being more limited, but not less practical. The user is thus less dependent on the system of his television and, in this sense, he will be less disappointed when he is no longer updated within 18 to 36 months, because this is often the reality on television sets of the market.

It takes about 6 seconds to turn on the TV for the first time and then it takes less than 4 seconds to wake up. It takes less than 1 second for standby and consumption is then less than 1 W. On this point, it is a flawless for Panasonic, especially compared to Android TVs which take more than 30 seconds during the first start-up.

Like the FZ800 and GZ1000, the GZ950 only needs a very basic remote control. If it offers access to all the features thanks to its many keys, it is still quite dated. Fortunately, the rubber keys are quiet and pleasant to the touch. This remote control ignores the built-in microphone, which is nevertheless essential for research on the Internet, and the backlighting of the keys, which is still topical on the remote controls of high-end televisions from the Japanese manufacturer.

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Audio

The Panasonic TX-65GZ950 has two 15 W woofers on the back and two 10 W tweeters facing down. They deliver a rather good and balanced sound. The low mids are well reproduced from 70 Hz and the speakers cover the entire upper spectrum beyond. This audio system is Dolby Atmos certified and can therefore produce "virtual" Dolby Atmos sound. This TV is also eARC compatible and can therefore transmit Dolby Atmos and even Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master streams via HDMI 2 or 3 ports.

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Consumption

We measured consumption at 99 W on our target with a white set at 150 cd / m². The relative consumption does not exceed 85 W / m², which is much lower than the average of the televisions tested (around 100 W / m²). If consumption is higher than that of televisions equipped with an Edge Led backlighting system like the Sony KD-65XE8505, record-holder of the category with its 56 W / m², or than that of Full LED televisions like the Sony 65ZF9 (72 W / m²), this Panasonic is immediately positioned as one of the least demanding Oled TVs on the market. It thus equals the consumption of the LG 65C9 which had particularly surprised us with a consumption of only 85 W / m². Standby consumption is always less than 1 W.

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Conclusion

It is a no-fault for the Panasonic TX-65GZ950. It delivers high-quality image quality, whether in SDR or HDR. As on all Oled TVs - with the exception of the GZ2000 - we somewhat regret the lack of brightness of the image in HDR, but fortunately, it is compensated by the depth of the blacks. On the very competitive market of Oled televisions, this model stands out above all by its very efficient motion compensation engine and its reduced energy consumption.

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