Panasonic TX-L42DT65B Review

Panasonic’s assault on the LED TV market continues with the TX-L42DT65B – the 42in model within the Viera DT65 series – that we’re reviewing today. In case you’re wondering, the UK-exclusive DT65 shares nearly identical specifications with the DT60 which the rest of Europe gets: the change in numerical suffix apparently reflects not only the set’s premium status, but also restricted availability through authorised dealers.

Within the Japanese TV manufacturer’s ever-expanding lineup of LED-lit LCD televisions, the Panasonic DT65 sits merely one rung below the flagship WT65/WT60 series. Besides this 42-inch version, three other screen sizes are available, namely the 47-inch Panasonic TX-L47DT65B, the 55-inch TX-L55DT65B, and the 60-inch TX-L60DT65B. This review will deal with the baby of the bunch (and probably the most popular, given the smallish average British home size), then.

Of course, there’s a significant change in display technology (and by extrapolation, the underlying LCD panel) between this year’s and last year’s Viera DT series. Because of a decision by Panasonic to adopt passive 3D across its entire 2013 LED LCD range, the TX-L42DT65 is equipped with FPR (film-type patterned retarder) polarized 3D LCD technology provided by LG Display, instead of the active-shutter glasses (ASG) system found on last year’s DT50. With this in mind, let’s see what the TV is capable of!

Design

Upon unboxing the TXL42DT65 and inspecting the accessories, we can’t help but feel that silver is the order of the day – the designers at Panasonic HQ must have received a memo declaring this to be the new black. First, the slim bezel is beautifully chiselled and finished in gleaming silver, which may appear a touch reflective in a brightly-lit viewing environment. This is matched by the highly polished V-shaped, swivel-capable stem that supports the television on a brushed metallic – yes, you’ve guessed it – silver rectangular base.

Even the two supplied remote controls are silver affairs. The first is a traditional one that sports large legible keys and can be backlit; while a secondary touchpad controller – featuring an inbuilt microphone and an innovative “trigger finger” button – aims to complement the impressive array of Smart TV functionalities including voice control on the Viera DT65.

The TXL42DT65B ships with 4 pairs of polarized 3D glasses, which is double the number of active-shutter eyewear included with this year’s Samsung 3DTVs, and Panasonic’s own active 3D plasmas.

Calibration

To get an idea of how accurate the Panasonic 42DT65 can be out of the box, we switched [Viewing Mode] from the default of “Normal” to “True Cinema“, and measured away.

Greyscale

Pre-calibration RGB tracking and delta errors (dEs)

The TV didn’t fare too badly here, although blue channel was underfilled, causing on-screen images to appear a touch too warm. A quick trip to the [White Balance] submenu (which houses the 2-point WB controls) sorted this out – we didn’t even need to do much tweaking to the 10-point controls (accessible via the [More Detailed Adjustment] option) to obtain what we would say is an excellent result:

Post-calibration RGB tracking and dEs in [Professional1] mode

Delta errors (dEs) were suppressed to below 3 (widely considered to be the human perceptible limit), ensuring that greys remained tint-free which, believe it or not, is a key element for accurate colour reproduction. Near-black areas – transmissive display technologies like LED LCDs cannot render true blacks on a per-pixel basis – took on a purplish shade, which is a common trait of IPS (in-plane switching) panels.

Gamma

Perhaps to draw attention away from the not-so-deep black level (a known weakness of IPS LCD panels), Panasonic’s engineers seemed to have tweaked the default gamma on the Viera TX-L42DT65B such that brighter portions of the video appeared darker than they should be. This creates a punchier image, but can look slightly unnatural due to uneven tonal transition.

Pre-calibration gamma tracking (avg 2.45)	Post-calibration gamma tracking (avg 2.25)

Greyscale calibration improved (but did not completely eradicate) the issue. Since the DT65′s black level measured above 0.1 cd/m², we lowered our target gamma from the 2.4 we usually aim for (this is the reference stipulated by ITU for flat-screen HD studio monitors used in a dark room, but then their blacks are quite a bit better than 0.1cd/m²!) to 2.2, so that shadow detail was not crushed. In case you’re wondering why we didn’t take advantage of the 10p gamma controls on offer to flatten the tracking, that’s because we noticed sporadic posterization in real-world viewing with their use.

Colour

We found red to be undersaturated on our Panasonic TX-L42DT65 review sample, not only at 100% saturation point, but also at 25%, 50% and 75% points which CalMAN 5 now lets us track. Blue also suffered from a similar problem at sub-100% saturation points.

Pre-calibration CIE chart including saturation tracking

[Colour Management] to the rescue. Panasonic’s HSL-based (hue, saturation, luminance) CMS (colour management system) is effective, but there’s a fair bit of interaction between the parameters (for example, adjusting luminance will affect saturation to a degree, and vice versa) so care must be exercised. As per our current workflow, we prioritised getting colour luminance/brightness/intensity spot-on to wipe out any decoding error (not that there was much in the first place):

Post-calibration colour luminance (coloured bars=targets; black bars=measured values)

… and then gently used the [R-Saturation] and [B-Saturation] sliders to minimise red and blue inaccuracies respectively across the 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% saturation tracking points, while also using other controls to touch up the secondary colours. Trying to correct the slightly deviated RGB hues at 100% saturation would unfortunately also skew the sub-100% colour points, so we decided to leave them be since these hue errors were undetectable in real-life content.

Post-calibration colour saturation tracking

Benchmark Test Results

Dead pixels	None
Screen uniformity	Mild “dirty screen” effect
Overscanning on HDMI	0% with [16:9 Overscan] set to “Off“
Blacker than black	Passed
Calibrated black level (black screen)	0 cd/m2 (LEDs shut off)
Calibrated black level (ANSI checkerboard)	0.156 cd/m2
Black level retention	Auto-dimming with full black screen
Primary chromaticity	Very good
Scaling	Excellent
Video mode deinterlacing	Effective jaggies reduction
Film mode deinterlacing	Passed 2:2/576i & 3:2/480i with [Film Cadence Mode] on
Viewing angle	Very good for an LCD; washout occurs after 60° off-axis
Motion resolution	900-1080 with [Intelligent Frame Creation] on; 300 off
Digital noise reduction	Defeatable
Sharpness	Defeatable edge enhancement
Luma/Chroma bandwidth (2D Blu-ray)	Full luma; full chroma with [1080p Pixel Direct] engaged
1080p/24 capability	No judder in 2D or 3D
Input lag (high-speed camera)	33ms compared to CRT TV
Leo Bodnar input lag tester	36ms with [Game Mode] engaged
Full 4:4:4 reproduction (PC)	Yes, with [1080p Pixel Direct] engaged

Power Consumption

Default [Normal] mode	49 watts
Calibrated [Professional1] mode	38 watts
Standby	<1 watt

Picture Quality

If you’re familiar with the different characteristics of various types of LCD panel technology, then you’ll know what to expect with the Panasonic TXL42DT65B which uses an IPS panel. Bearing that in mind, first let’s talk about this television’s Achilles’ heel: at 0.156 cd/m², its native black level was relatively bright compared to VA-based LCD displays (such as Samsung’s Series 7 and Series 8 LED TVs, or Panasonic’s own 42E6 model), let alone plasma TVs from these two companies that are capable of supremely deep blacks.

To be fair, the mist of greyness that pervades where it should be black was only apparent when watching predominantly dark scenes in a dimly-lit viewing environment. The presence of moderate-strong ambient light (i.e. during daytime) or some bright elements on screen went a long way towards deflecting from the less-than-impressive black-level response – we actually found the TX-L42DT65 very watchable under such conditions.

With that out of the way, it’s mostly good news when it comes to the Panasonic DT65′s picture performance. The Japanese TV manufacturer has developed a reputation for delivering high-quality video processing, while knowing when to hold back on any tinkering urge, so that already pristine HD detail can shine through unblemished. That’s exactly what we got on the Viera TX-L42DT65B, with first-rate standard-definition handling (the set even passed our Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason PAL DVD torture test with flying colours) and judder-free 1080p/24 Blu-ray playback among the virtues that brought a smile to our face. Of course, a lot of credit needs to go to Panasonic’s generous provision of useful calibration controls, which helped us achieve highly accurate greyscale and colours on the TXL42DT65.

As with most edge LED televisions, a mild “dirty screen” effect (most noticeable during panning shots) was unavoidable due to the way LEDs mounted along the borders are required to illuminate the whole screen with the aid of light guidance plates. Motion quality was clean (another strength of IPS technology) without any sign of low-tone motion smearing that can afflict VA panels. Engaging [Intelligent Frame Creation] would bump motion resolution from the baseline LCD level of 300 to in excess of 900 lines – we certainly advise setting it to “Min” for video-based content to boost the clarity of moving objects. In the past we’ve found Panasonic’s motion-compensated frame interpolation (MCFI) technology to exhibit less glitches than similar systems implemented by rival TV brands, and our 42-inch DT65 sample remained true to this trend.

IPS panels are revered too for their wide viewing angles (at least within the LCD circle), a trait that was immediately apparent on the Panasonic TXL42DT65B. Colours held on to their saturation as far as 60° off-axis before any significant washout occurred, although blacks – which were not great to begin with – became brighter earlier than that. Either way, this is a notch better than LED TVs that use VA-type LCD panel.

Since the L42DT65B uses an FPR polarized 3D LCD panel sourced from LG Display, we already knew what we’re getting in the third dimension based on our experience withprevious 3DTVs featuring the same technology: bright extra-dimensional images that are free of flicker, low on crosstalk, and deliver bags of depth. All three frame rates (50hz, 60hz, 24Hz) were handled impeccably without judder in 3-D mode – another testament to Panasonic’s video processing prowess.

Our sensitive eyes could pick up dark horizontal scan lines through the passive 3D glasses – an inevitable side effect of the polarized filter/lens – from as far as 6 feet away. Obviously sitting farther away from the screen can make the scanlines/ lessened vertical resolution dissolve away, but then so would the tri-dimensional detail and immersiveness.

Another thing to note with passive 3D televisions including the Panasonic DT65 is that the vertical viewing angle is fairly limited – watching the screen from anything more than 15° above eye level would result in an intolerable amount of ghosting/ double images. This is of particular importance for owners who wish to enjoy three-dimensional content on their wall-mounted TX-L42DT65 – make sure the TV is installed at eye level.

Conclusion

Panasonic has worked its magic on the TX-L42DT65B to make the best of an IPS LCD panel whose strengths (wide viewing angles, no motion smearing) and weakness (less-than-impressive blacks) are common knowledge. Video processing for standard definition and 3D content is excellent, and the Viera DT65 – like most of the company’s non-entry-level HDTVs this year – can be calibrated to within an inch of its life, owing to their engineers’ deep understanding of what constitutes an accurate image, coupled with the inclusion of a comprehensive array of advanced calibration controls.

The TX-L42DT65 is really only let down – as all IPS panels do – by its black-level response, which makes it more suitable as a bright-room television than for critical viewing in a dimly-lit viewing environment. Had Panasonic paired its TV-making know-how with an LCD panel capable of producing deeper blacks (such as the VA one used on the TX-L42E6B), the result might have been spectacular, although the company would probably have to reverse its stance of “only passive 3D on LED TVs”. Perhaps next year?

As things stand, the TXL42DT65B’s stylish design, accurate images, easy-on-the-eye 3D and excellent Smart TV platform earn it a spot in the “Recommended” category, even though those who are seeking the best value for money are better served by the ET60 series which delivers essentially similar picture quality at a lower price.

Review: Humax DTR-T1000

YouView is one of the most complicated products ever to launch. It's not so much technically difficult to do what has been done here, but it involves a lot of what, in management terms, are known as "stakeholders". Namely, the people who have a vested interest in getting a product on sale.

Here, this is the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5 and ITV as broadcasters, and BT and TalkTalk as broadband providers. There's even a transmission company that is coughing up a percentage of the investment money - £70 million to date.

What that means is that there are a lot of people and organisations with aims to serve. In short, the YouView "system" and the boxes that allow us to access its services, have been massively delayed. And as a result, many of the features found at launch are either already on Freeview HD boxes, or coming soon. So while YouView might not be groundbreaking, it is still a major addition to a market that's more crowded than a Tube train during the Olympics.

We're looking here at the Humax YouView box, but we suspect when other receivers launch, they'll be indistinguishable apart from some minor cosmetic changes. The fact is, YouView is like Sky Digital used to be - lots of different manufacturers, but nothing to chose between them. So while we like Humax hardware, there's not much here to indicate what that company is capable of.

It's another black box

If you were hoping YouView would distinguish itself by creating hardware to rival Apple, think again. Instead, we're looking at another anonymous black box, that looks like all the others you've ever seen. Is this a problem? Not at all, the box isn't ugly, it's just not interesting. This is likely to present a problem for YouView, as there's nothing here to scream "buy me" among the sea of other PVRs, and with this one costing £100 more than a normal HD PVR, one has to wonder what the firm is going to do to get sales.

On the front panel, there's a large power button, this is circled with a status LED that changes colour depending on what's going on. Blue signifies that it's turned on, while orange is for when the box is powered down. There's a display too, and here you'll get a channel name and relevant information about the picture type and a running time for recordings.

At the back, you'll find analogue outputs that no one in their right mind will use. These are for standard definition, but there's no provision for component outputs for analogue HD. This is, no doubt, an attempt to prevent copyright theft, forcing people to use encrypted HD. This is tedious, and some who have used up their TV's HDMI sockets might be disappointed that they can't make use of those HD-capable component sockets that lie idle. The two most important sockets are the aforementioned HDMI output, along with the Ethernet jack for connecting the box to your router.

And here, we are reminded of another frustration with this Humax: no built-in Wi-Fi. A dongle is coming later, we're told, but honestly, who the hell wants to mess about with a dongle in this day and age, and on a £300 piece of hardware?

Beautiful interface

On the flip side, while the outer box is very mundane, the software on the inside is to be applauded. Finished in black and blue, it looks the part. It's different from most devices we've used, it's not overwhelmed with logos on branding, it's just a big, sensible EPG with some quite well thought-out menus punctuating the whole thing.

Clearly, it's on this part of the service that most effort has been spent. And that's a good thing, because simple user interfaces are crucial to making people enjoy, and recommend, a product. Look at Apple's iPod and iPad - two complicated devices made simple by mostly fuss-free user interfaces. And YouView is the same, for the most part.

And as this box is aimed at people who don't want Sky or Virgin, and are more likley to be older users, that's a really good thing. Although we don't want to patronise older readers by saying they can't work other "complicated" services, our own parents are in our mind, and they certainly would like a simple service that's free (mostly).

We like the way there's always a preview of what you're watching in the corner of the screen. And we love the EPG, it's clear and easy to use. We would prefer it if scrolling around updated more quickly, as there were times when we found ourselves waiting for the EPG to load its content. Indeed, we'd hope that the box would keep this up to date while the device is on, just showing TV. But this didn't seem to be the case.

It's hard not to love the way the box tells you, straight away, when there is a show that you can watch via catch-up. It's so simple, and the box manages it so well, that you very soon stop worrying about live TV and just learn to use the box as it was intended - as a massive resource of almost every TV show you could hope to watch, and quite a few you wish never to see again.

On thing we did notice, was that when we pressed the "help" button the box popped up a message that told us to go online to get help. Hardly a user-friendly experience, is it?

Arduous start-up times

Rightly, the Humax YouView box takes environmental issues seriously. With that in mind, if it's left in standby mode for more than three hours it switches itself in to a very low-power mode. The problem with this is that it no longer starts instantly, and you have to wait a very, very long time to get it up and running.

We like the low-power mode. We do NOT like the boot time. And honestly, we aren't really sure what the damn thing is doing in this period. We're now getting to the point where computers can boot Windows in 20 seconds. If a computer can boot that quickly, who is going to want to wait more than a minute for their YouView box to switch on?

There might be a really good reason for this lack of haste, but consumers won't care, they'll just be bored by it, and end up switching the power-saving mode off. Bad for the planet, and bad for their power bills.

Fan noise

One source of concern for us, is just how loud this box is. In normal operation, with the box sitting near to use, we were able to hear the fan above other ambient sound. Even with the TV volume loud enough for us to hear the dialogue, the fan was audible.

In most setups, the box is likely to be far enough away for this not to be a problem. But even so, fan noise is extremely undesirable in a device that's used in a home entertainment system. We're honestly surprised that no passive cooling solution could be found, or at least, a fan that spins more slowly - and thus, more quietly.

Picture quality

For broadcast TV the picture quality can be anywhere from awful up to awesome. This, of course, is very little to do with Humax. The state of broadcast TV in the UK now is so bad that YouTube can easily outdo it in image quality. The Humax doesn't add to the problem though, and HD pictures at a decent rate look absolutely stunning.

As you might imagine, catch-up TV which is supplied via the internet has a very variable look to it. Once again, this is down to the broadcasters. There is the option for HD catch-up, and the good news is that the box supports it. Sadly, it's only the BBC that actually supplies HD at the moment. It does look noticeably better though, which is a good thing.

From an audio perspective, there's Dolby Digital Plus here, so assuming HD broadcasts carry Dolby Digital, you should get a good surround experience. Of course, not all broadcasts have surround sound, and even those that do don't always have Dolby - you have to license it, and there's a cost involved for the broadcaster.

So all-in-all, Humax is getting things right when it comes to picture and sound quality.

Internet content

The YouView promise is significant. The firm wants to make its devices the go-to place for people who want catch-up TV. And, indeed, it's likely the aim of the company is to replace Freeview. This is strange, because a lot of the Freeview companies are also involved in YouView. Anyway, no matter, because the point is, YouView is supposed to be the "best" when it comes to connecting with online content.

So, what do you get? The most impressive feature is that when you look at the EPG you have the option of not only seeing what's on in the future, but also what has aired in the past. The purpose of this is that you can select shows you like that have already aired, press a single button and be moved over to the relevant catch-up player to watch it.

The good news is, this works a treat. It's a nice idea to free viewers from the tyranny of broadcast TV schedules. After all, these days, who has time to watch TV when it's actually on, it all needs to be done between 10pm and midnight, when the kids are asleep and the day's work is out of the way.

While we like catch-up on YouView, there are issues. Approach online content via the menu - rather than the EPG method above - and you find yourself having to select an "app". This is basically a way for you to go in to each broadcaster's service and watch its specific programmes. While this works, we were really hoping that YouView would take a more centralised approach. What we wanted, was a central hub, into which all the TV would flow, with editorial picks of what to watch, suggestions based on what you have been watching, and perhaps access to archive TV shows - even perhaps the option to buy old shows, as you can on iTunes.

But this isn't present. On the plus side, search is excellent. Start typing away on the remote - which is also brilliantly thought out for this, and text entry is easy as pie - and you start to see results come up based on the letters. Our hunt for "Olympic opening ceremony" needed only "Oly" to be entered before we had what we wanted.

Perhaps most disappointing though, is the lack of content outside of the four supporting broadcasters. We think it's here that the way YouView was rushed is most apparent. There's not even a YouTube app to use. On a modern, internet-aware set-top-box that's utterly unforgivable. And while we don't EVER want to see a stupid DailyMotion app for YouView, we really would like to see Netflix and Lovefilm here. We also want Sky Now too, but none of these is ready - and in the case of the former two we don't know for sure if they're ever coming.

All of this points to a service that isn't quite ready for prime time yet. And we do sympathise with that. We, and ever other tech publication have been demanding a service pre-Olympics, and it seems that Lord Sugar has given us what we wanted, albeit a cut-down service that's, in some ways, inferior to other existing products.

Take for example, Virgin Media's services. All the catch-up TV that's on YouView is there and, in many cases, presented in a visually very similar style. It too has an EPG through which you can scroll backwards to access catch-up programmes and it's arguably every bit as slick as YouView's UI, especially.

Is your broadband limited?

A massive consideration for many is going to need to be about your home broadband. There are many issues here, and a lot of things that are outside the usual scope of a review, but in this case, we feel it's important to mention potential problems.

The first is obvious. If you're on a capped ADSL package, then YouView is going to send your data downloads through the roof. Once you ditch live TV, and move over to on-demand, you're not going to be able to go back. No more worrying if your bladder will burst before the end of that BBC drama, or having to wait until 9pm to watch adult-themed shows. No, now your concern is going to be about how close you are to your 40GB data cap.

Oh, and the YouView user interface doesn't tell you how big files are either, so it's very hard to judge how much damage you're doing. 

But also, how many people are stuck on broadband with speeds of less than 3mbps? Certainly, many rural locations are in this position - but we know, from bitter experience, that so are some urban places too. So what do these guys do? More than likley, sit around feeling cross about how, once again, they've been short-changed.

But none of that is especially YouView's fault. You could level some blame at BT though, and as it's an investor, there's some circular logic here that suggests all parties have not thought all of this through.

Scoring

Giving the Humax a fair score is going to be difficult. As a Freeview PVR, it's top-notch, as all its hardware generally is. We think it's a bit cheap looking, and the gloss plastic really doesn't feel very "premium" to us. But even so, the hardware is solid and works as we'd expect from Humax.

So from that perspective, it's a four-star product.

But this is a YouView box. It might be made by Humax, but you can get the HDR-FOX T2 for £80 less, and it's essentially the same in terms of functionality. Certainly, the DTR-1000 has a different hardware platform, but the end user won't know or care about that. At launch, a smattering of catch-up from BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 isn't really significant enough to distinguish this box from a smart TV.

So from that perspective, we'd give it two stars.

And then there's the future. Sky has confirmed that it will launch it's Now service on YouView. There are bound to be apps from Netflix, Lovefilm and others so it has massive potential.

So you could argue, that makes the whole thing worthy of a four-star rating.

In the end, we're not sold. We think it's too expensive right now, and Lord Sugar has already admitted that there will be cheaper boxes along in a year or so. And that makes us think that, at best, this product deserves a score that's bang in the middle. Not a disaster, and not a triumph.

Verdict

We've said some negative things about YouView in the past, and we've said some more positive things too. The fact is, the product here is a good one, made by a good company that always produces reliable and likeable hardware. YouView too, is a good idea. Bringing on-demand entertainment to the UK for no monthly fee. More than a good idea, it's actually an essential public service.

The problem is, the underlying content isn't ready, the broadband infrastructure in the UK isn't ready. But with all that said, there are companies like Roku, Virgin Media and products like the XBox360 and PS3 that already do so much more than YouView can. The Xbox, for example, has loads of broadcast catch-up, Lovefilm, Netflix and iPlayer is on the way.

YouView needs to come in to the market with the most spectacular bang imaginable. It needed to launch a product that had every catch-up service, every on-demand streaming product and to offer a unique user interface. It's done one of those things with the interface, but even that will be quickly bested by the likes of Freeview.

In a year's time, we'll look again at a YouView box, and we'll tell you exactly what has changed. We bet the service will be a lot more compelling by then, assuming it managed to sell enough boxes to stay afloat.

If you're in need of a Freeview PVR, and if you can afford the premium, grab a YouView box now. If not, then hook up your laptop to your TV with a £5 cable, and get access to the same, and more, content right now.