With the Viera TX-P46G15, Panasonic continues its increasingly lonely crusade to prove that plasma remains the best technology for big TVs. Costing a pretty reasonable £1,050, it's a slender, 46-inch, 1080p TV complete with built-in freesat tuner and online functionality.
Impressively slim
From the front, the TX-P46G15 looks decent enough. Panasonic's current TVs aren't exactly setting any style agendas, but the TX-P46G15 is glossy and excellently built. Its aesthetic appeal grows if you view it in profile. For a plasma TV, it's impressively slim -- a benefit of Panasonic's latest 'NeoPDP' plasma panels.
Stuffed with features
The G15 series sits only two rungs below the top of Panasonic's current TV ladder, behind the flagship Z1 models and the impressive V10 range. Consequently, it's unsurprising that the TX-P46G15 has plenty of features.
Its connections, for instance, include four HDMI ports, a PC socket, and a handy SD card slot that's able to play DivX, JPEG and AVCHD files. That's ideal for fans of digital video and photography.
The set also sports an Ethernet port for accessing Panasonic's decent Viera Cast online service (containing YouTube, Eurosport and Picasa portals), plus a built-in satellite connection, showing immediately that the TX-P46G15 is another Panasonic TV with a built-in freesat tuner. In fact, it's a freesat HD tuner, able to receive and show the high-definition offerings of the BBC and ITV.
Panasonic has thoughtfully included a Freeview tuner too, so you can mop up the few channels that Freeview shows and freesat doesn't. Decently presented electronic programme guides provide easy access to the myriad programme choices available.
In order to make pictures look as good as possible, the TX-P46G15 has a 1080p resolution, as well as Panasonic's latest contrast technologies, claimed to produce a dynamic contrast ratio of 2,000,000:1 or a native contrast ratio of 40,000:1. To put this in perspective, most LCD TVs struggle to achieve a native contrast ratio in excess of 2,000:1
Panasonic's 600Hz system heads up the list of picture-processing features. Note that the screen doesn't actually refresh 600 times a second. The 600Hz figure is obtained from the amount of extra sub-field frames that the TV inserts into the video stream as it works to slash plasma technology's usual problems with motion judder and flicker.
The TX-P46G15 also sports Panasonic's high-level Vreal Pro 4 video-processing engine. Comparing this set's specs to those of the Viera TX-P58V10, the only obvious absentees are Panasonic's Digital Cinema Colour mode (for a more movie-like colour range), a THX mode and, strangely, the 24p Smooth Film mode that kicks in on V10-series TVs when you watch a 24p Blu-ray flick. With the TX-P46G15, you get the same Intelligent Frame Creation option for 24p Blu-ray that you get with standard-definition video.
Stunning HD performance
While watching HD material, we didn't feel like we missed any of these picture features particularly badly. Colours don't look quite as natural as those of the TX-P58V10, with fractionally more orange skin tones and slightly less pitch-perfect greens. Nor does motion look as fluid with 24p Blu-rays as it does on the V10 models.
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arsailman 8 July 2010
Good: Picture is great.
Bad: The audio is terrible. The unit has a recognized design flaw, in that the cabinet is too narrow to hold a decent speaker.
Comment: I called Panasonic Conscierge Service to have the blown out speaker replaced. They had me call a local service company to come out and check the problem. He told me it was a design flaw, as the speaker that fit in the cabinet had too small a magnet to produce much sound. At average volume, and average bass levels, it sounds like an old paper type speaker with tears in the paper.
He told me that Panasonic had been supplying surround sound systems to people who complained about this problem, on a case-by-case basis.
After about 3 weeks, I called to see what was doing, and was told that the Head of Conscierge Service, Robert Linberg, said I should call Customer Service and tell them he said it is a design flaw.
I did so, and after over 22 minutes on hold, I tried to explain what I was told, and told to say.
After a few more times on hold, the person on the phone, Dexter, recommended I buy a Home Theater system to resolve the problem. When I said it was their design flaw, not mine, I was told it was my problem, as the TV was performing normally.
And this from a worldwide leader in the field of Plasma TVs.
Needless to say, it will be the last Panasonic product I ever have in my home, and I will disseminate this rude and unheard of treatment to any and all who should know about this company.
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